Academic Coffee — Restaurant in Santa Clara

Food: The same drinks you know and love from the San Jose location, now more conveniently located (to me HEHE)! They don't have their canned drinks quite yet, but they will soon! The pastry cabinet has lots of enticing treats from local bakeries. Notably, no Stan's donuts during my visit, but they're literally 5 minutes away from this location anyway. I got the cinnamon latte with oat milk and I always enjoy the intensity of the cinnamon flavor.

Service: The team works quick slinging out drinks. There were probably 5 groups actively waiting for their drinks and I waited only around 5 minutes to get mine.

Atmosphere: They have roller gates that will open up to a large outdoor space, so I'm excited to come back during warmer months. The shelves are currently undecorated, but I will enjoy the minimalist vibe while it lasts. The tile work is very reminiscent of their San Jose locations' aesthetic, so good job to the branding team. :P

Parking: Tons of fire department activity during my visit, so there were no parking spots available. Towards the back of the lot was permitted parking only, too. I ended up parking on the street. I do worry how the situation will be once...

Please make sure all your staff are fully trained. I ordered a melon matcha and forgot to specifically tell them I wanted double matcha with matcha foam, so the staff didn’t add the foam. I had to line up to pay the price difference for the matcha foam, and the cashier directly asked me to pay $2 for it. I had already paid $8 for the melon matcha, and now they wanted to charge me an additional $2 just for the foam which means a cup of matcha cost me $10. That’s insane. If this hadn’t been the second time I ordered double matcha, I might’ve really paid that $2 for the foam. So I asked the cashier why the matcha foam was so expensive, and she just said, “That’s the price.” I told her I had paid only $8.50 before for the same drink, and that’s when she finally turned around to ask her coworkers. After quite a bit of discussion, they said the matcha foam should only cost an additional $1. please make sure your staff, especially the cashiers, are properly trained and familiar with all pricing details before they start working. Otherwise, it creates confusion and a poor experience for customers. After everything that happened, I didn’t even hear a single “sorry”… really a bad...

Lovely spot conveniently located across the street from Goodyear in case you are also waiting for your car to get worked on. I wouldn’t have noticed this spot if not for it being prominent on Google Maps, since they don’t have signage other than a short A-frame but I’m glad I kept it local! The menu is definitely for coffee-lovers; they have all the basics and a few specialties, as well as canned drinks and pastries. I ordered a mocha and a pastry with potato curry; I liked the former and not the latter so much but I’m not usually into Indian food so no surprise there. Before leaving, I tried to order a cold brew for the person who was picking me up but was told they aren’t available until 11:30am, and the pumpkin spice variety is out of season so either their online menu is not updated, or my ride looked in the wrong place :) Beyond that, I especially liked the outdoor seating (that is probably due to the nearby housing/park) and the WiFi seems to reach out there since I had no issues with taking a call on my laptop while sitting at a...