Cartel Roasting Co. — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Wayyyy overrated. The coffee was terrible. My wife and I threw ours away. It took them about 20 minutes to make our drinks.

The good: If you like hipster vibes, they have it. Very grungy atmosphere. If you consider that a good thing, they nail it. We ordered their coffee cake and it was tasty, but very sweet. We also got the poblano burrito, which was decent but small.

The bad: The staff seemed in confusion and had no process to work through orders in an efficient manner. They made lots of mistakes. The main barista pulling shots was letting them sit way too long, which ruins the shots. The shots they were pulling were not good either, almost pure black. And he was constantly touching his mask and then touching people's drinks. Pretty gross. It would've been better if he didn't have a mask at all.

The coffees took about 20 minutes to get (and all we ordered were Americanos, nothing fancy). There were many other customers waiting in line who were visibly agitated at the long wait. Another customer asked how long it would take to get their drink and the barista said, "Long."

Finally, our order was over $25. They don't have any prices listed, and we were pretty shocked at that plain Americanos could be so expensive. These were not frilly drinks or anything extravagant.

We stopped at several coffee places in Phoenix, and this was the worst experience. They seem to be banking on their hipster/ultra-cool vibes to stay in business rather than on quality or customer service. We would encourage you to try other coffee shops nearby, which are within...

Slippin’… This place used to be rad, but has gone downhill the past year or two. I still come here because of convenience and ambiance, but they would benefit from addressing a few aspects:

1. attitude. Many but definitely not all, employees are simply putting in the paces. Emotionless. Ungrateful. Oftentimes you’re interrupting their side chat, or bothering them to place an order. I originate from the coffee mecca of the nation, so I appreciate a good, dark soul behind the counter but this vibe just hits different.

2. quality of drinks. Numerous times now I’ve ordered a drink and gotten something completely different. Yesterday I ordered an Americano, and received a latte… even though she rang it up, and called it out as an Americano. I didn’t have the heart to question if she knew what an Americano is. Other beverages come out lukewarm, not frothed, or simply off.

3. fixed pricing/sizing… I understand the logistical reasons for this, but it’s rather annoying. I can live with this one.

4. back room has subjective hours - even when the coffee shop is full, they’ll tell you the back room is closed. I don’t understand the logic here. If you have it, why not use it?

So, aside from price, quality and service… never-mind. A solid 3 stars on laurels alone. Hope they can bring it back to a 5… it’s a great location but there are so many other options nearby that it will be hard to continue to frequent Cartel if they...

I have never in my life been mansplained by another woman, but it was absolutely insane. I went here by coworkers preference to pick up coffee. Right off the bat, I stated exactly what I wanted word for word from the website (due to not have ever been here before) and Berkeley, the girl helping me out, corrected me so rudely. Then went on to say ‘I don’t know why the website has it like that, that’s unnecessary.” And then as I was ordering my friends’ drinks, one who previously worked there, she was even more rude. I ordered hazelnut and caramel, and she rolled her eyes and stated ‘we recommend people to read the menu online before coming in.’ Even though I read the menu online and was still corrected for my wording not being correct… it felt like everything I asked for was an inconvenience to her. Oh and lastly, I asked if they had salsa for the burrito I ordered and she stated, ‘that’s how they come.’ Like I didn’t tell her ten minutes prior I had never been there. She didn’t seem pleasant to any other customers after me and operated as if she was annoyed with everyone that wanted a coffee. It was insane, I have never experienced this at any coffee shop. It sucks this is in such a hot spot with such a terrible attitude for staff. I recommend literally ANY other location. The coffee was good, but the entire experience was ruined by Berkeley on June 4th...