Bloc Cafe — Restaurant in Somerville

Yeahhhh, not so much. There were so many little annoying things, mediocre food and drink, and an extra ingredient in my sandwich--I hope I didn't have to pay extra for the hair. I have no way of knowing, however, because the menu doesn't have prices. Booo booo boooo. Nice space and seating. But no free WiFi? Good grief. I came partially to see if that was true because I couldn't believe it after reading the reviews. I mean, not having WiFi at all, okay, I can see that, you don't want to encourage people sitting around all day and don't want to deal with the hassle of installing it and keeping it running. But going the trouble of having two different WiFi networks and making them paid? Please. The lime rickey was fine, took a couple of tries to make it without ice as ordered, and when it came it wasn't pretty with the ingredients separated. The sandwich had nice, fresh ingredients, but was blah, I make a better turkey sandwich. It's more like a lettuce sandwich with a little turkey. I saw cheese, but I didn't taste it, it was some bland white stuff. The bread was nice tasting, although not very sturdy. There are lots of other options, so I'll take a hard pass on this place. Maybe I'd come back to try the coffee but...

I've been going to Bloc for years, and though they've raised their pricing, it's still one of my favorite coffee shops in the area - certainly the best coffee shop in Union Square, Somerville!

I'm only now writing a review because I was touched by their customer service after I wrote them a note detailing an issue I'd had with a recent experience there. It was something I wrote while still in the cafe, and it was done mostly to recover from a subpar experience. I didn't expect to hear from them and was honestly surprised to be contacted that day. The issue revolved around some misinformation about the ingredients used in one of their recipes - luckily, this was a dietary restriction and not a potentially hazardous allergic reaction. While I am hopeful that the menu will be clarified to keep future customers from having the same experience I did, I think the team at Bloc did right by getting in touch with me to smooth over the situation.

I can feel confident recommending Bloc as a result. They didn't ask me to write this review, but I think that's what so powerful about reviews to begin with - I now feel like I can trust them, beyond their entity as a business, and that's worth telling...

I wanted to like this places because the food looks great and the space is pretty cool. I came for a hot tea with my partner who order a coffee, they got their coffee a few minutes after putting our order, which in my case was very different. I order a “chai masala” to drink at the place. It seems they give more priority to the coffee than the teas by just having ONE barista doing all the orders and the rest of the people are doing other things. One friend joined us 20 minutes after we arrived, and as my partner they got their coffee minutes after they put in their order. I had to ask 2 different people for my order and they all say it was coming or brewing. After almost 40 minutes I had to ask again to someone else and they apologized and it seems like “someone else took my tea” when I was standing there waiting to hear my name the whole time. I wanted to drink my tea at the space and clarify that with the 3rd person I talked to but they gave me the tea in a to-go cup. I am just very disappointed on the way they treated my order just pushing it because they got busy with the coffee. If you come to this place for tea, just don’t and go somewhere else. But the macchiato is...