Java Loco Coffee & Bubble Tea - Tysons Station — Restaurant in Virginia

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I stumbled onto JAVA LOCO on Van Dorn Street in Alexandria when in the area on business last Thursday and noticing online JL has a second location on Leesburg Pike in Falls Church a reasonable distance from where I live in Vienna. I went JL FC for coffee yesterday to see if it is any better than JL A. The FC shop is newer, larger and cleaner but it is not any better than the 3 stars I gave JL A. The A location at least had some charm. The FC spot seemed soulless to me, a characteristic of the zone that Joel Garreau, author of Edge City, discusses in fair detail in his specific study of the prototype edge city, Tysons, in his book.

I only ordered black coffee which had the character of the interior ambiance, blah. JL FC had identical offering of pastries as the A location which was a disappointment and I did not want a repeat here so I just had coffee. The FC shop is set far back from LP as the JL A is from VDS. Both are...

Tried this place for the first time today, ordered a latte and chocolate croissant. The latte was just ok, the croissant was nearly inedible. Tasted like a plastic-wrapped pastry you’d get on an airplane. The store was soul-less, the bathroom was filthy, outdoor tables and chairs were covered in spilled coffee. I found the menu to be very confusing - like they can’t decide if they’re an espresso shop, a bubble tea shop, a smoothie shop, a sandwich shop…. They had “frappes” that were actually called “chillers” but then they also had a “coffee smoothie”…. It was all over the map (literally - they serve Italian espresso, Cuban coffee, Vietnamese coffee….) I’m all for variety but this place seems to be having an identity crisis, and doing...

My boyfriend and I stopped here for a quick coffee to-go. The restaurant is very clean and decorated nicely! It would be a nice place to sit and chat or work when the pandemic is over.

The coffees are great! I had a Caramel Macchiato which was perfect! It wasn’t too sweet like Starbucks, but just sweet enough for a treat. He had the Italian Coffee which was also very good. The serving sizes are generous for the price.

The service was very fast, polite, and friendly.

There are bagels and sandwiches on the menu. We weren’t hungry at the time, but have agreed we will definitely be returning to try them out!

Great...