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Category: Coffee & Tea [Edit]
Neighborhood: HillcrestMon-Sun. 6:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
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A coffee house is a great place for a business meeting and for our purposes, this It's A Grind location suited the task perfectly. With copious free parking and available free WiFi, I met up here with some colleagues whose office is just across the street.
While waiting, I decided to order the passion fruit iced tea. I was surprised by how bitter it was and it lacked the subtle flavors of passion fruit that I was expecting. Only after adding a few packets of sugar was I able to sip it down.
Perhaps my mistake was in not ordering an actual coffee, but otherwise I really enjoyed the convenience of the location and the cool atmosphere of being in Hillcrest. As a spot to get stuff done, I will definitely look toward It's A Grind in the future and will be sure to order something else instead.
Food: 5/10
Service: 8/10
Price: $
Atmosphere: 8/10
This rating should be two part- Urban Grind team, baristas- 5 star.
3 stars for what could be a pretty nice outdoor cafe experience if not for the fact they put out buckets of sand loaded with snuffed out cigarettes in the center of their outdoor tables. Disgusting! 85% of customers don't smoke or even want secondhand smoke in a dining atmosphere. Hanging outdoors and relaxing at a smoke-free outdoor table is what there is to do in sunny San Diego. I don't want deal with the nuisance of secondhand smoke. These guys go one step further though and put the extinguished cigarettes in the center of the tables. Eccckkk.
Great management, and great employees!
Why can't more businesses be like this place????
Really nice employees (when I have gone.) That means a lot anymore, because I find customer service… Read more »
How in the hell can a coffee shop have employees that are this nice?? Every time I go here, it is the same, so at least you can say that they are consistent. They put out water for dogs, they have buckets of sand for smokers, and there never seems to be the 40 min line you experience 2 blocks down at Starbucks.
The good: Advertising. If you watch the TV Show "Weeds," the lead character always carrying a cup makes you want to buy one yourself.
The evil: not as good as the advertising. I hate to say this, but even "moonbucks" is better (not that I am a fan of "moonbucks," but that gives you an idea)
The $: Not cheap.
This is my favorite little coffee shop near home.
That said, I don't drink coffee! I go here for the chai tea latte. It's surely a pre-made powder type of chai, but I LUUUVE it. Sugary sweet creamy caffeinated goodness. Oh yeah. There are places to go for whole-leaf tea but this isnt one of them. At least, not for the chai latte. (I'm not complaining! Honest.)
Big props to the baristas (and baristos?). They are always quick and friendly. When I stop by at 7am I can walk in, order and be outside with my drink in under 3 minutes. Quite excellent for a gal like me who is always running to catch the bus!
They also have wonderful banana bread loaf cake.
I love It's a Grind because they offer more than one type of brewed coffee for the discerning coffee drinker... in fact, they have around 6 and they are a nice variety of brews- usually a flavored or two, decaf, strong, mild, etc...
The staff at this location is particularly friendly and I love the free wi-fi!!!
Great pastries too...
Another update....
after my not-so-positive review, the business owner contacted me and apologized. And he did offer a complimentary breakfast, but for the record, I'm changing this without accepting it.
Because I feel like he really values service and understands the importance of customers, I'm adding back the stars. As someone else said in their review, customer service is a dying art and it's nice to see that people still value it.
This place has a LOT of things going for it - good coffee, free parking, free wi-fi, lots of plugs for your computer, and decent amount of space.
I'm taking two stars off.
It's valentine's day but we celebrated on fri night and I had some…
Read more »
I had my first It's a Grind experience in the one in Little Italy. I worked in Little Italy so I would go there on a daily basis. I love the coffee there. It's never too crowded, and I love that they give you a punch card so after your 12th cup the 13th is free. The one on Washington is down the street from me and I'm sure it will be there for a while. Since Starbucks is now closed, it should do well. There are more and more stores opening all over San Diego. I love the iced Mocha. That is my favorite and for breakfast I would always get a bagel with cream cheese and it's served toasted not like Starbucks where it is cold and you have to put your own cream cheese on yourself. Overall, great place to hang out. I took my son and nephew once we sat inside and had a wonderful time looking at magazines and newspapers.
I have to disagree with Scott P about the whole location thing. There is a lot of foot traffic in the area. I mean, Sushi Deli is across the street and they are always overflowing with weirdos, so the location of this place shouldn't rule against it.
Anyway, I think it's great. I live in Mission Hills and I will purposely walk the extra 6 blocks to get up here when I want a change of pace from Starbucks (which is quite often). The view from the big windows is nice.
I concur with the other reviewers: the baristas are very nice and personal; the coffee is very yummy; and the setting is quite nice. I haven't brought my laptop - and I haven't seen too many other customers with laptops either. It's just a nice little place and I wish it well.
The only thing that bugs me about It's a Grind is their biscotti. They don't sell any homemade biscotti. And the ones that they do sell are smothered in nuclear paste. I haven't tried them, so they may be good. But I'm just a simple biscotti kind of girl.
In a nutshell: try this place - it's great!
I live in Normal Heights, but will drive to MIssion Hills just to go to this It's a Grind. Why? Lots of reasons.
FREE WI-FI
Abundant, beautiful natural light.
Consistently great music - wonderful mix of lots of genres and tempos, perfect volume
Awesome staff. Alex, Tony, Lance, Wayne - LOVE ya!
Nice layout -- one doesn't feel as though one is on display to the whole entire store everytime someone walks in the door.
Yummy White Mochas, Mint Green Iced Tea and Berry Smooties
Free covered, off street parking
Clean, comfortable, welcoming environment
air-conditioned
Quiet location - close to stuff but not in the middle of it all
Bottom line? IAG Mission Hills is the next best thing to studying in my living room - well BETTER, actually!
Parking!!
Wi-Fi!!
Chocolate Croissants!!
COFFEE!!
What more does a girl need? It has more of a Starbucks feel then a neighborhood cafe but I still enjoy It's A Grind.
When I know I need to get some serious work done it is the best place to go. . . it has more of a "grown up" feel (for lack of better words) than some of the North Park, Hillcrest coffee shops. I am always sure I can a little bit of quite time when I walk in.
I love this place, nice location, free parking, free wi-fi, nice baristas and best latte out of all the "it's a grind" i've been to. =)
Though I do hope they sell more food items so I'm not stuck with the all-carb breakfast choices
I have been to another It's A Grind in Little Italy, which is why I am not a stranger to it. I really like this place with the choices of coffee, free parking, relaxing environment and free Wi-Fi. Baristas are very friendly and the beverages are served in a timely manner. Music never tries to rush you out of the coffeehouse. It is very clean throughout including the restroom. Last night there was even a live guitar performance and it turned out to be a great experience for me. The drinks I enjoy here include Cafe Mocha, Mango and Green Tea Smoothie, and Brazilian Berry (with Acai).
It is never too crowded and I enjoy quite a lot of personal time and space, just like home. I hope it doesn't change just because I wrote this review.
This is my favorite coffee place in San Diego. They have a lot of different coffees brewed (some of them flavored). They have really interesting drinks besides coffee, like the mango tea smoothies. The staff is really friendly and helpful, and the entire place is clean and comfy. They also have free wifi. I love hanging out here.
The only thing I hate about It's a Grind, is that they close so freakin early. Why?! Why!?!
Tasty coffee! Delicious lil treats! Excellent service!
Here is why being FIRST is the most important measure of a yelper. If you go to San Francisco, where every restaurant has over a hundred yelp, you will observe that almost no one has reviews that are voted on. Ultimately, the votes are more reflective of the number of yelp buddies you have, rather then the quality of the reviews or whatever.
On the other hand, being FIRST means that you are out there, hustling- making things happen.
So anyways, I missed being first on this It's A Grind, which sucks because that is literally the only reason I came here as I driving down Washington towards M Theory over Memorial Day weekend.
Point of interest, the Starbucks at first and Washington got shut down, so it's interesting that It's A Grind would pick this location. I can't imagine there is any foot traffic here, which makes it an ideal spot for all you LOSERS with your lap top computers.
Only time will tell if this spot is a winner or loser.
This location is not bad. They are still working out some kinks, but they have street parking, and lot parking (underground). This wouldn't be my first choice for a coffee or to meet up for a coffee, but it does meet its niche to a tee. A coffeehouse chain somewhere between pedestrian and $tarbuck$.
This is the place that local boomers go because "I don't support $tarbuck$!" In fact, I think that is the next great coffeechain movement: The chain alternative to $tarbuck$.
Not that this place is that much cheaper than $tarbuck$, not that it's any different, not that I even prefer this place to $tarbuck$...to me, it's the difference of going to McDo or to Rally's...there just seems to be something that makes you feel better going to support a smaller chain than the big Goliath.
Oh yeah, the coffee is alright, the food is blah, but the baristas are cute and happy.
There are many things that are important to me when selecting a coffee shop and this 'Coffee House' encompasses them all. I want a locally owned coffee shop with friendly service, great coffee and a crisp clean store. I would drive way out of my way to get my coffee here. The white chocolate mocha is absolutely amazing. Thanks to It's a Grind for proving that small business owners can provide a BETTER experience that the big dogs.
Great coffee, good location, even better service. Can't go wrong with It's a Grind. Cool place to chill out on a weekend afternoon listening to relaxing music.
Bonus: Cheaper than Starbucks! See ya Starbucks
i don't give lots of 5 stars but this place is cool. really good pastries, good coffee with lots of selection. and i think they only hire cute girls, nothing bad with that baby!
The It's a Grind in Hillcrest is located on the corner of an intersection and the main window is gigantic. This means it's a great place to people watch (hah, sounds creepy), but I go there more to study. Coffee and service is great and if it's not too busy (which it usually isn't), they bring your order to you. Number one reason I like about this particular one is the location. It's never busy and just around the time the sun sets, you can sit inside and watch as the Hillcrest lights illuminate.
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