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Category: Coffee & Tea [Edit]
Neighborhood: MissionMon-Fri. 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sat. 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sun. 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
"I'm going to have to chime in an voice my love of Atlas Cafe. They have delicious food at great prices, wine & beer, coffee if that's your…" read more »
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Great beans, I buy here regularly for home grinding and espresso pulling. And unlike the juvenile barristas here I know how to serve a latte that is in fact hot not lukewarm.
Horrible place to stay, bad and loud music, line out the door, never a place to sit, very spotty service (from rude to just fine)
Not kid friendly. Not adult friendly. Very much grimy 20 something hipster in poorly fitting tights jeans with macbook pro friendly. Which is fine, everybody needs a spot to enjoy, but this isn't it for me
I'd go negative if I could.
Rude service (hipsters who are "too cool for you" work here).
Mediocre coffee. I love the fact they are trying to be green, but who cares about that if the people working suck.
I'd go to Starbucks any day over this crap.
I am averaging my experiences here.
First time, got a soy cap. Waited in line/at the counter for 20-30 minutes for a beautiful foam-art cappuccino. I loved it. It was summer and it was cold in SF. I held on tight to my almost-scalding cup to stay warm and let the yummy soy cap heat up my esophagus. I vowed I would come back.
So I did.
My second visit was much more brief. A Friday afternoon, a short wait. Kind of. Short line, long wait for an Americano. Iono what it was... but it was just not that good. Kinda bitter, kinda acidic, kinda sour. I drank like 85% of it but I didn't enjoy ~60% of my drinking experience. Was it my bad to not add any cream or sugar to an americano? I don't know. Was it my bad to order an americano at Ritual? Apparently the French Press Coffee has nothing on Cole Coffee in Berkeley.
I think I'll stick with the lattes/cappuccinos if I meander over here again...
{{{2007 flashback???}}}
I had no cash so i came to Ritual.
I made it clear to the cashier I was there to get work done. I spend $15 bucks on a pound of beans and a large cup of coffee because they have a $5 minimum for credit card purchases.
I proceeded to the back of the cafe, no more couches! Haven't been here in over 2 years, everything rearranged.
Tried to find a seat. The back of the cafe wreaked of body odor. Everyone looked like bad impersonations of people i knew in '07.
Struggled to get comfortable along the wall in a small table. Opened my computer. Prepared for an evening of narrative storytelling revisions.
Computer battery going dead. Walked around Ritual to find a plug. All outlets in the building blocked off from access. Got up and left.
Dear Ritual Coffee Roasters,
I am sitting inside your coffee establishment as I type this. I came here to get some work done, and feel like I was "out" on a Saturday night, instead of at home, by myself, at a desk.
The chillout lounge music that's blaring is louder than my headphones, and making me stressed out. I'm also getting more and more frustrated that you offer free wi-fi, however there are no outlets to plug into...my computer is at 19% batteries, and I'm totally peacing out of here in a minute.
Let's talk about the giant cup of coffee to my left, in which I've drank maybe 1/4 of. Your coffee is far too acidic and almost burnt tasting. It's actually pretty gross. Not having it!
Now that my batteries have depleted down to 17%, I'm outta here.
Goodbye...forever.
Have never had a bad pull here. These guys and gals know what they are doing. I like this better than Blue Bottle. (BB in the Ferry bldg has twice served me a luke warm latte and they also refused to grind beans for me because of the "integrity of the beans"... give me a break.) So, yay Ritual. You guys rock!
I gave up drinking coffee about almost 16 years ago but recently I have been on a chai kick with a shot of espresso and these guys make an amazing "dirty chai" -
great place to sit and connect with friend or do some work - check it
I'm screwed.
I paid these guys a visit today in the Mission. God, I hate hipsters.
Had a double ristretto of their High Striker. Bought a 12oz bag of their beans. As a graphic designer, I decided I liked their logo, so I bought one of their attractive mugs.
$30.
Ouch.
But damn, that espresso was absolutely phenomenal. So now I'm ruined. Now I sip my watery stuff at home, and have realized several things...
a) I need to learn to pull a shot properly.
b) The beans I thought were good enough... aren't.
c) Mixing milk with a quality espresso - even a well made latte or capp - is tantamount to blasphemy.
Their espresso is worth four stars. But the sheer volume of hipsters - we're talking an infestation that would require a phone call to the Orkin man - shears another star off the rating. Which I'm sure the patrons of Ritual will blog about after riding home from their job at the vintage clothing store on their fixie...
Initially I ignored them because I did not want to stand in line. One day I stopped for a latte and a slice of vegan banana bread. All yummy, even the vegan bread. I went there a few more times. Always crowded and always good. I even tried their drip coffee and it was also good. Then I tried the Sweet Tooth Espresso fresh ground and brewed at home. I have never made a cup of coffee that good at home before. So yummy! I am sold and now buy their coffee beans "ritually".
I don't really have a problem with the too-cool-for-school "fixie" vibe of the place. It is entertaining, and it is clean and well kept. The neighborhood around it is wonderful for a walk as well, so I have never stayed to drink my coffee there. Perhaps I'll try that next.
I don't mind hipsters, I'm getting coffee in the mission, what were all you people expecting?? Sure it's a bummer when people hire them and they are bored with your order, but who cares... there's no way I'm docking this place it's rightful stars after that coffee and that latte...
Not drinking the Kool Aid.
After doing a quick tour of SF, I decided that I wanted to continue my West Coast vacation at home in Massachusetts. Why not bring some local beans home. I rushed into Ritual grabbed some High Striker beans and left. I can comment on the coffee drinks they serve.
I will say the there were a ton of emo/aggro hipsters when I came in.
The coffee is good, but I didn't like the service.
I felt rushed.
Staff wasn't friendly, courteous or helpful.
And the place was packed with people.
It just wasn't a good place to hang so I took my capps and left.
Will I be back? Probably not, but I'm sure they could care less.
They seem like they've got a nice following.
Again, coffee is good, but it's not the right place for me.
I will say, I like the logo...and everyone who works there is gold star worthy...but they sure let you know they are roasting all the damn time...
(and endless amounts of Built to Spill blaring over the roasta' does not help me keep my chi in check!!)
very tasty latte, and pretty friendly service to boot! and they spelled my name (Jen, not Jenn) right. w00t!
I've only ever ordered espresso, or straight coffee at Ritual, so I, personally, don't have a beef with these folk. However, my European pal had a bit of a problem while at Ritual with me. He'd wanted a long-pull espresso, and they don't do that, I guess, EVER. My euro pal was aghast, and kept repeating what it was that he wanted. The response was just same each time: "No, we only pull ristretto."
To show you the rube I am, I didn't know at the time that "ristretto" meant short-pulled espresso. I mean, I sorta sussed it out based on context, so I was cool. I do think, however, that homeboy behind the counter, who, btw, wasn't from Italy, could have made the effort a bit and just told us in plain in English what it was that they only do there at Ritual.
Euro friend, deflated from his repeated attempts at trying to get what he wanted, finally just ordered an espresso. With cup of coffee in hand, I took a seat. From my vantage point I could see the European, en route to sitting down, putting tap water in his espresso, and the look of horror on the barista's face as he did so. The barista, lacking any sense of decorum, mouthed to we-only-pull-ristretto-guy, "that's disgusting!" Even if you do find it "disgusting," coffee dude, could you, at least, keep it to yourself, or whisper that shit to your co-worker? Thanks.
I used to like ritual coffee so much. The coffee is actually still quite good.
However, the service experience here is atrocious. Be ready to wait 20 mins for your espresso drink as the hipsters tending the counter do like to take their time and ignore you.
Just last week my girlfriend went to ritual while I waited for a seat at boogaloo's down the street. By the time she got her coffee I was already seated and 3/4 of the way done with brunch.
This is a review on the coffee only.. so 5 whopping stars for their joe. This review does not cover their baked goods, because they do absolutely nothing for me and look sort of sad. This review does not cover/judge those white apple lit typing skinny dirty jean wearing hipsters mentioned in the other reviews either - its the mission duh!
Rituals Coffee Review:
Move over Blue Bottle, I need my cappuccino with a nice leaf on it NOW! Yum - this place has addicting coffee.
[Green Zebra Coupon: Free cup of coffee with 3/4 lb of beans or buy one, get on free coffee]
I've only seen longer lines at the Starbucks on Union Square. Seriously, the coffee was OK, but in San Francisco, OK coffee just won't cut it.
So how does Ritual do it? Is it the free WiFi? Probably not. Is it the location? I'm sure that has something to do with it, but places a few doors down were half as crowded.
Oh, is it the hipsters? OH! IT MUST BE THE HIPSHTAHS!
Now the mob of 30 year-old road bikes and just-sub-30 year-olds crowding in a cafe who's logo makes one think of Soviet-Communism makes perfect sense.
Come here if you have a lot of time to spend waiting for your coffee and like to ogle at creatively-dressed Valencia-frequenters.
I'm docking two stars from Ritual.
Why?
* Inconsistency. This drives me nuts! It still takes forever to get your coffee, but the quality standards seem to have disappeared.
* Not enough seating. The entire back of the cafe went from seating to bags of raw coffee. This is aggravating, because there's just no place to sit! Couldn't they take the roasting off-site?
* No more free power. Sure, it wasn't going to last, but it was fun while it did.
Anyway, the coffee can still be quite good and I do go back every now and again. But Ritual has really lost its magic for me.
Ritua'ls coffee is excellent! The lattes are picture perfect, and the espresso is yummy.
The…
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I've only been to Ritual on Sunday mornings, with my NYTimes in tow, garbed in my usual preppy crap. I've never felt that this was hipster-infested though, as most of the reviews here offer. The cash register people are always friendly, I will say, but yes, the baristas seem to have a holier (or is that coffier)-than-thou attitude. The guy this morning had this Jack Black-look and was coughing seemingly productive, crispy coughs (away from his hand-crafted hot beverages, mind you). They leave you alone, all in all. I guess I don't mind the hipsters. And that is coming from a non-hipster.
I DO mind that there are no wall plugs for your laptops. That indeed deserves one big WTF.
From a non-coffee drinker... it's ok.
Like it or not, unless you have a Mac, you are going to feel out of place. Maybe I'm one of the cheapest guys out there relative to the amount of technology that I oversee, but I still use my company issued Thinkpad.
Works for me...
anyway... yes... wifi.... no power. but... I understand that as well.
Coffee only... no other drinks... some pastries, but I had eaten enough.
My co-worker loves this place. It was a good place to hunker down and get online.
Superb coffee! I am one of those unfortunate flavored latte drinkers, BUT putting a little brown sugar in my coffee helps that need. Also, their brownies were amazing and the chairs up front were super comfy.
Have to agree with the fact that it is very hipster...think it depends on my mood if i want to deal with attitude or not. This last time around was better than the first. The latter was not as great of an experience, very rude service and snotty baristas. Better tonight, but i still keep the attitude factor in when i want to SIT at a coffee shop......
I'm not even from here and I felt kinda weird, despite being interested in the espresso. They treat you like shit.
The espresso was quite good. The post-Bush socialist propoganda is not.
Although touted as *the* place to plunk down your laptop when you need a break from your four walls...I wouldn't expect to get a ton of work here...unless you have the concentration of a gymnast.
However, I've had some of the best coffee here and due to the hipster clientele, there's never a dull moment.
Today, on this glorious, overly humid, too bright and sticky New York day, when I am as hungover as the guy that's always sleeping on the subway platform*, I crave only one thing: Ritual Coffee.
I hate that I am 3,000 miles away from not only this coffee, but this cafe.
Everything was delicious, so much so that some of us went multiple times a day. Regular coffee was good, iced coffee was good, the chai was good, the lattes were good. Sense a pattern? Except substitute "perfect" for "good."
But I also have a feeling that if I lived here, this would be where I spend all my time reading, writing, Interneting (free wi-fi!) or just simply hanging out (if you can secure a nook; this place is popular, and rightfully so). It's a laid-back, adorable cafe that I'm still searching for in New York. Ritual Coffee, where is your east coast equivalent?!**
Now, I must return to slumber to heal my head, and dream about delicious coffee.
__________
* I was almost that guy this morning. 3 hours of sleep is rough; not doctor recommended.
** Whoever can help me: I'll buy you coffee!
I can't speak for the coffee as I didn't get any.
However, their croissants are almost exactly akin to an authentic croissant from Paris. The size was a little larger than ones in France, but it had a good ratio of fluffy inside to buttery and crispy outside. Lovely, and simply delicious, even without an espresso to match.
I can't wait to try a pain au chocolat there.
I love coffee. Though, admittedly, as long as it swims on the seriously strong side and isn't Folgers, I am pretty happy.
I have imbibed coffee and/or espresso at the following Bay Area locations: Blue Bottle, Starbucks, Peet's, Philz, Caffe Trieste and Cafe Roma. All of the above (including Starbucks) have a tastebud ranking of somewhere between decently satisfying and nearing perfection.
Seriously - what is so special about Ritual? I had the drip coffee which was not brewed by the cup and was overtly bitter.
Am going to have to go against the crowd on this one - too many other places I can go to and be guaranteed to enjoy the 2-3 dollar investment.
The line was out the door when we arrived on a cold Saturday afternoon. At first, I thought everyone just wanted a drink to warm up from the breeziness that day, but apparently, it's just always that crowded. That's a good sign to me. One step in the door and all you can smell is freshly brewed coffee...mmmm.
Way better than Starbuck's or Peet's, but still doesn't beat Blue Bottle. I'll give it some love for the cool ambiance inside, especially the huge coffee roaster in the back. It's got a really chill vibe and the baristas are so talented with their foam art skills. I got a kick out of watching them pour on apples and leaves.
I ordered a small latte, which was really milky, but woke me up after a few sips. Next time, I'll probably try the macchiato or the French press. Coffee doesn't hit me as hard as it used to, but that's probably because I usually order the sugary and syrupy mixed drinks from the local Starbuck's. I need to live in SF where real coffee is made...
Ritual Coffee Roasters is composed of hipsters, Mac-toting geeks, Mac-toting hipster geeks, and really freakin' good coffee. Many people hate the hipster/geek factor, and that's fine, but it's totally unreasonable to withhold stars for that reason. It's like down-rating a donut place because donuts consist of empty calories and fat, or a high-end boutique because the clothing is expensive. If you're complaining about a variable that's integral to the business's identity, you're in the wrong place to begin with.
Fayantyastic! They roast their coffee onsite so it's oh-so-fresh and deeeeeelicous!
Point zero in the Mission with seriously good coffee. Long lines, slow service, sometimes friendly occasionally bitchy and forgetful. But the espresso will be worth all your sacrifice.
Coffee is pretty good here and I like the vibe. It's a great place to spend an hour here sipping coffee and reading the paper. The vibe is laid back, young and is both yuppie and bohemian at the same time. Their beans are expensive at $16 to $20+ per bag.
For me, the coffee at Blue Bottle and Philz are stronger and better. It's is a good alternative to Peet's.
3.5 stars for their coffee
4-5 stars for atmosphere / space
Just moved back to SF and although ALL the power cables are gone, this place still rocks...need to get a backup battery now :)
Great Coffee, Great Music, Great Crowd....I'm glad a friend of mine told me about this… Read more »
I went back last weekend with a couple friends for coffee. It was the first stop in our Mission progressive for brunch. lol!
Sundae espresso double shot - A blend of three beans, fairly acidic, with a tart/bitter finish.
Sweet tooth double shot (I forgot which bean it was) - Much better, smoother, more mellow. Good crema.
Had a cup of clover coffee as well. Very good, totally worth it.
The double shots are pulled extremely short. I've never had such a small double shot anywhere. Blended beans can be hard to pull off for espresso (zoka in seattle is one of the few i would buy blended beans from), so I recommend to stick to single origin if you're gonna have espresso here. Or just get a clover and that will last you much longer. I downed both double shots before my friends even got their coffees. ;P
There's always a line, so be prepared to wait.
A bit disappointed in my double espresso, considering how long the line was and the hype around this… Read more »
The drip coffee's amazing... I think it vies with Blue Bottle and Philz for the the top of the SF coffee triumvirate. Quite hip, and hipster-centric... some were bringing in their fixies and chatting with their friends-employees. I felt nervous whipping out my non-Apple here to get some work done, not knowing what kind of shunning I would incur. This isn't the ideal place to get work done, with blasting indie-rock, and many attractive and/or interesting people to look at.
The espresso drinks are some of the best you'll ever have in your life.
Too bad the customers are insufferable douchebags.
Great Espresso!!!!!!
If you are in search of genuine, fair trade, & local Espresso this is the Spot. It's a dwelling place for hipsters(no offense), telecommuters, the office space for internet start ups and artists. If you can look past all that to get some awesome espresso good for you.
*Biggest Complain:
I came here a few times with a friends to sit and chat (respectfully) over espressos and the people "working" around us were looking at us with contempt as if we've crashed into their home and invaded their privacy. Not cool! This is a public place of business, if you want your peace, quiet and concentration go work from home.
I didn't know what to expect when I swooped in this place last week for a midday pick me up and a small snack-a-roo.
Snack-a-roo? Really? Am I 12 years old? I digress....
Since it's located smack dab in the middle of the Mission, it's naturally crawling with disillusioned 20-somethings wearing cut off jeans and Toms shoes, but don't let that be a reason to skip the place altogether... as it's a dandy little spot.
I ordered something completely basic (Americano), so I can't really speak to the quality of their caffeinated offerings. However, my hot water/espresso drink was great! Sometimes, espressos taste a little burnt if prepared wrong... this bad boy, on the other hand, was just perfecto. If it's any indication to the rest of their specialty javas, I'm sure they're all fab.
Not sure if they only carry vegan baked goods or not, but it seemed like everything in the display counter was ready to be devoured sans animal byproducts. I had a piece of zucchini/walnut bread, and it was delicious! If I didn't know better, I'd have guessed the pastry was swimming in butter and shortening.
They also have free WiFi and plenty of room to sit. I kinda dig the layout of the place... it's like eating/drinking in a coffee warehouse or something. Not your typical coffee shop setting.
I can definitely see myself coming back on a regular basis to bang out some work on the ol' lappy. It was a little steamy in there, but it was also right in the middle of a pretty substantial heatwave, so I doubt that's a huge problem 90% of the time.
This place sucks. Their coffee sucks. Was at the street food festival that La Cocina put on and got to listen to their drunk obnoxious hipster staff with egos be lame. Whatever, go to blue bottle or four barrel. Next time I go by this place I'm taking a dump out front.
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