The Carmel Coffee House and Roasting Company

We did a quick stop here for a coffee. Was good. The pastry is great. Nice outdoor sitting.

Good coffee but so-so service. Nothing really stands out about this place except for they have a coffee roaster. The tables were dirty. So dirty that we watched a bird flew in from outside and eat an entire meal on a dirty table inside of the business. If you want a decent cup of coffee, this place is fine, but don't expect anything special here.

We have been to this cafe a few times over 3 separate trips to Carmel. We generally found the staff ok, today's service was definitely friendly enough and I have nothing to complain about in that respect.

HOWEVER: The coffee we ordered (as each time in the past) was less than memorable. A double espresso, served in an overly large paper cup, tasting about as weak as a watery Americano. I suspect that the coffee beans they are working with are not great to begin with and then the espresso is just brewed too thin.

My partner's Machiato was fine but again the coffee was weak and had no flavour to it (so basically the macchiato suffered the same issues as my espresso).

We ordered a Blueberry cheesecake to share. The blueberries were real blueberries (that's a win) however the general cheesecake was just again lacking in flavour and was basically a large slice of sugary, cream cheese shaped into a calorie dense, flavour-low cake. I just want more from my cake than this cheesecake provided. Overall we spent $10.45 and it just felt like a bit of a waste of money.

The cozy yard area to sit in wasn't really cozy, but then again we knew that, since we've been here before. Just that there aren't all that many other options in Carmel for an afternoon coffee. Not that we know of anyway. One other place is in a shopping plaza that currently has a building site in it, so we didn't fancy that; and another place was closed and there might have been one additional option but it would have meant walking further and we were pretty tired.

Overall: if you are ok with weak coffee and just a sugar bomb for a cake then this is your place. On a quiet day the yard is quite ok, but when we were there today it was busy and uncomfortable. Nobody stayed for longer than a few minuets because it really was not as cozy as advertised. The Italians lasted 2 minutes. Walked in - took one look, walked out! Follow the Italians when you want a reasonable coffee and cake experience. We wish we had.

p.s. once more: the service was absolutely fine. But possibly not great coffee drinkers themselves.

A small and pretty coffee shop hidden between buildings. It took a while for us to find this place. Baristas are friendly and the drinks are good. It seems many people know this place. It's kind of crowded in there even though it's hidden is a small alley.

We had a decent mocha here served by some seriously uninterested staff. The place is quaint, however not air conditioned at all, and features a single ceiling fan. This leaves everyone in line drenched in sweat while they wait for their drink.

Comfy coffee shop with good coffee. The atmosphere is nice and is certainly an upgrade over the Starbucks that is in the same plaza. This is a great place to rest and get your caffeine fix before hitting the open road again.

The blueberry loaf was too stale that you couldn't even cut it with a knife, even the tea tasted stale too, I think it was the water used. Didn't enjoy it at all. The staff were ok, they looked bothered and bored and not super nice though. I gave it two stars just because of the outside seating which was kind of nice.

Nice local coffeehouse
A good-looking display of sweets and snacks were available. When you get an iced coffee, they pour hot brew over ice cubes and fill up the cup. This results in a weak, lukewarm beverage. No bueno.

If you love good coffee. You can sit outside in a small yard. Tasty pastry.

Not easy to find. The plain black coffee I had was okay, but I had better from Carmel Belle just a few hours earlier.

Trying to figure out if we were there on an off day, as the staff seemed a touch lackluster.