Intelligentsia Coffee Watertown Coffeebar

Nice open layout, comfortable atmosphere but I cannot stomach the coffee. It is soooo ACIDIC. The staff is highly trained and take their time preparing even basic brew. By the time it reaches the table its cold and NO discounted refills. The one size regular brew or iced coffee they have is quite expensive and again not great tasting. The pastry, however which is a seletion of about 4 is delicious. it is outsourced from the bakery Forge. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, the staff are nice but robotic. Black and white responses and as though they were trained to respond exactly a certain way. I hate that. Anyway, if you like acidic artisinal coffee and ok with portion, go for it. The atmosphere is relaxing, modern and pastry worth the trip if theres any left. I am a coffee snob but so disappointing this coffee and tight wad mentality of this establishment.

At first I was exited to finally have access to Intelligentsia locally as I had been ordering their coffee online for a few years. First, they don't sell the 5lbs bags they have behind the counter and could not actually give a reason for it. Second they rip you off selling 12oz Black Cat espresso 19$ instead of honoring their own online price of 15$.

Never going back there. Zero star.

Intelligentisia wins the award for the most hipster place in the entire Boston area. It's has great atmosphere and very good coffee and is probably a great place to hang out with a friend or get some work done. It is certainly a welcomed addition to an area that has a shortage of good coffee shops.

Great tasting coffee. They used to be more full service, now they don't bring you cream when you get a coffee, you have to get up and go to the bar. Seems silly and lacking in customer focus.

I've been to intelligentsia before (downtown), but this location is near my house. I got matcha lattes for myself and my buddy as I'm huge on matcha and it's hard to find a place that can make them well (Tatte and David's usually does a great job). While they were delicious, they were significantly more expensive (6.75 VS 3-4 at other places) and nowhere near as strong. A proper strength matcha has around 70-80 mg of caffeine, so you should get at least the same kick as a cup of coffee. My friend and I both looked at each other and realized that the reason why we could barely taste the matcha powder was because there may have been about half a teaspoon used instead of 1-2 teaspoons (usually 1) like there should be.

We both needed the caffeine kick to continue on with our day and love matcha, but for the price we paid, we feel like we got ripped off. I'm sensitive to caffeine and I had to take a nap afterwards and ended up wishing I got coffee or an espresso instead.

I won't be back. Sofra's is on the other side of this place. I highly recommend you go there.

Has good coffee selection (no biggie, but no flavors, although mocha and simple syrup available), some baked goods, seating on either side (has some outdoor seating /benches as well) and great espresso (they froth properly-thankyou for that!), everything looks new. Products remind me of diesel and bloc 11 in Somerville. I took a star away for setup. It's very confusing on where to go upon entering, has doors from three different sides, staff seem frustrated with setup and narrow passageway where people are supposed to order and wait for their order to be ready. Can get crowded and a bit claustrophobic!
Suggestions: larger menu, signs directing where to go, take names so orders do not get confused and maybe a couple of other different types of pastries.

Fantastic location with onsite parking which really is unique. Incredibly customer service and baristas onsite who made 4 individual attempts at steaming the milk before they were happy to serve. I've never seen such dedication before. A truly excellent coffee and experience.

Ok coffee... but there are better places in Boston area. The prices higher than the quality.
For example, I just had a $4.50 chocolate croissant which has clearly not been made this morning, and it's only 9am...

Not surprisingly I normally write reviews when something is excellent or terrible. A family member had mentioned it seemed cool and I should check it out. Let me explain why I found this place terrible. The layout is awkward with "some" seating on either end of a long bar but a very tight corridor the length of it where you order, wait for your order(wasn't sure) and have to remain vigilant of servers and customers passing by. Ok so whatever, the layout kind of sucks. But the real reason for the review was when I walked up to the bar area, no one else was around ordering. A barista stood 3ft in front me waiting for a drink to pour, and just didn't acknowledge me. I finally asked, "where do I order?" She just pointed to one end. Ok, not super friendly. The menu is what it is. I got the cheapest thing $3 expresso. I gave a $1 tip. I waited about 4mins as there was 1 order/2 drinks ahead of me and stood in the awkwardly tight area in front of the bar. Finally the drink was ready. The same barista from before presented my $3 espresso to go in a mini Dixie Cup, no top. No "thank you", no "have a nice day", no eye contact. Look, I'm not hating to hate, I just like the good places to get the proper credit they deserve. This is not one of them.

Oh yeah, the espresso wasn't very good either.

I had the best cappuccino here. They make it the right size so that the flavor is perfect, unlike many other places that use too much milk. Staff is very friendly.