Katie G.
Yelp
Listen, I'm not one to normally leave reviews, but I was really disappointed by Kaladi today... I've been going to Kaladi for years. It's the only place I buy beans and the coffee has always been good with great service. Today was my first negative experience and I'm sharing in the hopes that Kaladi can fix the problem and return to the high quality shop I know them to be.
I went in this morning to get some beans for my aeropress and a cappuccino before class. The person at the front was polite as always, the person who ground my coffee for me was pleasant and helpful, but the barista working just seemed to not know what was going on. The woman ahead of me ordered a cafe au lait and he started to make it without steaming the milk first. She pointed out that it is supposed to be steamed so he dumped the drink and remade it. When he made my cappuccino, he over-steamed the milk, let it sit for a couple of minutes to separate, then just scooped the foam on top of the espresso. I was a barista at third-wave shops for years and that's just not a cappuccino. Kaladi's cappuccinos have always been balanced with a good consistency of milk, but this barista really let me down. I was in a hurry to get to class so I didn't have time to request it to be remade, but it just was not good at all.
Kaladi, at the very least, needs to retrain this barista. I don't know if he got experience elsewhere and they did not train him how to properly make drinks or if this is his first coffee gig or what, but it was clear that his drinks are not meeting the same quality standards I'm used to at Kaladi. He was kind of tall with hair long enough to cover his ears and was wearing glasses.
Kaladi has not lost a customer with me yet, I just hope they can get all of their baristas dialed in because I would hate to have to start seeking out my beloved cappuccinos elsewhere.