Jessica G.
Yelp
Visiting Smoky Hollow has been self-debate on my head given the polarized reviews I read about the place. Hard to find parking, unpleasant service, so-so taste, name it. But in contrary, some people highly recommended it and spoke great stuffs about it.
Proving it myself, the dedicated parking spots were indeed limited, but plenty of street parking available and only required very short walk. The space was pretty huge and uniquely designed in vintage vibes with a clear emphasis on it being a coffee roaster. Plenty of desks were provided, making it very accommodative as a working space. The place was quite busy throughout the day, but I witnessed myself that the baristas were pretty swift in getting all the orders ready, shooing away all the negative critics.
They offered light bites for the drink companion, for which my pick was Matcha Pistachio croissant. Despite being quite disappointed that it didn't have any filling while I was expecting pistachio paste, it surprisingly tasted pretty decent with flaky and buttery pastry base. The matcha icing on top added extra pleasure to enjoy surely.
I went for their fall special, Maple Latte, which came with Pure Maple syrup. If you're in the boat who preferred your cup of joe to come in gigantic size, you would love that they had 20oz size available. It was surely great coffee with strong aroma and flavor, but I would prefer the maple syrup to be toned down a bit as it's tad too sweet. I could see myself coming back given the convenience and good quality coffee; probably next trying something more basic instead of syrupy ones.