New favorite coffee shop in DTLA. Always has ample seating as well
Service: 5
Nambi Williams
UPDATE: I removed the original picture I included with my review out of privacy for the employee. I posted it for the company to be able to identify the main employee who was rude to me, however Civil Coffee never responded to me or made an attempt to follow up with me about the situation.
Original Review:
I’ve been to this place three times and the staff has never treated me with customer service. I came in today as one of two customers in the entire shop, with three workers sitting around. No one welcomed me and I entered or as I read through the menu. After a good five minutes of silently reading with no staff acknowledgement, I was ready to order.
Apparently the cook, who does not look any different from the baristas, saw me waiting and made eye contact with me. I thought they were going to take my order, but they finished one task and started another. They passed me by at least three times, each time making eye contact with me, but never said anything to me and didn’t let anyone know that I was ready to order. Not to mention that the rest of the staff also saw that I was waiting.
I had to say “Is anyone going to take my order?”before one of the baristas finally came over. I calmly explained, and I wasn’t even upset at that point, that “the cook”had made eye contact with me several times but didn’t take my order. The barista said something like, “Thats because he can’t do anything, he’s the cook.”
I’m let him know that as a customer, I don’t know that and that I felt some type of way because they all had seen me and didn’t even acknolwedge me when I came in. The barista proceeded to get defensive and argumentative, saying that he was busy, even though he was finishing up a drink as I came in and was reading through the menu. Their immediate response was there are other coffee shops to go to and that I should go to Verve.
To keep it short, I was never trying to start a dispute. And even I as made the effort to steer the conversation the other way, the barista said he refused to serve me because of my attitude, even though he was the one who turned the situation into a dispute.
After I called him racist and misogynist he “took offense” and told me to leave. Side note, I don’t know why white adjacent individuals feel the need to say they are offended when someone calls them racist. If you are accused of bigotry, that is not an insult, and acting as if your character has been shot is disingenuous. Moreover, as the only customer walking into a coffee shop that had three non-black male employees facing the entrance with only one other customer in the entire shop, it is not unreasonable for me to call them out for mistreating me based upon what I look like. Nobody should be ignorant to the fact that a lot of establishments and individuals in Los Angeles do not treat black women with respect.
Back to what happened, I asked him to give me his name, the manager’s name and contact, and the owners name and contact. He then proceeded to call security even though I said I would leave after he gives the proper contact information to speak with the owner or manager, and also, nothing about me or the situation was violent or threatening.
Here is a picture of the problem barista of the day. At first he said he was the manager, but I guess after I exclaimed that I was serious about speaking with someone over him, he then revealed that the manager is someone else.
Outside of my experience, the coffee is not that good and the entrance doors are nasty, yet are always closed.
Also if anyone wants to try to dispute my claim, there should be footage of the entire incident that should confirm that I have no reason to make this shit up. I came in today a little after 1:40PM.
Michael Allen
They use seed oils for their toast and food. Poison. Canola really? Disgusting
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Emily Anne Vargas
They had almost nothing left in their display food wise and didn’t even bother asking me if I wanted my croissant (the only one left) warmed up. Tables and chairs/are dirty, left with crumbs/food spilled. Coffee was okay, not something worth $6+ on. Maria cookie that came with the coffee was stale.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
Erika I
Stopped by for a quick coffee to help with my caffeine withdrawal (whoopsie!). Service was very great and they were able to get my iced coffee out within minutes. I got the iced arroyo and you know it’s a good when you’re able to inhale it and all of a sudden it’s gone.
Service: 5
Caleb Lin
The coffee here is some of the best you can get in DTLA, up there with Verve. The food is also excellent - I get an Angeleno Burrito with Bacon pretty much once a week, and it's one of my favorite breakfast burritos in LA when I'm not looking to clog my arteries.
The staff here is also super friendly and we actually become friends with the baristas and had them cater our wedding, hah! Sad that we moved a bit further away and now I order Uber eats more often than I go in person, but it's still nice to hang out in, though it's not as nice of an ambience as some other cafes in LA.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Camille C
Coffee was mid, cookie was great. Baristas we're unwelcoming and didn't care about their job. This was early in the day when they weren't busy.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Don Wu
Nice coffee spot in DTLA, fun drinks without over doing it and they sell single origin full bean coffee.
Zandra Stoneburner
Salmon Toast is AMAZING!
Food: 5
Service: 5
Anna
Civil Coffee is in the middle of Fashion District in downtown LA, but not the part of downtown serviced by Metro rail but still walkable from 7th St / Metro Center (or you can transfer to the DASH E).
I got the Liquid Gold (matcha + lavender syrup) slightly less sweetened, which was perfectly sweet. I only get matcha with almond or cashew milk if I can because I find dairy milk too overpowering, so it was really nice that the drink came with cashew-almond milk.
The syrup was really good with both the matcha and the coffee (the Arroyo) but they were different experiences. The matcha taste was not as strong as the coffee, but the syrup was significantly more floral and noticeable in the matcha as a result. The drinks were large and it wasn’t super expensive.
There is SO much seating, really fast WiFi (I was on a Zoom for half the time I was there), AND outlets. What more can a girl ask for??
The food was delicious, but I waited too long for it, the music was playing very loudly in the establishment and it was very noisy, and in order to go to the restroom and just wash your hands before eating, you need to go up the steps to another room.
New favorite coffee shop in DTLA. Always has ample seating as well
Service: 5
UPDATE:
I removed the original picture I included with my review out of privacy for the employee. I posted it for the company to be able to identify the main employee who was rude to me, however Civil Coffee never responded to me or made an attempt to follow up with me about the situation.
Original Review:
I’ve been to this place three times and the staff has never treated me with customer service. I came in today as one of two customers in the entire shop, with three workers sitting around. No one welcomed me and I entered or as I read through the menu. After a good five minutes of silently reading with no staff acknowledgement, I was ready to order.
Apparently the cook, who does not look any different from the baristas, saw me waiting and made eye contact with me. I thought they were going to take my order, but they finished one task and started another. They passed me by at least three times, each time making eye contact with me, but never said anything to me and didn’t let anyone know that I was ready to order. Not to mention that the rest of the staff also saw that I was waiting.
I had to say “Is anyone going to take my order?”before one of the baristas finally came over. I calmly explained, and I wasn’t even upset at that point, that “the cook”had made eye contact with me several times but didn’t take my order. The barista said something like, “Thats because he can’t do anything, he’s the cook.”
I’m let him know that as a customer, I don’t know that and that I felt some type of way because they all had seen me and didn’t even acknolwedge me when I came in. The barista proceeded to get defensive and argumentative, saying that he was busy, even though he was finishing up a drink as I came in and was reading through the menu. Their immediate response was there are other coffee shops to go to and that I should go to Verve.
To keep it short, I was never trying to start a dispute. And even I as made the effort to steer the conversation the other way, the barista said he refused to serve me because of my attitude, even though he was the one who turned the situation into a dispute.
After I called him racist and misogynist he “took offense” and told me to leave. Side note, I don’t know why white adjacent individuals feel the need to say they are offended when someone calls them racist. If you are accused of bigotry, that is not an insult, and acting as if your character has been shot is disingenuous. Moreover, as the only customer walking into a coffee shop that had three non-black male employees facing the entrance with only one other customer in the entire shop, it is not unreasonable for me to call them out for mistreating me based upon what I look like. Nobody should be ignorant to the fact that a lot of establishments and individuals in Los Angeles do not treat black women with respect.
Back to what happened, I asked him to give me his name, the manager’s name and contact, and the owners name and contact. He then proceeded to call security even though I said I would leave after he gives the proper contact information to speak with the owner or manager, and also, nothing about me or the situation was violent or threatening.
Here is a picture of the problem barista of the day. At first he said he was the manager, but I guess after I exclaimed that I was serious about speaking with someone over him, he then revealed that the manager is someone else.
Outside of my experience, the coffee is not that good and the entrance doors are nasty, yet are always closed.
Also if anyone wants to try to dispute my claim, there should be footage of the entire incident that should confirm that I have no reason to make this shit up. I came in today a little after 1:40PM.
They use seed oils for their toast and food. Poison. Canola really? Disgusting
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
They had almost nothing left in their display food wise and didn’t even bother asking me if I wanted my croissant (the only one left) warmed up. Tables and chairs/are dirty, left with crumbs/food spilled. Coffee was okay, not something worth $6+ on. Maria cookie that came with the coffee was stale.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
Stopped by for a quick coffee to help with my caffeine withdrawal (whoopsie!). Service was very great and they were able to get my iced coffee out within minutes. I got the iced arroyo and you know it’s a good when you’re able to inhale it and all of a sudden it’s gone.
Service: 5
The coffee here is some of the best you can get in DTLA, up there with Verve. The food is also excellent - I get an Angeleno Burrito with Bacon pretty much once a week, and it's one of my favorite breakfast burritos in LA when I'm not looking to clog my arteries.
The staff here is also super friendly and we actually become friends with the baristas and had them cater our wedding, hah! Sad that we moved a bit further away and now I order Uber eats more often than I go in person, but it's still nice to hang out in, though it's not as nice of an ambience as some other cafes in LA.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Coffee was mid, cookie was great. Baristas we're unwelcoming and didn't care about their job. This was early in the day when they weren't busy.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Nice coffee spot in DTLA, fun drinks without over doing it and they sell single origin full bean coffee.
Salmon Toast is AMAZING!
Food: 5
Service: 5
Civil Coffee is in the middle of Fashion District in downtown LA, but not the part of downtown serviced by Metro rail but still walkable from 7th St / Metro Center (or you can transfer to the DASH E).
I got the Liquid Gold (matcha + lavender syrup) slightly less sweetened, which was perfectly sweet. I only get matcha with almond or cashew milk if I can because I find dairy milk too overpowering, so it was really nice that the drink came with cashew-almond milk.
The syrup was really good with both the matcha and the coffee (the Arroyo) but they were different experiences. The matcha taste was not as strong as the coffee, but the syrup was significantly more floral and noticeable in the matcha as a result. The drinks were large and it wasn’t super expensive.
There is SO much seating, really fast WiFi (I was on a Zoom for half the time I was there), AND outlets. What more can a girl ask for??
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Arroyo, Liquid Gold
Restaurantji Recommends
Don’t skip on the breakfast tacos 🌮
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Friendly atmosphere.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Pastries
Delicious matcha and super friendly staff :)
Always friendly staff and great drinks/food .
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The food was delicious, but I waited too long for it, the music was playing very loudly in the establishment and it was very noisy, and in order to go to the restroom and just wash your hands before eating, you need to go up the steps to another room.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 5
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