The Optimist Raleigh

Great little coffee shop!

Atmosphere: 4

Service: 5

The Optimist Raleigh offers an inviting atmosphere, serving vibes as well as delicious coffee, espresso, pastries and food — “This place sucks!” Would highly recommend to any coffee lover.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This place has a cool vibe and the service was great. Sadly, my avocado toast was not worth the money. It had the thinnest schmear of avocado imaginable, topped with unripe green tomatoes straight from the fridge. Disappointing.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 2

Service: 5

Great atmosphere, will recommend to all as a pleasant experience.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Avocado Toast

The coffee sold to customers here is terrible. I ordered a latte and my husband ordered a shot of espresso. My latte tasted like the milk was sour and my husband’s espresso tastes like an animal urinated in it. It was atrocious. The atmosphere was great and the shop was cute but it was a complete waste of money.

Atmosphere: 5

Service: 3

Bar is for "staff only". Service gives off a very "we like this place better without all these customers" vibe.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 1

Recommended dishes: Chorizo Breakfast Sandwich, Drip Coffee

Though the Optimist had a great atmosphere and coffee is pretty tasty (I ordered a drip and a pour over), the service leaves something to be desired.

The pour over took 20 minutes because the barista is also the person taking the order, and my sandwich took even longer. Not the barista’s fault, she was slammed, but there were other employees around just doing nothing to help her. For the price, we were hoping for something better!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 3

the food portions were soooo small it was laughable! i got their fig english muffin and it didn’t come with the bacon that was supposed to be on it. my friend got their avocado toast and the bread was super thin. i just don’t feel like i should’ve paid $10 for this lil english muffin… coffee was also mid. service was wonderful though!!

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 5

the optimist has always been my go to and favorite place in raleigh but lately has not been as good as it used to be - I ordered a pink matcha and received a rose latte (?). I always get the brunch club and recently it has been soggy & has half the amount of ingredients it used to

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5

I really used to like Optimist before. However, god knows what has happened over the last few months. Their coffee is still pretty good - however, their food is a different story. My go to order is their Hulk Smash, which I mainly order for their chilli crisp. When I ordered 1.5 months back, there was no arugula and they dumped some spinach instead without asking if I want that substitute🙄 next time there was no chilli crisp - saltless boiled avocado, and again some dumped cabbage and arugula in a very dirty way. They did offer me a refund this time. Wanting to give them one more chance I ordered there another Hulk Smash on Nov 4,2024 and paid extra for “extra chilli crisp”. When I went to pick it up, they said “sorry we are out of chilli crisp” - no communication from the staff about the refund coz I specifically paid extra for the chilli. When I asked them to refund, the girl behind the counter said there is no chilli crisp(with an attitude on her face). Wth! When I kept pushing my argument, that’s when I was offered either a refund or another item from the kitchen. I ordered the fig, which again tasted not good, lost 30 mins of my morning time waiting for the order and got late to work. Never going back to this establishment! Also, the girl who was making the coffee mainly(not the cashier - the cashier girl was amazing), need to go through a class on customer service, which doesn’t include attitude for a simple and polite question, or spending time on phone while the customers are waiting.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 2

Service: 1

Great coffee and chai. Shop is well done; someone creative had fun designing the interior. Tried the three amigos and basic breakfast sandwich. Preferred the three amigos as the salsa was tasty. We were sad that the pastries were unavailable the day we went.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4

Terrible service and not good coffee at all tasted like instant coffee. Would rather go to iris in downtown Raleigh.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

I hate to do this bc I am a long time optimist customer but I am leaving very upset.
Came w my dog (I have a small yorkie) the window person was rude and not welcoming I waited 20 mins for my coffee before I went back to the window to ask for it to go instead since I was becoming very overstimulated waiting for my drink. Went back up and they forgot about me which is fine it happens but instead of being friendly for THEIR mistake the same window person was rude and gave me a hot coffee which I did not order and when I said I ordered an iced they got upset and were talking about me like I couldn’t hear them w the window open. And instead of making what they forgot like I asked for it I proceeded to watch her dump the coffee in another cup and top it with ice which was not good obviously. I am beyond upset and my daily morning coffee was ruined I understand this is first world problems but since it is on the pricier side it is upsetting. Although it doesn’t matter I will not be coming back and am grateful for the second location in Crabtree.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 1

Did not meet expectations. My. Daughter said one star was aggressive, however there was so much that was not to the level that I have experienced here before.

1. We came for breakfast sandwiches with Michael’s English’s muffins. The cardboard container revealed plain- basically grocery English muffins, eggs were in little balls and were dry. We asked for our hot beverages in real cups- not ‘to go’. They came in To Go cups.
As is typical they were busy. - h FJ pins a spot outside on the patio- but what a mess. Please give me a broom! The leaves and walnuts have been collecting for weeks, furniture is filthy.
No real cups- no plates for in house eating. Poor quality sandwiches. Matcha was excellent. Pancake Latte nothing special.

Not sure what has happened to you Optimist- you used to be a quality fun spot. 3 sandwiches and 3 drinks were $50! I can get a better sandwich at the Golden Arches- it’s called a McMuffin. Sad about this - I hope you turn this around.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 4

Excellent atmosphere, mediocre coffe/tea, and wildly overpriced food. Don't get me wrong, it's good and I'll come again for the coffee just because the vibe is so nice, but there are some issues.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 2

Service: 4