Urban Grind

Terrible lattes
	Reviewed By howie	May 21, 2007

I've only gone here twice, and I haven't tried any of their more substantial food. It looks like they serve sandwiches and breakfast here as well as coffee, espresso, and homemade pastries and desserts. It's nice that they make their own rather than buying the same crappy pastries that all the indie coffeehouses in SD have.

Unfortunately, I had a couple of lousy lattes here -- well, one was terrible and the other was just mediocre. The first one I got was basically undrinkable. It tasted as if the milk had sat next to something rotten in the fridge and had picked up an "off" flavor. I was only able to take a few sips of this before giving up. Even if the milk had been good, I think it would have only been an OK latte at best. The foam was barely there -- a thin, soapy-looking layer that seemed to disappear as the drink moved around.

I didn't want to judge them on just one visit, so I came back a few days later, and got another latte. This one's milk was fine. The foam looked better also -- tighter, but still a bit thin. However, the espresso had a distinct bitter edge to it -- not so much that I couldn't drink it, but enough that I didn't enjoy it that much.

I also had a chance to try a couple of pastries. A honey-ginger-pear muffin had a good balance of flavor, but the texture needed work. It looked like the muffin had fallen, and the texture was a little dense. I also tried a chocolate cupcake here, and it was just fine.

It's too bad that I really didn't enjoy the coffee because this cafe looks like a comfortable place to hang out.