I have visited Barista Coffee Bar on 4 occassions, and all 4 at different locations; I’ve liked it, but they could certainly make it better! It is good cup of coffee none-the-less and ofcourse the ambience, decor, the hipness, the crowd, the style, etc. is pretty innovative.
The first location was a small place on the busy C.G. Road in Ahmedabad, I’d say it was an incredibly small shop! Me and my friend were’nt really in mood for coffee so we ordered one of those lime/lemon drinks. (I don’t really remember the name of the drink as it was all the way in October) It however took us 30 minutes to get that drink as for some reason they either ran out of ice or they had some backlog. We didn’t get into details as me and my friend had some issues to talk about. But however the waiting really really exasparated us greatly. The lime/lemon drink turned out tasting like a very sweet lemonade, my friend told me it’s supposed to have lots of ice in it, however we just got it semi-chilled and no ice! I could’ve easily had a reasonably sized glass of lemonade at home, but this one was for 35 bucks roughly. Anyway, price is not the issue i’m focussing mainly as you’ve to take into consideration the ambience and what not! But I still expected it to be of a decent size! This got over in 2 sips!
My 2nd time was at the Vijay Crossroads, Ahmedabad. Now this one was slightly bigger in comparison with the tiny CG road shop and we just ordered some regular hot coffee, it was quite good. And, the latte that I ordered came in a big mug and it was the only time i’d say that the ppl at Barista exceeded my expectations in terms of sizing their products! This one was a big mug and I could never finish it! The 3rd time around me and my sister went to the Fun Republic Barista. Now for the uninitiated, Fun Republic is a multiplex theatre/shopping mall and is pretty hip place to be in Ahmedabad. We went at around 3 in the afternoon and wanted to order Brrrista their signature cold coffee. Again, they were out of ice! and we were really not up for hot coffee! So we just ended up with a slice of cake (standard black forest with standard good taste) as they were out of any other snack as well, just had a couple of pastries and a few puff pastries! I am assuming that since it was Diwali vacation, they weren’t really expecting people! I don’t know but it doesnt make sense to me. If Diwali holidays are going on, maybe a lot more people would come to the mall and watch movies and stuff, so maybe they should have things ready! But their reasoning was that since it was the holiday season, they weren’t expecting food deliveries or ice deliveries. Okay, justified; I guess!
A couple of days later when we went there again, we finally got to try their Brrrista. Which was pretty good infact! Again, my only complain is that they are charging too much for too little! A hundred bucks for something that gets over in 2 gulps!!! oh come on! Maybe I am way too greedy!! Brrrista had a combination of chocolate syrup, coffee, ice, whipped cream and the works! Quite delicious as a matter of fact.
The fourth and final time was at Crossword, the book store. That is one strategic place to have a coffee bar, like Starbucks have their coffee bars at Barnes and Noble outlets in US. Limited food items, but good coffee.
I particularly like the orange/beige color they have in their decor and the semi-comfortable chairs (which lets you be comfy, but not too comfy that you’d sit there for hours hogging the place). The people behind the counters were cheerful and they do have a good variety of coffee and other products. I just wish they could have ice next time and serve their best beverages maybe in bigger cups!
Thanks for reading!