Espresso Royale

I ordered a 5# bag but was shorted ²⁄₃ of a pound. No response to emails, no refund, no attempt to make things right.

Take your work and enjoy tea or coffee
Or you can read
It’s not quiet but you can still do what ever you want to do

Good enough for my needs! Tasty coffee and snacks at fairly typical prices, wifi and a comfortable place to get some work done. Wifi isn’t super fast but decent for light use — large files slow, streaming video fine. Friendly service & flocktag deals.

Unhygenic staff, shoddy furniture, and wifi unaccessible.
The loose tea is great for mixing a unique blend, but not so great when the staff scratches their head before hand-​tying the tea bag. Then, when the barista was adding water, he coughed right above the cup.
The chair seats are torn, and the chairs and tables are wobbly. Also, the staff didn’t know the wifi password. I’m surprised this place has stayed in business so long!
TIP: get a drink that doesn’t require preparation like coffee or a packaged bottle, and grab some extra napkins for under the uneven furniture.

Eh. It’s good on Wednesdays when any size lattes are $ 1.99. They’re not great but they’re decent. Also, if you have the app Hooked, they do a lot of deals there too.
Otherwise, I don’t recommend it. It’s about the same price as Starbucks and it’s about the same quality as Starbucks. (I dislike Starbucks to clear up any confusion). Their baked goods are kind of dry, but Washtenaw Dairy Donuts is always a plus.
It’s super conveniently located; you can grab your coffee on your way to the library.

Pros:
— Location
— Tea/​coffee is decently priced
— Flock tag integrated for extra deals and regulars
Cons:
— Intermittent wireless
— Food:
* bakery items are fairly forgettable/​tasteless + unhealthy (troublesome combo)
* does not apply to wraps, which are alright (but not good/​great by any means)
Best fit:
— Good for student/​professor coffee chats that want to avoid people haphazardly glancing at an electronic screen.

The internet is atrocious. It’s almost not even worth stopping here for any type of work session. The layout of the drink counter is really awkward. They hand the drinks off left of the register which requires you to cut past the people in line twice. There are no lids by the register so you can take your drink and go. It’s a terrible system.
Glad they got new booths, but be warned. It is very very loud where the new booths are located. There is nothing to buffer the noise in coffee shop. I’m pretty certain they keep the downstairs in awful shape to encourage you to leave and go elsewhere. It’s dingy, not many outlets, and often very very cold.
I do enjoy the coffee drinks and would rank it higher if the things I mentioned were better.

Came in to this café looking for a quick caffeine fix. I ordered the White Chocolate Mocha along with a Butter Croissant. The White Mocha was very simple with not a lot of flavor. It was not sweet at all so I had to add some sugar.
The Butter Croissant was cold and did not taste fresh. When asking the servers to warm it up, they pointed me towards a microwave located near the back of the café.
Pros: The line was long but the baristas go through it pretty quickly.
Cons: Not a great café environment. I’ve had much better coffee and Croissants elsewhere.
Bottom Line: Make the extra 2 minute walk to Starbucks.

Seven words: «Let me restart the router for you».
Espresso Royale is alright. The workers are usually friendly and make a good drink. Sometimes they have sass, sometimes they screw up orders. We’re all human. The worst parts about this café are the horrible internet which might make you pull your hair out and the cramped seating upstairs. On the plus side, the bathrooms are unisex and always open even during festivals like the art fair.
If you need the internet to work, I wouldn’t recommend this café. Otherwise, it would be great place to bring a friend to catch up.

The coffee is fine, the food is average, and the location can be convenient. But there’s absolutely no sense of place or anything remotely welcoming. The baristas don’t show personality and the music is absent (is it even playing?).
The space itself is awfully arranged, piled up with standard-​issue mediocre-​at-​best furniture. The downstairs is more quiet than the upstairs, but feels like a dark claustrophobic basement.
Even for a quick in-​and-​out, this café becomes my absolute last resort and if I am to embrace my inner assh*le, I could easily say that if it disappeared tomorrow, I would be none the wiser (but perhaps even a little relieved, especially were it to be replaced with something better).
If in the neighborhood, I just settle for the dunkin donuts coffee in the anthro lab, crappy though it is, just so I don’t enter the existential spiral of looking at the Espresso Royale on State Street as being a synecdoche for all of Ann Arbor.

Full disclosure: I worked at this location from 2006 – 2010.
Insider Tips: Soy almond earl grey with extra foam will rock your world, especially if you also elect to purchase lemon poppy seed HeartThrive for dipping. Yogurt parfait with extra banana? The jimmy-​jam. Cold-​brewed coffee with vanilla & milk? Order it up. Chai (house recipe) latte with blueberry syrup? You’ll love it. Blackberry diet coke? Danny Zuko & Olivia Newton John have nothing on this summer lovin’ Ginger Dragon? I’ve been feigning for three years.
Skip: most baked goods. They can be hit or miss and may taste over-​refrigerated OR may be amazing (ahem! fresh out of the delivery van bran muffins). It’s a crapshoot. The smoothies (alas).
If you’re lucky: the bagels will have just arrived & you can indulge in a hot cinnamon raisin while you sip on some earl grey tea latte goodness.
For the sake of all: PAY ATTENTION ON LATTE WEDNESDAY — OR ANYTIME. The baristas are lookin’ at you, Mr. Frat Daddy on his cell. They’re asking YOU what you want to drink — look alive Phi Psi. The line is long and everyone is weary and/​or in a rush. The folks in the aprons will get everyone in and out the door in less than five minutes, if you only follow standard operating procedure. Oh, and the lids are behind you.

Good place for coffee. Manager is nice.
The place is usually pretty busy given its proximity to campus. Service is great.

I think everyone comes here for the same reason: a quick caffeine fix that’s a block or two closer to campus than Starbucks. That said, the line can sometimes be super long, so you should definitely factor in a wait time if you in a rush.
The service here, though, has always been upbeat and friendly. Or maybe, if you want to take a cynical view, it could due to the fact that I’m generally here in the mornings, while the baristas are still nice and caffeinated and friendly.
The coffee though, isn’t the greatest; the drinks can be hit or miss. But, they do have plenty of tables for people to camp out and study (there’s a whole lower level!), so it can be a good place to escape to and people watch. The lower level feels (and smells) like someone’s basement.

I always feel bad whenever there’s a new barista holding down the fort SOLO on a Sunday. But anyway, the staff is usually friendly, and the sugary coffee drinks are okay (although they usually add too much syrup for my tastes). I like the wraps EXCEPT for when the lettuce and other veggies are wilted and rotting. This has happened on several occasions, so… minus a star.
Avoid this place 10 – 15 minutes before a class is scheduled to start because the line gets ridiculous.

I’m seeing a lot of negative reviews for Espresso Royale, which I don’t understand. I really like the drinks here (usually a hot cocoa, tea, or latte for me) and I’ve never had a bad experience with the food either. The only reason I am knocking it down to four stars is that it can be tough to get a table there.

Espresso Royale scores some points for having at least one Fair Trade certified coffee option available, but that is pretty much the extent of the goodness I’ve found there. This particular location tends to be pretty crowded, with the exception of the basement, where room is usually available.
The staff seems generally disinterested but not rude. You can’t really blame them for not being 100% invested in helping you meet your caffeine addiction. I suppose they’re enablers regardless, just not as eager as I’ve found elsewhere.
Skip the food. If you take one piece of advice from this review, let it be to think twice before buying the bran muffins there. Imagine a hockey puck, but with less flavor. Texturally deficient and tough to chew, I wonder why (or how) I even bothered finishing it.

I love the atmosphere at Espresso Royale and the coffee drinks are excellent! My only gripe is that their baked goods are not kept current or fresh. I bought a muffin that had mold on it and didn’t realize it until I was far from the venue. I gave them another shot and bought a different muffin the next day and it was very stale.
For the prices, they need to keep current with their bakery items. It would also help if they had a wider menu to include lunch items, but they should start with mastering the baked/​breakfast items first.

Medium Soy Latte + Extra Shot + Sugar Free Vanilla + bottled water = $ 5.89?
I’m here right now. And, I I needed coffee badder than I needed anything this morning. My grandparents make the world’s WEAKEST coffee… I swear it’s a one bean per pot sorta thing. (Hence ordering the extra shot of darkness).
Stellar, that super yuppified coffee concoction I seriously order in real life (OMG, I know, it’s so… annoying, I find myself annoying when I say it) is at least $ 6 in the City of Wind (Chicago), so if I can add a water and still be under a sixer, I find it to be a fairly phenomenal jolt of a day.
A beautiful crispy fall morning, plus the buzz of university students in the early days of school (still untouched by midterms, or the haze of second semester), a bustling intersection of college-​aged businesses, and my coffee and laptop. I’d fit right in if I didn’t feel… at least 6 years older than everyone here. :)
Mmmmm, indulgence in coffee whilst soaking up the caffeinated fountain of youth. Well done.
Minuses:
–whoa, I think classes just let out, and you’d think they were giving this shit away for free. MASS ENTRANCE.
–Lots of squatters means not lots of tables. (but there is a downstairs).
–I must’ve forgotten the «hoodie» uniform of college… left mine at home. I’m overdressed! eek.
–I feel old.
The coffee is good. Trust me.

I dropped in today on my way back from getting an MCard/​Paying Rent/​Other miscellaneous errands. I had a small latte.
I think the best part was when I stood staring blankly completely not near the place to order, thinking I was in a line. I wasn’t. I was actually just awkwardly standing near someone making their parfaits. Thank you kind cashier who noticed and steered me to where I could get coffee.
My latte was tasty, I liked the environment inside, good location. I can’t say anything really stood out about it, but it was definitely worthy of an A-​OK.