Harvard COOP Cafe

I really want to give this place 5 stars, as it’s a great place to study or just people watch and read a book. It has great selection of deserts and good coffee and even sandwiches! ALL you want really.
BUT — the problem is the staff. I come often and every time — it’s same rude, un-​friendly people who do not want to take order (at least that is how they act). They look at you with so much hate! makes me wonder — if you dislike this job so much why are you doing it?! I have seen bad service, but people working at this café beyond bad service, they simply make you feel like crap if you are buying a cup of coffee or food.
I come few times a week, so unfortunately my opinion has formed over the course of few weeks…
If management sees this — please get different employees, your café is awesome if it wasn’t for the staff…

Slow, cramped, dark, dirty. Don’t.

It’s pretty and i’m sure you could study here.
WHATEVER.
I’m just gonna let you know what happened to me today.
I was thirsty, I just wanted something to drink. Not too sweet. So instead of soda (loaded with sugar) I opted for an italian soda with less raspberry syrup (since the soda isn’t sugarloaded).
first of all, they only have 5 flavors (I’ll explain why in a sec).
second of all, the lady held the cup by the rim with one hand so that her pointer was actually in my drink when it was full.
thirdly, SHE JUST GOT SPRITE… and added the RASPBERRY SYRUP MEANT FOR A FREAKING STARBUCKS RASPBERRY FLAVORED COFFEE DRINK.
It is NOT italian soda. IT’s sprite with some more syrup added… oh and maybe some salt (from the finger).
It doesn’t help that they didn’t hear me over chatting with each other for my first three «excuse me“s.

PLEASE READ THIS: The most horrible experience ever!!! As a manager you should NEVER insult a regular customer. I am forever buying desserts or coffee in there on a whim, and yesterday I decided to just sit down after getting a coffee on campus because there was no where to sit in the Café Gato Rojo (Dudley House). The manager of the café storms over to me and demands in a rude tone that I leave immediately. I informed him that my food was purchased at a Harvard vendor and he told me that he had «No affiliation to Harvard». I replied «You should consider removing all of our logos and signs from your menus and café, since you have no affiliation, as it is misleading!» He attempted a rebuttal to which I added «the discussion is over» and left. I will NEVER order anything from him again. The sad part is that I would have actually purchased a dessert from him, as I usually do, had he not made such a display.

i have been here a few times. i usually sit at the café and it was fine. however, the last time i was here, it was different. i was sitting in the café, and everywhere i went it stunk because there was a number of homeless guys spread around the café. if i didn’t need free internet, i would have left.
the food and coffee can’t be considered decent or edible.

This is the first Starbucks-​brewing café I’ve been to that asks you if you are dining in or taking out. I said I was drinking my coffee in the café and I got a nice little cup for my espresso. Yay for earth friendliness.

The employees are rude and service is slow, the food is flavorless most of the time. they brandish a daily value meal for less money, what they don’t see is that you get half the size of a regular order.
always crowded with people studying, reading, and sometimes skyping on their laptops.
it’s by far the most avoidable place in Harvard Square.

I totally forgot that I went to the Harvard Coop last Friday, 5/​15, evening for a sandwich… because it was totally forgettable!
1^st, this mistake I can only blame on myself:
I chose a sandwich made by them but it was wrapped or packaged in plastic. I should have ordered one fresh but I just wanted a quick bite to eat before I met up with a friend for an event we were both attending. The sandwich I chose said it was a chipotle grilled chicken sandwich. I don’t remember it mentioning having a guacamole sauce on the bread. This guacamole sauce STILL turns my stomach just thinking about it… Oh, I believe it was fresh (I believe) but it was slimy, unflavorful, and bland. It added NOTHING to the sandwich except an unwelcomed texture. Oooew…
2^nd, the chairs at the tables are these wooden cheap dealies with unsupportive wooden backs to them. Totally uncomfortable! Okay, HC Café, we get it… You don’t want us to stay long. Sheesh…
3^rd, I know it’s not a library in there but there always seems to be a group of peeps hanging about, drinking too much coffee and talking too loudly… Could these actually be Hahvahd students? Probably…
Bottom line:
this is an always annoying place to try to eat and read. Buy books, magazines, and merch from HC but walk across the street to Brueggers or Au Bön Pain to read and eat in relative peace. AND for better food!

It seems like a few reviewers aren’t separating the Coop from its café. Well I am. The Coop itself is a great bookstore, and its clientele is smart, yadda yadda. But I like the atmosphere way more at basically every other bookstore café I’ve been in, even Borders or Barnes & Noble. The food here is unimpressive, the seating area is rather small, and the people behind the counter always seem to be talking to each other at high volume. And there are always an extra one or two people that seem to be superfluous. I just can’t figure it out.
So if you’re perusing the Coop and you’re the type that likes to read a few chapters of a travel or recipe book without buying it, I would grab a couple and head to the lower level, which is a lot quieter and gives a little more piece of mind. You just better not be in my chair.

I really would like the Coop Café to be nice. I’d like it to be a good place to sit and work, or people-​watch, while perhaps eating a pastry or lunch. I’d really like it to be that.
Unfortunately, it’s not. First of all, despite this being a University space, students can’t come here to work unless they buy something. They put rude little signs on all the tables reminding us of that. Second, even if you do buy your lunch or a pastry or whatever here, those same rude little signs say that you can’t stay more than thirty minutes. Excuse me? Didn’t I just pay that inflated price for this measly little sandwich? Why should I have to rush and leave? And finally, as I just indicated, even if you’re willing to rush, the food isn’t very good. Granted, I only tried getting a sandwich once. Besides taking ten minutes (does that count toward my thirty?), it was small and mediocre.
This place has great potential as a relaxing space to work and/​or eat. Unfortunately, its proprietors instead choose to milk as many dollars as they can from its tables. It gets a second star only because this is a nice space, and when I want to get an overpriced drink I can at least enjoy it for half an hour.

I liked this place a lot.
Everytime I had some time to kill, I would come in here and read magazines, snipets of books, anything I would find intersting, while getting some coffe.
When I wanted to buy a couple of gifts, (one book for my niece, and one for my sister), the staff was very helpful and knowlegable.
A good departure from the coorporate mall-​ish place Harvard sq. is becoming.

Reese Witherspoon managed to charm her way into Harvard’s Law School in ‘Legally Blonde,’ but for most of us living in the real world, coming to the COOP is about as close to getting into the university as we’ll ever be. Very light noshing among very heavy intellectuals discussing topics far more erudite than Reese Witherspoon movies, believe me.