Rooz Cafe

I love Rooz Café. When I lived in Oakland in ²⁰⁰⁸⁄₂₀₀₉ (and was still in grad school) I used to come here to study A LOT. I loved the BLT way back when, not sure if it’s still on the menu as I tried their breakfast when I recently went back. It consisted of bacon, egg, and toast. The breakfast wasn’t anything to write home about, but nevertheless a suitable breakfast to maintain thinking.
I mostly like Rooz for the atmosphere it’s pretty quite. AND they have outlets for laptops.
AND at the end of your studying, you can always end with a beer!

I’m actually here right now… The atmosphere is nice and I guess I’d come again maybe.
I got a salad and a hot tea, both were over priced, and neither very good. The salad was $ 7.50 and was basically lettuce with a few olives here and there, it was seriously lacking in excitement. I wouldnt have paid that much for it had I known that it was so plain. The wait staff was also not very nice. They werent rude, but I got the feeling every time I asked for something it was a bother. No cheeriness here!
My tea was fine, hard to mess that up, but it was like $ 2.25…$.30 more than at Starbucks. It just wasn’t that great over all and I’d rather go to Starbucks/​Petes/​Gaylord’s instead.

‘Meh, I’ve experienced better’ says it to a tee at Rooz. After a missed appointment in Oakland I realized I was starving so I ventured into the first decent looking café on Piedmont and that happened to be Rooz.
At first it seemed like a cool, low-​key café and reminded me of a place I used go back home so I thought it would be a good place for a quick bite and a brief respite from the unseasonably warm weather. Well, unfortunately it didnt help that there was no A/​C in Rooz and I didn’t expect it to be 70+ degrees on a late November day so I was burning but since I was also too tired to find another place to go I went ahead and ordered a sandwich and a diet coke, hoping the latter would cool me down while the former was being made.
So I sat down in the balmy Rooz Café and waited… and waited… and watched as the waitress made my predecessor-at-the-counter’s sandwich extremely s-​l-​o-​w as she chatted with another customer. Mind you there was also a cashier so she really did not need to be talking to the customers. She really needed to be making the sandwiches but as she langorously placed lettuce piece after lettuce piece on the bread and told the customer how she was moving soon to LA to take up some food art job, I was not surprised. I wanted to speak up and say I really didn’t care what my food looked like as long as it was made in the next hour… please and thank you. But instead I sipped my diet coke and tried to while away time checking in on Unilocal all the while grimly noting the ‘no Unilocaler’ sign. What kind of a business would be averse to Unilocalers anyways I wondered? Except of course those businesses that were suffering from some sort of incompetence… such as not being able to make a sandwich with less than 5 ingredients (all of which are readily available. it’s not like she had to go kill a chicken or something…) in less than 10 minutes. Meanwhile here I was on the verge of dying from either heat stroke (fine a bit of an exaggeration but it WAS hot in there) or starvation… I even looked on Unilocal to see if there was a Subway nearby that I missed where I could have gone to instead for future reference in case of said extreme circumstances occurring again, but alas no there was not… this part of Oakland seemed reserved for wannabe-​hippie-​esque cafes like the one I was one where the average age of the clientele seemed to be hovering around 70 (I wondered in fact if they were the original hippies of 40 years past…).
Meanwhile the waitress finished the sandwich of the customer before me (who had wisely gone to run an errand and was waiting outside for his order) and started on mine — but not before some bantering with the newbie cashier about how the bread I ordered with my sandwich doesn’t come with salad but some other side instead… blah blah… can we get on with my food please? By this point I was tempted to jump over the counter and make it myself…
When at last (another 10 minutes later) my sandwich and side salad were done I didn’t even get a smile for my wait but instead the waitress just plopped it down on my table walked a way with nary a wrinkle of a grin. Um, thanks??? But really no thanks Rooz. As Unilocal said it best, «meh, I’ve experienced better.»

I’ve been going to Rooz regularly, since it opened. I am a local business owner so I depend on them to feed me when I need to eat out for my dinner. I’ve seen many waves of young employees come and go, and have always had good experiences. They are kind of like family to me. The breakfast spinach english muffin with an egg is my favorite, then there’s their veggie pannini which is healthy and makes a great quick dinner in the middle of my work day.
Thanks to Rooz for being so dependable and «on it». I work on my laptop there a lot too, it’s perfect.

The guy behind the counter forgot to put the chocolate croissant I ordered into my bag. Upon confronting him he said he never charged me for it I almost left but my friend said that 12 bucks was too much for 2 small mochas and 1 pastry so he went back. The guy relented and when I checked the bag it was a butter croissant and he returned 50 cents to my friend… What?! Why couldn’t he just give me what I ordered? Sorry, but that was too many mistakes for just one order. You have lost a couple customers for good!
Be careful what you get at the end of your order when you go in you might not be getting everything that you paid for. Thumbs way down for Rooz for bad customer service.

A great place to have a morning latte and a bagel!
Rooz is cozy but not cramped. The espresso is done by hand and tastes like it. The wifi is fast and free. The bagels, while not mind-​blowing, are good standard breakfast fare.
A 16 oz. latte clocks in at $ 3.20, so Rooz is a bit cheaper than Starbucks or Peet’s and the tastiest of the three.

I practically lived here when I was in grad school! Wonderful café for studying. There’s free wi-​fi with purchase, and they have good food and good coffee. Can totally stay there all day and be happy!
A couple tips:
— the turkey cranberry sandwich is particularly tasty, salads good too
— bring an extension cord just in case… lots of tables, but they’re not all near electric outlets
— the place is not open late, so not a good place if you’re the late-​night-​type

Super cute, and I almost want to give an extra star for the smart vegan cookie (it was made with sweet potatoes and amazing).
The prices were decent, I got a tea and a cookie and it was under 5 $ so that was good. They also carry bagel sandwiches and small eats if you are looking for something easy and inexpensive.
The tea selection was OK, I believe they carry the republic of tea brand. Not a huge fan of bagged tea, but it wasn’t bad.

Good place to get work done. Lots of folks sitting here with laptops, hanging out. Mostly small tables, wi-​fi access with $ 3 purchase, large clean bathroom in the back kitchen. Not too many outlets, though.
Music is not overwhelming. Service is good — prompt and courteous.
Soy latte was strong and smooth, and there was no soy after taste. Not the best, but I would get it again without hesitation. Piping hot in a real glass mug, just the way I like it! Coffee cake was good, but not outstanding. A tad drier than Starbucks and the topping looks homemade (a good thing?). I paid nearly $ 6 for both.
Parking is hard to find in this region. You can find some 2 hour parking in the residential areas, but it’s a bit of a walk. If you happen to find a spot on or near Piedmont Ave, remember, you need to pay at the kiosk. It’s NOT free.

Tiny space, tiny tables. More appropriate for laptop work than space for notebooks & textbooks (I came to study with books). Coffee menu is limited to the basics but there are a lot of bottles behind the bar that might give you variety that the menu doesn’t show. They charge you $ 0.25 for to-​go drinks which is cheap but unnecessary in my opinion. The bonus is that their menu offers beer in addition to the standard baked goods, along with a soup and sandwich special. Veggie soup & Americano coffee were good.
What turned me off was seeing several rules/​signs: no cell phone use (more than 1 sign), coffee refill limitations and price, to-​go charges, $ 3 min purchase «appreciated» for Internet use, etc. I guess communication is good, but somehow it annoyed me.
The place seems to attempt a semi-​hipster feel with it’s artsy ceilings and music rotations of rock varieties and reggae. However, I noticed that there were a lot of older ladies enjoying themselves here as well. It obviously is a lot less chaotic/​noisy than the coffee shops down the block hence the older crowd.
I’d come back but its not my first choice for a study sesh.

The coffee was good but nothing special. The atmosphere was nice but the service was somewhat unaware.
Rooz wouldn’t be good for groups or children as it’s a reasonably small space.
My overall opinion is that it was a very average local coffee shop. You would go there because you know what you’re getting, not because you’re looking forward to it.

I’ve lived near here for awhile, but had never been here before, so I decided to stop in one day. I suppose it’s your run-​of-​the-​mill snobby, yuppy coffee house, and since I don’t really care for those, I was not impressed. Some of the staff were down-​to-​earth and nice, others gave me a look as tho getting a cup of peppermint tea was slumming it. I did not check the menu to see if there was any food I can eat (I have a severe gluten allergy), but I felt like it wasn’t worth the attitude to ask.
I can get better tea and faster internet at my house 3 blocks away.

Ok, I looked everywhere for the No Unilocalers sticker but I am either blind or they do not have it anymore. Too bad, I kind of wanted in on all that Unilocal drama… hehe
Baaack to the review: I loved this place! It was a breather away from the ghetto-​artsy cafes nearer to the UC Berkeley campus. I was a big fan of the clean tables, the incredibly smooth Americano which was piping hot (perfect for the rainy day), and cozy atmosphere. They had a funky urban/​mod atmosphere going on which somehow worked. (Except they had this sort of disturbing painting on one of the tiles of their semi-​destroyed ceiling of a monster eating heart… um, ok.)
Like others have said, the workers aren’t chirpy chipper cuties, but they are polite, do their job, and are helpful when need be– Thats fine with me. The music is a weird mashup of stuff but it isn’t blasting too loudly so I still got a lot of work done.
The only major downside I can think of is the random guy who sat at my table and wouldn’t stop talking to me as I tried to study. Isn’t it obvious that I don’t want to talk to you? But, that’s not Rooz’s fault…
PS-​$ 3 minimum purchase for the WiFi. Cash and Debit only.

Seems like some of the other Unilocaler had bad experiences with the owner. Not this one — I don’t think I even saw him/​her. Rooz is one of the many little cafes in this part of Oakland. I had their drip coffee and Hash breakfast. The coffee and service was very good. The bacon crispy. The hash brown ordinary premade kind from the local market, meh. The egg was a bit over cooked. Not much more to be said.
Next time? Café down the street.

On one of the many days I’ve needed a place to work while my SO was at work, I trekked on up to Rooz. And have since been back to work some mo’. I think that speaks highly enough of Rooz.
The long story: I hadn’t read the negative reviews before I went, so upon reading them now I get it — the workers aren’t the cheery, wide-​eyed social butterflies that you’ll find in, say, Jamba Juice. And maybe, just mayyyybe, if you smile at them, they’ll think about smiling back. But whatever. They were cordial and said thank you and such. My latte, mocha and iced tea (visit #2 was a longer one) were all above par/​yummy. Also got a bagel on both occasions and they were fresh and had a good portion of cream cheese (much more than I was given at Sonoma Coffee in Berk).

Had a ham and blue cheese panini here. Made fresh and was pretty tasty. Really convenient place right on piedmont ave. Free wifi with purchase always a plus. I also had the salami sandwhich which was so fresh and yummy! This is a great place for a snack

Apparently the owner of Rooz dislikes Unilocalers and would rather not have their business. Nonetheless, I am a regular at Rooz; I’ve been there at least 100 times and even have one of their thermal mugs, which, I’m happy to say, has finally paid for itself, since you get a small discount on your coffee if you bring in a Rooz mug. I’m a total sucker for that kind of deal.
I find Rooz to be slightly less crowded and a lot more friendly than the other coffee shops on Piedmont Ave. I often sit at one of the two sidewalk tables and nurse my morning coffee while reading or people-​watching.
Lots of dog-​owners! At any given time, there’s always at least one dog leashed up outside Rooz.
And yeah, it’s true: the sandwiches are awesome. Keep it up, Rooz!

Went to Rooz last weekend for the first time. We were out walking the dog and stopped for a coffee. Nice café latte — pretty little decoration on top of the foam! The pastries are pretty standard coffee house fare.
Nice that they have outside tables for the dog walkers. It would be nicer to have a water bowl out there for the dogs — there were quite a few that morning!
There were only two people working there — both were completely absorbed in food preparation and ignored us for several minutes. As a result, I would say go here if you have lots of time and patience because these people will not be rushed! That’s OK for Saturday morning — but maybe not when you have to get to work.
They do have a no Unilocalers sticker on the fridge behind the counter — didn’t know what to think of that — but obviously I have decided to ignore it : —)

Damn, Rooz gets a lot of hate, chill out guys!
Yes, the no Unilocalers thing is a little bit lame, but also a little bit funny. Why’s it gotta ruffle so many feathers?
Anyways. I frequented this place when I worked in the area and I have to say that it is FAN-​tastic. The tuna sandwich is beyond amazing. Ive never had anything like it.
The amtosphere is cool, the staff has never once been rude to me. 5 stars all the way! Rooz is one of a kind!!!
(er two of a kind now with park ave?)

Have I been «Rooz”-ed?
I’ve been here several times and never had a bad experience. I used to live about a minute away from this place and left as Rooz was getting established. I come back often because I’m loyal to some of the local businesses in the Piedmont Avenue area. It’s a relaxing albeit compact place, somewhat non-​descript really, which is why I’m a bit perplexed about the anti-​Yelping brouhaha.
But perhaps it was an ingenious marketing ploy by the owner to generate awareness of his business. Seems to be working as it’s been busier the last few times I’ve visited to get my medium coffee. I’m not a park-​it-​and-​sip-​it kind of a guy with an intense interest in free WiFi. I guess that’s why I haven’t felt hindered by the two-​hour table limitation policy. And since this review is about my experience, I still give the place a thumbs up.
The servers are always cordial, and the few items I’ve had — a Caesar salad a couple of times, a sandwich once — were certainly edible enough for me to return when I need something convenient. Yeah, Rooz does OK by me, but I sure hope the owner doesn’t hold it against me that I «Yelp» often and with relish.
COFFEE/​FOOD — 4 stars… no complaints from me, a modest food menu, but the coffee has always been satisfying
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… nice and compact with lots of seating, interesting set-​up for laptops in the middle section
SERVICE — 4 stars… always been treated well
TOTAL — 4 stars… Roozed or not, I’m likely to be back again