Crema Bakery & Cafe

07/03/09

excellent pastries and coffee

by martiansonmaui at Citysearch

Wow! coffee that doesn't taste like turpentine? how do they do it? discovered this place by accident, and bought a Red Velvet cupcake for a friend that needed cheering up. Excellent food.

i'm probably guilty of hanging out too long on the internet, but hey, there are outlets under just about every table, and to me that screams out "please plug in your laptop here". hello? ever heard of an internet cafe?

• Pros: great espresso drinks
• Cons: could open earlier, stay open later

05/06/08

Great pastries, good coffee, slow service

by mzwong at Citysearch

Love so many things about Crema! The pastries are wonderful, as are the more savory items. The espresso drinks are really good but take far too long to get. The french press coffee I find a little muddy and not as good as the espresso, but others seem to like it. The big complaint is the service/setup. The counter is run very inefficiently and it takes forever to get your order. I will only go if the line is 4 people or less, because it takes so long per person. If they worked on this it would be a truly stellar place.

• Pros: pastries, soups & sandwiches, espresso drinks
• Cons: slow service

12/15/07

Crema is great. Best coffee shop in Portland. The art though, its not so great lately.

by snobster at Citysearch

First off I would like to say that I have been coming to Crema for a long time. What keeps me coming back is the amazing level of care that goes into everything there. The regular coffee is only Stumptown and is never anything less than french pressed. Don't even get me started on the espresso drinks. If you think a honey vanilla latte sounds good, you would be wrong. It's actually amazing. Do yourself a favor and get one. Like now. The baked goods are to die for with things like pear and brie cheese bread pudding and orange ginger scones. The music is always good (Iron & Wine, Postal Service, Ryan Adams), but is never too loud. The baristas are really friendly, but not in a forced kind of Starbucks way (Maybe they are actually glad to be there?). Also very knowledgeable about what they are doing. The only drawback though is the art. The first time I came in there was some of the coolest art on the walls. I always used it in my description of the place... "Great coffee, great music, great local art, free wi-fi etc. etc." but now that "great art" rave has been omitted from my description of late. There has been a severe lack of original or inspiring art on the walls of my favorite coffee shop in the last few months. I want to put a challenge to whomever picks the art, put as much effort into the art on the walls that you put into the art in the cup of coffee you serve. Notice I still put a "Recommended" rating on Crema. It will always be near and dear to my heart. It is still my favorite. But I want to give it five stars. Come on Crema. Don't let me down.

• Pros: Everything but the art.
• Cons: The art.

10/23/07

sumptown coffee served better then they do it.

by five0three at Citysearch

Great coffee and pretty solid food for a coffee shop. You get alot of light with all the windows. Only issue to me is that the staff is mainly a bunch of hipsters.

• Pros: coffee and atmosphere
• Cons: a few to many hipsters working there and trying to look cool.

09/22/07

great place

by lacorota at Citysearch

They serve Stumptown Roasters grind -- the very best. Lines are almost always long, but not eternal. Long lines are the price of a superb place. The staff are great and seem to actually enjoy their jobs -- so unlike most underpaid service employees. I hope the owner rewards their staff handsomly at Crema.

I'm new enough, I haven't had time to sample but a fraction of their tasty baked goods, however, the cookies, sweetbreads, muffins, and croisants have all been the essence of food to write home about.

Hats off to the interior planners! Most of all, I enjoy sitting at the community table near the center of the place. The large tables and bench seats afford a sense of community in a great Portland neighborhood.

• Pros: great coffee and baked goodies
• Cons: frequent lines

02/12/07

Great paninis, soups, and good stumptown coffee!

by sunflower10 at Citysearch

Crema is generally a great place for coffee( I especially love their lattes). Most of the baristas, customer service staff is pretty friendly. I have seen quite a bit of turnover in the last while though that concerns me as I have grown to adore some of the 'veteran' baristas and wonder if the quality of service will decrease,,, As the rest of the reviews will tell you, they bake/make their sandwiches etc on site which is cool as you can see them baking in the back. I do wonder about the cleanliness at times as I don't think all the staff wash there hands at all times when supposed to.(i.e. touching the garbage and then my sandwich is a no no!) I did only witness this once, but it WAS once too many! As for the reviews that describe the waits...well it does depend when you go in. I work full time also and my time IS valuable. I simply add a bit of time to my lunch when I know I'll be eating here as it's usually packed.

I definitely think it's a place worth visiting.

• Pros: sandwiches, coffee, muffins
• Cons: nowhere to sit at times, cleanliness?