One of the most Instragramable coffee spot on the peninsula, Kaizen & Coffee offers great aesthetics and speciality coffees. Right on the main thoroughfare from San Francisco to San Jose, Kaizen & Coffee is located on El Camino Real in San Mateo.
We got a late start to the day and didn’t get to Kaizen & Coffee until 10:30AM. That combined with the facts that It was also a holiday means that the shop was packed by the time we arrive. We got super lucky with the parking and snagged the last spot near the shop. If you live anywhere in the San Francisco Bay area, you’d know that finding a parking spot on the peninsula is a challenge.
Interior/Ambience
At this time of the day, any coffee shop would be hopping; Kaizen & Coffee is no exception. When we arrived, every seat and table was taken. Everyone has their laptop out and enjoying their coffee. There was a line to order and a crowd waiting for their drinks. Seeing how popular this spot is, we couldn’t wait to get our cup of coffee. It didn’t take long until we got through the ordering line and soon would have our drinks.
The look and feel of Kaizen and Coffee is modern with a minimalist theme. This coffee spot features mostly 2 tops and a bar area. One thing to watch out for is because the shop has a small footprint, finding seating can be challenging. If you want to find a table and seating inside the shop, I’d recommend arriving at the shop early, or be ready to wait. Because of this, we opted to get our drinks to go.
Ube, Black Sesame, and Other Specialty Coffees
Coffee Menu is focused, consisting of signature coffee and other drinks you’d expect from a coffee shop. When we saw ube and black sesame latte on their menu, we knew we had to give those a try. It didn’t take long after we placed in our order until our drinks were ready. Both drinks were good, we can really taste the ube in the drink. Unfortunately, the flavor of the espresso overshadowed the taste of black sesame. Be warned, because they whip a good amount of ube and black sesame into the latte, the texture could be affected. These signature drinks were a little gritty. Temperature of the drinks were excellent.
$20 Box of Cookies?
Besides coffee, Kaizen & Coffee also serves pastry, Rishi tea and more. We saw fancy cookie boxes laid out on the counter and opted to buy a box. From Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory, this box comes with 10 little cookies, individually wrapped for $20. There are 3 flavors to choose from, Honey & Gorgonzola, Vanilla & Mascarpone and Salt & Camembert. We got the Salt & Camembert flavor. At 2 dollars a cookie, it’s more of a novelty than a repeated purchase. The cookie was good; they are slightly salty, slightly sweet plus a hint of the Camembert cheese. They go well with either coffee or tea. There’s a vending machine in the back that has them on display and looks functional, but we’re not sure if you can actually use that machine to buy them.
Overall, we were happy to try this spot. If we’re in the area, we’d definitely go back and try their non-speciality coffee.
Kaizen & Coffee is located at:
2337 S El Camino Real, San Mateo, CA 94403