Kings Road Cafe - Beverly Blvd & Kings Road

Kings Road Cafe
8361 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048-2633
Phone: (323) 655-9044

In general, I like this place. The location is good and the magazine stand around the corner is very convenient. I like wondering over there, picking up a magazine and grabbing a seat for a bite or relaxing coffee. Which I did last weekend on Sunday. Fortunately for me, the place was not packed and I got a spot outside with my new Fader and Sound on Sound magazines to read (music geek much). I opted for the usual single cappuccino. A reasonable amount of time later the waiter brought out a larger-than-necessary cup full of foam (steamed milk, according to Jules) and coffee. The steamed milk looked good, micro bubbles and plenty of it. I let it cool a bit, read some more about devendra banhart and then dug in.

- Review -

- Coffee -
*
This is really the place where things went wrong. The coffee first tasted of chemicals. If it had been a cup of drip or pressed coffee, I would have thought the grounds were overexposed to the water. I do not know what was going on in that cup. Maybe I should grab a scientist from Intelligentsia and have them analyze it. Nah, that would be mean. Cuz I am fare, I will mention that I have had better coffee here before. However, you are only as good as your last gig in this town...So watch the quality control folks.

- Foam -
*1/2
Micro bubbles - check.
Flavor - check-ish.
Balance with the coffee - no hope, due to the coffee's impenetrable flavor assault.

- Presentation -
*1/2
Cup was attractive, but too big for my tastes.
Steamed Milk/Foam looked good.
Presented to me with the usual cafe drop-off.

- Overall -
*1/2
Read enough of my ranting on this blog and one thing becomes clear. To me, bigger is definitely not better. The small tasteful house that is well designed and has all of its square footage used frequently wins over the giant-ass mansion with rooms that rarely see a human. And so it goes with all foods, including coffee. Get it right, make it the best you can and serve an appropriately sized portion. Don't overcompensate and play to America's inflated need for more and more and more and more(see what I mean). You want volume and excess, go shop at Costco.