Royal Ground Coffee

Awesome latte and strawberry scone, nice to sit inside and watch the rain. Cool little place, nothing fancy, far preferable to the corporate chains.

Nice coffee place, friendly staff. Mellow vibe. Good coffee.

Great place to grab a good cup of coffee. There’s plenty to choose from food wise if you want to grab a quick bite for breakfast. Usually you see a lot of people working, catching up, or just enjoying the paper. The staff is welcoming and the drinks are consistently good.

You can sit and veg for hours and hours and the wifi is darn fast. The green ice tea is cheap and refreshing and if you find yourself needing to piss like a racehorse, you can head to their spotless bathroom. Neigh!
The pastries look pretty good, but I don’t go there to eat — just to pass the time and pretend I’m finally going to tackle that big project.

Laid back and cool «mom and pop» café… Here’s plenty of room to come study, relax and people each or just chill and sip on your tea or latte.
Despite the limited amount of employees (only 1), the employee managed to take everyone’s order, transactions and prepare the beverages/​food in a fast and efficient manner.
For anyone strolling on Solano or driving by on their commute, I would definitely suggest stopping here to support the local café!

I like this place, and it has a distinct small-​town Albany energy to it. The owner — who is usually behind the counter — is friendly, and he makes a great cup of joe. (The other two dudes who work there are definitely less friendly, but efficient…) It’s not Local 1−2−3 or Philz as far as hipster cred and pricey organic fare — nor is it Starbucks or Peet’s as anonymized corporate blandness — it’s just a down-​home decent place for a conversation with a friend.

I like small café compare to Starbucks. Since that one on my way to work I like to grab cup of coffee here. Parking is really easy here.

This isn’t a macchiato, it’s a really terrible cappuccino. Maybe just take it off your menu if you don’t know how to make them?

I’m cool with RGC in Albany. The owner is pleasant, there’s free wi-​fi and the location offers sunny outdoor seating (when there’s sun, of course). If I had one gripe, I’d say the prices are a bit steep. I don’t mind paying them though, all things considered.

This is a great neighborhood coffee place. The coffee is good, usually much better than higher priced chains. My favorite breakfast there is ½ bagel with peanut butter. The people who work there are friendly. Handy for meeting friends.

Coffee drinks are anywhere from average to pretty good. Atmosphere is good for studying, meeting a friend, reading a paper. Not too loud usually. Service however, is pretty bad. Just two guys, they don’t look at you, and make you feel like your job as a customer is order, give them your money, and get out of their way. They seem to be nicer to women, whatever that means. I go to this café only because there’s not really another one nearby to study in. If there were, I’d stop going here.
EDIT: The day after posting this I discovered that the new Philz Coffee on Gilman and Ninth is opening the next morning. It’s closer, and you can’t beat Philz, one of the best coffee places around. So I guess I have found another place after all.

My first visit was pretty sweet:
— easy access from the freeway, easy & free street parking
— quick tasty strong iced coffee (about $ 2 I think)
— nice atmosphere of various solo and small group activities: families playing, people reading, homework happening, projects being worked on

It’s not the most expensive coffee shop which is nice. I walked in with a smile and said hello to the lady working there. I looked at the baked goods and noticed the only item without a price displayed were the bagels. I politely asked how much the bagels were and she rudely snapped, «READ» and pointed to the menu down by the end of the counter. It caught me by total surprise. I have never had an employee snap at me like that. I probably won’t go back.

THIS LOCATION SUCKS!
My french roast coffee was old and stale tasting. Time to get some fresh beans and brew another batch!
After the 2^nd sip, I tossed the whole thing and went to Starbucks. I generally don’t go to Starbucks, but I cant drink something that seemed to be worse than Starbucks today.
Sorry Royal Ground Coffee, your coffee was nowhere near ROYAL to me.

I’ve only got one question: why is Royal Ground Coffee serving old, sour coffee??? Please change your beans… or brew it better :(
This place is… alright. Hard wooden chairs are slightly uncomfortable, but there’s not a lot of people, so it might be a good study spot. Wi-​fi was extremely annoying, as it continued to reset. The internet kept taking us back to the «I Agree With the Terms and Services» page. I think I agreed at least 3 times.
Some of the other reviews said that the lady made excellent coffee, but there was a guy working, so maybe that’s why the experience just wasn’t that great for me. On top of it all, I don’t understand why sour iced coffee would cost about $ 2.50… should’ve gone to Starbucks.

Very nice café. Free wifi is a plus. I love all the food they have, they offer healthy choices.

I came here the other day to kill time. I like the corner location and the seating outside, but inside is another story. It wasn’t a particularly inviting atmosphere and the rows of tables so close together felt confined. There a couple chairs along the wall but my table was a bit precarious. A small coffee cost $ 1.96 which I suppose is ok, it was a decent sized cup for a small.
The décor was minimal and I felt a little uncomfortable in there for some reason. I think if they personalized or made it more homey it would be better. I got the feeling that it’s a family who owns the place and I noticed he said hi to some people who were obviously regulars. The staff we overall nice but nothing extraordinary.
Overall, this is not a go to spot for me. But, if in the area I would probably be back. Although I really did not like how the door was open, I was freezing inside and they would not close it. It’s a good place to bring the kids to after to help them with homework, and if you can snag a seat against the wall it would be perfect to read. It’s not a romantic spot by any means so probably not a good first date, but perfect for a casual encounter.

This is my new local coffee spot.
I had a pretty nice espresso here the other day, and I buy my beans here for brewing at home. One of my favorite things about Royal Ground is that they give you a free cup of coffee when you buy a pound of coffee. Can’t go wrong there!
My son loves the M&M cookies, too.
Support your local businesses!

I like their ambiance & paintings on the wall. Makes me feel like enjoying a coffee somewhere in Europe.
Here I tried my first ever Americano. I don’t really like it. It could be confounding, does the place make terrible Americano, or I just don’t like Americano? I’m giving the place a benefit of the doubt this time.
I don’t like how they have multiple tables sharing 1 outlet at 1 wall, and multiple outlets with just a few tables at another wall. You see, I came to study/​work. But I guess I can’t do it now, and being forced to enjoy the ambiance. :)

I need to really give this a 2 for food/​drink and 3 for atmosphere
I am having a hot apply cider and strawberry scone right now
1) apple cider is from the super market that they heated up and made it look pretty with foam in a pretty cup (for 3.00 for a small cup too!) I am not impressed and I can not comment on their coffee. P. S. I know good hot apple cider.
2) Scone (efff– I had better even from a starbucks)
I honestly just need a place to study and do some work
1) very clean (compared to four corners down the street-i’m a little bit of a anti-​germy) and 2 hours of free wifi (although I can tap into other locations)
2) lots of outlets for my computer and lots of tables
3)friendly staff (only they don;t really understand what i need at times
4) there is a good crowd here and it’s near my gym
all and all, I will go back again but not for the food/​house drinks. I might just stick to a odwalla drink or something. If you need a place to study without wifi past 2 hours then this is the place. If you need something to eat/​coffee go to four corners next door.
UPDATE: I just had the thai ice tea and it was pretty good–