Cafe Zog

Delicious food, kind folks, and great smoothies! Great neighborhood spot!

Ugh. Filthy. Two stars for nice staff. AC dripping at entry smells like mold. Filthy bathroom. Thinnest smoothie ever.

Friendly atmosphere, delicious smoothies and good food! Zog pancakes are amazing. The coffee is great, try a little bit of everything!

Where do I begin? As a chai connoisseur, I can confidently say that Café Zog has one of the best vanilla chais in the state. I love it both hot and iced, and on days when I need a little kick I add a shot of espresso (we call that a dirty chai). So good. The smoothies are delicious and have great names like «Age of Aquarius» «Mama Moonbeam» and «Mars Amalgamation.» I think my favorite smoothie so far is «Sagittarius Rising.» I’m only slightly offended that they haven’t named one after my own sun sign, Scorpio. ;)
They have a juicer for fresh orange juice, and the sandwiches and salads are great.
Also, the café mocha is goooooood!
The staff (Kevin, Phil, Cassie, etc) really make you feel at home.
There’s a wide variety of seating, a few outlets to plug in and charge up, great lighting, and a patio out back when the weather’s nice.
I also love that they do open mic nights on Thursdays. I think that’s really fun. Overall, Zog’s a great spot. Really welcoming and fun.

Quirky little place! Ordered a cappuccino and iced mocha, both were perfect! I had a Zog Chicken Salad Sandwich and my sister had a Chicken Ceasar Salad, both were very fresh and tasty! Service was fast and friendly, everything reasonably priced. Would have given 5 stars but, bathroom no larger than airplane bathroom and you had to walk through a tiny smelly little dish room to get there?! A bit weird… Other than that it was definitely worth checking out!

I don’t understand why this place only has three stars and a couple of terrible reviews. I walked in because I couldn’t find a table at the ever-​crowded coffee exchange as always, and was very pleasantly surprised by the cozy ambiance, great service and solid house blend. Would definitely recommend.

There have been several times when I’ve walked in, glanced at the menu, and left without ordering. The food never looks very appealing to me– made either in the microwave or on a hot plate. The baked goods look okay (I’ve had a cookie or two from here and they’re fine but desserts should be great or it’s not really worth it). The only thing consistent about their drinks seems to be the price. The space is cute though and the service has been consistently good. If the other places on Wickenden are packed, Café Zog can be a good alternative, but not a first choice. Plenty of better places less than a five minute walk away.

I’m tough to please when it comes to espresso. Café Zog always hits the mark for me — and I’ve been a fan for almost 20 years now. Nice ambience — like a classic Seattle coffee shop — and friendly, efficient service. Prices are very fair and it is a welcome alternative to the hustle and bustle of crowded Coffee Exchange down the street.

This place is really growing on me. The girls do a great job and I’m sure it can be difficult working solely off an electric hot plate. Given that, a line of 4 can create a long wait so it isn’t a good idea if you’re in a rush.
I love coming here because that means I have some time to myself. I always get a bacon egg and cheese over easy on an everything bagel plus a fruit cup and it never disappoints.
Tip: street parking can be difficult on Wickeden so it’s helpful to know there is parking in the back.

Café Zog is my favorite coffee shop in Providence. Although I believe others when they mention poor service in their reviews, I have never personally experienced anything but excellent service. I started going this summer when I moved in down the block, because it had a comfortable atmosphere and free wi-​fi and never looked back. The coffee is good, the pancakes are fabulous – better than Brickway across the street – the sandwiches I’ve tried have also been good, if a little expensive. So, in summary, it’s a great spot. I’d recommend coming during a less busy hour to guarantee a bit more pep in your service, but that’s the case everywhere. But it’s an excellent spot to spend a day working on your computer, enjoying a little food and coffee.

I came in here not knowing the place at all but someone I know came in here and loved it. So, I’m giving it a try today and my food is pretty good.

I’ve been coming to Zog a lot since I started working up the street, and unfortunately this place has gone completely downhill. The service is generally really slow, I rarely actually get the item I ordered, and in some cases like today I wait half an hour on my lunch break and never actually get the sandwich I ordered.
If this were a one or two time occurrence I wouldn’t bother updating my review. But the service is consistently so horrible and the staff feels so unwelcoming that I would warn everyone away.

Warm and cheery environment. Delicious snacks, coffee, breakfast items, and sandwiches. Yum!

Food itself was quite good and the coffee was decent. I had the curried chicken salad sandwich on rye bread. But there were a couple of pretty big factors that didn’t earn this café the other two stars.
1. Price: I paid over $ 13 for a simple chicken salad sandwich on rye bread that came with a bag of chips and a double latte, which I might add, was nowhere near the size I was expecting. If they had come down on the price a little bit, I would not have complained.
2. Service: I read some other posts about how slow the service was, and I will say that I actually received my food very quickly. However, they botched my order and gave me a different sandwich from the one I ordered. Luckily I still enjoyed it, but I was still disappointed when I didn’t get what I ordered. Staff and management are very friendly and accommodating though. I’m sure if I said something they would have done something about it.
All in all, a good, quiet café with free wifi to get some studying or work done, but don’t come expecting excellent food or coffee.

Great spot to study! Nice hole in the wall Café. If you’re looking for a hipster Café, look no further. Staff are really nice and management are really friendly.
Benefits:
Free wifi.
Café hours are early and they close late!
Pricing is reasonable.
Outdoor patio.
There are many outlets around the store!
For me this place resembles a lot like the Café in the TV show «Friends». :)

How the heck is this place still in business? Their reviews are mostly bad, just one look at past problems with sanitation makes you feel queasy and last I went (years ago) they were washing the dishes in the bathroom sink.. . And the dishes sit there as you do your business in the bathroom which is appalling. The pastries are half the time from Sams Club and they cook
on a griddle.
You’re a business, not a struggling college kid who still only knows how to cook Kraft Mac n cheese, so cook like it

Homegirl has been avoiding this for too long. Her conscious is ashamed. Inner turmoil has been brewing along with anguish and panging sorrow. Homegirl has committed a social injustice for not Unilocaling sooner about Café Zog.
Homegirl is more loving and non-​confrontational than Valentine’s Day in Switzerland. Good reviews can barely be contained in homegirls #stunnah body. It causes stress and agitation, that for the first time, led to a single pimple on homegirls left upper brow.
Café Zog was awful. I truly wish I hadn’t gone. If I was blind folded and given my plate, without any other information, I would have guessed it was prepared by a starving college student, whose ability is limited to microwaved ramen cups, and does not have two pennies to rub together. This college student who was preparing the best meal he possibly could, was doing so for his ailing mother with only months left to live. You see, the employees at café Zog had their hearts in the right place but simply didn’t have any skill or knowledge of what the heck they were doing.
There is no kitchen present at café zog. No kitchen. Yet they have a wildly magnificent selection. Homegirl ordered an omelet with a side of fruit for 7.95. My omelet was prepared on a single electric burner with the one frying pan they owned, the bacon was pre-​cooked store bought nonsense, the side of fruit that I paid extra for was one slice of kiwi, and one slice of orange. It was just a train wreck. Homegirls possey had burnt pancakes, bad service, and just ended up feeling sorry for how awful it was. Homegirl will cut the manager and employees some slack, but the owner is not getting homegirls sweet and sympathetic side. Oh no no no. If this place doesn’t change it will close in the very near future. Menu is huge and they have one frying pan. The employees had no clue about costumer service. Regretfully so-​it was just a mess.
Homegirl had to contain the wrath. I was slowly gaining a British accent and throwing things as my inner Gordon Ramsey came out. The owner needs to seriously change his ways. Homegirl wants to warn passersby to not be dismayed by the cozy cute look of the place. Maybe their smoothies are good, or maybe a bagel, but the cooked breakfast made Homegirl want to find the grave of the bacon I ate and apologize for ending up paper thin at café zog.

It took way to long for our food to come out. We were two of the three people inside. My sandwich was just okay.
I will go back to try their juices though.

Ok, this place deserves more stars.
First of all it is intimate, one of a kind, laid back and personable.
The food is healthy and tasty… the way they offer a bagel with an omelet paired with cutely cut up kiwi, oranges and strawberries is unique. The coffee is always better tasting then the crowded coffee exchange next store and there is always room to sit at an intimate booth.
The music is awesome as well. I could not stop my feet from tapping to James Brown «Papa got a brand new bag» and neither could my daughter or husband while we fought over what was left of a pistachio muffin and bacon, tomato and onion omelet! Also my husband was raving about the Jamaican rum coffee (think that is what it is called?).
Yes the wait can SOMETIMES be is a bit long and they were out of a few things. but If I am going to enjoy a coffee and brunch at a coffee shop and read some newspapers and put away the laptop I don’t want to feel rushed or fighting for a table!
Try it!

Yuck. Rude service, horrible coffee, obnoxious clientele. I tried to get work done here and I will never try again. With Coffee Exchange so close, I don’t know why anyone would even go here for a cup of coffee and you’re on Wickenden so you can figure out another place to eat. Believe me.
Also, as per a Craigslist rant in response to their call for applicants, I googled their health code inspection notes from the state of RI. Yikes. Don’t do it if you get queasy easily.
The only thing this place has going for it is its location. It seems like it is a revolving door for staff members too which is generally a sign of poor management or poor quality of product (since your staff doesn’t really feel prideful enough about it to stay). I don’t know about the management (seemed like when I went, there were no rules) but the quality aspect rings true. Go elsewhere, you’ll thank me for it.