Coupa Cafe – GSB

A mini version of the University Ave darling right on the Stanford campus.
I met one of my favorite friends here since they teach here and given that I’ve had numerous stories to tell about my second Europe travels, made it here in no time. Parking is numerous off Serra but you have to get here early to get any visitor parking since Sundays guest spaces are free.
I prefer the menu items and plating per the location off University but the Coupa is still the same here.
The coffee is strong but not acidic and the customer service is always good. If it is a sunny day, take your food items outside. This court has a sunny angle from the sun and on these cooling Autumn days, feels great.

Señores de coupa café, hoy estoy probando una arepa y la verdad me quede con las ganas, no entiendo porque ofrecen reina pepiada cuando ni Siquiera se acerca a eso, muy mal hacer arepas de tostiarepa, y si no mejorar el precio ya que es un precio muy alto para que sea de tostiarepa. Probé un jugo de mango que estaba muy bien, de lo demás la atención y el servicio sin quejas.
Nota: Deberían dejar de ofrecer arepas, si no saben hacerlas, demuestren que saben de nuestra cultura, y de nuestras costumbres.

Love this place. Crowded but always find a seat. Great coffee. Good selection of reasonable snacks.

My favorite Coupa location. Been here a few times to study.
— Plenty of beautiful outdoor and close by seating in the amazing grounds of the GSB.
— The staff is very friendly and service is great. Last week they could not make Arepas and kindly replaced our meals and gave us some extras! They are very attentive to the customers.
— Food is tasty and reasonably priced, especially for campus.
— Tea and coffee and delicious. (Orca Spice is my favorite)
— Weekend parking is very easy. And on the same note– open on weekends!
This is my new favorite study spot!

Great service and cappuccino by Martin and Maria! Life saver on a hectic day. This location provides really fast service for all the crazy students, and always with a smile.

This is, by far, the best place to get coffee at Stanford. It’s a great space and the beverages are fantastic. I love to come here and take stuff out, or meet folks for a nice sit-​down inside or outside. The food is pretty good, but the coffee is flat-​out amazing. My favorite is the spicy mocha — perfect blend of heat and sweet, with rich velvety chocolate in perfect balance with the coffee. I also applaud their foam art, which brings a smile to my face. I appreciate everything these guys do to make my day a little brighter, through great coffee, good service, and awesome foam art.

Coupe café’s Caesar’s wrap is not your average Moscow Caesar’s crap. It’s truly delicious, with fresh salad and vegetables.

1 star for their brunch and pasta. 2 stars for their coffee and other food.
I started to actively boycott their brunch, especially the egg scrambles because of awful, inconsistent service. Once, I ordered an egg scramble with avocado, red onions, goat cheese, and red peppers. And what did I get? Just eggs. Naturally, I complained. What did the chef do? He decided to chop up uncooked red onions, avocado, and uncooked red peppers and put them on cold eggs. I can’t stress this more. Terrible, terrible, terrible service.
Pasta dinners? I started taking pictures of all the versions of «Pasta Pomodoro» I get there. And then I stopped getting pasta there. Sometimes, the sauce tastes more strongly like tomatoes. Sometimes, there are actual mozzarella cheese and basil leaves scattered on top. Sometimes, it’s shredded provolone cheese. It’s almost hilarious. How does one get pasta with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, and basil leaves to be SO different every time he cooks it? How is this person a chef?
Some of their sandwiches are decent though, especially their Knight club. Their happy hour red wine, which goes for $ 3 on weekdays, is not bad either.
Their coffee is acidic compared to Starbucks or Peet’s. Not my preferred spot, but it’s convenient so I will still go here at least sometimes.

Good coffee and good food. It’s perfectly located next the GSB and if you’ve ever been you would knows it quite beautiful there.
Grab your coffee/​tea/​food and go outside to enjoy!

For coffee rookies like myself, the Chuao spicy maya mocha is excellent. Actually, regardless of your coffee awareness I still recommend you try this.
The pastries/​snacks are always tasty, and I give it an extra 5^th star for serving actual dinner food (quesadillas, pasta) + being open late enough to serve dinner (unlike the Y2E2 Coupa).

Today I ordered an americano and was pleasantly surprised when I received it. The barista handed it to me and I look inside my cup and see frothy dark espresso mixed with steaming hot water.
I add my cream and sweetener and loved how strong and bold the espresso came through. I also appreciate that my drink was hot.
I also got a brownie that was sprinkled with powdered sugar on top and it was delicious and complimented my coffee drink.

I’m a big fan of Coupa and it was hard for me to drive back to Starbucks once I’ve tried Coupa (tho I moved down from the Seattle!). Of all the locations in the Bay Area, I fancy the Stanford’s GSB location the most.
Why am I not giving 5 stars? Here’s why… Lately, I’ve noticed there was an increase on my daily Small or Medium Soy Latte but I didn’t pay much attention to it. This morning, I decided to be a bad girl and got myself an Apple Chausson (like an apple turnover) after taking a break from their beyond delicious pastries. When they rang me up, I was SHOCKED! They charged me $ 3.95 instead of $ 2.75 for the Apple Chausson! We are not talking about a SLIGHT price increase here. we are talking about a WHOPPING 30% increase!!! Also, my small soy latter was also increased from $ 2.75 to $ 3.50, another 21% increase!!! I know its GSB but come on. what pricing model was used behind this kind of unreasonable increase? As I was paying, I overheard the next customer was also complaining that it cost him $ 5.00 for a breakfast fruit yogurt as well…
I know your coffee and pastries are great but having this kind of overnight increase is not a good business practice and for sure not the best way to treat your loyal customers…

I love this Coupa Café. It’s actually my favorite of all the Coupa’s I’ve been to (downtown, the grad school on campus, and even the Coupa on Rodeo Drive in LA).
The drinks are always AMAZING. I always get a spiced Chai with Soy or almond milk. The flavor is phenomenal. I also love their savory crepes. The sweet ones are amazing too. I’d go with the lemon butter with whipped cream. The one thing I think they could improve on these is making the ingredients be more evenly spread throughout the crêpe.
I love the outdoor seating and self serve water station.
It feels good to come here, with or without my dog :)

This is one of my favorite places on the Stanford campus and by far my favorite café in the area. Coupe Café is right across from Arbuckle Pavilion. They have limited seating inside but a bunch of outdoor tables and chairs. Prices are super reasonable and they have the full menu — sandwiches, salads, smoothies, coffee, etc.

This location has more seating and a better outdoor area than the one near Green Library. The food was good but the service was questionable. We tried to order two paninis; however, the server got confused and only placed one order. In addition, since we requested to eat at the café, the server stated that our lunch would be delivered to our table. However, after 15 minutes, our wrong order ended up being at the counter. Again, the food was good but the service wasn’t top notch.

THE BEST drip coffee on campus still doesn’t mean much considering how little coffee is actually on campus. But they do a pretty good job here. I guess they have to in Stanford’s grad school?
I tend to get pastries or small snacks while I’m there in the mornings, all of which are brought in, but good nonetheless. Everything is overpriced, but high quality. They do have a good selection of random types of dark chocolate out on the counter and I normally buy some to help start the day off right.
I’ve hear they do bottomless mimosas on Saturday mornings but I haven’t been. I sense a follow up review coming on, probably at about noon on an upcoming Saturday…
Pepper Plant Sauce = NO

I love Coupa Café downtown, Green LIbrary and Y2E2. Great coffee drinks, fresh food, friendly service. So I figured this installment would be the same.
I was in the GSB area for a quick minute on my way to another meeting and thought I’d stop by for an iced spicy mocha. I walk in and there are two people behind the counter. I look at them assuming they’re going to say «Can I help you?» Instead they keep doing what they’re doing. I figured out they were baristas, but couldn’t they have said hello? I stood by the cash register for another five minutes. You’d think one of the baristas could have said «A cashier will be with you shortly.» or even called one for me.
Finally the cashier came out of the kitchen. The transaction went fine. I got my iced spicy mocha and had to look around for the covers and straws. I asked the barista where they were and she half-​heartedly pointed towards another area but I still couldn’t tell where they were. I walked around this short counter and finally saw the goods.
As I walked out, i started sipping my mocha. Blech — chunks of mocha powder came up through the too-​skinny straw. I shook the drink around some but kept getting powder chunks. $ 3.50 wasted. I’ve had this same drink at all the other locations and never had this experience.
Bad drink, bad service. It’s not like they were busy. I will probably give them another try if I’m in the area, but this isn’t a good start.

So jealous that the GSB has its very own Coupa! Coffee here is way better than coffee in Arbuckle Café (GSB’s dining hall next door). The coffee cakes and desserts are tasty as well. Coupa does get crowded during the day especially when classes let out, so this may not be the most ideal place to take visitors or meet up with people for a deep conversation.

Coupa Café offers single estate Venezuelan coffee and it’s by far the best coffee I’ve ever had. I used to work at the GSB and often came here for breakfast, lunch, or to caffeinate. They have really good chocolate chips scones and chocolate croissants. I recommend the Goat Cheese Salad for a light lunch. Also, the baristas and staff are really friendly, and many of them speak Spanish!
+ Do order the Spicy Mocha or Tiger Spice Chai

UPDATE 06÷13÷12
HA! The half and half is back! Apparently there was a mix up with an event? The staff behind the counter told me the other day they didn’t have fresh half&half, just the prepackaged ones.
Also, I gave the ALMOND BISCOTTI a try again and the almonds are not stale! However, it does have ANISE flavoring –which I am not a fan of :(
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I come here mostly for simple coffee in the morning. It’s nice and bold. Bold as in really bold. It’s the strongest drip coffee I have had in coffee shops.
I didn’t find service to be out of the norm, or maybe I get the same person who isn’t as energetic? Either way, I get my coffee in the morning so I am a happy camper.
Very limited indoor seating with outdoor metal tables and chairs.
They offer Bar Gelato now in with own small freezer right up against the cashier wall –the placement is a bit obstructive to me.
Come here mostly for the coffee, prepared food is decent, not my favorite. I have tried some of their baked goods. I was pleasantly surprised by their CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE, not bad. I’ve stopped ordering ALMOND BISCOTTI because the almonds were stale. Not a fan of their CROISSANTS, I’m pretty picky on those. RASPBERRY POPTART looking thing is pretty good –like a big a flat shortbread sandwich.
CON: They’ve stopped offering fresh HALF & HALF!!! Please help me get it back! I don’t want the prepackaged ones :(

Another near-​monopoly on Stanford’s campus and it shows. This Coupa Café is the exclusive coffee provider on the GSB (business school) campus. Between classes, the line gets incredibly long to the point that most people turn away. Service is friendly, though.
My suggestion to management would be to (a) staff up during heavy class days like Monday, (b) ensure all employees are working the register (no one cleaning, etc) during the 15 minutes between classes, and © consider having two lines — one for specialty drinks, and one for quick drip coffee; maybe a credit card only line to swipe, grab a class, and move on. Guarantee this will increase sales by 15%+.
The Venezuelan coffee is good, but it’s not great. I’d put it on par with Peet’s and ahead of Starbucks, but it’s no where near Philz, Blue Bottle, Ritual, etc. Unlike many competitors, they do set out coffee for use in iced drinks so the hot coffee doesn’t immediately melt the ice.
Smoothies are great, but way too sugary; would be nice if you could add «boosts» like at Jamba Juice (protein powder, caffeine, vitamins, etc).
Food is sub-​par and selection is minimal, especially of prepared foods in the glass showcase. If Coupa just had a better selection, I’d grab food here all the time.
Little things bother me, though, like the way the sugar and lids are laid out. There’s one island in the middle to get everything, but they have spread the essentials out — stirs on one side, sugar the other; lids on one side, straws on the either. This causes you to have to reach across while holding a full, hot cup of coffee, which is a big problem when it’s packed — I’ve seen so many unnecessary spills due to poor arrangement of this area. And the darn lids never fit — there are three options, and no matter which I grab it’s always the wrong one — and I swear I try to learn each time.