Yali's Oxford Street Cafe
Categories: Desserts, Coffee & Tea [Edit]
Neighborhood: UC Campus Area1920 Oxford Street
(between Berkeley Way & Hearst Ave)
Berkeley, CA 94704 (510) 843-2233
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. - Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Wi-Fi: Free
9 reviews
Albany, CA
"I've been spending a lot of time house-hunting in Albany lately, and this café has quickly become a favourite stop. The service is always…" read more »
61 Reviews for Yali's Oxford Street Cafe
Do you like overpriced coffee, blah sandwiches, and getting your order to go? If so, then Yali's is the place for you.
I'm so sick of their catered crap at department meals, which is sadly lacking in vegetarian fare. I'll only pop in there for a day old muffin every now and then when I'm desperate. I've had some nice people at the registers, so no complaints there, but it just isn't the environment I'm looking for. It's too businesslike and busy and crowded and conveyor belty for my tastes.
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Yali's serves some of the best coffee to be found in the Berkeley area. I immediately fell in love with their espresso, probably because their beans and technique remind me of my favorite local place in Cambridge, Simon's.
I've heard the feeling is mixed on this place among locals, but as long as they serve me a good latte I'm a fan. I found myself craving their coffee every morning that I stayed here recently. Recommended for coffee aficionados but can't comment on anything else served here.
-1 star: Two soup of the days were both vegetarian and both had garbonzo beans. May be a +1 star for some. The zuchini and garbonzo bean soup tasted bad.
-1 star: machiato was probably 1.5 oz. I thought it would be the size of a regular coffee. It was bitter. Someone could've warned me.
-1 star: I felt so unsatisfied from this encounter that I headed over to McDonald's for french fries and a coke.
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What's with all the moaning in the other reviews? Yali's rocks.
I work very close and visit them several times a week. Their prices are competitive with Starbucks, and I've never waited more than a minute for my Americano. Their staff is less bubbly than Starbucks, but that's not a critical factor for me.
Like any cafe with free wi-fi, seating can be full during peak hours.
Their Greek salad is amazing. Give it a try.
I haaaaate Yali's. Their cashiers are listless & dont really seem to know how to do their job. I got a (gross) salad & the cashier never asked me what dressing I wanted, so I had to hustle my way back to the cooks to get some (bad) vinaigrette dressing on my own. Which isn't that big of a deal, until you factor in the little detail that Yali's is very cramped & crowded. Furthermore, the lime chicken soup was really tasteless & the portion that comes in the salad/soup combo was seriously the size of a teacup.
So I said fuck it, threw that shit away, & walked down to Shattuck to get some tacos AKA REAL FUCKING FOOD. Never again, not even if someone else pays. People's Cafe FTW.
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Yali's service is horrible! Don't even step inside the door unless you're prepared to wait 20 minutes for a cup of coffee, and to be proactively hassling the baristas the entire time!
And don't ever try to order a real meal there - it will simply never arrive at your table, no matter how long you hold onto the number they give you.
You can get out with a cookie or scone in 5 minutes.
I love the huge mugs that they serve their coffee in. A cozy little cafe, and I really like their Chai Tea Lattes there. I don't think I liked the coffee too much, so minus one point there. But also a good place to study, right across from campus with wifi.
Yali's serves their coffee in giant bowl-like mugs. You know, like in Friends. Order the large, cozy yourself into one of the sofas in the corner, and imagine for a minute that you are living a carefree life in a gigantic turquoise apartment and sleeping with all your closest friends sequentially.
In general, everything about Yali's is a cut above other campus-side coffee shops. The have great tea (Mighty Leaf, Two Leaves and a Bud), delicious grilled sandwiches served with baby greens (their tuna melt is the bestest), and are super environmentally friendly if you care about the earth or whatever.
I like grabbing lunch from this place after work. The salads are delicious! My favorite is the Greek one. They're soups are pretty good too and refreshing. I had one that had carrot and ginger. The coffee is too strong for my tastes.
One gripe I have about the place is the service. In the couple of times that I've been here, the cashiers were not welcoming and just gave me a sort of mean look as I was trying to figure out what to order. They are the downside to the cafe. The cooks and guys who give you your order are much friendlier.
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I frequent Yali's for the following reasons:
Good variety of seating (couches, booths, tall tables, counter space), many available outlets, and tasty food (I like the turkey sandwich on focaccia). Hey, their coffee's not that bad either. Since it's primarily a Cal student/fac. destination, there's always a hustle and bustle about the place, which I enjoy.
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I love the coffee here. It is my favorite coffee in town. It is a great place to study by yourself. Yet I do agree that for being right next to campus they should be open later.
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Today was my second time at Yali's (I went by default - course TA requests meeting there for tutoring). I don't recall how poor the service was the time that I was there about a month ago, but today it was absolutely horrible. A younger asian woman took my order and being that I haven't been there but once ordered a small iced coffee. She rudely replied "we only have one size" and walked off to get the coffee. She looked like she was in the worst mood ever and was complaining to her co-worker about how she should have been off work already. The tables are small and it always feels crowded when I'm in here.
The iced coffee wasn't great or good for that matter. Everyone that was sitting inside the cafe looked irritated or annoyed. A gentleman sitting next to me was rude to me and another patron. He made a comment to our group while he was on his way out about how we would probably do well in our class. Probably was emphasized twice.
I will never ever return to this place unless I absolutely have to. I don't even live near this place. Like I said I had to go by default. There aren't enough plugs depending on where you're sitting in the cafe.
This is probably a good place to go if you're wanting to study alone or read alone. Not for computer users even though it's a wi-fi location. Not good for groups. Had a tuna sandwich on foccacia bread that was pretty good last time though. That's what the one star is for. Sorry, I hate giving a bad review, but I was utterly disappointed.
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I go through phases with the cafes I frequent, where I am absolutely crazy about some aspect about one and it's hard to tear me away for about a month. Yali's was my February spot. In the mornings it's usually pretty empty and the girls here actually know how to make a latte. I work at a coffee shop myself so it's kind of difficult to get me to cough up the money for some espresso beverage some place else, but I do here, even though I have a trivial gripe about the thickness of their mugs that rubs the spendthrift in me the wrong way.
I've only purchased a pastry here a couple of times but the chocolate croissants are outstanding, albeit featherweight.
Sometimes when I am a bit peckish in the afternoons but don't want to actually sit in a restaurant, order an appetizer, get scowled at and wait twice as long for the bill as it took me to eat, I get soup and coffee at Yali's. I like it when they have the mushroom barley with the wispy little bits of what I think is dill in it. There is something about soup and coffee as a combination that I like, though two hot (mostly) liquids seem like a bit much in theory. They make me want to read the newspaper and then ride the rails in a flannel shirt. Or something.
I've decided not to write about the service, because service nearly everywhere is the same level of mediocre and does not need to be expounded on.
I really like Yali's coffee but their service is spotty. Parking is usually pretty easy along Oxford.
How can one not give this place 5 stars?! They have compostable/biodegradable to go containers, cups, and utensils! How many cafes can say the same?
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So close - so close to perfection
- excellent coffee
- really good soup
- pastries I try to stay away from - can't - but don't regret it (that cornmeal cherry "scone" thing - oh that was nice....)
- big comfy chairs for when I want to gossip
- tables for when I want to work, and all with easy access to outlets everywhere in the store
- free wireless (a necessity)
- my personal penchant for Splenda satisfied (versus Equal or the pink shit I am limited to at Berkely espresso - Puh Leez)
and yet, dear Yali's, and yet...
why must you close at 7 p.m., Yali's? 7!!!! It makes no sense. The hours one needs a cafe are basically 7 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. and maybe occasionally at about 3 in the afternoon. Who in hell cares that you're open at 6:30 p.m.? That's not cafe time. You might as well close at 4:30. (Oh and one other teensy weensy little thing - those pretty little enviro-friendly to-go cups - they always leak at the bottom. Always.)
I love you in so many ways, Yali's, but you also make my soul ache with longing...will I ever, ever find a place in Berkeley to fill the Blue Danube hole in my heart?
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Nice interior with a beautiful wide windows for people watching. I have to agree with some of the other patrons that the service is lackluster, especially the asian woman, who looks perpetually irritated.
They offer a nice selection of organic teas, and the only sandwich I've gotten - the eggplant - is superb. Scones are also moist and flavorful, but the coffee mugs are a bit small.
My only other gripe is that they only have two outlets available for use near the tables at the far end. Unless you particularly like having computer chargers hanging precipitously in the air above your head...in which case, there are four. (look up above the rightmost table for said outlet).
Still, this is one of my favorite cafes, and I go there more often than my wallet would like.
FREE WI-FI!!!!
Anywhere I can get free wi-fi deserves three stars and one star for good coffee and service. I came here with my little brother who I hope gets into Berkley University.
Weather Forecast: Today is HOT!!!! and I'm drinking coffee.
Looking around, there are lots of cool Berkley kids studying, checking emails, and reading the paper. A perfect atmosphere for any locals and students. My little brother is reading the requirements for admissions, so cute!
Anyway, I just saw a patron clean a spill, where do you see that? Not in SF, they probably too stubborn to clean their own mess...j/k.
So, if you want a great place near campus to study, this is the place to be. Be sure to sit next to a power outlet, unless you have one of those long lasting energizer battery...that keeps going and going and going.......
FYI: I wish they had better food selection to choose from. Typical muffins, croissant sandwich, etc etc. I wish they had breakfast in a cup. It's easy, put some cook eggs, bacon, sausages, tator tots, with cheese and you got breakfast in a cup. real easy to make.
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5 stars for consistently delicious latte/cappuccino on Saturday AM.
5 stars for their eco-friendliness!!!! (Cups made from fully renewable resources; plasticware is of the recyclable potato-starch thing, I'm told)
3 stars for their average food.
They have lots of windows and natural lighting, a great place to read or study. Convenient location if you've got business on the west side of campus. My Saturday mornings (before a 5 hr class) is made SO MUCH better b/c their lattes, cappuccinos, and bianca have been very good to me. I've only gotten bagels, sandwich and a salad and it's alright. Nothing too exciting... there's one chef and one server, so they can get bogged down if a herd of classmates all enter at once. oops!
The one and only restroom is standard, clean, and spacious (in the AM). SO glad we don't need keys that everyone and their germs have touched! Trashcan is strategically positioned near all necessities so that you can pull the knob and toss w/o missing (I don't know why I am sharing my strategy but this is huge people).
I can see it being a good place to study if I were back in school again, but I miss warmly dim, cushiony, couch-filled, loungey cafes of my college days...
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They make my macchiato properly EVERY TIME.
But it's always crowded as hell.
***January 2, 2008 Update***
I'm becoming less and less impressed with this place. The service is variable. Sometimes people are really nice, and sometimes you kind of get the impression that they are thinking about poisoning your drink. Also, the salad I used to get because it was awesome is becoming less and less so. The last few times I went I got brown wilted lettuce and chickpeas that smelled a bit fermented.
(-) star- the Poo Star for selling me old veggies.
***Original May 14, 2007 Review***
1 Star - Free Wi-Fi
2 Star - Friendly Staff
Green Star - Frequented by super-cool ESPM (Environmental Science, Policy, and Management) students and faculty.
Blue Star - Full of smarty pants students and faculty from other nearby departments.
(-) Star - Drinks (hot chocolate) are sometimes too cold and the food is average.
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Bianca Mocha is excellent. But why, oh why, must Yali's close so early?
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I spent about two weeks of my winter vacation here as a student working on tech research, reading five books, writing essays. Not the best place to make phone calls, not quiet. As people at the counter started to recognize me at the counter, they became much nicer. You have to realize that the people here are usually in their 20's... working in a cafe isn't exactly a great job... that's not an excuse, but it's better to have perspective and not just write people off :P
I got a latte & croissant every day, went to Brazil Cafe for lunch, came back and worked until they closed at around 5-6pm. Sometimes when I hung around till the end they gave me a bunch of pastries and beans, yum!
Good work place, comfy couches, sunny. Great breakfast. I recommend the lox bagel!
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totally editing this review. so. totally.
my medium latte was perfect. milk was foamy and wonderful. i had a refill of coffee.
then i left Yali's and got a real cup of coffee.
free wifi. lots of windows to see or be seen. a few plugs. small cups. not enough caffeine eugene. u genuis u. or drew. or roo.
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Great ham/gruyere panini with a tasty side salad! Very good espresso drinks and really really good chocolate bars they sell in front of the cashier. One of my preferred lunch/coffee places.
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Great coffee, reasonably priced. You also get ANY coffee/espresso drink for free (ANY size) after getting 10 punches on your Yali's card. Yes, I feel a tinge of guilt every now and then after buying 10 small house coffees and then getting a large mocha for free. But, I do have Yali's cater a lot of campus meetings (coffee and pastries or sandwiches, chips, and sodas for lunch). Yummy food. Love the scones, especially early in the morning when they're still warm.
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Yali - Probably a tiny touch better than People's Cafe if comparing both places in terms of office away from office. Both have wifi, good food and good tables. Additional star to Yali for being larger and brighter but less one star for not staying open late. Not sure who wins out in terms of food. Probably Yali by small margin
Yali's, for me, is either hit or miss. I typically go in there for coffee.
Before I go any further, you should know that I am a latte addict. Always double shot, whole milk, no foam.
Sometimes when I go into Yali's I find the latte to be a little strong. I drink my lattes a lot stronger already than a lot of people so when I say it's strong, it's really strong. Other times, I go in and the latte is wonderful.
The thing I like a lot about Yali's is the atmosphere. I think I fall in love with many Berkeley area cafes for atmosphere rather than for food or coffee. I have this theory that cafes that are located on corners with all big walls of glass pane windows or just cafes with lots of windows typically seem to do a lot better than cafes that aren't so well lit. Yali's is so bright and it's relaxing to just sit near the window and look at the cars and bicyclists pass by and across the street at Warren Hall and the Public Health library. I enjoy watching grad students run across Oxford to get to Yali's - running red lights.
Yali's plays host to a much older generations than say, Caffe Strada or Cafe Milano. You tend to see older folks, cyclists grad students here doing a lot of studying. The food here is very good for the most part. Good paninis and salads. I don't have too many opinions about food here as I'm usually just here for coffee.
All in all, bright and optimistic atmosphere, decent coffee, pleasant employees.
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I can't drink Starbucks (not that I want to) anymore because I'm addicted to Yali's strong espresso drinks. I get a Bianca on Fridays when it's been a long week. Like a white mocha, but it with 1/100th the sugar.
I can't study here b/c it's too loud. Good place to see professors who think they should know you, but they aren't sure, and they haven't had their coffee either so they aren't awake anyway.
The food is good, but it's overpriced. The scones used to be better. The smoothies are worth it though, made with Pavel's yogurt.
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I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I think with the coming of 2008 I made a personal determination to not be enslaved by the convenient but often atrocious brew at Starbucks. Coffee Bean, too, has betrayed me one too many times and besides, there isn't one in Berkeley anyway, and Peet's tends to get too foam-happy and doesn't have it down quite right when it comes to the occasional mixed drink in which I will indulge. So I decided to sample some of my neighborhood cafes. Yali has been on my mind since it caught my eye a year and a half ago, when I was living a block away from the Berkeleyan. Now living on south side, I wearily trudged over one Monday afternoon at the tail end of a five-hour break between classes.
The atmosphere is vibrant, full of people who seem just so excited to be ordering coffee and others who are talking authoritatively on some hoity-toity subject which, upon hearing the proverbial Chomsky name-drop, I wisely opt to tune out. I order a cappuccino and wait, and wait, and wait. One would think it wouldn't take this long to get a cappuccino, and I have to stand and wait for it. All is forgiven, though, when upon receiving my (real, not paper) cup and saucer I peer into the cup to see a milky heart etched with the agile and able maneuver of the barista's wrist. If Starbucks did this, perhaps I would excuse their too-hot coffee underlined with sour notes..
I found an empty sofa space and plopped down, sipping my cap. The foam was light as air, the coffee warm and smooth, devoid of that often acidic taste that comes from unskilled or intentionally dastardly roasting. The milk and the espresso melded so well together: the smoothness of the coffee marrying perfectly with the velvety sweetness of the foamed milk. I was so overwhelmed with satisfaction that I fell asleep (this wasn't helped by the interesting conversation that my neighbors were having) and was late to class by a couple of minutes.
I'm going back to try the sandwiches and the soup, and I'll be back for what was surely some of the best coffee there is to be had in Berkeley.
I don't particularly love this place. It's always hard to get a seat. No one's ever really friendly here. And I never really loved either their food or their coffee. Still, not any reason to hate it in particular. Even as I'm writing this review and giving it this rating, I'm sure that the place will still be packed because they have wireless, they probably offer one of the better variety of food than other cafes that are study-friendly, and they are study-friendly (bright and you can sit there for hours).
Personally, I thought the hype was overrated and I could just as much study there as not.
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One of my favorite coffee spots in Berkeley. Close to campus and cozy.
In all of Berkeley I have never had a cup of tea THAT good.
A round of applause for Yali's!!!
I was on Cloud 9 with my pillowy cranberry muffin and my tropical-epitomizing, euphoric cup of mango green tea. Ahhhh! They use the GOOD tea, the one that's like bulk tea in a nylon bag. In all of intentionally-ramshackle, proud-to-be-frugal Berkeley, this is THE only place that cares enough to get the GOOD stuff. Yes Yali's, I WILL be back!
If you are on Oxford Street pass the Starbucks and head to Yali's. The espresso is good, the furnishings comfortable, the food menu limited but looked good, and it is a real, nice, independent coffeehouse. There are a couple of tables and a bench outside, too. I liked the fact that they served my iced latte in a biodegradable cup made of corn instead of petroleum-based plastic.
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At home, I am a Blue Bottle Coffee daily grinding, French pressing snob. On campus, I am a graduate student leapfrogging cars to get to Yali's for my fix. Is the coffee as good as at home? No. Do I come here almost every day? Oh yes, to the point where it's a teensy bit shameful.
Coffee: better than anywhere on campus, and also better than People's Cafe (not as got as Blue Bottle or some Peet's, but whadayagonnado?)
Food: scones and muffins in the AM are good; sandwiches so-so, but when they have the sweet potato/jalapeno soup on special, I heart it!
Ambience: if you're not into the Cal student scene, I would guess it would annoy you. I'm a grad student, so, it's just an extension of campus to me.
Service: Good! I know some people are cranky, but they're much more competent and efficient than they might let on. The owners chip in sometimes, too. (Someone swooped in on my au lait six months ago, and the owner still remembers and saves my drink for me when he's behind the bar.)
Unlike most of the others below, I have eaten Yali's food, and some of it is pretty good. I especially love their soups (sopa de lima is my favorite and in my opinion it's not on the menu enough) and their pastries. I also just tried their chicken breast panini and it was better than i expected although I think it could do with a little more oomph. Their individual serving breads (pumpkin, banana, ginger) are most excellent and addictive, I highly recommend the pumpkin!
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If you want to date a psychology (hot), Education (hotter) or neuroscience (sometimes hot) major/grad student you need to frequent Yali's cafe.
The coffee and scones are pretty good, but it is literally across the street from the aforementioned majors' building haunts. This means that those majors are constantly running over for a cup of coffee, to chat with fellow majors, and will not likely be offended if you check them out/smile at them/make room for them at your table.
So, if you want to date a smarty, go here.
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Yali's is the hang out place for neuroscience and psychology people (I say people because this includes grad students, professors, and staff). If you even think about mentioning Starbucks to them they will scowl at you. The ultimate sin is to say to one of them that you like Starbucks more then Yali's. I did this once and I got a verbal beat down. I don't know though if I really do like Starbucks more then Yali's, they are just different. Yali's is just one of those neighborhood cafes that locals love to go to. They do a great job when looked at in that spectrum. Starbucks is just the kind of place you can rely on to be everywhere and have exactly what you want every time. So it is hard to say which kind of coffee place is better. Go make the judgment for yourself.
Best bagels in Berkeley, period.
But get there before 11am if you want to enjoy any of them.
The sandwiches are also great, and even though it's a minor point, there's something about the vinagrette that they include with the salad that makes me drool. I pour it all over the salad, and what stays on the plate I mop up with bread from my sandwich. Maybe it's from a can, maybe they make it fresh, but I love that dressing.
The guys that run the place are super friendly, as are the rest of the staff. And they've got some nice sofas and free wireless, making it a big hang out for students and professors.
Their espresso is okay, but not particularly good.
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Big shout out to Yalis for the best breakfast and scones in Berkeley. I am jealous of the folks who can spend all day here sipping latte while I have to walk past and go to work. One day I will learn their secrets...
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