Smith Canteen

If you want a simple breakfast egg sandwich an hour after the Canteen opens, this is the right place. However, if you expect that a café offers the food listed on their menu from the time of posted opening… avoid. Showed up at 7am and was told the egg maker was preoccupied and would need 30minutes to produce a scrambled egg. 35 min later, I was informed that it would take another 15. Seriously. Wtf? It’s an egg. Cook time 3min.

Delicious carrot muffins. Everything is pretty pricey though and the line gets crazy in the morning.

Great coffee, muffins, and sandwiches. The scene can definitely be challenging at times, with long lines out the door and pushy people jockeying for limited seating. Typical high-​end coffee shop stuff which really isn’t the fault of the shop itself. The people who run the counter are always pleasant and reasonably efficient considering the very particular customers.

Smith Canteen is the best coffee place in Brooklyn and possibly the whole city. They make the best cortado in all the land. The lemon poppy seed muffin is one of the best pastries I’ve ever had and I don’t even particularly like muffins, and I usually don’t like lemon poppy seed anything! The employees there are so nice and helpful and always smile and make conversation even when they are jam packed. I love this place.

This is my spot for coffee to go. Always good coffee. Friendly staff. Not great if you’re looking for a place to work or sit with a larger group. Too loud, not enough seating. Try their Carroll Park or peanut butter cookie. Also the chocolate bread pudding. so nice

This is a canteen if you replace cowboys with depressing pre-​millenial hipster parents ashen faced with their charges, Shira, Luna, and baby Revolution. If you wondered what the Strokes-​era hipster trust fund babies did after they left Williamsburg post-​2009, they bred and moved here.
I ordered a latte which was well brewed and a salted chocolate cookie which was soft inside, not too sweet, not that impressive. But, I expected the generic annoyance of a 2016 coffee shop.
The room is wide and covered in paneled wood and mirrors. But, the coffee line snakes along the sides, strollers pointing at rakish angles. I give space to the fathers, which makes the rando hipsters bravely cut me off. It takes longer than it should to take mini trips to grab the coffee and lid/​sleeves.
Like the typical coffee shop, there is a huge sectioned area with coffee machines in the front where the baristas hold court. Small marble tables line the sides and there is some seating near the windows. But, the line takes up a lot of space and the seating area is cramped. It doesn’t stop me or the hipster pre-​millenials from sitting down for a long time, but the place isn’t remarkable or inviting.

Solid cuppa espresso, reallyyy tasty croissants.

I’ve been going to Smith Canteen since 2012 and love it. Yes, line can get long, but it does move quickly and the coffee is amazing. Staff generally are nice, but sometimes it’s frustrating that they don’t acknowledge regulars.

Consistently good coffee.
Very overpriced super organic food and pastry items. Nice seating areas, especially if you can snatch a window spot. Friendly and helpful staff. I make it a point to stop here every time we go to Prospect Park or the area of that general vicinity.

I am visiting from California.
Best cappuccino I’ve had so far this visit (Blue bottle was Luke warm to say the least) Perfect temperature and amazing taste. Friendly warm staff. Really love the atmosphere. They know what they are doing.

My first coffee shop in Brooklyn area did not let me down! I loved the cosy feeling inside and the fact that it was not crowded on a weekend afternoon. Coffee was at an ok level. I will be back next time visiting this neighborhood and probably grab a bite here.

The coffee is good (really good!) but the staff has become so consistently unhelpful and unhappy. I made the mistake of getting a cold brew iced coffee at it was FOUR DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. For a COFFEE. I thought I heard her wrong, and she snipped at me and said, «Well, you ordered a cold brew, didn’t you?» Cold brew coffee was the same ingredients in it as coffee: coffee. It’s just a different process.
Once, one of the (hungover?) baristas had left his keys in the front door. I brought him his keys and he still snapped at me. We all need our coffee, sweetie. We just don’t all want to buy it from a place that keeps unapologetically raising it’s prices and then treating us like jerks.

Think this is by far the best coffee shop in the neighborhood. The only downside is how busy it gets. If you’re willing to put up with the wait (and Carroll Gardens parents letting their children run wild) — the food and coffee is delicious.

A weak selection midday saturday, the Carroll Park cookie didn’t impress, and they didn’t have much else.

This small, tidy café with the wood and tile décor is convenient to me.
The coffee is legit.
The baked goods are tasty.
The staff is competent and welcoming.

Perfectly executed latte and a salted chocolate cookie — need I say more?
Friendly service to boot and a gorgeous old interior with a heap of soul.
⁵⁄₅

I have a love hate relationship with this place. Their coffee is perfection, the lemonade is a delight and their sandwiches are a dream… BUT they move at the slowest pace! Do not stop by here if you’re on your way to work and need a nice coffee for the subway ride, or if you don’t have 15 minutes to wait for a cappuccino.
DO NOT go there if you need meet because there are rarely any seats.
What put the icing on the cake is I bought a cookie, took it home, took a bite and surprise the cookie is hard and burnt. No thanks

In an area with so many great choices for coffee and a little snack to go, Smith Canteen definitely holds its own.
Not quite as good as the Stumptown Coffee at Momofuku Milk Bar a block away, or the new Blue Bottle a little farther away up Smith Street, the Counter Culture Coffee they serve here is still quite good. To go along with our coffee, we tried the Carroll Park Cookie ($ 3), which was not great. It was a hard cookie, packed with oats, pecans, cranberries, white chocolate and chocolate cake crumbs, and it was not at all chewy or soft and didn’t have much flavor. I should’ve gone with my gut and tried the regular chocolate chip or peanut butter, which looked like they might be of a better consistency. Sometimes I wish you could just touch the cookies before buying them, but that would be pretty gross.
The other thing we got though, that really earned this place a solid 4-​star rating was the Everything Croissant ($ 4). This was an excellently buttery croissant topped with «everything» seasoning, like an «everything» bagel. This is another great hybrid creation and a must try here.
In addition to the drinks and small pastries and baked goods, they also serve salads, sandwiches and a bunch of other food options. I would definitely return here to try some more cookies and possibly try a sandwich on one of those excellent croissants.

Dear Smith Canteen,
You guys use Counter Culture beans! They’re an awesome roaster. Why, then, don’t you offer a pourover?! $ 2 for a 12oz coffee is a fine price and all, but you could take the quality to a whole new level by doing pourovers. I’d pay.
Until then, back to Café Pedlar for me.

Looking for a coffee shop to enjoy a pick-​me-​up and some reading time, stumbled into this place after good reviews from Unilocal.
Options were sparse but straight to the point. Had food options as well (snacks and sandwiches) but settled on one macchiato ($ 3). Served in an espresso cup and some foam on top, the drink wasn’t too hot and easy going down. Okay flavor, but didn’t pack much of a punch.
With the limited seating and menu, this place is more of a «coffee to go» type of shop.