Istria Café

Apparently, Istria CLOSED this week. This is a big loss for the neighborhood.

The coffee and gelati are the best things about this place. If you have the coffee «for here,» the baristas place a little dark chocolate candy drop on the spoon. Makes my day every time! They serve a wide variety of super creamy and delicious gelati. My favorites have been chocolate/​mexican chili, pistachio, hazelnut, and raspberry. The flavors change from time to time, but not necessarily by season.
I’m always disappointed at their bakery case. The cookies and bars always miss the mark. I wish someone would really up the butter quotient. The sandwiches are also just good enough – kind of boring (and not very filling) for the price you pay.
WIFI is time restricted, so think twice about working or studying here for more than 2 hours. If you need a little break or diversion, you can wander through the Hyde Park Art Center located in the same building.
In the summer, the café stays open longer and is far busier than it is right now.

Really awesome lattes and very friendly staff. I used to get iced vanilla lattes here all the time, even in the dead of winter, and they were always amazing. Probably the best lattes I’ve ever had (and I’ve had my share of lattes). They also have a very excellent roasted turkey sandwich and excellent music. Also a great place to get a U of C paper done.

good coffee, friendly staff, quiet, spacious with outdoor sitting
a little over-​priced though, $ 2 for a really small coffee?
also not many pastry choices.

Istria has the absolute BEST COFFEE I’ve EVER had! I highly recommend the mocha – iced or hot it’s amazing. Pastries are delicious, my favorite is the cinnamon scone.
I love the staff, too. They really know how to treat their customers and truly care about creating a great cup of coffee for every person who comes in the café. I’ve been a regular for 3 years and I’m hooked!

On a cold winter day, I ordered a large caramel mocha. By far the best cup of coffee I had to this day. The glaze of the caramel and smoothness of the froth won me over. IT IS ALL ABOUT THE FROTH! ! It was just the right amount of sweetness without being too bitter. This café is a block away from my workplace, sometimes I am crazy enough to rationalize driving 20 miles on my day off just to satisfy my unquenchable urge. Oh you know. I tell myself that I can go check out the new exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry or maybe take a stroll on the lakefront. I am basically holding on to my job just so I can have these enticing encounters. I don’t suggest getting iced drinks because they just taste like watered down milk.
The pastries are OK. I do highly suggest the turkey sandwich they make. Ultimate yumminess! Whoever came up with the ingredients is genius! I practically inhale that sandwich! I never tried the gelato but I see plenty of people ordering it. I’m pretty sure I saw a potato. or was it pickle flavor? Wish I tried it!
I have never had a problem with the customer service. The ambience of the café is reflective of the baristas’ attitudes– very chill and laid back. I especially enjoy the ambience because of all the U of C students that study there. I feel so much more intelligent surrounded by these smartypants!

Despite the shoddy service I received a while ago, the coffee is the best. So I continue to go.
This morning the service was topnotch and matched my coffee. The guy with the beard and the woman who was behind the counter are always SUPER friendly when I come in, and not fake friendly.
Great coffee and great customer service today… life is good!

I live so close and come here so often that it’s hard to see this place with any sort of objectivity, but I’ll try. The coffee here, as other reviewers have mentioned, is absolutely awesome. The vibe is great for studying (largely because that’s what it is used for by so many in the area) so long as no one has decided to bring small children with them to get gelato. And the gelato, of course, is a great treat after a hard day/​week of studying. I also greatly appreciate their expanded sandwich menu (which is only available before 3pm, I believe), but was greatly needed.
The downside? Well, the wifi shuts off after an hour and a half through the system that they get wifi from. So even if you make other purchases in that time, you still have to buy wifi through the third-​party system to get anything done after an hour and a half. The café itself technically shuts down at 7pm (which is on the early side), but sometimes they will shut down even earlier, just for kicks. The seats also fill up quickly, leaving the chairs along the counter, which would be fine if they were not completely falling apart…
Overall though, even after days of exploring cafes in other neighborhoods, Istria is a great, dependable and relaxing standby at the end of the day.

Great place to study. I’ve never had trouble finding seating available, even during finals week at the UofC. Electric outlets are relatively abundant, especially along the window-​side counter. They have a good variety of edibles as well as a coffee selection clearly targeted towards those who are a bit on the snobby side when it comes to caffeinating; what that really means though is that they take their coffee quite seriously and you have more options than you would at your regular coffeeshop. My favorite part about Istria though is probably their music selection. A lot of places in Hyde Park love to play top 40 radio, which makes no sense to me. Istria plays a lot of soft, atmospheric indie rock at just the right volume so that it’s pleasant but not intrusive; this is coming from someone who usually prefers absolute quiet when she’s working.
The only downside is that WiFi isn’t technically free, indefinitely. You get 90 minutes before then being asked to pay. So if you’re planning on working here for a while, make sure you’re either ready to fork over some money or do without Internet, which can be a good thing at times…

Excellent, 5 stars all around!
Oh how I wish they had one of these in the DC area. The coffee is so much better than Starbucks and many other coffee places I have been too. They have great pastries/​rolls/​etc. Also, right next to the creamers, sugars, etc. they have a few jugs of filtered water that are really cold (good for the morning hangover).
The place was well laid out as well with excellent lighting. Also, free wi-​fi was available.
Excellent place to stop by in the morning for breakfast in Hyde Park!

When I want to hide I run to Istria Café. Everything about this café is awesome. I love to drop by grab a grilled cheese, study or catch up on e-​mails. The menu is a little overpriced but its Hyde Park.
The gelato is great… I wonder how much money I’ve spent here within the last year? hmmmmmmm

Great lighting, very friendly/​knowledgeable baristas, lots of seats (elbow-​rubbing with UofC students as well as the neighborhood crowd), neat décor, yummy yummy teas. A Hyde Park gem!

Get the micro brew, you won’t regret it. It is seriously as good as they make it sound on the website.
There is not much I can say here that hasn’t already been said. I am fortunate enough to live 50′ from Istria now, and will happily drive back here for the micro brew when I move away. There are not too many other places in Hyde Park that I share those feelings towards.

Stopped in for the first time yesterday, had a pour over and some food– was very impressed with the barista’s technique and customer service skills. Really loved the ambiance as well. The place was a little difficult to find, but if you know it is in the Hyde Park Art Center, it’s no trouble.
These are the things that are important to me:
Great coffee, good prices, and knowledgeable, friendly staff. And comfortable seating, too. Istria exceeded my expectations. Definitely worth a visit. I wish this place was in my neighborhood, though, I’m sure my bank account is grateful that it isn’t.

I took a road trip from Atlanta to Chicago– ate at countless Man vs. Food /​Top Chef places, a couple Mich. stars restaurants, and saw the main attractions the Midwest had to offer. But the first place I want to review now that I’m finally on Unilocal is Istria Café.
The things I look for in a coffee shop are (in order): good coffee, enough places to sit, lighting, and service. I don’t really care about service normally because in Houston, it seems like the snobbier you are, the better the coffee is… But this really isn’t the case with Istria. Even though I quickly profiled the guy working the register to be a hipster /​coffee snob, he, and the other baristas, turned out to be genuinely friendly. In fact, I found Istria to be one of those rare places where you feel leaving a dollar for tip would cheapen your human interaction with the barista.
Anyway, as others have said, the space is really nice. I think there will always be a place to sit, even if you have to be bumping elbows with a stranger. The coffee — mocha latte — is amazing. Really love the texture and the flavor. But the small size is quite large, the medium size is huge, and I didn’t even bother to try with the large size. Prices are really reasonable.
This place is awesome. Five stars, for sure.

3.5 stars, rounded up.
I have only tried the gelato here so far and found it to be very average — a bit too much sugar, which detracted from the flavor and quality of the gelato. There is a variety of sizes you can order here, from a kids size (which is more than enough for me) to an entire tub you can bring home if you’d like. I think the cost of the gelato was around $ 4 for a kids or small size.
Service was great — you can get samples of the gelato before getting it. This place also serves coffee and has some decent seating area if you are here by yourself or with someone else — does not seem like a good place for larger groups (2+).

What’s not to love?
Spacious. Intelligentsia coffee. Great baristas. Cool people.
I come here every time I bike to Hyde Park area. It has a great ambiance that is conductive of being productive, whether that means reading or working, or for more the area, writing papers.
I like the mixed used seating areas. You can sit at the counter, congregate around the sofa U, or get a table at the end.
Its not as cozy as a dark café but sometimes one wants natural light while enjoying coffee or working.

One of my favorite flavors here is Sweet Cream, a Cold Stone flavor turned gelato, which is perfect for these lazy hazy summer days.
As for the décor, it’s pristine. These trendy, almost sterile cafes that are conducive to studying in Hyde Park are always a plus in my book, even if a mite overpriced. Parking can be a pain due to the plethora of high rises around here.
But when I get the munchies, I can’t possibly go wrong here. Paninis, pastries, and delicious coffee = win.

Around the turn of the century a friend at the University of Chicago invited me down for coffee.
We ended up in one of the campus buildings, sipping burnt water from paper cups. I never quite forgave her for that.
But a lot has changed since then.
Northsiders voluntarily travel to Hyde Park for no reason other than to gawk at a house near the intersection of South Greenwood Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard. The revered Hyde Park Co Op has vanished in a haze of rope-​scented smoke. Posh coffee has become as highly-​coveted as a tryst with that bookishly hot TA.
I recently visited some friends (new ones) in the area and asked where to grab coffee before the trip home. To my considerable surprise, their reply didn’t include the words ‘dunkin’ or ‘bucks’. Tripping over my jaw, I rushed out in a cloud of dust to witness this new marvel.
Istria. Could be valedictorian someday, who knows? I mean, if the cap fits, right?
The latte I got looked good and tasted great. Not scalding, as one might get at Dunkin Bucks. The vibe was warm and inviting, with nary a long-​suffering baripster in sight. In fact, the urbane space was so pleasing that I decided to stay a for a bit.
Which meant having a gelato. I ordered a fior di latte which was quite delicious. Milky and mildly sweet, just so. All this pleasantness put me in the right frame of mind for a stroll through the adjoining Hyde Park Art Centre. It all made for a very nice afternoon.
Well, I think you all know what to do with yourselves when the Obamas aren’t in town.
+++++
P. S. To the people who overlook or ignore the signs in HPAC, requesting that no food or beverage be brought into the galleries, please note that this is Hyde Park and not CostCo. And that’s not Dunkin Bucks you’re holding. Some respect, please.

After riding my stupid butt off for many miles into the wind, through the mean streets of the south side, and then looking at art, I needed a snack. Seriously. And also some coffee so I could ride home without falling down.
I was dead broke at the time, so the very tasty looking sandwiches were just beyond the grasp of my dirty little hobo hands. Fine, be overpriced you roast beast. I got some iced coffee and an amazing strawberry gelato which I shoveled into my mouth with a tiny neon pink spoon which looked, well, like a shovel. My pal and I relaxed, talked art, and watched out the window. On a Sunday afternoon the place was pretty packed and it was hard to find a seat. Nuts to that. I’ll come back next time I’m at the Hyde Park Art Center. I always need to snack.