Deja Brew

Delish latte, great grilled cheese, good service, lovely space to chill and good prices.
My new love is chilling here at the vintage child’s table, but there are plenty of adult seats too.
Antiques places throughout, because, Déjà Vous.

I’m repeatedly astonished when sweet teenage girls make and hand me perfect cappuccinos at this place. Two thirds of the baristas in New Haven are at a loss as to how to actually make a decent and balanced drink, and these innocent, angelic, doubtlessly relatives of the owner make them perfectly every time. That always amazes me.
The food here is good, I like the salad and sandwich cards that offer you the option of putting your own dish together. They offer a decent variety of ingredients that allow you to be pretty creative, personal highlights include pesto mayo, craisins, and apples. I also love their huevos rancheros, definitely feels and tastes like it was made in a kitchen at home.
Their atmosphere is adorable, they go for this Victorian tea house kind of look but it’s not stuffy. Definitely a Westville neighborhood café. Most of their signs are handwritten and they draw a seasonal chalkboard with each of their drinks catered to the weather with cute illustrations. Again, adorable. The only downside here is it’s not always incredibly speedy, but it’s an offshoot coffee shop in residential Westville… not the heart of school/​commerce driven downtown. They’re not slow, just not ultra hyped up on quadruple espresso shots fast. This is a great place if you want to relax, study, or catch up with a friend in a comfortable environment.

This place is very cute and I love how it’s sort of hidden in a neighborhood where you don’t have to deal with the dreaded New Haven traffic. I decided to stop by since I was looking for something quick and close by during my break between classes at school. If I knew how inviting the atmosphere was I would’ve brought my laptop and gotten work done. Service was very friendly, quick & efficient.
I ordered an iced coffee and a bacon/​egg/​cheese. The coffee was good, although, I wish they had a better selection of sugars, i had chunks of sugar in my coffee from the moisture in the air (very hot day). The sandwich was very good, but next time I’ll ask for butter or mayo, it was kind of dry. & very good prices that you won’t find around often.

I’ve lived in Westville for over two years. Unfortunately, it took me almost a year to learn this place existed, because I still haven’t made my way through the entire menu. There’s sandwiches, baked goods, salads, coffee, tea, juices, smoothies, lots of seasonal stuff… the only criticism i can think of for Deja Brew is that all these items are spread out on different, tiny, menu boards all over the place. It can be confusing on first visits what’s actually available. So the most important advice would be to scour the horizon to really get an idea of your options.
So I’ve yet to try literally EVERYTHING on the menu, but literally everything I’ve had has been top notch. They really know their way around coffee, and the breakfast sandwiches in particular are some of my favorite in the area. There’s hot cider in the fall, frozen banana chocolate lattes (!!!) in the summer, seriously I could write 14 paragraphs just on what’s available.
So obviously the food and drink are the most important for a coffee shop/​café, but the place is also super cute and the staff are always nice, outgoing, and polite. Looks like some reviews have brought up the lack of parking, but street parking on Edgewood is a cinch if you’ve parallel parked more than 3 times in your life. And you can park on both sides of West Rock Ave if you stay north of Edgewood (south side is permit parking but I’ve always gotten away with it… don’t tell anyone). So yeah. Deja Brew is a lovely local business that’s really earned all the support it’s gotten so far. Give it more! It would make me very happy!

Nice place, with good coffee. The sandwiches are decent and get an extra star due to the price (which is very low). Outdoor seating is pleasant when the weather is good. 3 major problems:
1. Your car may get ruined if you park along Edgewood Avenue. People are driving at 60 miles per hour there– the street is really wide because usually nobody is parked there.
2. It’s difficult to safely bicycle here from other parts of New Haven, because of a lack of bike lanes.
3. No bike rack.

Great neighborhood café, and so necessary in Westville, really! Good coffee and a great place to sit and visit.

Best coffee spot breakfast/​lunch spots in Westville. There is a nice outside seating weather permitting.

I have been here a few times to get some work done and enjoy the coffee. They do a nice business and have a warm room you can sit in and get some work done. They have wifi if you ask as well. It is a small place that sometimes gets a little noisy or crowded, but on the whole it is a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee.

Love this place. I happened to be driving by one day and noticed it and made a quick note to stop there when I had some time. The place is quaint and quiet and is good if you’re looking to do some work. The coffee is great– get yourself a latte or a cappuccino-​delicious.
I love that it’s in an area where you wouldn’t expect a coffee shop to be. Great for those that live in the neighborhood, and also for those that want something a little less traditional, like starbucks.

Cool place right in the middle of a neighborhood. Got a few breakfast sandwiches and some pastries. Everyone was happy with their sandwiches on both bagels and croissants. Chocolate croissant was good and pumpkin loaf was too. I wouldn’t get the muffins again, a little bland. Great place to sit down and have a coffee with big windows and lots of sun.

Being new to the Westville area, I’m looking for a local (non Starbucks) café to go to and stopped in here quick. I was thrown off by the décor at first; a lot of doll themed old time photos and ‘stuff’. Looked at the menu and saw quite a bit for both breakfast and lunch (pastries, sandwiches, soup.) and got myself a chai tea and a bagel with cream cheese. Both were good but I’ll ask for extra cream cheese next time as there wasn’t much on my bagel. Not totally for the place but I’ll give it another try!

I love this place! Their almond croissants and chocolate chip cookies are wonderful and their iced soy latte is pretty good as well. It’s not exactly an optimal coffee shop for studying but otherwise it’s great!

Great coffee, pastry and oatmeal. Reliable wifi & a lovely place to sit and to a little work.

I ADORE this café. It is a quaint, vintage Victorian themed coffee and sandwich shoppe. The sandwiches, muffins, and desserts are delicious and a good portion size. Déjà is a small tucked away haven of wonderful food in West Haven and I would HIGHLY recommend it for lunch, coffee, breakfast or just as a spot to meet a friend for a chat :)

The Deja Brew is the real deal great location if you are looking for something off the main street, unfortunately I am a coffee snob not only the coffee was great they also had the perfect size New York style bagel about 6 inch across not the normal 8 inch [½ pound bagel] I only stop once but now that I have found this little haven I will back

Deja Brew is a tucked away in a quiet, residential corner of New Haven near Edgewood Park in Westville. The coffee was smooth, and the croissant breakfast sandwich was delicious. Overall, the ambiance is delightful; the food is perfectly yummy; but the service is a bit slow.
ATMOSPHERE (5 stars): In an old house, the café has a very quaint, homey vibe. I stopped in Deja Brew for the first time last weekend after an early morning walk with friends and enjoyed a latte and a breakfast sandwich in what felt like a dear friend’s living room. On an early Saturday morning, the café was already brimming with activity, and many of the other patrons seemed to know each other.
COFFEE (4 stars): I ordered a regular whole milk latte and wasn’t disappointed — very smooth and piping hot. My only complaint is that it took quite a long time to get the latte after placing the order.
FOOD (3.5 stars): Two of us ordered breakfast sandwiches: bacon, egg, and cheese on a sesame seed bagel and bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant. And the third ordered a chocolate croissant. Both breakfast sandwiches were well above average, but the croissant was so buttery and delicious that we all agreed it was the star of the show. The negatives: the sesame seed bagel was a little dry, and the chocolate croissant didn’t have quite enough chocolate for our tastes. Overall, however, we were pleased with our selections and would certainly return for more!

Yummy iced coffee, I had a descent tuna salad sandwich. Chocolate yogurt muffin was also nice.
I sat near a window with a few dead flies which grossed me out.

Deja Brew is a quaint, cute café in a less-​trodden part of New Haven. Situated in what appears to have been an old house, the café does make you feel like you’re in someone’s living room. While the atmosphere is great, the service and food options leave much to be desired.
I ordered a hummus veggie wrap ($ 6.50) which, amazingly, took over 25 minutes to be made, despite consisting of uncooked vegetables, dumped in an unheated tortilla slathered with some hummus. The café seems to only have one person working in the kitchen which can lead to massive delays, even if there are few people in the café itself (which was the case when I went).
I wish Deja Brew had more interesting vegan options. Why not offer some tofurkey sandwiches? How about a tofu scramble wrap, akin to the one offered at Fuel Coffee? How about a soy sausage breakfast bagel? Or even just a portabella sandwich?
Similarly, Deja Brew offers not a single vegan baked good. I find this astonishing, as virtually every single coffee shop in New Haven offers vegan baked goods, usually made in-​house (Blue State, Fuel, Green Well, Koffee, Willoughby’s, Book Trader, etc…). Deja Brew is behind the times in the baked good department and loses out on potential sales by not offering anything vegan (or gluten-​free, for that matter).
Lastly, Deja Brew doesn’t offer loose-​leaf tea. While it does offer a multitude of bagged varieties, I was left wondering why I would ever order a cup of Stash or Mighty Leaf bagged tea, when I could get the same exact product, for a fraction of the price, at Stop and Shop down the road? No self-​respecting coffee/​tea shop should offered bagged tea.
Seating is limited inside, with only five or six small tables. There are one or two tables outside, however.
In conclusion, while Deja Brew looks nice, the service is extremely slow and the food options are uncreative and limited, particularly for vegans and vegetarians. I doubt I’ll be back.

It’s a nice, cozy spot in an unexpected location. I came in for lunch– had high hopes for the panini and soup, but ultimately was a bit disappointed. I ordered the caprese panini and a vegetable soup. The mozzarella wasn’t the best and it didn’t feel like an integrated sandwich. It was a whole lot of mozzarella, way insufficient basil, and a few tomatoes slapped onto some bread. The vegetable soup kind of tasted like it was out of a can. The one good thing is that from a value standpoint it was pretty good– I had one other person with me, and the total bill came out to be $ 13. Not too shabby. At the end of the day, this might not be the best reflection of Deja Brew, since I didn’t try any coffee or tea. But, if you’re going to offer substandard soups and sandwiches, you’re opening yourself up to criticism.

If you’re looking for a cozy café, fresh coffee and tasty treats then this is your place. The space is neatly organized with small round tables, (kind of reminds me of some of the European cafes you would find in Vienna) and soft lighting adds to the ambiance. The old-​timey photos on the walls add to the turn-​of-​the-​century vibe.
This isn’t your typical too cool for school hipster café. Perfect spot for doing a little work (yay free wi-​fi!) or just enjoying a hot coffee on a rainy day. I wish I lived in the area and I would be here all the time!