Portola Coffee Roasters

I’ve had a love/​hate relationship going with what is now the Portola Coffee micro-​chain for years.
Back when I was a Unilocalling, I was introduced to the Portola Coffee Labs «Mother Ship» in Costa Mesa, and came to be of the opinion that they served the best coffee in Orange County. Numerous visits later, I became less than fond of the line setup (one to order, and one to wait for your coffee), the food, and what was apparently the «hipsters only» hiring policy. Still, the coffee was worth driving across Orange County to get.
Last year, Portola began expanding. Their 2^nd location opened in the Tustin Legacy District, and their 3^rd location opened in the 4^th Street Market in Santa Ana. Both of these satellite links had severe growing pains at first, and the coffee quality was all over the map. When I got wind of a fourth link in the Portola micro-​chain opening in downtown Orange, I was dubious, but still took notice. Eventually, the prospect of great coffee got me interested enough to go and check out the new location.
The short of it:
The 4^th time is the charm — Portola has finally gotten it right!
The long of it:
This 4^th Portola location is tiny; it’s actually a permanent stand inside Provisions Market. They don’t do food, and the staff is never more than two people during rush times, with nary a hipster in sight on any of my last half dozen visits. They do just one thing — make exceptional coffee, one cup at a time.
There’s food aplenty available from Provisions Market itself, but that’s another review. The ambiance is trendy, and fairly upscale for a market/​coffee joint. The place gets packed on weekend mornings, and fairly busy right before work hours on weekdays.
The new Portola Coffee Roasters is NOT the place to come when you’re in a dead rush to get somewhere; they make each cup of coffee one at a time, by hand, and if there are a couple of people in line ahead of you, be prepared to wait. That said, there’s only ONE line here (unlike the usual two at all the other Portolas), and the coffee quality has never varied from exceptional over the course of all my visits to date.
If you just want a great cup of coffee, and don’t want the whole uncomfortable ambiance/​up to your neck in hipsters experience you’ll get at the «Mother Ship» in Costa Mesa, take a stop in downtown Orange and check out Portola Coffee Roasters.

Good spot on the down town of Santa Ana, this coffee shop is in plaza (food court). Lot of restaurants here and lot of spaces and seat. coffee is good here, pay street parking , free wifi

Best place for coffee in Orange! Same shop as the one in Costa Mesa, and just as good. They even have their Trifecta machines. Get your coffee here!

The atmosphere is great the coffee is even better and they also sell beer which is a plus. The only downside I have is the girl that help me very well acknowledge me once I walked in the door but facial expressions says a lot. Never judge a book by its cover. Just because I don’t look like everyone else (skin color) doesn’t mean I’m bad news. But let’s not jump to conclusion maybe she was having a not so great day. Beside her there is lot of variety which keeps business going.

Lovely little place inside of a market. Located near the orange circle, so parking is fine if you don’t mind searching and walking a bit.
This place seems great for a coffee lover. They don’t seem to do much of anything sweet or sugary or anything – just delicious coffee and milk. I was impressed by their menu, as they list off the different roasts and origins of their coffee. They seem really passionate about their coffee.
I was helped by the wonderful barista, Will, about fifteen minutes before closing. He was the only one working on the coffee side of the market. Honestly, he was really friendly and helpful, and I appreciate the fact that he was well-​dressed as well. He made me an attractive flat white with a heart (pictured below). The FW was excellent – no complaints there.
The only potential problem I could see with this place is the seating. It looked scarce, and although I had a place to sit, I could see seating being a problem during prime time.
Overall, this was a great experience! I’ll be back.

Cute space that offers interesting coffee varieties. They offer some reasonably priced beans, but it’s easy to get carried away since their ‘rare’ bean coffees were about $ 8 a cup…

A specialty coffee nerds dream. I had the Elida Estate natural #26 via pour over and their single origin espresso which was La Milagrosa geisha. Both were prepared very well and the baristas were very nice and accommodating.
The environment was nice, too. Seemed to be a shared space with some other businesses but nothing felt out of place.
I will definitely be back when I’m in the Anaheim area again.

Everything was perfect! The cold brew geisha tasted sweet and slightly earthy with subtle berry notes. The espresso was pulled perfectly. Tasted like caramel.
Service was great too!

Really cute place. They have a café side with tables and a delicious deli on another side. Pretty cool. You definitely can go and have a coffee or drink. I am going to come back for a drink and whatever goodness they are selling on the other side. Great cappuccinos too!!!

This place is like the baby of the Portola at the OC Mix. Its located on the northeast side of the circle in a place called Provisions Market. Parking is mostly parallel but if you’re lucky you might find a spot at the roundabout.
The cool thing about this location is that it’s literally inside a market. Craft beers galore and menus offering small snacks such as meat and cheese boards and larger breakfast/​lunch/​dinner items are available. (Can you say hipster?)
On the downside, tables are a little limited and there is only one barista working the counter. It REALLY depends what time of what day you go. I was there at 9am on a weekday and there was one barista tending to 5 people in line. Yikes. Maybe they should have one on the register and one on the coffee? The customer service was great nonetheless.
Okay, enough about atmosphere and more about coffee. I ordered a hot mocha. The most perfect mocha I’ve had in awhile. Right temp, beautiful latte art, and had the right balance of bitter and sweet that a mocha should have. The espresso is velvety smooth, pulled faster than the 10 second rule, mixed with belgian chocolate ganache, and poured over with your choice of milk. Just thinking about it makes my mouth watery.
I love the overall setup of this place, even though it is small, and I love how the Orange Circle is opening businesses to gentrify itself. I brought a book instead of my mac and it was a nice change of pace.

I LOVE the fact that a brand-​new Portola «popped up» inside Provisions Market.
Apparently the arrangement Portola has with Provisions is similar to the one Hopper & Burr in Santa Ana has with Little Sparrow. A completely separate business is renting a portion of the space from an existing restaurant. In this case, the result is an excellent new coffee venue that’s close to a number of exceptional food venues, with Provisions Market an obvious lunch or dinner option to compliment your coffee.
This fourth link in the Portola chain features the same one cup-​at-​a-​time approach, with cheerful, highly skilled baristas manning the helm. I’m please to note that coffee art is a part of every cup served.
I’ve been less than pleased with the quality of the other two «new» links in the Portola chain, but I’ve been here three or four times and my coffee has always been consistently hot and good. Like at all the Portolas, the wait can sometimes be quite long, especially if multiple people are ahead of you in line.
One time, I came here and waited almost twenty minutes with only one person ahead of me in line; unfortunately that one person had ordered five drinks to go!
I’d really like to see management put another staffer on during the breakfast rush so that problems like this one don’t make it impractical to stopp off on my way to work.
All in all, I’m really happy to see another Portola in downtown Orange with that serves consistently good coffee that’s every bit as enjoyable as the java served at the «Mother Ship» in Costa Mesa.

It’s about time for Old Town Orange to get a local coffee shop! After being a little sad of closure of Chapman Coffee House, Portola Coffee Roasters opened near the circle! A little bit of walk from Chapman University but it’s actually a good exercise ;)
My first visit to the shop was very pleasant! Greeted by a nice barista, I tried flat brown — it has a little hint of dark chocolate but doesn’t make the drink sweet at all. Topped with a nice latte art even though I took my drink to go (^_​^) Lovely pick me up I needed on Monday afternoon!
Seating is very limited but the shop has nice ambiance — definitely hipster. They have deli section with breakfast/​lunch sandwiches and beer from local breweries. Will definitely be back to try other things!

Nice to see a good coffee shop in the area.

there’s a small section of the provisions market with a portola coffee area
its staffed by one person and its the same great beverages you would get at any portola
i got the chocolate almond milk iced. was really good
the only bad part is parking is on the street so can get a little tough if its busy

Espresso drinks here are silky-​smooth on the palate that are slightly nutty and earthy at the beginning with a sweetness on the finish. Do not rush the barista. No short, tall, grande, venti, treinta here — just one size fits all — and it looks to be about 10 – 12 ounces. If you really want to start your morning off right, order a mocha from Portola, then order the toast and jam from Provisons. Your toast and mocha will be ready about the same time. While your drink cools, you can spread the jam. You’ll spend about $ 9 and feel like a kid again, yet sophisticated. And, you’ll get what you pay for. Look for parking in the rear first before trying to park in the circle or on Glassell in the front. Plenty of seating. Restroom in the back is pretty clean.

Nice coffee spot located in Provisions. Although the coffee is a bit more pricey than most of the other venues in Orange, it is brewed fresh and is full of flavor. They also have quite a bit of breakfast/​lunch fare to choose from… will give it a try next time. Nice seating area w/​WIFI.

yay! ⁴⁄₄ portola coffee locations! The Provisions Market name is a little deceiving… it is not like the other «markets» that the other Portolas are located in. It is more so a deli/​restaurant with what looks like a lot of different foods to order (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and then there are different things to buy (I guess that is the market part).
Portola occupies a corner of the «market». It is right next to the door, so it is easy to spot. Same menu as other locations… just coffee drinks, no food (hence being located in the market). Everything is good, so just get whatever you are in the mood for!

Came by Portola’s new location on opening day and I was greeted by owner Jeff Duggan himself! Even more of a pleasant surprise was seeing our favorite barista from The SoCo location, Chach (who happened to be my and my husband’s personal barista when we did our engagement photos at Theorem two years ago! He’s now a regular a the Orange location — so awesome.
This location is inside Provisions Market so it doesn’t have the full scale you might be used to, but the coffee is great and I went with my usual iced coffee (black, nothing else needed!)
Been waiting two years for this to open and it is finally here. Even better is that Provisions is now open for breakfast and they’ve got some offerings that I want to try.
Glad to know that I’ve got a good coffee shop on the way to work!

It’s been two years in the making but finally Portola is in da circle! And the best part is that the barista extraordinaire, Michael, is there (Previously with Green Bliss and Bodhi).
Starbucks has two locations at the circle so if you like your coffee heaped with sugar and artificial junk you have two other options. If however you like your coffee pure, single origin or pour-​over: this is your destination.

A new place in the Plaza for me to wear my beard and get pretentious about my beverage choices. Perfect!
But seriously, the Plaza has been in dire need of a Starbucks alternative and Portola brews some tasty drinks. Cheers.