Muddy Waters

There’s only one good thing about this place — the coffee. You could argue that’s the only thing that matters, but you’d be wrong. A café should make you want to hang out and feel good about the world. This place has always made me want to stab somebody. The atmosphere inside is one of quiet resignation. There are crappy video games and terrible music. I used to go there every morning when I lived close by — remember, the coffee is excellent — and leave feeling really depressed by the zombies that frequent the place, the slowness of the service — there’s usually just one overworked and utterly cheerless girl working there — and the dizzying smell of powerful cleaning agents. Blech.
But, 2 stars because really, the coffee is damn good.

This has been my preferred café for at least a couple years. They have great cappucino, lattes, and a pretty decent thai iced tea.
This place also has some pretty heavy history for me… I started an animation project here with a couple guys… it failed ultimately, but I was here every saturday for a couple hours. Then, it was also «the spot» when I started my current company.
This place is inviting, lots of dark wood, and awesome ambiance. They don’t get upset if you and your friends meet up to work or socialize, and this place is ALWAYS low key. I love it, and I’m even writing this review from it.
BTW: they have WIFI, good wifi.

Chock full of crazies and/​or students any given night of the week. Crazies and/​or students need a place to go drink bad coffee and have annoyingly loud cellphone conversations too! That’s why I was there.
Points for a new guy from LA running it. He is very nice and tries to keep up the joint.

Decent coffee and espresso drinks, but impossible to get a seat because every table is occupied by laptop users. I wish places would make rules about hogging tables for hours… ho hum.

I go here once a day and usually stay for about 4 hours. I’m freelance, which means I work from coffeeshops. And out of the 3.24 billion cafes and coffeeshops in the area, this is the only one I’ve found where I can get (1) electricity, (2) a decent and free wifi connection, (3) unobtrusive music, and (4) a chill space to linger as long as I want. The food is limited but functional, with some nice surprises like the flaky spanikopita and the fresh and tasty bagels. They constantly bring in new desserts and the latest batch is disturbingly decadent.
Here’s the key: this place has a NEW OWNER. And with new owners come changes. In this case, they’re all good. This used to be Homeless Central, with gangs of roving raving street people clogging the door and befouling the tables. I don’t know if the old owner was a member of a satanic cult or if he just invited that kind of crowd, but you would always find black-​clad scowling goths and metalheads blasting growling deathmetal while serving surly attitude.
All that’s changed. Now we have a kind couple with babies, warmly welcoming all comers (including many of the crazies of yore, though most of their kin have since fled to other haunts). The music is VERY soft 80s mullet rock and power ballads, which works surprisingly well when you’re trying to hit a deadline. They keep things clean and have managed to cultivate an atmosphere that discourages derelictism while still being friendly to everyone. The place actually has a really nice, low-​key feel, with a solid group of regulars and weekly meetings from an assortment of local clubs. Call it boring, call it unoriginal. But when I’m trying to do my work, that’s just what I want.

Was just there. I asked for a café au lait. The tard behind the counter game me a regular coffee. Its not like i am some coffee snob that cares about the difference between cappuccino or a café au lait. But a regular friking coffee with no dairy product in it whatsoever. Tard. Im smart enough not to ask them to fix it because that means ‘extra-​sauce’. Dont the halfway houses train these people any better?
Update: the day staff is much better. Only having walked in once before the person knew what I wanted. Wow. And reasonable prices.

This is a good place for sitting down with a book or meeting with some friends. There’s free WiFi. They make a strong brew, but their latte is just ok.

A tad sketchy, though I guess you could call it character. The incessant beeping of the video games was the only sound in the place besides music playing very quietly, and it nearly drove me insane. I tried a mocha because I read very conflicting reports on the mochas’ quality here on Unilocal,and I concur that it tastes kind of like dirt. I ordered a medium, and it turned out to be more like an extra large, so I was stuck with a LOT of something I did not like. At least it was hot.
But they’re open until 11 pm Sun-​Thurs (12 Fri and Sat) and have wireless, so I can’t complain too much.

I’ll tell you what, I have some memories associated with this place. Back when my friend Nick Farr lived in Ess Eff, we’d meet up at Muddy’s, the Noodle and Va Va Voom came along, and sometimes some other friends. We’d go harrass Douglas at the smoke shop (or more like, be harrassed by him), then sit on the bench outside of Muddy’s and drink our cawfee. I always met the most interesting people there. There was a European guy I talked to for an hour, who worked at Orphan Annie’s. He was cute and literate and had a slight accent. And then sometimes, you show up at Muddy’s and there is a large group of people spilling out onto the sidewalk, all speaking to each other in sign language. It’s eerie. Sometimes, the crowd’s a bit rogue, but everyone’s just so damn friendly, whether they talk to themselves and smell like tinkle, or not. It is kind of a very San Francisco place.
Oh yeah, all the employees are nice, there is a computer, the windows are big and let in lots of light, and you can get the standard bagel, choc chip cookie, or soy latte. So that’s decent.

Yeah not bad… usually not too crowded but can be loud at times. I do like the outside seating area.
I usually get coffee and a bagel w/​cream cheese and tomatoes.
Service is quick but then again it’s a coffee shop and it is not that hard to pour coffee and toast a bagel.

This is just the right kind of coffee shop if you want to settle in and get some work done on your laptop.
Free wireless (SSID: RoyalGroundsCoffee), plenty of outlets (they recently added more of them), a relaxed atmosphere, and a couple old school Atari games you can go play when you need a little distraction.
I can’t comment on the coffee yet, as I’ve only had the Chai here, but the Chai is great. It isn’t too sweet and has a nice spicey taste. Excellent.
EDIT: I can comment on the coffee… since this is the 2^nd time in two days I’ve been to Muddy Waters… The cappuccino I got today was supurb.

Good strong coffee from an independent brew house! The place is a little dark and dank, but the cute boy that staff’s the morning brewfest is a bright spot. They always have soy milk and lots of wi-​fi going on. enough said.

I bought coffee here so I could use the bathroom.
Mid-​shopping and stuff and I didn’t want to and/​or couldn’t find a place with a bathroom I could sneak into.
Went to Muddy Waters and felt guilty so I bought an iced coffee w/​soy.
the coffee was good enough but the presentation was atrocious. To CALL IT a presentation at all is unfair to coffee everywhere. It was in a clear Dixie cup with a lid. Like the kind I have in my kitchen right now. Lame. Luckily the coffee was ok.
The place itself was really depressing and uncomfortable. Weird layout too. Where you can go behind the bar but not in a quaint island sorta way. More like bad planning or lack of care.
Eh whatever. My trip served it’s purpose.
Probably won’t go back. Too depressing and too, I dunno, average.

Least surly of the three Mission-​ish based Muddy Waters. But this one isn’t even in The Mission, so there you go. Also, fewer Rehabbers than other Muddy’s, though by no means none.
The coffee here is just supposed to make you more alert and give you a stiff neck. Expect no more.

I live nearby and I often find myself dropping by to get my caffeine-​kick (which in my case always happens to be after 10pm in the evenings).
They are open until 11pm Sun-​Thursday and until midnight Fri-​Sat.
Friendly staff and they now know my regular (which is the not very creative «Double Non Fat Latte»). The coffee is really good about 75% of the time but every now and then it gets burnt. No big deal though. My tastebuds are pretty tough.
Atmosphere? Well, a lot of dark wood. No cushions and a few arcade games from the 70’s that are barely working — and of course a number of laptop users. It’s not a really sad place. it’s just not really happy.

It’s a decent coffeehouse – strong coffee, but the area inside is slightly uninviting. Although some of the wooden tables and chairs may be uneven, they serve its purpose and allow me a place to scribble a day’s entry into my journal.
At least I didn’t have to worry about any muddy waters in the bathroom. Last I was there, it was clean.

This place looks dirty, the décor is scary, and the coffee is just as good as the name suggests.

Better than most other Muddys in the area.
Still barely acceptable…
Not a very inspiring place to hang out.
Not as depressing as the other place for sure…

I had been wondering, in a city with a bounty of weird bearded dudes, why none of them ever hung out in coffee shops, like they did back east. Well, here some of them are. Thank God.
Comforting dark wood. Perfect if it’s cloudy, or if you wish it was.

This place reminds me of a place i had never been to in Seattle. Its dark, dreary, and it feels cozy cuz it looks like its raining outside. You know? When youre warm and you look outside and see some poor schmo fragga-​rassin to himself in the rain? And youre like, «Thats right… im warm. Youre poor and cold.» Portishead was playing, so that made it all the more cheerful. SNAP. Coffee was damn good. I dont screw with froth, so i dont know about their blahblahcinos. I just like the ol Joe. The kid working the counter was a kid i recognized from an Impaled show, so they got \m/​points for that. The seating is comfortable and roomy enough to have a small riot. If it werent for my lethargy, id get down there more often. It seems like the after work hours are the busiest, so i suggest you quit your job.