Espresso Royale

Poor customer service
Drinks/​coffees do not taste good at all
Overpriced (double check what they’re charging you extra for; it’s usually unnecessary charges)

This is my favourite Espresso Royale location. It’s a nice, cozy spot to hang out. It’s next to Manolo’s if you want to grab empanadas or NY style pizza. And it’s across from Krannert so it’s a nice place to stop for coffee before a show. There’s WiFi, though it’s sometimes spotty. The coffee is good. Espressos are strong. Tea is lose leaf. Mixed drinks are delicious. Plenty of seating but it can get crowded around midterms & finals.

I like their coffee more than Starbucks, but they are pretty expensive, not just for coffee, but their other products as well. It is not worth the long line. Their sandwiches and breads are pretty average and not worth the price. The tables are often dirty, but the service while in line there has always been great when I’ve visited.

Visited 15 years ago, and nothing has changed. Pastries were huge and cheap, the coffee was excellent. Staff was friendly and fast. My family loves the loft that is decorated like an Italian rooftop patio. Music was unobtrusive and calming. Perfect college-​town coffee bar.

Espresso Royale is my favorite coffee shop of all time. AND this specific location is my favorite as well. I would travel across the whole campus just to come here and camp out at a table in the loft. I have always been able to find a place to study here and loved being there. The music is great. The baristas are nice and helpful. The food and espresso drinks are always on pointe.
It’s ALL fantastic.
Also, make sure if you want to be in the loft to check outlets before you setup shop with your computer. Sometimes a couple of them are finicky and don’t work.
Although I graduated from school, I make a point to go back to Espresso whenever I have an excuse to visit campus again. :)

This place is okay. It looks like a good place to sit and the selection of coffees and teas is decent but my café miel tasted more like watery milk than coffee so I’m not thrilled with this place. They don’t have much competition around, otherwise I don’t think they would do so well.

I’ve always had good experiences at this Espresso. It’s relatively busier than the other ones. The staff are always so cheerful and the setting is pretty chill. I like their raspberry chocolate latte drinks, and their Wednesday latte specials! It’s a cool place to study and it’s on campus, making it convenient.

Espresso Royale is one of the most popular coffee shops in the Champaign-​Urbana area. This location has a really fun and colorful interior with lots of small tables and seating. There is even a small courtyard area with a few tables outside. It is a very popular spot for people to work, but the dim lighting on the second floor makes it difficult to see what one is working on.
The drinks are priced competitively, but they often run specials and have coupons from time to time. My favorite day to stop by is Wednesday when they have $ 2 lattes.

+ Cool seating areas, spacious, lots of outlets, some outdoor seating, convenient to campus. — Average drinks (no signatures), baristas not as familiar with drinks, pay parking.

One of my go to cafés in Champaign-​Urbana. It’s one of the best places to do people watching through the windows. The other plus is that it tends to have more seating available than the other Espresso Royales in town. Ultimately, go there for the environment not the coffee.

Very nice place, very spacious and lots of unique seating. I would say they have an extensive menu with a lot of good choices, I tried the Carmel cappuccino and it was very tasty. They are priced like a Starbucks but considering the location, they can probably get away with it. Seems like a great place to hang out and study and enjoy a coffee, I was just visiting the campus and it was a nice place to just sit for a for minutes and relax.

This has got to be the best location. The service here has been fairly friendly, and the drinks prepared well. I prefer this over the Neil St. location, unfortunately it’s the furthest from me.

Just called to ask how late the café is open today, since tomorrow is a holiday. «I don’t know,» said the guy who answered the phone. «Can you check?» I asked. «No, I’m super busy,» he replied.
A+ customer service there, ERC.

I have mixed feelings about this shop. Been here a few times, and I have never been 100% satisfied.
Pros:
Spacious– indoor/​outdoor/​upstairs seating available; inexpensive; outdoor seating area is nice; some comfy chairs inside (you have to snag them quick though!); baristas seem pleasant.
Cons: I’ve ordered the same drink every time I’ve been in, and it’s been made different every single time (not really sure why they are inconsistent); not enough electrical outlets (hardly any to plug into!); because it’s on campus, it tends to get over crowed quickly.

1– The wi fi at the Espresso Royale on Goodwin Ave, Urbana, and 6^th Ave, Champaign, does not work properly most (i.e. around 80%) of the time. I wonder if Espresso Royale is that incompetent to fail to provide a decent wi fi service for its customers. Every time I go to one of these two coffee houses, I feel like I am in a 3^rd-​world country.
2– Espresso’s lattes are simply HORRIBLE and I gave up on them. It seems Espresso Royale either does not train its baristos properly, or the baristos do not know how to make flavored latte at all. Either it is «pumpkin pie», maple spice, or vanilla latte — it does NOT make a tiny bit of difference because they all taste exactly the same: PLAIN BITTER and nothing else. Espresso’s lattes are way too inferior to Starbuck’s lattes. I would normally prefer supporting local coffee houses like Espresso Royale rather than big chains like Starbucks, but since Espresso Royale serves really horrible lattes and non-​existent wi fi service, I will have to give up on it.

This is my favorite ER location, not just because it’s close to where I study/​work but because I think the baristas here make better lattes than at other ERs.
My friends rave about the chicken salad sandwich. They recommend getting it a day old for half off. ER’s old fashioned donuts are super delicious. A barista told me they come from Ye Olde Donut Shop, which apparently is closed. But maybe they still supply ER with donuts because they haven’t changed in the past couple years.
I, like some other reviewers, can’t connect to the wi-​fi here.
Bring your own mug for fifty cents off.

Increasingly unreliable wifi here at Espresso’s flagship location is making it harder to choose it for study or work or even group meetings. More than half the time I show up I simply can’t get a connection. Others will ask me if I’ve been able to get online when they can’t. When it does connect, prepare to wait for webpages like it’s 1998.
Behind the counter folks may be friendly about it, but aside from «resetting it,» (often doesn’t work), are clueless.
It’s too bad, because this Espresso Royale used to be one of my favorite destinations. If you need to get stuff done, look elsewhere.

Good coffeehouse. Nothing more, nothing less.
The way we all found this place was interesting. A very affected graduate student with a UVa pedigree came into class with a drink in hand, proclaiming «I found a place that makes a fabulous cappuccino,» with the emphasis on fabulous. Seriously, you’d think she was at a dinner party in the Hamptons and had forgotten she was in grad school. Some of us got quite a bit of mileage out of that, and discovered this place out of curiosity. I wouldn’t order a cappuccino, but their basic coffee and tea, and occasionally a cookie, were good enough.

The fifth star is for sentiment. I can’t even guess how much of my formative years I spent here with my high school friends, drinking tea or hot chocolate, eating baked goods, and talking. We would come here after school. We would come here during lunch. We would come here between exams. We doubtless irritated the actual University populace, but we definitely looked at Espresso Royale as our clubhouse.
This is not one of those cafes where silent people with computers dominate the tables. Nor is it somewhere where someone with a paper to write would be driven out by chatter. There’s a healthy balance among the customers between people who are there to work and people who are there to socialize. There’s always interesting music playing and there’s generally a comfortable hum of conversation in the air.
Many of the cafes I’ve been to since moving away from Champaign-​Urbana for good have (with noteable exceptions) paled in comparison. There’s nothing like your first comfy chair and functional table hangout.
Speaking of which, they have the perfect balance of seating options here, too. This is so important. Sometimes you want to sit at a table, but sometimes all you want to do is sink into a well-​used cushion without fear. Other places have yet to understand this.
So thanks, Espresso.

I am going to knock my previous review down to three stars for Espresso. The reason is that their coffee has been declining in quality in my opinion. Back in the summer there was a little note about how their prices would be increasing to keep their usual levels of quality up.
Well, the prices went up, all right. The coffee now has even more of the burnt taste that Espresso Royale had before — I’ve noticed it with multiple coffees of the day.
The pastries are still pretty good overall, but the cinnamon rolls are very dry. Soups are still really good and a decent value for near campus.