SteamDot Coffee

This is my favorite coffee place whenever I am in Anchorage. I get a GIANT Vienna. The coffee is never bitter and always smooth. I love the Alaska art by Dawn Gerretty from Girdwood.

This place can be hit or miss depending on when you come in. The place is spaciously laid out and there’s plenty of tables and some armchairs to relax or study for a couple of hours. The fresh smell of roasted coffee beans fills the air while you’re in here. I love when that coffee smell stays on my coat when I get home later on in the day. The atmosphere is nice and pleasant with large windows to keep the place bright and inviting. That being said, there are two issues to address with this place. One being the baristas and the other the quality of the coffee.
The baristas are mostly young girls who work hard at what they do. Unfortunately, some of these employees have an uppity air about them even while they are taking your order. While there are some employees I enjoy seeing when I visit, a good number of them probably wouldn’t give you the time of day if they weren’t behind the counter. Body language tells everything and you know an employee doesn’t want to help you especially if they take their time approaching you behind the counter to take your order. It’s a shame. This place has the potential to give Kaladi’s and Starbucks some serious competition if the attitude factor wasn’t such a problem here.
The other issue I have had like others reviewing this place was ordering drinks like their mochas and lattes. The wait can be unbelievably long and sometimes they may forget your order if they aren’t paying close attention to the orders lined up along the counter. I ordered a 16oz. mocha and ended up waiting for a half hour simply because they didn’t look at the cup that the cashier had placed at the end of the coffee counter. I had to walk up to the counter to notify them about my drink just sitting there after waiting for about 20 minutes. They apologized and said they will make it as soon as possible. Once I received the mocha, it was a big disappointment. It was flat and flavorless and there were chunks of cocoa that wasn’t mixed into the drink properly. $ 4.25 for going through all of this and all I wanted to do was get warm with a good cup of coffee and to study comfortably for the next couple of hours. That really isn’t asking much. I gave it two stars instead of one only because I thought the layout of their seating area makes this a popular place with a lot of students and people meeting up with friends. I really hope they can turn this around soon. If they can do that, this place will be the coffee spot to go to in the south side.

I’ve seen these places pop up around town so thought i’d try it out. I was disappointed at their tiny menu with somewhat high prices and lack of pastry selection. I ordered a mocha, and ended up waiting about 20 minutes for it… there was no one else there in line… one employee seemed to be just adjusting the machine most the time. When i FINALLY got my mocha i was unimpressed. A lot of foam, as mentioned below, and bitter. I would have expected a mocha to be at least a little sweet. If you are really into specialty coffee maybe this place is for you, but I will not be going back. My expensive little bitter mocha was not worth the wait

This is the finest coffee shop in Alaska. I have coffee at SteamDot every time I visit Anchorage from the Interior. The Cappuccino is a classic. Perfect size, creamy texture, just the right amount of complexity of flavor, the slightest hint of sweetness without being cloying and a perfectly balanced complement of steamed milk. This is by far the finest cup of cappuccino that I have found outside of the genuine article encountered in the town square of Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy.
The staff are courteous, the menu is varied but always complements the coffee, and the environment is classy and lends itself to savoring the coffee. As an extra, one can watch as coffee beans are roasted in the facility next door though floor to ceiling glass.
In sum: an exceptional environment; a committed staff, offering the finest coffee drinks available in Alaska.

Awsome kaffy shop!!! Love the roasting set up… Would of made it 5* but since dark coffee was not their nitch I gave it a 4*

This place has amazing drinks and coffee. Something that’s not on the menu is their Italian sodas. If you have a sweet tooth then I recommend the raspberry-​vanilla Italian soda. It’s the best! The people who work there could be nicer though.

Best coffee in Anchorage, hands down. Not a place for «frou frou» drinks. Worth the wait in line when busy.

SteamDot coffee is smooth and balanced, instead of acidic or burnt. I’ve been to SteamDot more times than I can count, and I’ve never had bad coffee. The service is efficient and friendly.
It’s nice SteamDot serves a few food items but, unfortunately. the baked goods are often dry and tasteless. Another issue is the limited tea selection. In a place that offers coffee made via a variety of brewing methods, it doesn’t seem too much to ask that the non-​caffeinated tea selection be broadened.

I don’t like coffee, but since I had heard great things about this place, I decided to give them a chance to change my mind. I ordered a black coffee with nothing added. It was amazing. It had an almost tea-​like delicacy to it. It wasn’t bitter at all and had an amazing flavor. Best coffee I’ve had, hands down. You can tell they care alot about their product.

The coffee was mediocre and the staff there was very snobby plus the place had a unwelcoming vibe going on that made me uncomfortable. It left a horrible first impression so I definitely will not be returning.

I’ve been to both locations on three separate trips to Anchorage and I have felt their coffee is the best around here. They have different brew methods which does make the end product taste different from your average cup. Their consistency has been there for me, they aren’t fast or slow, good coffee is an art that takes some time to brew properly. They aren’t cheap, but neither is Starbucks. I would like 20 oz cups, but sometimes good things come in small packages.

Service is lousy. Had to wait ten minutes for my latte Because baristas couldn’t be bothered to do their job. Wrote to «customer service“who also couldn’t be bothered to respond. Coffee is overpriced and doesn’t stand up to the Kaladi coffees. Not even close

I used to really like this place when they first opened. My friends and I spend a lot of time here and A LOT of money. I got a bad taste in my mouth with them though as they seem to have a revolving door of young barista’s, AND they are super slow, I have waited upwards of 20 minutes for a simple mocha (seriously who has time for that in the morning, or anytime really?) Way WAY too long. Anyway… I dislike that they only go up to 16oz and don’t have a 20oz, and they are slightly more expensive then other coffee locations in town, and VERY inconsistent.
As I shared my friends and I used to go here a lot, one of my friend was spending upwards of $ 20.00 a day there, but soon it seemed that everytime we ordered our drinks, in addition to waiting forever, they would come sometimes over a ½ inch from the top, and be totally loaded with foam and not much coffee. I personally hate foam so I always order mine without it, and even without it I would still get a cup that was ½ an inch from the top. WTH? I’m paying more money for their cup of coffee to begin with and then they can’t even fill it to the top? It came to a point where I literally had to order it and asked that it be filled to the top, and not ½ an inch down. I shouldn’t have to do that. Also… I like my coffee scalding hot, hot as you can make it without scorching the milk. Steamdot doesn’t have thermometers, so they have to guess what the temp is, so I would get my coffee and it would be barely lukewarm even though it would show I asked for Xtra hot on the cup. I was constantly having to microwave my coffee just to get it to a temp I considered desireable. Microwaving coffee is not good and ruins the taste.
Last but not least I went in one day and got a cup that was seriously ¾ full. I asked the barista if he could please fix it since my coffee was barely warm and way low. He looked at me with a weird face, and in a snotty tone said «What do you want me to do about it, I can add some milk would that help?» «I said yea that would probably be ok» So he proceeded to heat up some milk, and just dump it on the top of my already luke warm mocha, then shove it back out to me. He didn’t stir it, he didn’t say sorry, and was just insolent as could be. I was beyond myself at this point, shook my head, and just left. My friends encouraged me to write an email to the manager which I did, and guess what? He never replied even though I asked him to. SOOO I sent another message, and again no response. We all decided that if they don’t care about their customers to at least acknowledge an email, then we don’t care about them either. Good customer service is hard to find and we have stopped going there totally, and now pledge our allegiance to the Kaladi’s down the street who are always hot, consistent, friendly, polite, who listen, and fill their cups to the top with coffee and not foam.
It’s too bad because originally we liked these guys, but now, due to poor quality, and a lack of follow through with the management we won’t be going there ever again. Their loss not ours.

Good quality coffee. Rotating imports. Baristas are young, soft spoken but friendly. Prices are a little high for Anchorage. Honestly really there’s no place in town that’s comparable (think modern hipster). I personally love my other coffee shop since its cozier and more inviting. This place has a vibe more seen in the lower 48 but still worth checking out, ESPECIALLY if you’re a coffee aficionado. I dig it when I’m feel like indulging.

Nice environment, but the service is slow and the coffee and hot chocolate are so frothy that it’s more like drinking foam than anything else. I waited 20+ minutes for my drink today, as did my friends. It was odd that there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason with the drink order. I got one of my drinks and waited at least 5 minutes for the other drink while 5 other drinks came out from the same barista, in the meantime. Will likely not go back. With such a cool environment, I wish the drinks were better.

My wife states: best coffee.
Good stuff; roast their beans — and you can see.

Cool gadgets, they use ghiradelli chocolate for their drinks which is kinda nice.
It’s a little overpriced for me–
I may go back if I happen to be falling asleep in that area.

Nice baristas but they are the slowest I’ve ever seen. Every time I come here I hold out hope that maybe my previous visit was just a fluke. Not the case. They are consistently slow, they lounge around for ten minutes before even getting started on your coffee and when you finally get it– it tastes like garbage. The shots suck, they burn soy milk and it’s just awful all around.

I’ve been to plenty of coffee shops in town and in different states.
By far, this isn’t the best. Not coming here again.

Been here once, so can’t determine if I’m a «fan» yet.
Tried their sumata and colombia drip coffee. Both are very rich in flavor, but I prefer colombia over sumata. Sumata is more of an earth-​y taste. The coffees were not overly bitter (my aunt will agree to disagree) and went down smoothly.
The day when I went, the cashier was not very knowledgeable. I don’t know if their cashier is just a cashier, but c’mon…you should be able to at least tell the customers which coffee is the most popular one. She was just as clueless as the customer who is a virgin to this place. Oh… one more thing. I don’t know if my aunt and I just got bad cups, but cups here are dirty. Not like coffee-​stain-​dirty, but there’s actual residue that will come off if wiped with a napkin. Might want to use the green side of scotch brite, just in case.