The Big Sip Cafe

The Big Sip is officially closed. That space must be haunted because NO ONE can stay open there.
Anyhoo, the space is for lease again.

unsurprisingly, this place has been out of business for a while now. not sure how to tell Unilocal to mark it as such.

Really poor coffee. I am disappointed. Plus they are never open when the sign says they should be open … not very professional.
THIS is the reason I love Café 504 so much. It’s just over the hill from Big Sip. The owners of Big Sip should take a walk over the hill too; they might learn a lot.

I agree w/​parts of many of the reviews on here. The owners are very friendly and warm. I like the spaciousness of the place and the homey feel. The free Wi-​fi is also a huge plus.
After reading the reviews, I wanted to check out the place and taste the coffee for myself. I was hoping they’d gotten it together and gotten some good stuff. When I went (mid-​late April) I got an iced coffee and it definitely sucked ass. However, I really want these guys to do well b/​c I think that, besides the coffee, they’ve got a good thing going. And yes, I do want this place to succeed b/​c there’s nothin’ goin’ on in this neck of the woods. BUT I also want to support somewhere worth supporting.
I think I might ask them if they’ve read their Unilocal reviews yet :). Maybe that will help them get it together.

Seriously… i can’t believe the bad reviews. Where in Oakland, where around this side of park blvd can you find fake meat (Vegetarian chicken, vegetarian tuna), or plain vegetarian specialty sandwiches, with free wi fi and sweet and kind employees?
Like really? And they have this AMAZING vegetarian tunisian vegetarian lentil soup with spiced rice. I make dal, I make all types of lentils, and have had so many lentil soups. But None have ever tasted like this-​this is some real authentic down home soup (not the slightly flavored indistinguishable spice of your typical lentil soup).
I think we have to be honest here-​there are not many local business, especially ones with veggie sandwiches, veggie soup, wi fi, and a nice big clean space? Aren’t these the types of businesses we Want in our neighborhood? In Oakland? I, for one, am down for supporting good local businesses when i see them, and to me the lunch food was delicious!

rode by big sip café earlier today. never seen it before, but then i don’t ride up park too often. went back down the street for awhile, and decided to give big sip a shot.
this place is, well, interesting. the people were really nice and the inside looked like a gigantic «free couch» craigslist ad. those in the know will pick up what i’m putting down. ha. i ordered the obligatory test mocha and sat down.
the lady brought me my drink and said «if it’s not chocolately enough let me know.» i ended up taking it back up to the counter for some more chocolate, and she whips out a ginormous thing of hershey’s syrup and says «say when.»
now that’s gangster.
the mocha wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t noteworthy either. it tasted exactly like what it was: hot milk with some hershey’s and caffeine stirred in. perhaps their coffee is better.
i’ll probably come back here every now and then as long as they keep staying open until 9, but if they start closing earlier i’ll stick to my regular place.

Stopped here before work to get coffee the other day.
It was worse than the folgers in the machine at work.
The guy behind the counter was super nice and pleasant, but the coffee is just so bad I couldn’t bring myself to spend money on it again.

I’ve only been here a couple times (I don’t go often to cafes to hang out, I’m usually just grabbing coffee after a meeting or something), but I really like the vibe here, am glad that it’s right down the street from my house, and the folks that work here are really friendly and down-​to-​earth. The décor is soothing and not distracting, and they’ll give you coffee and tea in real mugs, which I’m a big fan of. Not enough cafes do that nowadays it seems.
I’m only giving four stars because the coffee I had the first time was just so-​so, not quite strong enough for me, and because they had creamer in little pull-​of-​the-​foil-​lid-​thimble-​size-​cups and that was really a no-​no in my book. But it seems like they’ve stepped it up a bit and now have some yummy food items in their fridge case, as well as juices and Numi tea (an Oakland company!). I also like that they have a TV – I caught part of the SuperBowl pre-​game show today!