Caffe Destino

Stopped here to grab a quick coffee and lunch on a busy Saturday. I had seen Starbucks and planned to stop there, but when I spotted this just across the street I thought I had to give the local café a shot. It didn’t turn out to be a quick bite and the coffee was just okay. I was glad breakfast was still on the menu but they were out of ingredients and didn’t say so until I had already paid. I hate to say it but Starbucks would have been a better option for me today. Maybe I’ll give it another shot and update soon but then again, there are so many great cafes in Portland.

Nice local Café. Has excellent Coffee and some tasty breakfast options, which is fantastic as many coffee shops in Portland are lacking dearly on anything to eat, well not Destino’s!
We had pancakes and their syrup is a must have, I could just eat that stuff pure it was so so good, bagels with egg and cheese, just thinking of their food makes me smile and hungry.

The food was good, the coffee was good too. I ordered the pumpkin latte. It was so good. Made with real pumpkin and spices. Also had a café at lait, and it was good. Coffee quality is good. Very neighborhood place. Pleasant environment to sit and enjoy some coffee and breakfast. The pastries are delicious, so are the breakfast sandwiches. The staff is friendly and helpful. The only difficult thing was parking, but I managed to find a spot on the street.

I am utterly heartbroken that I have to sit and write this review. When I was a kid in middle school, I lived right across from Café Destino. My mom and I would walk over on Saturday mornings and enjoy warm rich coffee, fluffy fresh pastries, and the best panini I’ve ever had. The café always had a decent crowd filling the place and there were fun books and toys to occupy the kids.
But today, on a whim, I returned to Destino. I hadn’t been there in at least two years and I wasn’t even sure if it would still be there, but I was craving the good food from my child hood. Café Destino was still there but it was lacking in everything that I had once known. The café was sorely empty, with only two other customers there. Of the two employees I could see, one looked angry and annoyed, and the other looked spacey and completely out of it.
The menu of delectable panini’s, and other breakfast treats had been changed. Everything i’d used to love was gone from the menu. I still held out hope though, and ordered a sandwich called The Olive that sounded very similar to a panini I used to eat there. I also bought a side of the house salad then considered buying a pastry to finish things off. The pastries looked old and stale, but I was still going to pick one when I realized that from the other side of the display case there was no door or anything to protect the pastries. I was horrified to observe two big fat flies buzz into the case and crawl on the pastries at their leisure. To say the least, I did not buy one. But I did buy a quiche because they were kept in a sealed fridge unit.
*big sigh* the food was… Lack luster. Boring. Tasteless. Uninspired. It was a crappy cold sandwich I could have gotten in better quality at subway, with the exception of the olive tapenade spread which was decent but still not great. The Focaccia bread they used for the sandwich was dry and hard to chew. The feta tasted old and fell right out of my sandwich so fast and easy there was basically no point to having it in there. The quiche I ordered was reheated in a freaking microwave! (Why not use an oven I ask you?!) it was served to me burning hot in some places and ice cold in others. And finally the salad I ordered was completely forgotten. I had to remind an employee about it, then when I did get it, it was not even worth the wait.
If anyone at Café Destino reads this, please know that it kills me to write this review. I loved you guys! I’m still rooting for you. I hope you improve. But it will be a very long time before I consider going to your restaurant. What a disappointment.

Love the location! I would much rather support this coffee shop over Starbucks next door. The service is good and friendly. Over all the food quality is good but does not compare to the over all quality that Portland is known for. I do encourage people to support this local business.

Love this place in Sabin by Irving Park!

Cute space and very friendly servers! They have the best quiches. Every time I get one it’s delicious.
Edit– I’ve started to order the Mexican mochas and it’s soooo delicious. Quiche and Mexican mocha is my new go to combo!

There was a time I enjoyed Destino, back when they served Trailhead coffee. I am not in the neighborhood as often as I used to be, but I popped in after an appointment up the street and was disappointed to see they’d changed their beans to Caffe D’arte. That is never a good omen. When I asked the barista about the change he told me it was because the owner-​roaster of Trailhead is «really pretentious» and that D’arte is «still really good.» Neither of these are accurate statements. He continued to speak poorly about my favorite coffee roaster in a gossipy, unprofessional fashion. I ordered a cappuccino anyway (why?!) and got the bitter, scalded drink I was expecting. I don’t know what is happening at Destino, but it’s not the friendly, tasty place it used to be.

Though I don’t see it as an option on their current menu, I’ve had the best pancake ever here. Just a plain buttermilk pancake yet full of flavor and very fluffy.

Mocha was lukewarm. Friendly factor was as well. Their bagel with ‘the works’ used to be sooo good. Sadly, with the changing of owners over the years, this café has lost some of its identity and character. Nevertheless, we’ll still support them or Fly Awake (around the corner) any day over Starbucks.

So we live in Irvington, right? It’s the land of the American dream exceptionally realized. We have tree lined streets, historic mansions, Grandma’s tending to their gardens and children running in front lawns with Fydo and Lassie while leaves fall like a cinematic dream sequence. Then there’s this caffe. It appears like it fits right in with its semi European appeal, big windows and connection to the Irish Pub and other neighborhood favorites.
Then you step inside. It looks like something that belongs. You move forward and browse the menu. Then you notice that theres a lot on the menu for a tiny caffe with not enough staff working. Then it sinks in that you just dropped 12 bucks for breakfast and a latte, and its been 25 mins. You are hungry. The staff seems to not care. It dawns on you that they actually don’t care, and that its been 30 mins now. Another hungry patron goes up to the counter and asks about their egg sandwich. They get a distant shrug and maybe a glance back at the kitchen. You’re fucked. Caffe Destino is an illusion in our peaceful Irvington oasis. I wish only positive changes and an actually talented and enthused staff for our neighborhood caffe.
UPDATE: the owner contacted me to reach out and resolve some of the things I experienced and I really appreciate that. I’ll be sure to pop in and give it another shot :)

The space is cute, and I love that it’s near Whole Foods, so I can grab my groceries and then get coffee.
Definitely a fun place to relax. I love that the menu is largely vegetarian, including the lasagna.
The coffee? The barista that I’ve encountered several times just doesn’t know what she’s doing when it comes to steamed milk.
If you want art in coffee, go to Posies. The baristas there steam the milk to perfection — just warm enough that it starts to thicken, but not so warm that it turns into an over-​steamed cloud of fluff that turns your latte into an undrinkable mass of air.
At Destino, every time I get a latte, the female barista (the male barista made me iced chai and it was great, but I haven’t seen his latte-​making skills) is sweet, but her lattes? The milk is steamed until it’s not a liquid anymore and then fills the cup with this white mass. By the time the foam cools and relaxes, you’re left with a half a cup of something mildly resembling a latte.
Bottom line — come for the location and space and goodies. DON’T come for quality lattes. Posies is the way to go for magic.

A must-​go place for a cup of coffee and a Marco Bolo sandwich when I’m in Portland… it’s so good, I’m actually willing to overlook the hipster-​pocalypse and slightly grumpy wait staff. Deee-​licious.

I think these guys make some of the best espresso out there. Good snacks. Good atmosphere. We stop in here a couple times a month now

if your destino is a place without booger eating children, this would not be it. Lots of white children with names like Roman. On the other hand, lots of hot MILFs.
The coffee? It’s just coffee. No big whoop.

Really good coffee. Really good lox bagel. But $ 10 (!) for a bagel with crème cheese and a little lox? That’s way too much. Several dollars more than any other place in town.

Great latte!!! The coffee they use has a wonderful flavor. It makes Starbucks taste like burnt dirt.
However, I have to agree with one of the previous reviewers — the man at the counter was not friendly. I wouldn’t say he was rude, but he was very distant. I would prefer a bit more welcoming attitude from the person dealing with customers. He seemed a bit more outgoing with people who had been there before, but if you’re not friendly to new customers, then how do you get them to come back?

When in this neighborhood and looking for a quick and friendly coffee purchasing experience I go here. Their espresso is acceptable (but definitely not great) and the people working here are generally really nice.
On the rare occasion that I eat eggs, I get their greek bagel and it is always extremely delicious. They also have jammers from Florio on Sundays, which are world rocking if you like that sort of thing.
I recently tried their ice blendy green tea smoothie thing (great description of a drink I can’t name right?) and it was quite tasty. Unless I’m totally craving coffee I think I might just order this instead from now on.
It would be cool if they were open later though. Why do all the coffee shops in Portland close at 3? Don’t they know I need coffee at like 5 or even 8 sometimes?

Two years ago I loved this neighborhood café, but lately I’ve found the pastries are smaller and not as tasty as they used to be. I’ve been unimpressed by the sandwiches lately as well.
The two stars are for the friendly women who get up super early to be there and the Trailhead coffee. Maybe Destino has switched to cheaper products to avoid laying people off. It’s worth stopping there for coffee but skip the food for now, tip generously, and hope they see better days.

The rating is purely based on the fact that they have a drink called HEATH MOCHA. That would be a mocha with Heath Bar powder [MUST find this in SF] in it! Awesome, and tasty! I haven’t tried the food here, but they serve breakfast and lunch. Apparently if you head in there late in their workday (after 1pm), certain items are significantly discounted.
Service is excellent and friendly too. However, I am not too sure about their math skills. Our drink order total was a little bit less than what we’d pre-​calculated based on the menu on the wall. Guess not everyone can be a mathlete! They have a «Buy 10 Drinks and get your usual for FREE» club — Sprez Club, they call it. Maybe they will miscount and give me the free drink after seven or eight!
They are located just around the corner from the Starbucks [1 of over 75 locations].