This place is great. Nice atmosphere and the lattes are really good.

This place is great in a pinch. It's in walking distance from my office, but it's also pretty pricey. The grilled cheese is the only sandwich I'd ever order here again, after some rough experiences with a couple other options. Even then, it's rather plain unless you add tomato and bacon to it. The staff could be friendlier, or maybe I just manage to catch them on rough days every time that I go. read more

Went today for my first time and had the mozzarella, tomato, pesto sandwich along with an iced chai tea w/ almond milk and enjoyed it outside at one of their patio tables. My boyfriend got the red eye coffee. The sandwich was delicious and the iced chai tea was quite possibly the best I've ever had! I also tried my boyfriends red eye coffee which was equally great. Beverages came out super quick (~1 min) and the sandwich took about 10 minutes at prime lunch time which I think is a reasonable wait time. The staff was friendly, the cafe was clean, plenty of seating. The one and only issue I experienced was that the WiFi went in and out of connectivity a few times within the 1.5 hours I spent there which was inconvenient since I was trying to work but it wasn't a huge deal; I just had to keep attempting to reconnect. This could have been due to the fact it was very busy so maybe the bandwidth was low? I will definitely be adding this to my list of frequently visited cafes! Hopefully the wifi problem was a one-time thing :) read more

Totally local and family-oriented. Great ambiance for families, working folks, and foodies.

To the women who took my order this morning: if your position doesn't work out, you could always work for United Airlines. The coffee was OK, the scone mediocre, but the staff attitude left something to be desired. read more

I've watched this space cycle through a history of cafés and breakfast/lunch spots. Kickstand is far and away the best of all of them! High quality food, great drinks, and a staff that cares about its clientele and the neighborhood around it. It's upbeat and fun, and if you doubt the popularity, stop by on a nice weekend day as soon as spring temperatures come around; the bike rack and parking lot go head to head for the fullness award, and tables are hard to come by. read more

We just consumed four delicious spring rolls at the Kickstand Cafe in Arlington Center. The Thai Chicken soup seemed ok at first but grew on us. The bean soup was essentially veggie chili and also very good. We ate outside on the dog-friendly patio and hung out with some very friendly mutts. The staff were friendly and efficient. I highly recommend this tasty and pleasant cafe. BTW, it's one of the few places in Arlington Center with parking. read more

Although this is a great coffee shop, it's more than just that. It's a community mecca. Over the years, they've had photography displays, story-telling nights, book readings, acoustic music, you name it. The Vietnamese spring rolls are to die for, and you can always get a tasty seasonal drink (hot chai! cold limeade!) to take with you on the bike path. Kickstand combines big-city excellence in terms of its menu with a welcoming, comfortable, small-town vibe. Watch the new Moms share survival tips with each other while their babies gurgle and wave. Read the library book you've been meaning to get to. Try the best molasses cookie in town. Sit on the patio in the summertime, or belly up to the computer table and get some work done. You'll always be glad you made time for this place. read more

I wouldn't be liming (get it, like lying but with lime!) if I said that the mint limeade was absolutely one of my favorite drinks I've had at a cafe! It was so refreshing and sent my tastebuds on a pleasurable adventure with each sip. With the hint of green tea, it wasn't too sweet, nor was it that depressing bland lack of sweetness that many iced teas produce! Every blisteringly hot day deserves this mint limeade! read more

This place is great! Good food and drinks with nice service and people are super friendly! I go here a lot and never regret it!

I absolutely loved stopping in and having breakfast at this cafe! Came here for breakfast on a Sunday morning, and although they were busy, there were a few tables available and the food & coffee came out pretty fast! We had two egg sandwiches (I had mine of Iggy's 7-grain bread), a raspberry ginger scone (SO GOOD) and two lattes (one with almond milk). Everything was delicious! They also have a lot of really great, healthy options, which I love! They have berry smoothies and green smoothies in the fridge, ready to go! I can't wait to come back for lunch! read more

Kickstand offers free wi-fi and is a fine place to do work. However, there is one con that keeps me from coming here more often: the coffee is pretty bad. I feel like an ungrateful complainer for pointing this out (see free wi-fi), but it really is a bummer. It's not that the staff aren't competent, it's the underlying coffee and/or water used. They have Equal Exchange coffee on display, so presumably this is what they use. It's probably fine. I know they have some issues with their water supply - the water tastes a bit funny and I've heard the staff mention some issues with it. Whatever the reason, the coffee is extremely bitter and just tastes wrong - lots of cream + sweetener can't mask it. Just down the street is Quebrada, a bakery with pre-made coffee sitting around in urns and it is much better. This is the one big strike that wipes out several positives (location, wifi, chill). I have heard a similar complaint from others and I just wonder why they can't resolve it (e.g., with a better filtration system or using different beans, etc). [2017-10-12] Update: Something has changed; coffee now tastes much better! Not sure if it was the beans or the brewing, but the coffee lately is not bitter. Hurray!! read more

Great location, right in Arlington Center and on Minuteman biking trail. The quality of their food has gone down though and the prices have gone up. Staff behavior is mixed, some are very nice and some not so. read more

Just had the worst scone ever! It was expensive, dry and tasteless...a blackberry ginger with no redeeming qualities Other bakery items are standard, but scones especially bak A. read more

10-Speed rip off!!! I ordered a sausage egg and cheese on a plain bagel. $7.49 that includes a .50 surcharge for a plain bagel!! They've increased prices so much here. The food is good but talk about sticker shock. Needless to say I'm giving kickstand a kick from my morning routine. read more

While the new (not so new anymore) place is cute and an Arlington version of a Davis Square type coffee place my experience going there several times now earned them 2 meh stars. I decided to write my review today because of a grilled cheese that made me say "never again" to the Kickstand Cafe. Grilled cheese: $5.00 add tomatoes: $.75 add bacon: $1.75 For $7,50 there better be some cheese on that grilled cheese. It's not an extra dry martini where you can whisper Vermouth over the glass and you've done your job. Grilled cheese is a featured menu at Kickstand. The various choices and add-ons take up an entire panel of the menu blackboard. They should be amazing not meh. The sandwich, I received was served on Iggy's 7 grain (yay!) and came out looking like a sandwich in a magazine photo - perfectly grilled on both sides. At first it looked like there was no bacon and I actually got up and asked the person at the counter if perhaps they had forgotten the bacon. After a closer examination I found a tiny piece of bacon that was about an inch and a half long and an equally as tiny piece on the other half. As if not even getting even a full strip of bacon for the $1.75 add-charge wasn't insulting enough the most serious problem was that in examining the sandwich I realized there was hardly any cheese at all. I would be *very* surprised if there was more than the cheddar equivalent of a Kraft single on that $5.00 sandwich. There was so little cheese that when you pulled the bread apart all you could see inside was bread. There was so little melted cheese that there wasn't enough to obscure the grain on the bread on the inside. There was hardly any melted cheese and it tasted as one might expect - like two pieces of grilled bread with an amount of cheese that one might compare to running a knife's worth of mayonaise across a slice of bread. If you want to pay $7.50 for two pieces of grilled bread so you can sit in a faux rustic setting then far be it for me to stand in your way, but I have better things to do with my money. It was skimpy and tasteless and I won't make the mistake of having lunch there again. read more

Kickstand Cafe - The amazingly skimpy grilled cheese. Not much cheese at all on that $7.50 sandwich. - Cafes Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

This is pretty cute cafe in Arlington! The egg on the egg sandwich is not what you'd expect, it looks like they pre bake a scramble mix in some type of muffin tin and use that as their egg. I prefer something freshly fried over easy. I also didn't love the tomato it comes with (you can opt out but I like tomatoes). Next time I'll try a bagel and cream cheese. The latte I ordered was delicious! They have lunch options too which sounded yummy. Customer service was great! read more

Oops! I'm not sure if there is an employee dress code or not but I'm pretty sure visible undies wouldn't be included! Today an employee had on shorts so short that me, friends, our kids, and a guy at the next table got quite a show with our coffee. Casual work wear at a cafe is totally appropriate for the job, I just don't want to see cheeks and grey undies. Please add a few inches to the shorts! read more

This place is wonderful. Good coffee, delicious food, and a nice coffeehouse atmosphere. Great location next to the Minuteman bike trail. You can quickly pick up something to-go or sit around and relax for a little while inside or on their patio out front. Though there can be a line to order it usually goes very quickly, and I have always been able to find seating when needed. I recommend the dark roast coffee, mixed berry scone, and smoked turkey sandwich. read more

Good coffee but the rest of the menu is pure carbohydrates (as with most coffee shops). The fresh spring rolls might resemble the Thai favorite, but they completely lack mint, shrimp and flavor of any kind. Instead you must douse them in sweet peanut dipping sauce which makes them edible but disappointing. Parking lot is a plus, as is the outdoor and indoor seating. read more

Well intended but just not a comfortable place in any way. Pad Thai was dry and flavorless. Patrons appear to be a hotbed of neurosis. Especially the mother who kept cramming her large distressed child into a too small wooden high chair, so the child was screaming in pain with tears streaming down its eyes. read more

I liked this place a lot. Loved the vibe inside and it's in a cool location right off of the minuteman path in Arlington. It makes for the perfect spot to sit and relax after a nice long bike ride along the path. I got the hummus veggie wrap and it was awesome. The boys I babysit got the 4 cheese grilled cheese, and a roasted turkey sandwich. Theirs looked just as scrumptious as mine was! The staff is friendly and there is lots of seating inside. read more

Came in for a bagel. They were busy so I was understanding about the wait. Less understand that they gave my bagel to a customer who came in after me who demanded it. And it was their last bagel for the day. And they didn't bother to tell me. I wasted 20 minutes in line and waiting for food they clearly had no interest in giving me, just interest in taking my money for. Will not make the mistake of coming here again. read more

$8 for a tiny sandwich that I had to wait forever for a fairly slow afternoon. Give me a break?!

Wow. This was really something. First off, let me say that the workers here were polite and always have been. I have come here several times in the past. But this last time was unusual (I hope). It was a fairly busy weekend afternoon, not jam-packed but lively. I ordered a sandwich off the wall menu and was told they were out of it. So I requested the special sandwich, advertised on a flyer attached to the pastry window....they were out of that too. I had to settle for a third choice. I guess that happens, but it's not great to have a sign advertising a special item you don't actually have. Then my friend went through the same process of ordering 2 items in a row that they were out of. So he settled for a half sandwich with soup. When it was ready, he was told they were out of the soup. To be fair, the young woman was pleasant and polite and she offered to give him a whole sandwich instead....but the organization here was pretty bad. He should have been told when ordering that they were out of this advertized gazpacho soup. We did not really blame the workers, this is really a management problem. The sandwiches here are decent, pretty good, but certainly not worth the prices. On the other hand, the pastry items are so fine that I admit they are in fact worth it now and then. read more

Hands down the best cafe in New England. Emily is very friendly and the cookies are great. The guacamole is life changing and overall it was a great experience. You NEED to go! read more

Huge improvement over Jam n Java in terms of staff, layout and value. The people who work here actually seem happy to be in a customer service type job. It is just a much nicer place to hang out now. We had delicious coffee (decaf, no less!), an awesome grilled cheese sandwich with avocado and a delicious blueberry muffin. They had run out of turkey and roast beef while I was there (3 pm on a Saturday, so a bit weird), but the owner (I think it was the owner) came over to our table, apologized and made sure I was okay with substituting a grilled cheese, and she offered me a cookie since the grilled cheese is less expensive than the turkey and roast beef. She couldn't have been nicer. I haven't had them, but a bunch of people looked like they were eating fresh rolls that looked yummy. read more

I was 4-5 times a week customer at Carberries, then jam and java and now at kickstand since it opened. HUGE improvement! Make sure you try the Fresh rolls. but I hope they... 1.) add simple syrup so I can sweeten my ice tea 2.) offer refill pricing for ice tea (they do for coffee) A previous comment mentioned staff needed better training. The staff seems like real pros compared to the high turn over during jam and java years. But I do notice sometimes it seems there a three or four of them scurrying around with some task and ignoring the long line of customers being helped by a single cashier. read more

Great coffee. Friendly staff. Busy atmosphere. Cool vibe. Kudos to the curly haired female barista who seems to love her job & did a great job explaining drink options, and the nice pony hair tailed gentleman barista who was understanding about changing food orders after a mis-understanding. Decent breakfast Sammie for $5. Will return and would recommend. read more

I'm giving this 3 stars for now. I'm happy to see some good coffee and food in Arlington Center, but Kickstand has some kinks to iron out. The food we've had so far is decent, but I feel the staff needs to be trained better. I have no problem waiting an extra 5 seconds for the customer in front of me to put away her credit card and step away from the counter before I'm asked for my order -- just seems like basic respect. I got a cup of coffee this morning and had to laugh when I asked what type of coffee the medium roast was -- the answer was "It's a medium roast called mind, body, soul." I don't think knowing the origin of the coffee you are serving is too much to ask. Would also love to hear a bit of music playing. I do hope and anticipate that this place will improve. It's definitely a nice space if you do have a baby... read more

Very basic cafe. No real breakfast options. Mostly high carb options like sandwiches bagels and the like. Good coffee tho. Very friendly staff. Great location if you are biking the minute man trail. read more

This place is super expensive even for these funky/hippie places. Most of the bakery items actually didn't show prices and when I came to pay for my six small cupcakes that it was an average of more than $3.5 per piece! Just a basic sandwich is more than $8 (no sides, no frills) and on top of that all these fancy new tablets assume that you are going to tip a minimum of $2 at least and if you punch in a custom tip you are a scrooge. this newage, organic, local, gluten free thing is going too. We understand that small businesses need to make money but they have to be at least somewhat competitive. read more

No idea what Andrew H. is talking about; there's a whole chalk board in the café that gives the sources of all the ingredients used in the sandwiches. It's easy to gather all this from the menu board: the bread on the turkey sandwich is from Iggy's (hardly out-of-the-bag), the turkey is smoked in Boston (hardly generic deli-meat), and the chutney is homemade. I've had good experiences at Kickstand, but Andrew H.'s willful ignorance is irritating; it doesn't take much effort to question his claims about ingredient cost, and, as I've said, the business makes it pretty clear where they get their supplies from. I am a big fan of the oatmeal. read more

Update 10/11 - wifi has been much better of late. Sticking w four instead of five because foam on espresso could use some work, and seating can be tough to navigate, but kickstand is rock solid and I highly recommend! -- (3 stars) Atmosphere, drinks, and food are great. Would easily be 4 stars (maybe 5) if they could upgrade their WiFi. They've intentionally added in a one hour limit where you have to log back in (I've lost content that wasn't saved as a result), which is a nuisance but understandable from the business side. However, the connection is generally really spotty - you'll have to constantly re-connect. I'd rather support a local business, but may start spending working hours across the street at Starbucks as a result. Here's hoping they can upgrade their service. read more

I have never been disappointed when I order lunch at the kickstand cafe. today I had a fresh mint limeade which was so refreshing... just lightly sweetened, it was perfect. I have the wild rice salad which was really good.... also a half of a turkey sandwich, yummy... and an amazingly delicious cup of Thai chicken curry soup. There are outdoor tables if you want to sit outside and people watch. i love this place! read more

Update: The exact day that I posted my review, one of the Kickstand owners reached out to me to remedy the situation and find out more details. I appreciate that management was so quick to respond to my issue and did everything they could to help as well as speaking to staff about accommodating customer requests. Because of how this was handled, I am going to give Kickstand another chance as I was impressed with the responsiveness and do enjoy their food. read more

Kickstand Cafe is a local business and a very welcome addition to Arlington. The owners also own Cafe Zing in Porter (see my review) and have modeled KC after some of my favorite aspects of Zing-excellent pastries from local bakeries, top-notch coffee, the best Vietnamese spring rolls, and an upbeat, pleasant atmosphere. Similar to Zing, it's stroller central most days but usually plenty of room to nab a seat or two. The service is friendly, but not Starbucks-fast. It doesn't bother me because they put quality first. Keep up the good work! read more

This place has been improving. The coffees are great and the last couple of times ive gotten any food item it was decent.

Went there for the first time last week and had their cold brew coffee. One of the best cold brews I've had ever.

I've been here twice for a weekend breakfast, and each time it is packed. Barely a seat, lots of people working on their laptops with headphones, leisurely socializing for awhile, which is a nice community vibe. Today I ordered 2 bacon egg and cheese bagels and 1 blueberry muffin, for here. (not To Go). I received 2 egg & tomato bagels, 2 cups of coffee in paper cups, and he asked if I said Lemon Poppy seed muffin... all TO Go. (i don't even like tomatoes really) I tried to ask about another muffin flavor b/c there were no signs but it was too busy, too loud, and by the time I got to a person at the front of the line, I was too far away to point at the muffin I wanted to try. The coffee here is VERRY strong. And I like strong coffee (think Fog Buster by Pierce Bros). My husband tried to get us 3 seats, and before he was able to get back with my coat, one was taken - so he had to stand while we ate. However, all that said, the egg & tomato bagel was HEAVENLY!! I think the tomatoes were marinated in something (of course I didn't read that on the menu b/c I don't like tomatoes) But wow - so delish. The egg definitely looked like it was pre-made/nuked, but they put something magical on it, and wow was that the yummiest sandwich. Nice job to KSC for getting me to try something I would have never ordered. (maybe that was their secret. Or my mother called & said she needs to eat her vegetables...) We'll go back. Just have to be up for a crazy crowd, and be ready to speak up really loud so they get the order right. read more