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Rating: Standard, low-end Roman Coffee
The Niagara Caffè has the looks of a very classy, sleek café. It’s very brightly illuminated, and the tables and interior is white and very properly trimmed. You walk in and to your right is the register and then the seating and bars. Its not necessarily a very welcoming environment. I went to the bar to ask for a coffee, I asked for it, and had to wait about 5 to 7 minutes to get my espresso. The barista apparently had more important things to do (even though I was the only one on at the bar, and then another 3 people came, they had to wait even more). So there was a cool, disinterested attitude about the service, that might be reflective of a ‘sleek, or chic’ environment. You be the judge. Either way, there’s some weird coop with the Caffetteria Giuliani which is on the same block, only facing Termini Station. It’s probably bought out by them, and run as a side business. As you see in the photos below, they’re doing the ‘catering’ part of Niagara Caffè’s food offering.
Either way, once I finally got my espresso this is what it looked like:
Presentation: The cup was clean, crisp, and the spoon clean. No water was offered, and I didn’t care to ask as I felt it would have taken another 5 minutes to receive.
Temperature of Cup: The cup was very hot, too hot, and scalding I’d say. It was cold outside and the experience was thus augmented, but still… way too hot.
Quantity: It was a full straight espresso. It was right at the mark. This cup as an interior ridge that lets the barista ‘know’ when to stop extracting the espresso.
Temperature: It was wow hot! I had to wait another good minute and a bit more before I could have a drink.
Volume/Consistency: It was silky, that’s a suprice. It was a bit on the thick furry side of silky, almost sandy. Not bad.
Crema: The crema showed signs of life. If you look at the Roscioli Caffè coffee I reviewed a few days ago, you’ll see the crema looks pretty similar to this. Slightly mottled, not tiger stripes, but approaching it. So the crema was good, it was persistent, not necessarily too oily nor thin (the oilier the better for me, personally).
Odor: No odor of coffee, this is unfortunately standard here.
Taste: Wow was it bitter, it was deeply bitter, and in the first sips because it was so hot, I couldn’t tell if it was actually rancid or not. After I let the espresso cool down even more, I could taste it better and it was the characteristic bitter acrid taste, not in the full rancid, but nearly there.
Overall: The only thing holding this espresso together was the nice looking crema. The service was half-decent, the extremely bitter nature of it and it’s temperature just broke it apart and didn’t make it a very pleasant experience. It was a low-level coffee experience. Especially with the very good espresso available just on the other corner at the Giuliani Caffè.
The setup: They had a classic E-71 Faema espresso machine. The grinder was a Mazzer, and the coffee Negresco Caffè. This is a Roman based coffee that I’ve always had very negative experiences of, but that I’ve had better, definitely way-way better coincidentally at the Caffetteria Giuliani! Go figure…
Caffè Niagara
Max Ant SRL
Piazza Indipendenza 18
00185
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