Good coffee and nice atmosphere. They do need to update their business hours though. Google says they close at 3pm on Sundays so my friends and I went to order and sat down at 1:30, only to have a worker come to us tell us they closed at 1:30…

All around solid coffee and specialty drinks, comfortable seating, convenient location. One time I got a headache because the bottled cold brew was a little strong but thats not GRs fault. Will continue coming back.

I’ve been to this location three times. I’ve ordered the same drink every time and I have to say for $6 it’s garbage.1. It just tasted like watered milk. No flavor.2. Was worse than the first. Watered down flavorless latte3. I had grounds in my cup. And not just a little. But a significant amount of grounds. The latte was so bitter I couldn’t drink it.For a $6 I am completely disappointed and won’t return.

The best coffee shop in Knoxville area.This a cozy place. The staff is really really good.The coffee is AWESOME!!!I highly recommend the southern pecan, this coffee is amazing. The cold brews are a really good option on the summer.You can order any coffee on the menu and I promise you wont be disappointed.You can also buy coffee beans there and have their coffee at home.

I love coming here. Right outside of campus perfectly convenient. Fast service, the staff is always friendly. Amazing coffee and muffins. They can get crowded but, that just tells you they’re doing something right.

The good- I had the Samocha which was a coconut mocha which was delicious. I ordered extra espresso as I usually do I love my coffee stronger. She immediately offered a little extra flavor and half n half in place of milk. She showed an understanding of the drinks she was making and did it all. The espresso looked nice coming out with a nice crema being formed. A+ drink!The bad- I discovered it by mistake is tucked back in on campus but thats probably because thats who is really meant for but if you want to bypass the chain on main and get up around the corner youll find a far better coffee.The Ugly- the are not in MichiganOverall- nice atmosphere, though I took it to go, nice set up great coffee worth the explore to find it if you are not in campus to know where its at.

Just got to say it. Average for sure. If you enjoy actually coffee and premium roasted single origin. You will be let down. Espresso was super below par, and made Keurig sound good.

I arrived about 10 minutes before closing (Yes, I know, I was THAT guy) and ordered a hot coffee. The host was very apologetic and said that hot coffee was unavailable on account of it being just before closing. She was very accommodating and offered iced brew instead, which I was fine with. She then put it on the house, and I wasnt expecting that at all. Ive never been one for cold coffee, but it tasted amazing. I think Im hooked. Thanks Golden Roast!

The photos were deceiving. I ordered a cappuccino and it was not good. The espresso was decent but the foam was terrible. Im not sure about sugar drinks but if youre looking for good, traditional coffee drinks then this isnt your place. It should have been a sin that on a Saturday morning it was dead and nobody was here to hang out and get coffee.

Taylor is a wonderful server and very polite

The Golden Roast is one of my favorite coffee shops in the Knoxville area! The atmosphere is warm and quiet. Coffee is wonderful and I highly recommend the maple glazed doughnut, which is only $1!

I love the Golden Roast! Great coffee and a great atmosphere for anything from dates to homework. You can get real mugs which I LOVE.

This is a customer on my route you will not fine a more friendly staff. quality of products i see the shop front to back very clean and sanitize.

I love The Golden Roast. The staff are so kind and warm and the food and drinks are always good. Great atmosphere and location!

Great place for college students and professors to meet and collaborate! Love their coffee

I love this classy little coffee shop! Interesting & tasty beverages and baked stuff in a charming coffeehouse atmosphere. Reminds me of Friends

Cappuccino was just ok.

LOVE THIS PLACE! Was able to find parking easy (even though I got a parking ticket, lol 🙄)! The staff is extra friendly and their coffee is BOMB🔥🔥

Its easy to miss, since it is tucked into the corner of Cumberland Avenue, but if youre a college student then this place should be a second home.It is great for those times when the library is closed and work needs to get done. The environment is quiet and cozy, the coffee is good, the pricing is great, and there is internet. Granted, its slow internet - but its there.If youre not a student or affiliated with the university and are just looking for a coffee shop, this place may not be the best for you. Parking is a nightmare on the strip, and frankly there are other coffee shops to check out before this one. However, if youre determined to going to every coffee shop in Knoxville, then it is worth checking out.For students, professors, and anyone else who routinely makes the trip to campus - going to the Golden Roast for a Mocha or Americano during your break is a must.

Great coffee, great prices. Nice place to study. Fast WiFi. Couches and outlets.

Some espresso machines don’t get cleaned enough. There have been unconfirmed rumors of employee mistreatment for a few years now. Not a great vibe overall ever since new ownership took over. Also, they’ve started playing contemporary Christian music in the mornings and that’s just weird.

Their home made soup is my favorite! Coffee is always amazing too & love the friendly staff :)

This is my first time at this coffee shop, and I am fairly satisfied. Prices are a little cheaper than what I’ve seen at other coffee shops, and they have different daily roasts, which is great. There isn’t a huge variety of coffee, but they have the standards, and they also have a decent tea selection. The bar tops are a little high and it’s not as quiet as I would like it, personally, but that’s really nitpicking. Overall, it’s a good local coffee shop.

I have been a customer of The Golden Roast for over a year, and often brag about how kind the owners and staff are. They have helped me learn, and appreciate, coffee in a whole new way. I drink a large amount of coffee each week, but I drink Golden Roast the most, and look forward to it. If you’re near UT campus, or see their beans on a store shelf, I encourage you to give it a try. You’ll be getting a product that a ton of attention, care, and loving effort went in to.

Really great coffee!

While at The Golden Roast Coffee shop the other day, Don (the owner) let me sample their new watermelon drink of the month. On a hot summer day, it was the perfect refresher. My taste buds were dancing, I was grinning after every sip. :) If youre near UT campus, I encourage you to stop by Golden Roast and try their watermelon drink of the month. It was ah-mazing!

Quiet because most guests are using a computer or cell phone.Tuna salad pita was very good. Chia latte was excellent.

The Chai latte here is really good and they have nice, helpful staff. The drinks are adequately priced, not like most shops in town. This is a small, cozy place, close to campus (10 minute walk) but always has open places to sit. Good place to hang out or study. Parking can be tricky in this area; so, I suggest parking in a garage or near campus and just walk over.

The Golden Roast has supplied my locally roasted beans for many years and I’ve always been thrilled with the quality, timeliness and friendliness of the roasting staff. I’ve visited the café many times as well and always had a great experience and I’ve enjoyed similar tasting notes to what I enjoy from their beans.Parking is difficult on Melrose place, don’t be surprised if you have to walk a block or two!

First morning stop on a short visit to Knoxville. What a lovely place with a warm and welcoming staff. They were kind enough to tell us a little about the town and where to check out during our short time here. So awesome!And the coffee...Being from NYC Ive experienced all kinds of coffee in varying levels of quality and I can say Golden Roast is fresh, delicious, and on point.Hard to believe this place has been around for over 20years by the look of it but when you start the conversation and have your first sip it all starts to make sense.Go grab a cup!!

Bs service. Owner should be ashamed of hiring employees.

Coffee, etc. Great. Service 🙄 No toilet paper in one restroom. no paper towels in the other, our unsmiling barista, who was told, is on her phone, sitting.

Absolutely love this cozy little place!!! Great coffee, friendly staff. I like to go here because I can sit and focus for goes at a time and really get work done! I like how it is not main stream like Starbucks, but still the right atmosphere for work or hanging out!

I cannot say enough good things about this coffee shop! Golden Roast Coffee Roasters offers some of the freshest bean coffee around. And their lattes are so good. The customer service is always on point too!

Cute shop! I had no idea this was so close to UT campus--truly a hidden gem of an alternative coffee shop. I tried the Big Orange Mocha iced and it was so delicious and flavorful! Staff was very friendly and knowledgeable about their products.

Fast and great service clean keep up the good work give the people there a big rise

The Golden Roast has been a cornerstone of the campus and Knoxville community. When one becomes tired of the same old cup of Joe from Starbucks and Einsteins on campus, you can retire to the varietal and tasteful selection of coffees at The Golden Roast. Their pastries will also provide you a great afternoon snack as you hob nob with fellow academics or friends. Keep it up Golden Roast!

If you recently ran out of Starbucks gift cards and you are in the area, then consider visiting The Golden Roast. The atmosphere is fine and the coffee drinks are okay. However, if you are looking for high quality specialty coffee do not go with high expectations. Their espresso is only slightly better than Starbucks.The Golden Roast is more of a small cafe that serves coffee along with its lunch menu and pastries as opposed to being a specialty coffee house as the name might imply.

Easily the best coffee Ive had in Tennessee.

Im always greeted with a warm smile and a delicious beverage. Lunch options are tasty and quick for a meal on the go. This spot is a gem for your local campus coffee shop!

We stopped here before heading out of town. The atmosphere was great and the barista was super nice. He helped us with our selections because we had never been in this cafe before. The coffee was so good it was hard not to down the whole thing once it cooled off. A lot of specialty shops are too stuck up to help but this one was not like that. Highly recommend this to someone passing through Knoxville.

One of my favorite places to study! Its right on the edge of campus, but it doesnt feel overbearing. The baristas are always kind and the coffee is delicious.

Come for the coffee, leave because the wifi doesnt work. Seriously though, this is one of the oldest coffee shops in Knoxville. It is locally owned and serves a variety of coffee roasted at the shops roastery (off site).The coffee selections are generally good, not as acidic as the coffee at some of Knoxvilles newer brew places, but watch out for some of the ... rather oddball flavor choices of their specialty coffees (Im looking at you, coconut rum infused Black Mountain roast, and Smoky Mountain Blend).As for parking at the Melrose Ave location, it is limited, but theres often 2-hour meter parking nearby on Lake Avenue. Their second location, opening soon on Sutherland Avenue (in the basement of the old Marble City Methodist Church) has more plentiful parking.The Melrose shop is a typical campus coffee shop bordering the University of Tennessee campus -- on any given day you can catch conversations about space exploration, international politics, and undergraduate fears of a pending exam. The baristas are friendly, but in the last two years their turn-over rates have been astounding (even for how transient coffee shop work can be). If you plan to get work done at Melrose on a laptop, be warned that their wifi network (despite three new routers in maybe a year or so) is wonky -- your Macbook will be fine, your recent iPhone or iPad will be too, but good luck with an older iPad or a Windows laptop. If your phone can serve as a personal wifi hotspot, bring it with you.Sincerely -- a guy who has been a regular here since former owner Allan Zeigel and his wife opened the shop in the 1990s.

A nice little coffee shop with a traditional cafe atmosphere and decent quality coffee. It is a conveniently located coffee shop for college students and faculty, but if its the highest quality coffee in Knoxville your looking for, visit the old city. The quality of the coffee is surprisingly high given their reasonable pricing; I am a regular to this cafe and am pleased with their coffee on a daily basis.

Golden Roast used to be a shop I loved to frequent. Centrally located, and once staffed by a friendly and professional staff. Recently, though, the management fired several of my favorite baristas with no warning or explanation, and hired on new ones at a lower pay rate. This is a disgusting business practice designed to squeeze as much profit out of their workers as possible, and I will no longer be frequenting their establishment.

The Volunteer Blend is the best coffee I have ever had!!!

Wonderful little hole in the wall coffee shop on campus. Prices are reasonable and has a great atmosphere to meet up for a casual date or to work on school projects.

This coffee shop has a great location, great hours, and an awesome staff. My one problem is there coffee roast. I have come here multiple times, but have never had a latte that did not taste burnt.

Nice atmosphere, very good coffee & tea selection! Horrible parking though, not the businesss fault, its in downtown, college area.

Love this place! Theyre so friendly! Today I got their house roast and some oatmeal. Both were delicious.

Went here once in December 2018, and again in January. Got worse every time. The old employees, probably the best part of this hipster knockoff starbucks, all got fired after they got a raise. Then, the management hired newbies at a lower rate. They offered the oldies and goldies their jobs back at a lower rate. Last straw. Dripped their employees, good people, dry. Not to mention, the coffee tastes like straw.

We love this coffee shop! The staff is beyond friendly. We are always greeted with a smile and the coffee and muffins are amazing. We always buy some beans to take home too. Win, win, win!

My favorite coffee place in this area.The coffee is good, the prices very reasonable, and the place friendly with a lot of light and a nice background music selection.Alan and Karen lead a very friendly team and never miss a smile.I love it.

As a UT student I loved to visit this place all the time. Hearing recent news of the manager firing great baristas, hiring new ones for lower pay, and just the manager being intolerable, I not be going to Golden Roast as frequent. I hate to support businesses that aren’t looking for the best of their employees. Until I hear more news, I will not be visiting here.

Free, fast wifi. Good coffee. Bit loud and crowded, but nice spot to drop in for a cup and chat.

Grabbed a bagel and a coffee this morning from tgr. barista was super nice (mary i think was her name) and friendly. the manager (i didn’t catch her name) answered my silly question about the coffee thermalizers and generally tolerated my nonsense.i had good time. would recommendedit: tell mary i said hi

Great service, tasty coffee, a relaxing atmosphere (good for studying). They display some neat art sometimes as well!

I greatly appreciate the Golden Roast as a UT grad student. Good coffee and food and atmosphere. The staff are friendly and welcoming and very good baristas. I enjoy many of their coffee roasts and the baristas have always welcomed questions about their roasts and have been able to answer all Ive posed to them.

Weak 4 star college coffee shop. About a dozen tables and a long bar. Nice wooden tables. Blah ceiling and floor. Oldies on audio at low volume. Free wifi with posted password. A couple outlets. Numi bagged teas. They have London fogs on the menu, but barrista thought that only meant Earl Grey. Small breakfast menu - no protein except hummus. Tiny selection of kinda sad looking pie and muffins.

Ive been addicted to coffee ever since I was a little tyke. Until I came here, though, my drug of choice had always been acquired via the almighty Starbucks. That all changed after my first sip of a latte at the Golden Roast. Ever since, I have perused Knoxvilles selection of local coffee shops to see what this new tier of espresso beverages offered me, and it is my conclusion that the Golden Roast is simply a cut above the rest. The decor creates a perfect, low-key atmosphere, complemented by the baristas relaxed, but friendly, personalities. And perhaps my favorite quality of this place is its consistency, recalling as I write many good and just as many horrible experiences at Starbucks. Of the ten or so times Ive visited the Golden Roast, only once have I visited on a bad day, and even that latte was one of the best Ive had in Tennessee. If youre looking to graduate from the dreaded coffee chain, the Golden Roast is a great place to start.

Their house mochas are amazing (great for non-coffee drinkers with caffeine heads for friends!)However, this morning we had the most sour barista imaginable (usually so much friendlier, which is why I am not docking any stars). She mentioned her bad attitude, hatred of crowds (thankfully it wasnt crowded), and how she doesnt usually work mornings because {she} goes to bed at 5 AM. She nearly bit my boyfriends head off after he gently reminded her to charge us for a bagel.I dont know if this was a bad day for her (again, has no bearing on the usual atmosphere and awesome quality of the coffee), but the owner or manager should seriously consider taking this woman aside and telling her to not act so angry and passive-aggressive, even if she is working an opener. It sucks that she wasnt working her usual shift, I feel for her, but its something you guys need to address with her. Again, every other worker at this coffee shop is so wonderful and friendly, I was shocked.

Wonderful experience! Great people! We enjoyed the Gilmore Girls day at Lukes ;-)

Too expensive and the cup broke in my hands.12 dollars for two medium drinks. One of which broke at the seam after 10 minutes and spilt everywhere. Not going back. This place sucks.

Their coffee is wonderful! One of the baristas, John has a way of exciting your taste buds by exploring new flavors, but all the baristas do their best to make a drink that is perfect for you.Their only down side is sluggish WiFi.

The barista who did the Sunday evening shift did a great job! Im not a local, Im a traveller and she made me feeling welcome! I definitely recommend this coffeeshop.

One and good Local coffee shop near UTK. I really like their Chai Latte.

Quaint, cozy coffee shop near campus. The coffee is always great, and little pastries are also a welcome addition.

Under the new management, the coffee shop has thrived. It is a great place to go to relax or to work on a college paper. Friendly staff, too.

Great service and coffee. Special mention to the chocolate cake.

Friendly staff and great coffee, nice atmosphere to hangout with friends or study for finals.

Decent coffee with super-friendly staff.

Two thumbs up!! Friendly, fast service. Iced mocha latte w/ soy milk was perfecto!

I use to spend hours here during grad school. Awesome place

Great place to study. Good coffee and desserts. Wifi.

I loved the atmosphere and the coffee was amazing. This place definitely beats Starbucks.

Ten years ago, this place felt like my cozy living room, but now, it feels like my dead heart coldly flopping on a corporate floor. I gave them three stars because Im so conflicted.

Fantastic espresso! We had a macchiato and an Americano and they were both spectacular!Were out-of-towners and were looking for great coffee in Knoxville. Its here!

Whoah whoah whoah, lets not get carried away here with 5 stars! This place is nice, but not perfect!Coffee: 4-5 different bean options. House blend was very good. Pourover not an option. Only French press or drip. Price very reasonable.Environment: a little more corporate than I would prefer... the interior has less personality than a 5-star... borderline chain-ish.If youre a college student, this is a great destination. There is some decent counter/table top square footage throughout the shop.

Coffee is alright, better than bad, about good, not great. A step above starbucks.

Excellent coffee, great price, relaxed atmosphere.

Great place to study or get work done and have good coffee or food. Conveniently located close to campus.

Of all the changes in Knoxville around UTK this is one place slow to change for all the right reasons. Think coffee shops pre Starbucks.

Love the baristas, the options and the food.

Go to Coffee Shop in town! OH, Soo good!

Still my favorite coffee haunt since graduating in 1996.

Best coffee and customer service in Knoxville!

The best coffee I had in the States.

Oldest coffee shop in town and there is a reason for it!

Pros: Healthy food, close to campus.Cons: Lunch ends at 2, overhear private conversations.

The best coffe shop in campus

Best coffee anywhere near campus

Do yourself a favor and try the scones.

Awesome beans!!

House mocha for the win

Benjamin 10