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A local attraction - Parish of Saint Paul, which is situated beside this cafe, is a part of the unique culture of this city. Cafe Pamplona is an ideal choice if you are in the mood for the Spanish cuisine. The chef at this place cooks tasty gazpacho, cheese sandwiches and grilled cheese. Have a good time here and share perfectly cooked flans with your friends. You will hardly forget delicious espresso, tea or chocolate frappe that you can enjoy.
Select between indoor and outdoor seating. A lot of visitors find that the staff is attentive at this spot. Guests mention that the service is cool here. You will like low prices. There is a nice atmosphere and fancy decor at this cafe. Cafe Pamplona got a Zomato rating of 4 and leaves a positive aftertaste on visitors.
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Yonni S.
3 years ago on Yelp
I was here once - it has a great location. So why 1 star? Me and my girlfriend back then asked for lemonade. What we noticed was that the chef poured us "lemonade" from some carton (a soft drink). I hope that whoever opens a cafe over there makes sure to set a minimum bar for high quality is preserved.
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David Batuner
4 years ago on Google
We didn’t get part of our order (the food part) even though the server acknowledged it. The Viennese coffee had the worst watery taste I’ve ever experienced outside of a broken machine at a gas station. When I asked about the coffee, there was no effort to replace it with anything. I remember this place being pleasant with decent drinks back in the day, but this was really disappointing.
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Iyas D.
4 years ago on Yelp
Qualia are the subjective dimensions of experience that cannot be conveyed through words. Imagine describing the color blue to someone who has never seen the color. There is a certain distance from the true experience of blue that you would never be able to surpass. Words could get you close to the concept of blue, but would eventually fall short of being able to see and experience the color. My words that follow will attempt to convey the experience of Cafe Pamplona, but are of course limited by the inability to traverse the vacuum separating the written medium from subjective experience. I focus on the eponymous drink - the 'Cafe Pamplona,' because it has been years since I have consumed any other coffee-based drink at this establishment. The drink is served in a clear, Middle Eastern style tea cup. This provides you with a view of the inner workings of the drink: a color-blocked, Rothko-esque canvas of rich espresso layered delicately in a golden ratio on top of thick, sweetened condensed milk. My heart races when the cup is laid upon the table, and I am reminded of Kant's reflection upon aesthetics: 'The beautiful is the symbol of the morally good.' I preserve the structure of the drink for as long as I can, starting my journey into the glass with a spoonful of the espresso, careful not to irritate the interface between the coffee and the condensed milk. The espresso is bold, nutty, and ever so slightly bitter (which is a quality that serves it very well for this drink). After a few spoonfuls of the espresso, my faculties of taste take precedence over my faculties of sight. I take my spoon and dip it down into the condensed milk, so that the distal fifth of the spoon is covered in condensed milk and the rest cradles the frothy espresso. The balance of sweetness with the aforementioned bitterness of the espresso is like a Hegelian dialectic, the color of the drink mutating as each component takes on qualities from the other. Although we have established that my words are limited, the experience is approximated by the build-up in the first track on Merriweather Post Pavilion (In The Flowers). That moment when the drink has perfectly matured, a homogenous Cucinelli tan, that is the sonic explosion at 2:30. The entire gustatory sensory pathway, from the nerve endings in the tongue all the way to the ventral posteromedial nucleus, is immediately short-circuited, and in a state of trance you disavow all other coffee shops. I must admit, that this dependence upon the cafe's sweet brew has placed me in a rather vulnerable position. I'm not quite sure what I would do should this cafe ever close. The reality is that my memory would inevitably slowly fade over the years, these words a lifeline to the sweet qualia of the brew. Truth be told, although the coffee is incredible, being in Pamplona is all about the moment - the emergent property created by the pastel, cracked yellow walls, the steps you take to enter the underground seating area, the hum of the machinery in the kitchen, the acoustics of the plates touching the tables, the countless overheard conversations, the rotating cast of waiters and waitresses, the way the door sticks a little bit when you try to open or close it. I can look at every single table in Cafe Pamplona and recall a conversation I've had. I conclude by asserting that there is no better coffee shop in Harvard Square, Cambridge, or Boston; in fact, there is no close second, third, or fourth.
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Address
12 Bow St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Features
Outdoor seating
Сredit cards accepted
Wi-Fi
No booking
Takeaway
Not wheelchair accessible
Parking
Opening hours
| SundaySun | 11AM-9PM |
| MondayMon | 11AM-9PM |
| TuesdayTue | 11AM-9PM |
| WednesdayWed | 11AM-9PM |
| ThursdayThu | 11AM-9PM |
| FridayFri | 11AM-9PM |
| SaturdaySat | 11AM-9PM |
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