Quick Take:
Location: Bartow
What I ordered: Iced Coffee, Pistachio Muffin and Cheese Danish
Extra Order
(Wife/Katie's Order): Red Velvet Latte
Final Score: 4/5
Price: ~$10–$20 per person
For my third stop on Mike’s Polk Food Quest, I visited Unfiltered Coffee House in Bartow.
The last few weeks we've had bbq at Gaskins, chicken at Lovebirds and even burgers at Grievous Angel — so I figured it was time to switch it up and grab some coffee and pastries.
If you're new here, the concept of my Polk Food Quest is simple: every week I try a local spot, order the most common thing people get, try a few extras, and rank it on taste, value, vibes, and overall.
This week: Iced Coffee + Speciality Coffee (+ Bonus Pastry Taste Test).
Which means I ordered an iced coffee and two pastries as my "main dish" and Katie ordered a specialty coffee.
Side note: I also just published the top 10 coffee shops in Lakeland last week, building on The Best Food In Polk!
How Does This Work?
I order the standard item for that category (for coffee that’s a regular iced coffee, a specialty coffee and a bonus pastry taste review), plus a few extras so I can get a full feel for the menu.
Then I rank the experience on four things:
Taste | Value | Vibes | 
Overall
Taste focuses on the standard item.
The rest reflects the entire experience.
Taste: 3.5/5
Reviewing a coffee shop for taste is a bit challenging.
For our other categories, like pizza, burgers, even bbq and tacos — it's easy to know what the "standard" item is.
For a coffee shop I've made the criteria:
- A plain iced coffee
- A specialty coffee (Katie's choice)
And then a bonus review of their pastries.
Because how could I review a coffee shop without trying to pastries...!?
So here's what we have:
1 — My Plain Iced Coffee: It was fine. Not bad. Not great. Fine. It was a coffee. Little watery, if I had to be nit-picky — and I didn't love the glass cup it was served in — but it was fine.
2 — Specialty Coffee (Red Velvet Latte): Again, this one was "okay". It was a bit too sweet, and nothing that blew us away. Katie is more of the specialty coffee person than I am and she gave it kind of an "eh". Could do with or without. Indifferent.
3 — The Pastries: I'm a big pastry guy. Love them. So I got a pistachio muffin and a cheese danish. The pistachio muffin was amazing! The cheese danish was just a cheese danish. Like the coffees, it was just okay. But the muffin stood out.
All in all, we're giving Unfiltered Coffee House a 3.5/5 for taste.
Nothing to write home about, but good overall.
I think both Katie and I agree that everything was good enough to go back (especially for the experience, which I'll talk more about in the "Vibes" review section)!
Value: 3.5/5
If I ranked the taste a 5/5 I think I would put value at a 4/5, but being that I put the taste review at a 3.5/5, it's more honest to leave it at 3.5/5 for value as well.
That said, if you're willing to spend a couple bucks more for the experience (a quaint, homey, and inviting spot) then boost this up to 4/5 because I'm giving it a 5/5 for Vibes below.
I put the price per person around $10-20, which is fairly standard for coffee shops and puts it around mid-tier.
It's not a "cheap" grab-and-go spot pricing, but fair for what it is.
Vibes: 5/5
The Vibes in Unfiltered were everything.
THIS is what would bring me back.
I don't need a regular coffee that blows me out of the water to get me to come back to a coffee shop when it's this incredible inside.
The staff was amazing and the vibes were inviting and cozy.
I could sit in there and work for hours and hours and feel right at home.
I really wanted to bump up the value to a 4 out of 5 just for this, but also think it's important to keep the value tied to taste and price alone.
Overall: 4/5
I'm giving Unfiltered Coffee House a solid 4/5 overall.
It's not a coffee shop that I'd go running back to for the taste of their coffee or pastries (though that pistachio muffin could make me a liar); but the vibes would have me back over and over again — especially if we were even a tad bit closer.
Here's a question I'm going to start adding to the overall review from now on:
Would I bring my visiting family there?
Absolutely.
I'd probably pass if we were just looking for a quick grab-and-go coffee, but would absolutely bring them if we were looking for a place to sit down and relax with a cup and maybe quick bite.
Here’s how I’d sum up Unfiltered Coffee House:
It’s the kind of place you can sit in for hours, get some work done, and feel completely at home.
Everything we had was solid across the board, but it’s really the atmosphere that makes this place stand out.
Unfiltered is definitely a spot we’ll be rotating into our regular stops when we’re in the area.
Before You Go....
Hey!
I want to know what you think of Unfiltered Coffee House.
Leave a comment below.
The more you share, the better, but anything is appreciated.
Each comment helps The Best Of Polk articles and eventually, the yearly awards!
Have a place you want me to try?
Make sure to comment that as well.
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