I ate at the world's biggest Starbucks. The meal was tasty, and the setting was super cool, but it wasn't worth the $43 I spent. (2024)

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The 35,000-square-foot Reserve Roastery is located on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. It's just a couple of minutes from the iconic John Hanco*ck Center, since renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue.

Source: Starbucks

The store has four floors, each serving a range of hot and cold drinks — including coffee and alcoholic beverages — and food from the exclusive Starbucks Reserve menu.

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I got my meal from the second floor, which hosts the Princi café and bakery. This is the main place to get food at the Reserve Roastery.

Savory items on the menu include pizza, focaccia sandwiches, and croissants with prosciutto and fontina cheese. Most are priced at just under $10 pre-tax.

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There's a huge selection of desserts, too, with most selling for around $10 pre-tax. They include cheesecake, chocolate tarts, olive oil cake, and pastries.

I opted for avocado toast with cherry tomatoes, tiramisù, and tea.

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The Reserve Roastery is much more upmarket than regular Starbucks stores, but there still wasn't table service. Customers were given buzzers, though, so that they could find a seat while they waited for their orders.

The food was served on a wooden tray, but it wasn't served with proper silverware. Instead, there was disposable — but compostable — cutlery for customers to take.

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I took my tray up to the rooftop terrace on the fifth floor. It was a bit difficult to take my tray with a cup of tea up to the top floor in an elevator and open the door to the terrace.

The avocado toast was delicious. I opted for one served with cherry tomatoes, arugula, and herbs. The toppings were generous, but I was disappointed in the overall portion size for $9 pre-tax. It also, strangely, wasn't served on a plate.

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There was no English Breakfast tea on the menu, but a staff member advised me to get the Golden Monkey black tea instead, which I ordered with steamed oat milk.

In the UK, black tea is just served with a splash of milk, but what I ended up with was a cup of very milky tea that was lacking in flavor. I didn't enjoy drinking it — and neither did the Brits sat opposite me, sipping at their own tea.

I wanted to order whatever the most popular dessert was. A member of staff told me that it was the tiramisù, followed by the cheesecake.

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The tiramisù was the most expensive thing I ordered, at $11.50 pre-tax. I enjoyed the creamy mascarpone filling, but the cake layers were a little bit dry and not as strongly flavored as I'd expected.

This little bird enjoyed my leftovers, though.

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Starbucks is a cold drink pioneer. Though many of its most popular iced drinks contain coffee, like its cold brew and lattes, it's also known for its Refreshers and Frappucinos. On my way out, I decided to try something available only at the Reserve locations — the Strawberry Balsamic Spritz.

It was made up of sparkling water, "muddled" strawberry, and balsamic vinegar, and cost $7 for a grande. It tasted nice and was really refreshing, but I couldn't taste the vinegar at all. The portion of the lightly mashed strawberry was generous — this is how much was left when I finished the liquid.

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I was glad I'd kept my fork from my lunch. I used it to scoop out the tasty chunks of strawberry.

I loved being able to sit on the roof terrace with views of Chicago's skyscrapers, though it did get really busy up there. And I thought the avocado toast was delicious.

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