I've been wanting to try Colectivo for for a while now but was discouraged due to the long lines on Saturdays. I thought this place must be really good if so many people are waiting in line, but alas this was not my experience with my first visit. I'll break my review down by categories.
Location: Gotta give 5 stars for location. This is right across the street from the capital building in beautiful downtown Madison Wisconsin. It's right on the corner with great views.
Service: The service was average so I will give 3 stars. Staff did there job but that's about it.
Food: I was very disappointed so I'm only giving 1 star. The breakfast burrito was pre-made and the texture of the eggs were hard in sections, either from being microwaved too long or because it was frozen, maybe? I had to discretely spit out pieces of hard egg into my napkin because it was so impalpable. The texture of the potatoes were like mush. They should have been slightly al dente if they were doing it right. The potatoes were also dark in color suggesting they had been exposed to air too long after being peeled and diced. The burrito was also very small and not much bigger than a Chinese egg roll you would get at Panda Express! For $6.25 I expected more.
Coffee: I can only give 2 stars because it wasn't much better than something you would expect from Denny's or McDonald's. It had a burnt taste, possibly from grinding beans in a hot grinder that scorched them? Dunno, maybe they use low quality beans. Coming to Madison from living in both SF and Seattle spoiled me, but I've had some great coffee in many other parts of the US. Colectivo should have done some basic research before starting a coffee shop but at least they do have legitimate espresso machines and a pour over setup.
I really wanted to like this place but the only saving grace for not giving 1 star is the location.