MoonGoat Coffee

A roaster’s café in the UCI Research Park

Order at the bar and the beans behind it come from the company’s own roastery. MoonGoat is an Orange County coffee company that started roasting in Santa Ana in 2018 and opened its first shop in Costa Mesa a year later, and the Irvine café in the UCI Research Park is its fourth storefront, after Garden Grove and Laguna Beach. It opened formally in March 2024, having quietly started serving the month before. The co-founder describes the company as community first, an idea he traces back to the coffee shops he spent time in while touring as a musician. In Irvine that turns into a daytime café for coffee, matcha, tea, casual food, studying and sitting around.

Single origins, and matcha from Nishio

The coffee is sourcing-led, with single origins and blends alongside drip and pour-over at the bar, and beans bought both locally and from further afield. Matcha is not an afterthought: MatchaBot is the house ceremonial-grade matcha from Nishio in Japan, made for clarity and balance, and the co-founder makes buying trips to Japan because that quality matters to him. Tea fills out the drinks list, and the food is made in house for daytime eating rather than shipped in.

A room for laptops and long conversations

The Irvine branch is casual and study-friendly rather than formal. On the day it opened, people were working, studying and lounging across the room while baristas moved fast behind the bar and the smell of grinding beans filled it. That was the intent. The co-founder wanted somewhere people could go and hang out, a room able to hold sixty people studying or working in groups rather than a narrow row of laptop seats. The site has coffee history of its own, having been a Starbucks and then Steam Coffee Bar before this. For a first order, take a single origin as drip or pour-over if coffee is the reason for coming, and MatchaBot if it is not.