Caffe Bene

Though I no longer go to this Caffebene location, I remember frequenting this spot nearly every day for a span of six months when I first moved to the neighborhood (Bayside) in 2014. What kept me coming back here was the reliable Wi-​Fi; the vanilla frappé, the drink I enjoyed the most; and the thick books on the shelves that no one read: I used these to elevate my laptop, because not doing this results in back pain.
But over time, I recognized the negatives of this place: pretty much none of the pastries are fresh, and even the cashier admitted this to me once as I was about to buy one. I appreciated her honesty, but why sell pastries that are low quality?
Last October, I recognized that one of the cashiers consistently gave me a negative attitude when she rang up my order. That was the last straw for me. The first few times she showed a sour face, I thought she was having a bad day (or three). After the fifth or sixth time of seeing this, I realized her hostility could’ve related to me, so I approached her and the conversation did not go well.
The first time I approached this cashier, I asked her, «Whenever you take my order, I’ve sensed that you’ve been angry at me. Is something wrong?» to which she said «No???» to which I smugly said, «Well, thanks for letting me know.»
When I approached her differently the second time, by mentioning I wanted to hear her thoughts, she said, «Well, I like books and I don’t like that you used the ones in here to raise your laptop, and not to read them.» To which I said, «Okay, that’s your personal preference and if that bothered you, you should’ve let me know. As a staff worker here, you have the power to influence the café atmosphere, and you’ve made it negative for me.»
I was surprised that she kept in her hostility for so long, and her passive aggressive attitude wasn’t a good look, especially not when you’re in a position of shaping the vibe of a coffee shop as its staff worker. Since then, I haven’t been back.

I’m kinda confused why this place has only 2.5 stars. Yeah they have a few confused baristas, but they also have a huge space to study without annoying music rudely blaring. I had the taro bubble tea– a tad on the sweet side. I was surprised by the looks of the very sad and few pastries set out. Their fresh waffles smelled great though. If you want yummy pastries, walk across the street to the French Workshop.
Enjoy

Good coffee, but that is all. Their wafels were made of very heavy dough that had a taste of badly defrosted item, they were not crispy, but chewy, and the only other item one could have there with the coffee was a big slice of something that looked like wonder bread with very little on it (for almost $ 7-​?) Café late was $ 4,75 ! The place is expensive, and bad. Never again! Oh, and I forgot: they do sell little bags of chips like at any gas station — what a culinary rat hole !

I get better tasty drinks from Starbucks… I won’t be coming back. The price you pay for drinks here isn’t worth it. I’m also disappointed in the food options available. I don’t necessarily want a crêpe for $ 8. Maybe I want a small pastry for $ 3. We need more options!!!

Omg!!! So slow! They staff looks so lost and don’t know what they’re doing. I’ve been waiting 15 minute for sandwich and took him forever to create it before he put in the oven. Hopefully, the taste makes it worth it.

Went here in the evening during the week for a catch up with a friend. The vanilla latte was great, but the red velvet cake slice I ordered tasted as if it was days old. I suggest sticking to the drinks.

This place is big and roomy. My friends and I go there to talk and we love their drinks. It’s pretty quiet when I go but I really like this place!

Great atmosphere, comfortable seats, free WiFi and plenty of outlets. Great place to study.
Pricey menu, but it is what it is.
Staff isn’t the most English fluent but then again, you try speaking another language; def not perfect and can be frustrating if you’re in a rush.
Oh and soy milk is free! Really great for vegans and lactose intolerant.
The green tea latte and Chai tea latte are my favorites, but the iced coffee is nice and not as acidic as a hot brew would be.

The coffee is good. They don’t have many fresh pastry to chose from as the ones in city. Plus they don’t look fresh… They look like sitting in the plastic bags for days. U can always order the fresh made sandwich if u need food. The chx sandwiches are delish.
The store is big and clean. I have been in this one few times, never crowded, which is really good to chill.

This place is a decent place to catch up with you friends. The environment is a cool coffee show with modern interior decoration. I came here to study and TBH it comes off to be a place you may be able to study but realistically it is not. If you love noise and blasting k-​pop/​top 100 music while you study then… You go glen coco because this place is great for you.
Lastly I truly believe the drinks/​food are overpriced for what you do get. What I like is that they plastic figured to show you have the food you order will look like and how big it will be.
This place is more of a 1) catch up with your friends 2) read a causal book 3) computer work that doesn’t require dedicated attention

No

I come here often to study cause they usually don’t have music on and it’s very empty. The extent of quietness makes it almost like a library and I’m not complaining cause I needa get some work done! However, when I used to get the shaved ice in the summer, it was terrible. Mostly composed of ice, rarely any toppings esp red beans considering that it IS a red bean shaved ice dessert. If you wanna study in a peaceful area, this is the place to be. If you’re tryna grab some dessert to eat, go to Martha’s. It’d also be nice if the workers spoke English.

ok so this location is a great place to hangout, and/​or get some reading done. I like the multigrain drink a lot in all the caffe bene locations — misugaroo. and it’s good here too. coffee, however, is not great. would be nice if coffee was good here. yeah, what a novel idea, café that serves great coffee?

This coffee shop was super cute and cozy. The service was excellent and I was pleasantly surprise with my drink. Since they did not have cold brew I ordered an iced coffee with with a shot of espresso and a splash of almond milk. It was PERFECT.

I’ve been to this café in bell blvd once with my friend and we shared a green tea ice/​ice-​cream bomb! It was actually quite interesting to taste and the café was pretty empty but I blame the fact that it was pouring cats and dogs outside! We enjoyed our time sharing our ice bomb and chit chatting at the same time. The décor was nothing too special other than a hypnotizing TV rotating between different pictures advertising different companies and businesses over and over again.
Over all I wouldn’t come back here to try anything else, it was one of those «let me come in here asap to hide from the rain and pick up something interesting to eat while I’m here» type of situations.

I really wanted to like this place because it’s so central. It’s a franchise so each store is managed differently. The one on 158& northern is def more well-​run by clearly Koreans but this one is run by Chinese. The just opened and looks like it’s ironing out the kinks. What annoys me is 2 things: the person taking orders doesn’t understand English well so we had to repeat the siZe and order more than twice as she was punching in things so slowly. Second is they have this awesomely la M… whatever espresso machine which I see at fancy coffee shops yet the lack of a barista makes this a waste of a machine. My drink was scalding hot with fumes of burnt milk. It was annoying bc I dislike spending 2x Dunkin D for less than satisfying coffee. Décor is the usual caffe bene — vertical wood with nice color.

Went in today and bought a chocolate chip muffin, only to find out there were no chocolate chips. Ok fine whatever. $ 3.50 for a muffin is a lot but I was starving. While eating it i noticed a grayish blue coloring on the inside. Thinking it looks like a blueberry I continue eating it. Only to get to the center and seeing SOME UGLY THING. it looks like a jalapeño pepper!!! I posted a pic of it on their pictures! I wanted to puke! I went back and asked them what it was. Maybe it was some sort of fruit. The guy grabbed his sheet of muffins on it and told me he’s never seen this before and it’s not even on the list. This was disgusting. Never again going to this overpriced café!!!

Dropped by here one day after grabbing a quick bite near that area. I was really craving a green tea frappé and decided to order one from here. The frappé was gritty in a way and not well-​blended like a frappé should be. There wasn’t a good green-​tea flavour, it tasted like a mix or something. The environment at this café was nice as it’s quite spacious and brightly lit, however i didn’t enjoy the frappé. If you’re into green tea drinks, I wouldn’t recommend. I’d rather stick to the Starbucks version of the GTF. Haven’t tried any of the food options here.

Iced americanos have been great. Havent tried any food yet. This location is a little strange, I dont see any Koreans ever in this place, it may be Chinese owned.

They’re selling old pastries that have been out in like 85+ degree temperatures to save money. I’d be surprised if you don’t end up sick. Honestly, other locations especially the corporate stores are way better managed and cleaned. Stay clear people.