Caffebene

I do NOT. really do NOT understand the hype about caffebene and why there are so many stores in the city! I have tried the drinks, the desserts and the ice cream and they all taste absolutely disgusting. The staff here is friendly but the food is just inedible!

So I decided to come back for my cup of early morning coffee to see if there are any progress. None. The cashier was stilling engaged in a conversation while I stood there for him to finish up. His colleague had to inform him that I was waiting. After he rung my order of medium dark roast, he didnt get my coffee. He had me wait until I spoke to his colleague about it. I felt I had to address this to him and I did. He did apologize, but that’s no way to treat a customer.

Pretty irritated that I spent 4 dollars here on what tasted like a straight out of the package green tea latte. In addition to tasting the gritty powder that they obviously used to make this concoction, they also failed to even mix the thing properly… with different parts of my drink at different a consistency and color. The lay out of the place was awkward and it really does not make for a place to sit and talk let alone to sit and study. Definitely could do a lot better if you wanted an actual drink that doesn’t have the feel that a 5 year old child lazily slapped together.

This franchise has many good things going for it — variety of drinks, delicious desserts, and a cute environment. However, this location could use better management. The staff completely forgot about our drink order until we went to tell them, despite the place not being busy on a Sunday late night.
I think this location could also improve with a full menu that is consistent across all locations. The only desserts offered are the waffles here, and some premade ones in the fridge.

Amazingly slow service for a coffee shop. The people behind the counter were goofing off and my drink came out wrong. If you’re in a hurry, just stick with Starbucks.

Good waffle, lack of drink choices when I visited, and terrible service experience.
I loved the ambiance, food, and drink at the Jersey City location, and ended up coming here at 11:35pm to warm up for an hour or so while waiting for someone.(*) The ambiance is definitely not as inviting as the Jersey one, but it’s okay as cafes go.
As for drinks, I wanted to get (iced) bubble tea, only to be informed that they could only do it hot. This began a long list of things they *didn’t* have, with the woman behind the counter ultimately beginning to laugh/​giggle. I can appreciate that there was humor in this situation, but — seriously? She should have been more apologetic instead, there was only one «sorry» thrown in there with all the «we don’t have that either». In the end I got tea — excellent selection of Mighty Leaf teas, but I hate getting tea at coffee shops, because it’s always way overpriced for the work that goes into it.
For food, I got one of the pre-​packaged chocolate-​covered waffles, I didn’t want a repeat of what I just had with the drinks. Can’t argue with the tasty-​ness of that waffle, though.
Now, just as I was getting my order, another woman behind the counter announced that they were closing in five minutes, which really made the whole experience the 2-​star one that it was. 1) The woman announcing this at the top of her voice was quite rude about it, and didn’t give any explanation for why they were closing at 11:45pm rather than the actual closing time of midnight (why are you closing now? — «because that’s when we close»). 2) The woman I had ordered from hadn’t mentioned anything about this to me, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered with my order.
In hindsight, I should just have gone to Starbucks…
(*) Alright, so part of this story is my fault for checking the open hours on Google (saying open until 2am on Saturday) vs. here on Unilocal (which appears correct). Still, it seems to me that these days, making sure your online business information is correct should be a priority for places, especially popular ones.

food is good, service sucks.
people say New Yorkers are rude or cold, but I haven’t experienced that until I came here. the other café bene locations I’ve been to are much friendlier.

Didn’t realize that Caffe Bene is already in the LA area, or I might have skipped this and looked for a local, indie coffee bar. Still this was practically across the street from my hotel, so it was worth checking out.
The place has a good vibe to it. It’s large and there’s actually a library area with actual books you can read in the shop. Of course, these days most people are on their laptops, tablets or phones reading things, so it’s not that important to most people, but it rang a positive note to me.
The place also has sandwiches and salads, much like you know who has these days. Still cool to see although Pret A Monger around the corner has basically the same setup with a few hot entrees.
They were still offering holiday drinks on the day I visited (January 10), so I tried the Red Velvet Latte. Great idea and the coffee looked great, but it didn’t pack as much flavor or that caffeinated boost I was hoping for. Not going to really make me switch from Starbucks or Coffee Bean or better yet, the third wave coffee purveyors.
Caffe Bene is OK, and if you don’t have any better options in the area, it will work. But for the most part, it’s skip able.

Love this place. It’s big and spacious with lots of spaces inside to sit with friends and relax. The drinks are multi faceted and plentiful. And there’s always something to snack on.
Last year I had a business meeting there with 3 other people. It was no problem getting a seat and being able to hear each other talk.
Great spot! Highly recommended.

Not as great as Joes, but still very good. Nice vibe upstairs to sit and people watch. Similar quality to a good, more commercial, South African barrister.
No food was ordered

Stopped by to get coffee in the way to see the Thanksgiving Day parade. Kids ended up ordering some if their fruit waffles but they were out of strawberries and the selection was limited. Ended up with blueberries. Not very impressed so not sure what the hype and reviews were all about. They did have a large pastry selection but those were not the lure. One of my daughters went outside and ordered food from the cart vendor and there was a better selection. Didn’t get to check out the rest of the place since i was in a hurry for the parade.
Will try it again next time I’m in town.

The coffee is pretty good! This place is a large space with a little pastry section up front and the cashier toward the middle of this somewhat long rectangular store. There is some bar style seating along the Windows as well as a long table toward the back, a private library like area, and a room that’s connected by a few stairs. People were doing work there as it seems pretty quiet there.
The issue is that it gets really hot. They use full incandescent bulbs in the light above the long table. These emit crazy amounts of heat because there are about 100 of these. They should probably change these to fluorescent or LED lights.

We tried to kill time before watching a Broadway play at Longacre Theater, we decided to stopped by. I would give them a 4 star rating for its location, ambiance and presentation. Cool coffee house with a feel of a bookstore once you are seated and enjoying your time. I would give them 4 stars for their food and drinks selections, they have wide variety. But my rating went down to 3 as we waited for more than 10 minutes for a cup of matcha tea I ordered. It was not much busy night, had three baristas around. And for some reason, my tea tasted funny for me aside from the fact that the pricing is a turn off.

Came here to escape the heat when I was in NYC earlier in the summer this year. Ordered a nice Americano and the flavour of the coffee was quite nice. Also ordered the waffle and gelato~ the gelato was great but the waffle was a bit tough and not soft and flaky inside.

There are a lot of better options in NYC, save yourself the $$$ and go somewhere else.
I tried the taro bubble tea, which is pretty much the standard I use to compare bubble teas (and am still looking for the perfect one). It was horribly overpriced and the bubbles were downright nasty – like they have been sitting on a lonely shelf, forgotten and left to rot a slow, drawn out death. Basically inedible.
The taro tea itself tasted powdery, and I would have never guessed it was actually taro if this was a blind taste test.
This place deserves one star for the drink alone, and I’m sure based on the other reviews the rest of the food is just as disappointing. The extra star is for this place somehow managing to stay in business in Times Square (probably because it opens late) and for looking decent inside.

Wi-​Fi is temperamental here.
I like the pastries here but I dislike the service.
Check out in the early morning is painfully slow.
This is surprising because being that the café is in such a busy location surrounded by office buildings, and tourists, the staff should be aware of how NYers like things to be done as quick as possible because time is precious in the AM!
What I thought was going to be a quick bite to grab for breakfast I ended up being a 12 minute wait to pay for my $ 4 almond pastry.
I was late to class because the line was super long and management decided to only have one person on the register…

I stopped by last week while rushing for a Broadway show. Overall, it was an okay experience. For some reason, I think I was expecting more.
Coffee — I ordered a café au lait and a soy iced coffee. My iced coffee tasted fine but my husband found his café au lait really lacking. Maybe the water wasn’t hot enough when they brewed it or maybe they watered it down but it didn’t have the oomph that café au lait usually has for him.
Pastries — I picked up an almond croissant for my husband and a mango coconut muffin for myself. The almond croissant was delicious. It was flaky and had a nice crunch top and beautiful layers with a touch of almond inside too. However, I found the muffin overpriced at $ 3.50. It only had mango on top and not inside in the batter. The batter tasted like coconut but I bought it because I thought there would be nice little chunks of mango in it. I felt misled with that one! Maybe call it a coconut muffin with mango topping.
Service — This was my biggest issue! It was my first time here and I went straight to the line and saw other people seated with their pastries. I ordered my drinks and requested a croissant and a muffin. He randomly entered it and asked if I wanted anything else. I asked what flavor croissants and muffins they have. Instead of answering, he told me my total. Rude! I handed him my card, paid and stood there waiting to choose my pastries. He then told me to go to the end of the counter to get my drinks. Once I received them, I asked the barista about the pastries and he explained that you get them first and bring them to the register. Would it have been so hard for the cashier to say this to me?
Overall, it was an ok experience but I’d rather walk to Tisserie a few blocks up. The service can be lacking on occasion but the coffee and pastries are always on point, and they’re more efficient with directing customers to what they need.

I love Caffe Bene, because I always have a sweet tooth and it offers a lot of scrumptious shaved ice, waffles, and other pastries. However, this one is not the best Caffe Bene because it’s located in the heart of NYC, which is SUPER BUSY and touristy, and it becomes difficult to enjoy these lovely desserts!
Also, I’ve been to a Caffe Bene in NJ that offers 8 different flavored shaved ices, but this one only offers two: red bean and strawberry! Sometimes they only even have one flavor.
I love Caffe Bene even though it’s a chain, but if you are to go to one, please choose one in a better location! It’ll definitely enhance your experience.

I love Caffe Bene’s concept and I highly enjoy its menu.
Caffe Bene appears to be the upcoming (and promising) Korean Starbucks. For those that are familiar with asian (mostly modern Korean, Chinese and some Japanese cafes), the sweet aromatic atmosphere is to be expected. Excessive prices, even more so.
Your menu is entirely dessert, tea, and coffee. Caffe Bene is no exception.
The main impressive item (and highlight) on the menu are their waffles, which I suppose is what makes them different from most dessert cafes (which do crepes).
They also sell miscellaneous deli items (sandwiches ~$ 8), (yogurt/​salads, $ 3-​$ 5) bakery items (~$ 2-​$ 4), macaroons (~$ 2), cakes slices (3-​tiered) ($ 6), and ice cream ($ 4 for a scoop).
Waffled are $ 4, $ 5-​$ 7 if you have a lot of toppings. Coffee at cheapest is like $ 3, and most drinks are around $ 4+ for the smallest size.
I ordered a misugaru latte followed by a pistachio green tea dipped waffle and an iced tea.
I love their misugaru latte. I love grains, and I’ve never tried a grain mix like that. If you’ve had sesame or barley with milk before, it’ll have very similar consistency. At $ 6 for a medium though, it’s gonna have to be a treat.
The waffle however, was delicious and filling. If you get the plain one, you can have it warm and toasty (even at 12am). Their iced (black) tea is also something else! It’s really strong! That is some real brew right there.
I’d definitely come in here for a tea pitstop if I need it.
Caffe Bene’s prices however, are almost unjustified, because in a way, spending $ 14 on tea, latte, and a waffle? C’mon.
But it’s still getting 4 stars from me. It has outlets, open until 2am (although their library café section closes at 1am) and their delicacies are delicious. Not the best I’ve tasted, but I’m not disappointed.
Oh and don’t come here for the bubble tea. It’s $ 6 for a tiny 12oz cup. It’s really not worth it unless you’re in times square and you have a crazy itch for it.

I’m a sucker for coffee joints. Especially ones that aren’t branded with the all too popular green and white symbol.
We walked into caffebene to momentarily escape to cold. Well that was my reasoning. I think the hubbs had to tinkle.
I stood in line and oogled at the large variety of waffles displayed on the counter.
Wow. They all certainly looked like two hours on the treadmill. Well, I was a little disenchanted by the cashier’s demeanor — very aloof, slightly rude and got my name wrong thrice. So I settled for a red velvet latte and nixed the waffle idea.
My latte was just okay. I’ve had a better red velvet concoction from coffee bean. That and again, the customer service was a bust.