Vienna Espresso Bar & Bakery

New to West Lafayette and accustomed to the vast array of eateries in the Bay Area, DC, and Houston, I was prepared for a mundane lunch. How mistaken I was! The two of us ordered different sandwiches: the John Purdue, an enormous club on pita, and the Charlie Parker, an equally huge conglomeration of turkey, spinach, Swiss, and pesto on pita. Together the two of us have lived in or spent substantial amounts of time in more than 20 cities in a dozen countries, yet we quickly concluded that the food at this little, hidden gem of a place is absolutely FANTASTIC! Given that we’ll be here for several years, we’ll definitely be back. STRONGLY RECOMMEMD!!!

This place was great! I had an iced chai latte and it was great! The place was very clean and kicked back. It will def. become a regular hang out.

A quiet place to relax and do your homework. Lots of busy graduate students and a smoking area for the smokers. Great hot cocoa. Lots of big tables available at all times.

A good café, friendly people with a nice atmosphere, free wifi and comfortable couches.

Vienna is an anomaly among coffee shops on campus. It’s what all the others (Starbucks and Greyhouse) attempt at but fail miserably. This place doesn’t front. It simply is what it is, nothing more nothing less. Coffee is good, seats are good, atmosphere is usually chill. Nothing is overdone at Vienna which makes it that much so asthetically pleasing to the visitor, in sharp contrast to Greyhouse.
Pretty much, they dont give a f* at veritably optimal levels. This make the experience, relative to coffee joints, the best on campus.

Coffee is bad, atmosphere is wrong, food is bad, restrooms are gross. Will not be returning here.

A bit pricey for the size of the portion you get, but so are lots of the other coffee shops on campus. I stumbled into this café purely because it had a sign outside saying that it was selling Girl Scout cookies inside. Turns out they didn’t have the Thin Mints I was looking for, but the cashier working the counter had a great attitude and was very friendly. The ambience inside is nice and quiet enough that I would consider studying here for an afternoon. I got their spiced chai latte on a whim and it is by far one of the best chai lattes I’ve ever tasted in my life! The foam and drink was silky in my mouth and there was a perfect balance of spiced tea and creamy milk. Definitely coming back again!

Great place to camp and get some work done. It may not be the best coffee house in town, but it’s more than adequate for a cheap college student like myself. They are open during winter break unlike greyhouse and usually have less noise pollution as well. They did update some furniture it seems. Outlets are accessible at most tables and you get plenty of natural light shining into the main seating area.

Issam gave me free «upgrade» on my latte (from small to large)! He was very nice! I liked the latte and the chocolate muffin!

This is literally my favourite place in West Lafayette, maybe the world, for chai.
It is to die for.
I’m thinking about it right now and ready to martyr myself for that delicious chai. Well, not really, maybe I’d drive out of my way from Indy to Purdue to get a cup.
Great memories and great atmosphere. Long live Vienna!

I think I’ve found a new regular lunch spot. I was really pleased with my meal here. Atmosphere is nice, lots of seating and not crowded at all at one on a weekday. Friendly service, nice selection of hot drinks and bakery items. I ordered one of their pita sandwiches, which comes with a side for $ 5. They offer 7 – 8 simple pitas, I chose a turkey/​cheese/​spinach/​pesto option which was warm, fresh and delicious. Side of fresh fruit was nice. I’ll be back!

I had been meaning to write this review for a long time now. But I love the Vienna. This place is never too crowded or too loud to the point where I can’t get my studying done. Am I saying that there aren’t better coffee shops around? no. But this is by far my favorite place. It appeals to my needs completely. Not to mention the drinks are amazing. My favorite thing would have to be the people that work there. The staff is always friendly and honestly I feel like I belong there and that when I go in there I am greeted in a happy way. Vienna will be my favorite coffee shop at Purdue forever and I love it and will go as often as I possibly can.

It seems ungrateful to give a 2-​star review to Vienna as I sit in the premises using their free wi-​fi, but let the chips fall where they may. I’ve visited this place several times now, hoping that my previous experience was just a fluke, but alas, empirical evidence (n = seven visits) indicates that there are far superior cafes to visit in W. Lafayette than Vienna. In fact, there are far superior cafes on this very block.
To begin with, the interior needs a serious makeover. While I love the 60s/​70s style wooden chairs, they are too low for most of the tables in the place, giving me the feeling that I’m a kid sitting at the grownups’ table. Not only that, but their sad, worn out leather furniture is in serious need of repair or outright replacement, since the pieces are holey, falling apart, and even look like they could be flea ridden. All this is in contrast to the newer blonde wood bar-​style chairs and high counters that line the window areas and look like they belong in a more modern, Scandinavian chrome style café rather than in Vienna’s slightly Bohemian brown wood and leather interior. At any rate, the décor aesthetic is simultaneously seedy and Ikea-​updated, which lends a schizophrenic air to the place.
Don’t get me wrong… I love beat up cafes that have a broken in, comfortable appearance. But Vienna goes a little too far in that direction, harkening me back to my undergraduate days where run down bohemian cafes with mediocre coffee, stale pastries, disgusting bathrooms, and surly dreadlocked baristas are a dime a dozen.
But back to Vienna. I ordered a cup of the mild roast, for $ 2.10. I opted for mild, in an attempt to avoid the possibly overroasted burnt tire taste of the darker roasts which pervade coffee shops today (thanks, Starbucks). Mild is fairly descriptive of this coffee in that it was so mild as to have no personality. It was like drinking brown water. In addition, this was someone’s «rejected» coffee. Meaning that the patrons before me had changed their mind after the barista already poured the coffee, and opted for something else. All of which the barista informed me, with a barely disguised air of irritation. You know, if you’re going to give me someone else’s coffee, which has been sitting on the counter (ok, just for less than two minutes, but enough time for it to cool off to the verge of lukewarm) don’t tell me, all right? Pretend you gave me a fresh pour. I welcome and embrace benign deception. I also got a big brownie, which at $ 1.50, was a bargain. Brownie was ok. Once again, nothing to write home about. And finally, I had to move my table around several times in an attempt to avoid some kind of mysterious ceiling leak that I at first thought was coffee leaking from my cup.
All in all, not the best experience. If this were a one-​time occurrence, I’d be glad to give Vienna another chance. But I have. Multiple times. And every time has been the same – either mediocre service, bad coffee, stale pastries, a general air of unkempt and unsanitary surroundings, and usually all of the above every single time I visit.
I guess I’m spoiled by Greyhouse Café down the block which was closed for the holiday season. Which is why I came to Vienna. I won’t make that mistake again.

I absolutely love the vibe in Vienna, and their food/​drinks used to be awesome. They’ve really gone downhill in the past couple years. I’ve tried the baked goods there recently (vegan and otherwise) and have been disappointed in everything. The food is usually dry, but the biggest issue is taste. The food is awful! I can’t eat any of the pastry items. The sandwiches are okay, nothing really great. The names are really cute and creative though.
As for the drinks, they do taste delicious! But if you’re lactose-​intolerant or vegan, you might need to double-​check. Many of the drinks are premixed powders and include whey-​which only one person ever bothered to tell me about even though I always order my drinks with soy.
All that being said, the environment is really chill (if you can find a place to sit!) and the employees are mostly friendly if a little snobby.

I had never been here, but the man who served me was incredibly sweet! I ordered their chai which is homemade. Delicious, too! And on too of that, he made me a large when I ordered a small and treated me like a queen! Adorable, hip atmosphere. A little run-​down, but it seems to fit the place. Cozy college nook. :)

As Sharon R noted, it’s where you go when Greyhouse is full.
Plus: chai, empty chairs — space to talk, open late
Minus: always warm, smells odd

I have mixed feelings about this coffee shop.
Things I like: chai is still good, and there is always space to work in a quiet, intellectual environment (sometimes when there are not too many people talking so loud because there is mainly one big room, the small one towards the bathroom is always full). Prices are cheaper than greyhouse but quality is worse so you are paying for what you are getting, pretty much.
Things I dont like: it’s always hot in there. Coffee is just «eh». Desserts look old. Servers are not nice, they don’t smile to you (except for a girl that works there very randomly). Bathrooms are either dirty, don’t function properly or running out of tp (and servers don’t care about fixing it)

This is by far one of my favorite coffee shops in the Purdue area! The music played here is basically all of my favorite Indie bands, and obviously wonderful to listen to. I usually come here to study, surf the internet, or eavesdrop conversations. The coffee here is fresh, and tasty, and all of the baked goods are of the highest quality. The fact this is open 24 hours is extremely convenient and makes it my top destination. One thing to consider however is that it is a smaller establishment so sometimes it’s difficult to find a table.
Pros:
— Open 24 hours
— Nice atmosphere
— Indie music
— Great coffee/​food
Cons:
— Sometimes it’s hard to find a table

Vienna — the place you go to when GH is too full.
I feel like they must treat their employees pretty badly. This one time a while ago I remember during peek hours this one blonde girl working there by herself, basically going crazy over all the food and coffee orders having to both ring them up and prepare them. Later on I asked her if it was normal and she said that it was not out of the ordinary.
Management aside, the tables are not particularly comfortable except for MAYBE the one in the back which is usually taken.
The coffee is actually pretty bad too, as are most of the baked goods that they bring from Chicago (why?)
But the baked goods that they make in-​house are pretty good. For some reason they are mostly vegan, like vegan banana chocolate bread (which is good) and vegan cupcakes (which are rich, but the times I’ve had it the frosting was all hard and inedible). Some of their other food items are A-​OK, like the sandwiches and hummus plate. Basically, I will continue to come here when GH is annoyingly packed, when GH is too damn cold in the winter, or when I want a vegan baked good.

Once upon a time, there was a young girl who loved the Vienna Café because the atmosphere screamed intellectual hipster. And then she actually bought something.
So I won’t hide the fact that I’ve never gotten an actual coffee from this little place, but I have purchased chai and hot chocolate, both of which were sorely disappointing because they lacked flavor. Honestly, how do you mess up a hot chocolate? Whether this was due to the drink being watered down or just poorly made (or both), I don’t know.
The café has been around the neighborhood for quite a while, and I’m truly glad to see it survive the economic downturn; however, if they want to compete with Starbucks and continue to serve as an anchor for caffeine-​reliant college kids, then mayhaps they need to better their offerings.