Benets

Not so good.
I mean, if you say your waffles and cakes are homemade, they should be. But no, they were more like «out of the box, frozen waffles».
Milkshakes, meh. I ordered the Oreo milkshake and I couldn’t taste the Oreo. Wasn’t that supposed to be the main ingredient?
If you need to go to the ladies, keep in mind is also the gents and there will be around 10 people trying to get in there so long lines.
Pros:
They have a nice outdoor sitting area in the back, where you can hang out and have a smoke (if you do that), or just enjoy the nice breeze/​sun.
The order is brought to your table, so if you pay and sit outside, eventually the food will come to you.

Mediocre coffee, and we were approached by the owner (I think) — before we’d even finished — to tell us that we had to leave because he needed the table back. Twice — the first time as we were waiting for someone, so we had another coffee, but the second we left. Bear in mind that a) we hadn’t finished our drinks and b) there were other tables free, so they didn’t actually need it back. I have spent a lot of time as a waitress, so I’m not insensible to these things, but it was really rude, and I’m certainly never going back.

I think that I am starting to get a hang of all the things that I have to look for in a local business. Benets specialises in ice-​cream and offers a really wide selection of sorbets, varying from the typical for such shops flavours such as chocolate and vanilla to some more exotic options which I did not dare trying. There are crepes, coffee and other desserts, taking care of your sugar rush.
The inside space is nice and clean and there are few tables on the outside for the more adventurous types.
My personal experience is pretty much always the same — I wonder for several minutes what flavour to get; just hanging there in front of the showcase, with the staff just gazing at me without the slightest hint of care or ambition to help me out or recommend me something; hence the three stars. I am sorry but their job is not to stand there, gathering dust.

Blueberry sorbet is a clear winner, even if the staff rarely has any control or knowledge of anything going on.
No, really. I have never seen 3 people look so utterly confused while getting people simple things like ice cream, coffee and cakes. It would’ve almost been funny if I had not been getting so impatient watching it. I nearly jumped back there myself to institute some order to things. It has been like this both times I have visited. Every person in line was so confused as to why things were so complicated.
However, the blueberry sorbet really hit the spot — even though the guy had to ask two other guys what the flavor was. I wasn’t sure if it was black cherry or blueberry by the color. Seriously, there are like 15 flavors and it’s almost 100 percent of your business, how do you not know what they are?
There are some nice outdoor tables — which are usually full, and primed for people spilling from Brick Lane. The inside always seems rather empty. I got my sorbet to go as I couldn’t wait to free myself from the shackles of incompetency.
But, good sorbet. We’ll stay with that.

Large selection of ice creams, savoury crepes, and sweet crepes. I had a mocha and a nutella + marshmallow crêpe; the combination made for an intense sugar bomb, which I suppose was of my own doing.
A decent place to kill a little time before or after strolling Brick Lane.

I had a great bday tea party at Benets basically despite Benets. I chose it because when I walk past it everyday I always see it’s pretty much empty, so I thought that would make assembling 20 or so people relatively stress free. However I still thought I should book off an area and so popped in a few days before for a crêpe and to talk to the staff. It was pancake day and the place was almost empty, at lunchtime. It didn’t really seem like much effort had been made to capitalise on the fact it was pancake day, which was odd because Benets specialises in both crepes and American pancakes. I got the savoury special and my workmate got the sweet — neither blew us away. I’d say the fundamental problem is the crêpe itself, which just doesn’t seem like good quality, but the fillings were also lacklustre. I ordered a duck/​plum wrap which actually could work really well as a concept but came with some slightly limp leaves and weird plum jam… meh.
I left my number to make a booking and then was called and told actually Saturday I couldn’t reserve seats because they are so busy on Saturdays… bit odd. I mean, don’t you want guaranteed business? Anyway they weren’t so busy because we didn’t have a problem finding seats for approx 20 people to sit all together anyway, even if this did require moving furniture ourselves.
I had a lemon and sugar crêpe which was not a patch on your typical Parisian street food version, an apple milkshake that was basically just frothy milk with sugar in it and and some average mint choc chip ice cream (the basic ingredient of sugar did nonetheless help me consume all of these pretty quickly). I would say however that the salt beef sandwich was ok and one friend seemed to enjoy her American pancakes but then again another got served a hot chocolate that was actually cold…
Staff seemed completely disinterested in the whole enterprise and in fact bordered on rude at times, especially at the end when they weirdly hovered in a group near where we were sitting but without actually directly encouraging us to leave, so it was hard to tell whether we should really hurry up or not.
Anyway, as I said, weirdly I actually had a great time because of the wonderful company and, let’s face it, my sugar high, but apart from having a lot of space and so being good for groups, Benets really doesn’t have much going for it.

It was the end of a busy weekend I think when I visited as the service was somewhat lacking.
The nutella and banana pancake was average. I’ve had better from street vendors and paid much less!
The coffee was nothing special but was definitely well received after an afternoon of vintage shopping on Brick Lane.
Probably won’t go back

Maybe this café works very well in its other two places in Cambridge; yet does it fit in fully with the Shoreditch end of Brick Lane? Certainly it looks chic and inviting, and is the place to go for an above acerage quality and priced English style tea with your college friend and/​or mother, and there is a good choice of teas and sweet chocolate-​caramel and similarly ‘naughty’ slices to accompany them. And the selection of ice creams and sorbets for cone scoops reminds me of a café with glaces of the kind that you find in France. The milk shakes seem American with their use of chocolate bars etc. and the crepes/​waffles are Belgian-​ish. I’m still not completely sure what this café is, or is for. It’s not really a restaurant and yet the coffee is not quite as good or well priced as the more bohemian Brick Lane Coffee house a few doors down from Bethnal Green Road. I guess you pay for the safe, clean, nice environment. It will get there in the end and I’m not averse to trying a second rendezvous there, with other people who have different tastes.

Why isn’t there more ice cream in Shoreditch? Why oh why?
Well, there is Benets. And in a pinch, it will do the trick. They have a fairly large assortment of flavours ranging from your standard chocolate and vanilla to less common (but nothing too crazy) like Salted Caramel. I tried another flavour (I think it was biscotti), bit it tasted old and I ended up with salted caramel. Definitely some flavours hang around longer than others, it seems…
Anyhow, it was very light in texture and surprisingly smooth and custardy. The flavour was good, but nothing special. Somewhere between gelato and ice cream, erring more on the side of gelato. It was fine, but probably not worth the calories.

Benet’s of Cambridge is a relative newcomer to the area, having taken over a space formerly occupied by a skater clothing/​café venture. I entered this shiny new place with some trepidation, fearing it would be an over-​priced, tarted up café grasping for Brick Lane spillovers. The ice cream and cake offerings are absolutely lovely. Great range of ice cream flavours. I opted for a maple chocolate cake (£2.75) that was like a little pot of heaven. My friend had the citrus sponge (£3.75) which was delicious and a good sized piece of cake. Being American, I was particuarly thrilled they carried Root Beer, which is not commonly found in London. Service was excellent, really friendly staff who clean up your table quickly without making you feel as if you are being pushed out the door. I would have given this 4 stars except for the atmosphere: understandably the lighting is bright as it is billed as an ice cream place, but I don’t really go for bright lighting in cafes. Personally I prefer something more dark and broody. But, they do have stools inside facing outwards towards the street which is great for people watching. Also, where you find ice cream you will usuallly find children, and there were far too many of them in the shop for my liking. Bottom line: good place to go if you don’t mind bright lights and kids Unilocaling and banging their spoons in the background. It’s a difficult trade off for some good cakes, particularly as Foxcroft and Ginger is nearby in Boxpark. Next time I’ll probably get some ice cream and root beer to takeaway.