Atomic Bean Cafe

I love Atomic Bean! May not be for everyone, but it’s a great local hangout to meet a friend, get some work down, or even play one of the boardgames hanging around. Their Green Monster cruffin is out of this world (pistachio and chocolate chip muffin inside of a croissant– damn) and the coffee drinks I’ve had have all been great (I’m not picky). The music is always on point, the free wifi is great and if it ever gets weak they’re quick to fix it. Atomic Bean isn’t upscale by any means, but what coffee shop should be! Highly recommend.

I used to LOVE this place. Usually pretty relaxed atmosphere, good food BUT I’ve had terrible customer service with one gentleman in particular.
I came in on a Sunday awhile ago and got a rude «What do you want?», which I was taken aback by. I had asked for a breakfast sandwich and requested to substitute extra cheese or veggies instead of egg (I’m allergic to eggs). I’ve done this before at Atomic Bean and the staff is polite and does so. I think there’s an extra charge but I don’t mind (rather do this than suffer from allergic reactions). However, this Sunday I think the gentleman was the only one working and his attitude was very, very rude. As I was requesting my substation, he cuts me off and says «Alright, which number do you want? C’mon». I start to explain Ive requested this before and was wondering if I could do it again. He’s says impolitely «Listen, I’m the only one here. Can’t you see that? Pick something else». I proceeded to just coffee and grab food from elsewhere.
I understand the stress of being understaffed but that does not, by any means, excuse unprofessional behavior on any day. There was a much better and proper way to handle this situation. I, myself, will not step foot into this establishment again. There are other cafes in the Cambridge area that have been understaffed and have still been polite.

Really great service but…
1. Use industrial Bunn coffee maker and coffee is weak.
2. Jamaican patty was heated from frozen and lukewarm.
3. Cheese was unheated on English muffin.
4. WiFi went down and never went back up.

Rude staff!!!
(The guy that makes the food, he might even be the owner)…and no thank you I don’t want negative energy in my food.
Also very over priced, 5 dollars for a muffin, common.
I have been coming here due to convenience and free wifi to study even though the music is too loud to study and even to talk.
Today, as I came for my regular Tuesday Sunday session, The main guy that works there and makes the food was incredibly rude to me, when I asked to replace the regular bread with wheat bread rather than saying no nicely, He actually THREW the bread, and this is despite me being a regular customer.
The barista commented he was having a bad day, but to take t out on a regular customer? Unacceptable and extremely unprofessional.

Had quite a few coffees at their set-​up at the Gloucester Cyclocross Grand Prix over the weekend and they were all perfect, delicious and creamy cappuccinos, perfect cold brew coffee! And the scones and doughnuts looked pretty good too. The guys were also super nice and remembered me each time I came back.

For someone who doesn’t drink coffee, I sure do spend a lot of time in coffee shops. And that includes Atomic Bean, for good reason.
I was disappointed at the limited selection of baked goods — my main reason for going to my favorite coffee shop haunts. But what they do have is really good! I highly recommend you try their Green Monstah muffins — pistachio with chocolate chips. Amazing.
What Atomic Bean lacks in desserts, they make up for in sandwiches! They have an awesome selection of delicious-​sounding breakfast sandwiches (and regular lunch sandwiches as well). I tried the egg, mozzarella, tomato and pesto sandwich on an English muffin and definitely was not disappointed.
Decent smoothies, if you’re thirsty. Not the best I’ve had, but they’ll do just fine for this non-​coffee drinker (yeah, I know).
I’m in the area all the time, and I will definitely return to try more of their sandwiches!

Atomic Bean Café is a coffee shop in Cambridge. I came here with a friend for breakfast, and I ordered a cappuccino and the hummus sandwich on an English muffin.
Coffee/​espresso: 2.5 stars
— I can’t say that I’m a coffee connoisseur, but I can distinguish between a good and bad cup of joe. This is your typical cup of coffee, on par with ⁷⁄₁₁ or your home brewing machine. The espresso was also weak and dull.
Ambiance: 4 stars
— I like the space here. There’s a lot of seating. Dark wood tables and floors. Most of the light comes from the front window, so the lighting for the back of the coffee shop is dark. A lot of university students come here to study. They have board games as well.
Food: 3 stars
— Breakfast sandwiches are simple and standard. I ordered the hummus sandwich on the English muffin and it was much larger than I expected, because they use «sandwich size» muffins.

Ask for decaf, get caf and an argument with barista. Didn’t hear me asking for wifi multiple times and asked ‘huh?’ several times when I was asking if it was caf when served.
Edit: barista also pulled the wifi plug on everyone in the café. Whew!

Our new jam! We have lived close by for months and this place never looked open. I ventured in the other weekend when the doors were open and damn is the coffee good! Breakfast sandwiches are awesome. The staff is nice and patient. Never crowded. The atmosphere feature local artists and is coffee house funky cool. I recommend this place for sure! Note to owners — make it look more inviting and open from the outside.

nice, but not very special

The grim unsmiling countenance of the staff here was soon complemented by a wad of long blonde hair in the 3^rd bite of my sandwich.
I am always surprised when wait-​staff of such a service business make it clear that they consider any effort at friendliness or welcoming to be quite optional. The results of this unfortunate perspective are unsurprising. I will not be returning to the Atomic Bean Café.

Best ice tea /​coffee around
All breads/​desserts made on premises by owner which are very tasty
Staff very friendly

I’m gathering from cruising other reviews that this place has great days and bad days, but I agree with at least one recurring sentiment: this place could be so much more.
Straight talk, I came to find a place to loiter. Not for free, now — I’ll buy the coffee, and much of it, and the coffee here is good. But I have come to adore the institution of the American Coffee Shop: I come here to get work done alone, but alone with you, stranger with the interesting hat/​beard/​taste in music. I want to plug in a laptop and occasionally glance up to see neat art on the walls and/​or on someone’s body. It would be nice to relax amongst an interesting cross-​section of humanity and chat briefly with friendly, laid back baristas about a new roast or some event in town. A few of the reviews led me to believe this might be such an inviting place with it’s board games and spacious seating. I have come by twice, and find myself more in agreement with some of the less flattering reviews.
Someone else mentioned the music, and golly gosh gee willikers, I did too. I thought, «perhaps I am being too picky. Perhaps I am asking for too much,» but the more I think about it, just the weirder the whole thing seemed. The music the first day I came was like a marathon Greatest Hits of the Saddest Country Songs Ever Written, including such gems such as Tim McGraw’s «Red Rag Top,» an ode to the regret that comes along with knocking a girl up in the back of your red rag-​top as a kid but darn it, she was just REALLY INTO IT, and «Don’t Take the Girl,» an unbearably morose recounting of all the times and ways a father bargained with time, muggers and God for the life of his daughter. These Symphonies of Sadness were punctuated by multiple Jimmy Buffet tracks and, every ten or so songs, an inexplicable oldie by the Temptations (which I considered to be the only relief). I think this struck me because I have just moved here from Georgia and yet have never, in Georgia, been subjected to such an endless string of pop-​country pathos.
I came a second time. I really needed an extension of my living room in which to be politely anti-​social and siphon caffeine, and I could talk myself into writing the music thing off as «different strokes». It’s like my addiction to cozy coffee shops drug me back in.
I was hoping to find that the music was a fluke. I can’t remember now if it was, because this time I was distracted by a barista whose personal hell seems to be being a barista.
Maybe he was having a bad day. He was sweeping industriously when I came in, and I noticed that they closed in an hour — surprisingly early to me, at 6pm but hey, that’s up to them. I figured an hour was a substantial enough period of time to enjoy a coffee, but it became clear the moment I walked in that he did not agree with me. I am not a shy violet, but the whole exchange caught me off guard. He was so brusque with me that I admit that I fumbled my order while I tried to figure out what I had done to him, his family or his personal belief structure that he would find taking my money such a difficult endeavor. I forgot to ask for soy, but his face convinced me not to risk it. The cream was delicious. It was fine.
He went on sweeping and moving chairs around. Ok, I get it — you’re ready to close. In an hour. I was not the only person in there — a few people were having coffee, chatting or working. At about half past, he cut off the music (which was not sad country, so points there, I guess). At about twenty till, he cut off the AC. He went into the back where he began, as near as I can tell, to crash trash can lids together until 5:55pm, where he announced that he was closed. I had determined, at this point, to wait his passive aggression out along with one other silent warrior working on his laptop. As we two brief comrades left, the other patron said «thank you» to the barista, who, without pausing or turning around, replied with «yeah thanks have a nice day».
The décor is meh. I read that the space itself has been recently renovated, and you know, the structure itself is very well maintained. The seats and tables, well, you can sit at them. They are bland and repetitious and you could wish for more, but it’s not something that I would have picked on had everything else been dreamy.
Like a lot of people, I’ve done the waiter/​customer service thing. I know sometimes you just want to go home. But this man appeared to be tortured by every second he spent in this coffee shop and his passive-​agressive «you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here» parade was the most spectacular I’d ever experienced.
You deserve more, Atomic Bean. C’mon, respect yourself.

Pros:
Reasonably priced
Lots of space
Enough outlets.
Cons:
Some of the worst music I’ve heard in a coffee shop. They’ve clearly chosen the music for the benefit of the baristas and not the customers trying to work. To top it off, they clearly haven’t paid for the music service they’re using because there are ads which are annoying and distracting.
The baristas are very loud and seem more concerned with socializing than providing the customers with a nice ambiance. The acoustics are horrible so it’s hard to enjoy your coffee or concentrate on your work with the obnoxious ads and loud chatter coming from the baristas.

Got a cappuccino and stayed awhile. I topped my drink with some cinnamon and it was pretty good. They have board games, which I always appreciate even if I don’t use them. I think I spotted a 1000 piece puzzle — that would be a lot of coffee and not sure there is a place to actual complete this in the café, but I think it’s neat to just have the option. They have a few local newspapers for perusal.
I appreciated the signs on some of the tables noting that they were for ‘express’ customers. It does seem like the place to bring a computer and stay a while — there were a few people on computers. There were some empty seats. I’d come back.

I love cafes that encourage people to stay a while and hang out, and this place does just that with board games and books provided along with free wifi. Spacious, lots of tables, great place to get work done. Breakfast sandwich was pretty good, but I loveee their lattes.

Not sure why some bad reviews on this joint. My favorite café in Cambridge. The coffee blows Starbucks away the staff is cool there’s a hip vibe to the joint and it’s a fun place to just relax. Plus there’s always a few bookish cuties in here so what’s not to like?

Didn’t try the food but the coffee was awesome. I got a triple americano with room for milk and the staff was super accommodating. They have board games which are a fun touch and the place is very clean and bright. Overall, a nice place to hang out.

Rude owner! Dirty kitchen! Terrible place! Don’t go!
Owner was shouting fuck you to customers.
This is the worst place in Cambridge!

I really enjoy the atmosphere. A nice café to sit down, enjoy a cup of tea and muffin.
Love the «green monster» muffin. (pistachio with chocolate chips)