Caffè Bene

Located in the GreenStreet area in downtown. They only have a few small tables and seats inside (only about 10 seats) and a few outside. We decided to try out the coffee frappé and a strawberry cream cheese honey bread. Frappé wasn’t anything different from a starbucks frappé, slightly less sweet, but we all thought it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. The strawberry honey bread unfortunately looks way better than it tastes. For $ 8.95, we didn’t think it was worth it. It was basically a big piece of soft bread with crusted sides and topped with regular cream cheese and strawberry, honey drizzle on top and some chocolate drizzle on the plate. Really thought it’d be better, but no wow factor besides it looking good. This place wouldn’t be a place I’d specifically go back for, especially trying to find street parking and nothing else around to do in that center at this point. They do have an assortment of gelato, smoothies, and waffles if you’re in the area and want to grab a small bite/​drink.

As funny as this might sound, I came here for the sweets. This is actually my second time coming to café bene. My first time was at the location in carrollton, tx. I can’t comment on the coffee but the strawberry bingsu is amazing… My only negative is the shop is small and hard to find too.

Must be visited for Misugaru Latte
Must be visited for Honey Bread
This place is clean and cozy
Definitely #1 in Houston

I’m pretty sure you can take anyone here and they could find something to order. They have a wide assortment of drinks, gelato, sandwiches, waffles, honey bread, cheesecake, and on the go bakery items. The seating area is pretty small inside but there’s ample room outdoors on the Astroturf. When I came here with some friends I sampled each of our orders:
Affogato with Tiramisu Gelato: The gelato really balanced out the strong espresso. This was a recommendation from one of the baristas.
Misugaru Latte: This is their signature drink. It can be pretty easy to miss on the menu since it’s listed under «Multigrain Power Shake». It’s pretty good, it kind of tastes like toasted sesame seeds.
Café Saigon: This is their version of Vietnamese Coffee, though it doesn’t really taste like it. Definitely not as strong. It is still a good coffee drink though.
Mango Peach Smoothie: They don’t use fresh fruits, but rather a purée to make their smoothies. Texture wasn’t icy, but it was sweet!
Banana Bacon Bits Waffle: A Belgian Waffle with real bacon bits and sliced bananas with a sweet glaze drizzled on top. This tastes like how you would imagine it to. The waffle is good! Sugary sweet.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Honey Bread: These honey bread slices are HUGE. And I think 90% butter. But I’m not complaining. It comes as a thick slice of bread with a layer of cream cheese on top and sliced strawberries on top of that drizzled with a chocolate syrup and honey. The crust is the best part.
I hate that I came here. Now I will have to make the trek from the burbs to come out and fill my craving of that honey bread crust. Maybe I can eat a salad at Salata next door before hand so I don’t feel quite as guilty.

I think it’s all a bit overpriced, but it is in the middle of downtown. The area outside of it is super cute. Very nice place to chill out on a nice day.
The gelato is yummy. The affogato is basically one giant scoop of coffee gelato with espresso poured on top. Great dessert coffee. The mango peach smoothie was good, but it tasted more peachy than mango. I’d probably rather get mango gelato next time. It had tiny chunks of mango in it, whereas the smoothie is made from boxed juice. Still good, but personal preferences lean toward the gelato.
There are only 4 sandwich options and a couple «honey bread» options that could count as food. Definitely not a place to enjoy a full meal, but they have good options for snacks to accompany your drinks. There are also these giant shaved ice things.
I need to come back and try other things.

Great food, great drinks, nice hangout spot. Very friendly staff. Gelato is pretty good. Tried the teriyaki sandwich, it did not disappoint me at all. Strawberry waffle is also very good. Green tea frappé was unexpectedly good.

The shop is too small to hold a group of people. The desserts (strawberry toast and shaved ice) are beautiful but tasteless and unsweet. The real dessert (strawberry toast) is about 2 times smaller than the shown model. I give another star because the green tea frappé is okay. I don’t know about the coffee in this place but I think I might not come for the desserts again.

A «coffee break» turned into a long lunch date this afternoon at Caffe’ bene downtown. After crutching around in a circle, looking for Joe Muggs Café (which no longer exists) we ran into this honey-​hole. Expecting quick service, we ordered 2 spicy chicken sandwiches (minus the honey mustard) and 2 small coffees. It was $ 23 after tax, BUT they’ve just opened and if you spend over $ 15, you get your color choice of a 16 oz. stainless steel tumbler. They’re actually pretty fancy and I’m happy. We sit. We talk. I finish my coffee. We’ve been inside about 30 minutes at this point. Finally, our sandwiches are delivered. The bread is warm but the chicken is cold. Feels like fresh out of the fridge cold, so we tell the guy who made them. He quickly offers to make a whole other sandwich but we just ask them to heat it up. Sounds easy, right? (I’m thinking they have a microwave.) We wait 10 more minutes, the conversation slows and the manager comes out and apologizes. Their glass oven door broke the night before and won’t hold heat. A new part will take a few days to come in and they’re trying to accommodate by putting the food in the BACK of the oven this time. He offered anything else, coffee, cake, anything. Colin politely declines and my hungry stomach asks for some of the red velvet cheesecake behind the glass. (Don’t judge me.) The manager even told us he’d normally offer a gift card at this point but they only recently opened and don’t have any to give. We share the cheesecake (It’s excellent.) and we’re both thinking it’s time to leave when the sandwiches come. Hallelujah, they don’t suck! In fact, they’re pretty tasty. And AGAIN, when we finish, the manager comes back, gives us two more tumblers (one of each color), a hand-​written note apologizing, and good for a ‘meal for two’ and verbally asks us to give them another chance. Why can’t all places who eat your time up treat you this way?! I’m actually glad I ordered the wrong thing, today. And I highly suggest you go grab one of these tumblers and get back to me with a review of their waffles, please. This is a place I’d like to see stick around.

Wonderful South Korean-​styled coffee shop, complete with the monster south korean-​sized deserts. Great place and a very friendly staff, for one of the few good downtown coffee options.

Caffe Bene is a Korean coffee shop and this is their first location in Houston. I’m so glad that the put it in downtown because now I have an option for coffee other than Starbucks.
The staff is friendly and helpful to answer questions you have and the café itself is very clean and I like the wood décor that they use here.
Green Tea Latte: ⁵⁄₅ I like how they put enough of the matcha for you to taste the matcha green tea flavor. They might have put a little too much because at the end it got a little grainy. But it’s definitely better than Starbucks which has much more milk flavor. I would highly recommend this if you’re not in the mood for a lot of caffeine.
Single shot macchiato: ⁵⁄₅ This comes in a veryyy small cup the size of a shot glass and it’s just espresso with some foamed milk on top. The espresso they use is good and strong, which I like.
Chai Tea Latte: ⁵⁄₅ I think it’s hard to find a well balanced chai latte. Usually the flavor isn’t strong enough or one of the spices over powers the others. The chai at Caffe Bene has a good balance of the spices and you can taste the clove and nutmeg with each sip. It is a little sweeter for my taste, so I’ll probably have to ask them to use less sweetener next time. But this is delicious!
I have enjoyed all the drinks I’ve gotten so far. I haven’t had a chance to try the food yet, but I’m looking forward to trying the waffle and honey toasts!

Really cute place! I love the interior design and ambiance of the place.
Seating:
Indoors, it’s quite limited, but there’s pretty outside seating granted that weather is nice.
Beverages/​food tried:
Green Tea Latte (Hot) — slightly on the sweeter side
Coffee Frappé — not bad
Mocha Frappé — not bad
Strawberry Sorbetto — not bad
Parking:
It’s a pain to find parking since it is downtown Houston, but we did metered parking, $ 2.00/hour
Service:
We were greeted when we walked in, and the cashiers were really nice.
Overall:
Not a bad study place, but there aren’t that many outlets. Nothing stood out from the things we ordered, but I would come again. The only thing that would make me rethink coming here is the difficult parking situation, but that can’t be helped.

So Unilocal describes two stars as «Meh. I’ve experienced better.»
Yes– much better. Number 1– those fancy photos of their deserts and what not wrapped on a trey are resin molds. Not real deserts. Of course they look delicious. They are made of resin/​plastic and paint.
I got a ice tea lemonade. Very extra super tart was the way it came. In a 12oz cup with a price more suited for a 30oz cup from Starbucks.
My friend got a Thai tea with Boba. She described it as overly sweet with bad boba. In a 12oz cup with a price at least that of a 20oz drink from Teahouse Tapioca and Tea over on Shepherd.
I get it– Greenstreet needs a coffee house. BUT– they need a good coffee house. This isn’t the suburbs. There’s four starbucks within three blocks. A specialty coffee house across the street from HOB (one block away), not to mention Phoenicia’s about three blocks away. You can’t charge that much and deliver so little with THAT much competition all around.

Reminds me of the little coffee shop I stumbled upon in Seoul. I don’t know how they make their coffee, but it’s different in the most delicious way.
Latte — ⁵⁄₅ — added my own sugar syrup, exactly what I was hoping for
Strawberry waffle — ⁵⁄₅ — perfectly sweetened. Just plain delicious.
The space is quite small only 4 tables of 2. With some bar seating. The outside seating /​court yard is very cute, def want to sit outside if it’s not so cold.
There are sandwiches, milk tea, and shaved ice as well.
15% off if you like their Facebook.

Great location at the recently renovated Green Streets downtown. There is plenty of space right outside to hangout and enjoy your espresso or dessert. I thought the espresso was pretty good. It was rich and aromatic with a good finish. We also tried the mango gelato which was excellent. The mango flavor was natural and it wasn’t too sweet. I will probably be sneaking over here from work for some espressos throughout the week from now on.

I am so excited that we (finally) have one of these in Houston! It’s also in a really great spot for walking traffic, next to Salata and near Forever 21 on Fannin.
I had done a little digging on their website before stopping by today — they have just about everything, save for a couple of menu items that are ‘coming soon’. I do love that they put a display of what they have to offer right across from the counter. It all looked tempting! Honey bread (which is big in Korean cafes), waffles and gelato, shaved ice, pastries and fresh citron drinks.
I picked up a misugaru frappé, although they call it a «Multi-​grain Drink». It was very fulfilling and not overly sugar-​laden, and is reminiscent of a Mexican drink called atole — a sort of oatmeal beverage. I enjoyed it, along with the slice of dulce de leche cheesecake that I took home.
It is slightly more expensive than your run-​of-​the-​mill Starbucks, but for its uniqueness and flavorful offerings, it is most definitely worth it.

Caffe Bene is an excellent addition to Greenstreet in downtown, its right next to the Salata that also opened a few months back.
They offer your favorite hot, cold blended and iced coffee shop beverages (tea/​smoothies), and iced mojitos in addition to some hot sandwiches, liege waffles, and honey breads. They offer some prepackaged baked goods as well. The waffles looks delicious, so I’ll be back to try those.
On the first day of soft launch, they definitely had their hands full. Seems like the staff is well qualified, but needs to prefect their process. The drink took about 10 minutes to come out, but there were at least 4 orders they were working on before mine, which included some waffles, and coffee drinks.
The seating area is pretty limited, they have about 4 tablets, and a few bar height stools along the wall.
I ordered the coffee frappé, it was a little too sweet, but good coffee flavor. Was a bit bummed that didn’t have a caramel frappé, but in talking to the manager, seems like they are starting with the standard menu offering. Overall, looking forward to having this as a quick place to grab coffee during the work day. I can see them becoming very popular among the Greenstreet tenants and neighboring offices.

Finally! Great coffee has come to downtown Houston! Brand new to The Greenstreet Mall in downtown. Located just off San Jacinto Street in between Dallas and Polk.
Smallish interior but there are benches outside and a cool fountain.
Excellent selection of coffee drinks, smoothies, snacks, pastries, waffles, and sandwiches.
Staff was cheerful, very nice and helpful.
I got an iced coffee and it was fantastic! Will be back for a waffle soon…