Caffe Bene

Stopped in after lunch with a large group of people on a thursday. This is a chill hangout spot, typical korean ajummas and ahjushees during the day. We ordered everything from the Gelato, bubble tea and shaved ice.
Gelatos: multiple flavors including green tea, strawberry, vanilla beane, chocolate, cookies and cream, coffee and cherry amaretto. Velvety but super sweet.
Affagato: yunmy. Espresso over ice cream. Tried it over vanilla gelato.
Milk tea: asked for it less sweet… taro was quite delicious. Does not compare to boba shops however, that would be an unfair comparison since this is a coffee shop.
Shaved ice: misugaru vs green tea. Misugaru flavor is delicious. Green tea flavor was quite bland.
Would come here again to hang out with friends. Dunno how it compared to the Caffè bene in korea.

I stopped by here to try their coffee. I never had a chance to try the location in Buena Park, so figured I’d take the opportunity while I’m in this area.
{the store}
It’s cute and small. Lots of seating but the tables are so close together. They did the décor nicely. It would be a nice place to study or work, but the music is a bit loud. This place was empty when I came in, I was the only customer. Parking lot is spacious, but not sure about night time or weekends since I came by in the afternoon. There was only one worker behind the counter and he made my order pretty quickly.
{the menu}
They offer a lot of items: coffee, espresso, tea, smoothies, parfaits, pastries, cakes, gelato, sandwiches, honey toast. They might have more items, but I didn’t take too close of a look since I was busy ordering.
{my order}
So they have a new item, it’s the mint mojito coffee. Basically an iced coffee with mint leaves. I was disappointed… It tasted like mint flavored milk with a hint of coffee, a little too sweet and syrupy, but I didn’t see anything else that seemed more interesting than this. I should have just stuck with my usual. Adding real mint leaves is a nice touch, but the coffee wasn’t strong enough and the mint really overpowered it. I won’t order this again.
I also ordered an affogato (gelato with espresso poured on top)
Yeah, this hit the spot lol. The last time I had this was at a small café in LA over a year ago, but Café Bene’s affogato tastes better. You can choose any flavor of gelato, but I prefer the classic taste of vanilla bean and espresso.
I actually tried the espresso before I poured it over my gelato — it’s strong, slightly bitter and fruity. After trying the espresso, I realized I should have just gotten an espresso drink instead of letting that mint mojito fool me. Their vanilla gelato is creamy, I don’t know if they actually make it in house but it’s good and not too sweet.
While I appreciate the good affogato, it’s not enough to have higher than 3 stars.
The coffee was a major let down. I’ll update my review if I ever come back to try something else, but I left feeling disappointed… and minty fresh.

Like the taste but the service is really bad. Standing there for seven minutes and they literally just ignore me. Five for very berry strawberry frappé, zero for service.

This place is great to go with your friends. It had a variety of desserts to choose from. 88″))

First time here. So far so good. The place is spacious with all kinds of different seating situations so you have a choice to sit most comfortably while studying. There are a good number of outlets. I ordered a mango berry mojito and it was pretty and pretty good. I’d probably come back to study.
One let down is the lack of vegetarian options.

SERVICE: Not very good, I often noticed that the cashiers would go in the back and customers would be left waiting for minutes before anyone noticed that there was a line. There is actually a bell you would ding for service. I do have to note that the young guy who worked there was attentive though, like the rest, would disappear. Seems like the staff are just young kids who come to hang out as much as work.
FOOD: The gelato is not bad but nothing special. I wanted a parfait but it seemed like it only came in one size, humongous. When you’re there by yourself, you don’t particularly want to a a giant five pound dessert the size of your head alone. So, sadly, did not get to try that. The hazelnut latte was terrible, I probably should’ve gotten their specialty, misagaru latte. It’s a 10 (?) grain beverage that is supposed to be like a coffee and meal in one. Also, lots of waffles, so no gluten-​free options except that gelato.
WIFI: Pretty fast. Good study spot.
ATMOSPHERE: Comfortable chairs but towards the evening on weekends it starts to pack up with young high school kids who go to hang out (ah– to be young again). Indoor and outdoor seating.
PARKING: Private lot.

I was reading through some of negative reviews (1 and 2 stars) of this place and most of them are along the lines of expensive prices and the turning off of the Wi-​Fi and power throughout the late part of the weekends. lol!
I’ve personally never experienced the Wi-​Fi problem here. Maybe it’s because I usually come during sunny hours during the day. The prices are reasonable in my opinion. The sandwiches are $ 8, which is not bad. The Single Ice Parfait is $ 9. It’s not like Disneyland prices that triples the price. Some girl was complaining that the drinks were overpriced at $ 5. But isn’t that fair or at least comparable to other cafés?
I personally like the iced green tea latte. It has the taste of the Matcha green tea powder. I also like their fruit-​based liege waffles. They have a good selection of tea, coffee, smoothies, food, and desserts.
They have really comfortable seats, great design (art, large clock, patio area), and a wooden-​brown façade.
Honestly, if I were to really flesh out the negative aspects of this place, it would come down to the boring title – Caffe Bene. That’s a horrible business name in my opinion. It’s copying «Café Bean» but without the legal trademark problem. Why not have a creative and unique name? The name is somewhat confusing – «Bene» in Italian means good (pronounced «Ben-​Eh» short e). So is it «Café Bean» or «Café Ben-​eh?»
If my friend were to say, «Let’s go to Coffee Bean» I’m thinking he means Coffee Bean and not Caffe Bene.

Pros:
The coffee here is significantly better than the other caffe bene
The cakes and desserts are good
a large table with outlets if you can grab a spot
Cons:
pretty overpriced (esp desserts)
Often no space at the table, only at the smaller seats without outlets
THEY TURN OFF THE WIFI AFTER 30 MIN OR AN HOUR?!? WTF?! People come here to study, buy food and drinks, and then essentially kicked out after a little while? Friends and I stopped coming after we noticed this a couple of times & finally caught on.
Tbh idgi because If you aren’t looking to study & just want coffee and desserts there are SO many better places than caffe bene! And if you ARE looking to study, they kick you out… who do they expect to come here then?

Love this place. Yes, there are two locations that are extremely close to each other, one is on Colima and the other is in the Four Seasons Plaza. I love their drinks and their desserts. I love the environment and their choice of pastries. The only thing I didn’t like was the price. It’s too rich for my blood, it literally burned a huge hole in my pocket.

OMG THIS PLACE HAS THE LADY M MILLE CREPE CAKES for $ 10 per slice! I know its cheaper at Lady M in LA but the thing about that place is that it always closes so early. I was very surprised to find Lady M’s Mille Crêpe Cake here. It was nothing short of delicious! We got the matcha green tea one. I highly recommend! I had to take off two stars because the drinks are honestly just mediocre and expensive. This place is expensive and the drinks are rather small. For two matcha green tea lattes and one slice of mille crêpe cake, it was $ 21. I would come back for the mille crêpe cake but not for the drinks.

The prices here are definitely very high. Not sure how the desserts taste but my friend definitely raved about the shaved ice she tried. I ended up just getting a regular sized Milk Tea Latte with Boba that came out to be around $ 5, which was not good at all. The latte was just blah to okay, very milky and thick, if you’re not looking for something super milky and chalky then this is not your drink. I know this place isn’t known for their boba, but I wanted to give it a try anyways. The boba was terrible. If you come I recommend not trying the boba at all, super hard and not chewy.

It says «open at 8am on Saturday «on Unilocal and the store door but the girl staff said they open at 9am. I arrived at 8:15 and had been waiting for 45 minutes. She arrived at 8:55 and said have to wait till 9:15 to heat up the machine. She didn’t even bother to say a sorry to me. I told her they should change the information on Unilocal and on their door but she ansered with «My boss knew they didn’t change the open hours.»
Service is really poor and bad attitude toward customer. Is an apology so difficult? After knowing the customer have been waiting for such a long time? Should update the information if open hours had been changed.

I had a strawberry mojito and tiramisu cake. They were great and delicious. And the service was fast and accpetable. :)

Arrived at 2:30pm on a Sunday, and the place was pretty empty. A few waves of customers came and went, but there was ample seating and open space here, which is a huge plus, as I feel claustrophobic in some Asian cafes (K-​Town, I’m talking to you.)
Asked the barista for coffee drink recommendations and she suggested the maple macchiato. I trusted her, and the drink is way too weak for my taste. Contemplated asking for a few extra shots of espresso but decided against it.
The drink isn’t the problem, but… Yeah. My friends and I found ourselves in a weird situation that I’ve never experienced anywhere else. Lol, I’m talking about when it’s obvious that they’re trying to low-​key kick you out for studying here too long by turning off their wifi, turning off their outlets, and turning up the Korean music to an obnoxiously loud volume, even after spending $ 25 in food and drinks.
Yeah. Not sure if it’s just the workers this time. Despite my headache from the volume, I’ll be back because it’s a nice study spot; but seriously, what the hell was with the crowd control tactics when I spent money on your overpriced coffee and cakes already?
Edit: several of my friends experienced the same thing with the wifi and outlets being turned off. Definitely a reoccurring thing. Rude.
Edit #2: they also apparently use their air conditioning/​heater to also drive customers out, according to several of my other friends. This is ridiculous. Why open a café if you don’t want customers to stay, especially during slower times?

I came here on a Sunday to study and although I love their drinks (this café is a chain so I’ve had their drinks from other locations before), I must say their customer service is definitely lacking.
After about 2 hours of studying there, the wifi stopped working and people around me started noticing the same thing so I went up and asked an employee and she said she would go fix it. And she went to the back, she never came back with an update. The wifi never came back on. Many other ppl started asking the employees as well, and at one point the employees just all hid in the back room. They only came to the counter when new customers came in. At first I thought maybe their internet just crashed during my visit but I saw that my friends were also encountering the same issues on separate occasions. So if this is a tactic to force customers to leave then this is extremely rude. If you’re going to open a café then you should expect people to study there.
And not only that, the owner was also very rude to me. She actually came up to me and started asking me a bunch of questions about why I had such a big table to myself (because when I arrived, that was the only table available???) and how long I was going to stay and she got annoyed and huffed then walked away because there were no other seats available for customers that just arrived.
So if you’re looking for a place to get your coffee fix, then yeah sure this place is cool. But if you want to sit somewhere and study, save yourself a trip and go to a better Caffe Bene.

Caffe Bene has all the makings of a popular café– cute aesthetic, decent drinks and free wifi. However, the experience I had today shows why this place will never be able to develop a strong and loyal following.
First of all, the prices are high. A slice of their crêpe cake costs $ 9.95, and each drink costs an upwards of $ 5. Normally, this doesn’t warrant a bad review, but the customer service is what did it for me.
First of all, the only outlets in the café is on their large wooden table. Cool. My friends and I sat down and got to studying. About 1.5−2 hours into it, I realized that the Wi-​Fi was turned off. I thought this was due to an increased amount of people using it, but as I kept trying to search for the network, I came to realize that the router was just turned off. Then, I noticed that my laptop was no longer charging. They had TURNED OFF the outlet connected to the table. At the same, the volume of their music went up and so did the temperature. It made sense – this was their tactic to force customers out.
I found out that they actually do this quite often, which leads me to ask, if you’re going to open a coffee shop and not expect people to study, why open it at all?
Disappointing.

Fun place to study. I loved my green tea latte. Funny story this couple next us ordered a ton of food. The huge shaved ice with fruit ~$ 12. Green tea crêpe cake. And some watermelon in the to go cups. They eat the slice of cake and the tiniest bite of the shaved ice and left. We thought they went out to smoke but they never came back. My friend were just mind blown they left their entire shaved ice. It’s seriously so big and a waste of money. The waitress was surprised too. We jokingly said we would take it. We are college kids we’ll take all your leftovers and we took the whole thing home after scrapping off the piece they ate. Yay free shaved ice for us!

The white grape mojito was wonderful! Refreshing and contained real fruit.
Mediocre place for studying. Not a lot of table space, and the chair/​table height ratio is not very comfortable; little to no outlets available. Caffe Bene is best for hanging out.
Giant painted angel wings outside for all your Instagram needs ;)
I’m mainly writing the review because I wanted to acknowledge one of the employees who was very accommodating. I inquired about wi-​fi and he said it should be an open network; when he realized the wi-​fi was off, he came over to my table to let me know that he just turned it on and waited until I could access the network. Wish I got his name so I could give him due credit!

I have been here 3 times within 1 week! I came here with my boyfriend once and just had to keep returning.
It’s a cute, little place located in the same plaza as Cham Sut Gol right on Colima and Greencastle. I’ve always wanted to visit the location on Gale, but found it was closed one day. So when I saw this one, I had to go.
Upon entering, you’re greeted with cute décor. It’s a small store with several 2-​person tables, a couple 4-​person tables, and 1 big communal table.
Customer service is okay.
We’ve ordered both to-​go and dine in. Despite that, our drinks were always served in to-​go cups. I guess they don’t use mugs?
I’ve ordered the hot green tea latte and hot mocha latte. Both were very delicious and things I’d definitely order again. Personally, this is the best green tea latte I’ve had. I’ve ordered this drink at a couple of other places and Caffe bene is my favorite. It has a strong green tea flavor. I’ve tried the Misugaru latte as well and thought it was pretty good. If you like sesame, you’ll enjoy this drink.
All of their desserts looked good, too! I’ve only tried the famous Lady M vanilla crêpe cake, which was scrumptious. I liked the subtle flavor and lightness of the cake. I’m a simple girl who loves simple food. Yes, it’s a bit expensive for a slice of cake, but I just had to try it once: P I’ve also tried their strawberry shortcake. It was a bit disappointing. The slice we got wasn’t like the slice they have in the display case. it was smaller. Also, there was just a tiny bit of strawberry jelly.

Their coffee is good, ambiance is picture-​friendly and their desserts are also good. Love their salted caramel ice cream (on top of a waffle) and now I’m trying their coffee ice parfait… i love k drama so I if I want something korean u come here :)

I had previously left a good review because the caramel latte used to be very good but sadly these past times they have been poorly made! I guess they hired new people but clearly they either have no experience at making coffee or they just don’t care about their quality anymore. I always expect to get what I pay for & this place is definitely not worth it anymore. Sadly, not coming back to this place until they get people who actually know how to brew espresso and make their coffee taste like it used too and not like water. Horrible quality!!!

It’s pretty much like any other Asian café. I usually only come here to meet up with people East of Pasadena, mostly because they stay open later than other tea joints.
Parking: It’s in a plaza with plenty of parking, especially after 9PM.
Atmosphere: Again, if the CIA put a burlap sack over your head dropped you off inside here, you probably couldn’t tell the difference from any other Asian tea place. Though, most of their indoor seats are comically low to the ground, and would be a pain for any average adult. Nice outdoor patio seating with a majestic view of Colima Rd traffic.
Food/​Drink: Pretty much the same stuff you’d get anywhere else.

I came here a few times already, and I think it really is my loner go-​to study spot. Its just so nice and quaint and cozy I love it and the best part is the giant community table when you walk in that have outlets on the table, VERY NICE. I hate going to coffee shops and having to stalk someone’s outlet until they leave… nice choice caffe bene, nice choice.
The first time I came here I tried the affogato and the matcha shaved ice, the affogato was on point. You choose what kind of gelato you want, I got cookies and cream which was pretty sweet (like diabetes) and it worked so well with the coffee that helped balance the bitterness and sweetness. The matcha shaved ice was really sweet, there was a lot of matcha flavor, it doesn’t get bland after the ice melts either, and the red bean is sweet and yummy.
Today I had the misugaru latte and the misugaru red bean shaved ice. I had no idea what misugaru was, but I saw the word a ton of times on their Unilocal and I googled it, multigrain powder, ok and I tried it. SO GOOD. The perfect complement to these late fall early winter cold nights！Its pretty sweet at first sip but the taste simmers down a bit and it’s not overly sweet and it has a thick frothy texture, and the taste of misugaru, so bomb. Just makes your tummy feel all warm and fuzzy in the best way. Definitely my new go to order.
The shaved ice was alrightttt, it shouldn’t be called misugaru because there really wasn’t any on there compared to the amount of ice you get, red bean is good, MOCHI IS A NO. BIG FAT NO. LOL, I cannot stress enough how gross I think frozen yogurt mochi is… I probably ate it too much when it was first discovered back in the day that now I just don’t like it but dude, how do you mess that up? I don’t like the normal textured ones at Yogurtland but these were also hard like… I had to do work on them with my teeth tryna chew them… yeah no.
Overall great study spot, pretty decent items depending on what you get and personal preference, the price is average maybe slightly higher than average. It was $ 4.31 or something for my small misugaru latte, but it’s not that big a difference compared to say Starbucks really. It’s usually not too crowded but sometimes it can get a bit loud. I like it though: D
(Pictures are not necessarily correlated with review. Only the most recent, clearly I’ve been here too much and finally reviewed it…)

It’s a cute place for pictures, and that’s about it. Everything is pretty expensive and not that great. The drinks were bland. The patbingsoo was just flavored shaved ice with red beans on top. And half way through eating, you’re just left with a bunch of ice. The green tea flavoring was pretty much gone.
It’s also not a good place to study because it’s super loud. We even killed a spider crawling across out table… so it’s not that clean here either…

This place is cute and resembles a Starbucks with Desserts and OVER PRICED. The prices here are absurd! If you’re driving by, this place is awkwardly located next to a plaza off on its own.
They serve a large variety of things: Coffees, Teas, Juices, Smoothies, Desserts, and Sandwiches
There is plenty of seating, a few large tables, and plenty of smaller tables. A few of the smaller tables very children sizes. It felt like we were sitting on the floor. They have outdoor seating as well.
The Service is nice, there was 1 cashier and 1 person making the drinks and dessert. The one person making the drinks and desserts seemed a bit overwhelmed. You would think the person on cashier would help him, when he wasn’t taking orders, but nope he just stands there and stares at everyone.
I tried their Strawberry ICE Parfait [Doubles] $ 11.95. This was just basically crushed ice with a little bit of strawberry syrup in the middle. Topped off with more strawberry syrup and a few slices of Strawberries, Red Bean and Gelato. This dessert it just basically Crushed Ice for $ 12.
Sadly I will not be returning. I felt robbed after coming here. Talk about ripping people off! I did not see anything that we reasonably priced.

Came here yesterday for the first time. I really love the interior of this Caffe Bene. Its smaller than the one on Gale Ave. I love that they have a communal table and the huge clock on the wall gives the place such character.
I just ordered the latte. It was pretty good! I was going to order the crêpe cake but it was $ 9.95, too steep for me specially for one slice!
I have to say that this is one of my favorite café space! I would come back!

Best price for macarons! Like everywhere else it is over 2 bucks but when you buy 6 you get 1 free or buy 12 and get 2 free. Do the math ;-) plus they are soft and moist and so yum mmmmmm
My go to macarons place… the ice parfait is eh lol

Stumbled across this café through Unilocal and decided to give it a try. It is a cute and modern Korean-​style café with a homey feel. They have coffee and tea, as well as shaved ice, waffles, and cake. And by cake, I mean they have Lady M cakes!!! It is $ 9.95 for a a slice of the mille crêpe cake, which is a few bucks more than if you go to the original location. But if you don’t want to drive that far, this place will have to do. The green tea mille crêpe cake is honestly the best cake I have had in my life; the layers are very thin, and it is perfectly put together with layers of crêpe, cream, and love.
We also ordered the banana whipped cream liege waffle. It was a very pretty plate, and the taste did not disappoint (but how can you go wrong?) The waffle was nice and warm, with a thicker and chewier texture than i had expected. The bananas and whipped cream provided a nice sweetness and bite to the waffle.
Overall, great place to chill with your friends. A lot of people there were studying (on their macs, I’m jelly) and they have free wi-​fi.

I came here to work on a group project with two others. I ordered the peach mojito which was very refreshing! There were chunks of fruit in it which I always appreciate! I just really didn’t like how there was so much ice, I finished it so quickly. But that may be due to the fact that I always drink my drinks too quickly lol I don’t know. My teammate liked her drink as well. Sorry, I can’t recall what it was.
I also ordered the salted caramel ice cream. YUUUUUMMMM! It was so good. Kinda pricey, but I was getting hangry.
This is a great study spot, I just wish there were more outlets around. There is a huge table right when you walk in. There are outlets kind of underneath on the side of the table. I love these kinds of tables because you can sit around strangers with no awkwardness lol.
The workers are very nice! I asked for samples of ice cream and never got any attitude.

I absolutely adore this place! I come here to get some studying done after work. It’s a little hard for me to believe, but I was told there is no wifi on all the occasions I was here.
PARKING
Small parking lot but if you continue driving in, it connects to the plaza next to it. You can park anywhere, but many spaces are for compact vehicles only. It doesn’t stop people from taking up two spots though. I like to park right in front of the building.
INTERIOR/​EXTERIOR
They have outdoor tables and umbrellas to keep you cool. Not my preference though — it can be hot and on many occasions, people smoke outdoors. Inside is very serene. It has that peaceful ambiance and clean decorations. Plenty of wooden tables and chairs, large clock on one wall, menus up by the register, and display glass full of pastries and sweets all waiting for you. I find it very peaceful — the music serves as background noise in which you can focus and enjoy the song or tune it out. Restrooms are clean.
MENU
Quite pricey for even the smallest size. The smallest size frappé can cost up to $ 5. Other than that, I really enjoyed their Iced Green Tea Latte. Every drink pairs great with their Tiramisu cake which has been my latest addiction! I even had to take one to go for my dear friend to try. Today, I got their Hot Vanilla Latte — the blend tasted a little light, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Been meaning to try their waffles but I forget every time I see the Tiramisu.
SERVICE
Greeted every time you step through the doors, but definitely not the friendliest service. On my last visit, they forgot my pastry even with a near empty shop. There is definitely room to improve — patience, friendliness, and attentiveness are a few places to start. I do not hold it against them since they do get the job done. Tables are cleaned promptly after every customer leaves and they will take your order right away even when you are not ready.

Note that there are two locations that are very near each other. My friend and I ended meeting up at two separate locations without even knowing it haha!
Parking: Plenty of parking in the lot is always good.
This is a nicely decorated café and I was impressed with how clean it was upon walking in. The menu is rather large and extensive, which can be overwhelming at first. The staff member there was helpful and my friend and I decided on a small size strawberry bingsu. The small size is enough for the two of us. It is a bit on the pricer side and was a little over 10 dollars for a small size.
The strawberry bingsu tasted pretty good and I really enjoyed the red bean in the middle. The ice is a little chunkier than the usual Asian shaved ice. There was no special sauce, but the strawberries were sweet and juicy.
I saw that they sell slices of the Lady M crêpe cakes! I didn’t get a drink this time but I will definitely love to try their drinks the next time I come here.

Was looking for a place to eat in the AM in the area and surprisingly enough there aren’t a lot of places.
I know I am a bit behind but caffebene is apparently huge in ktown, a Korea coffee shop export and is opening locations everywhere around the world.
The concept is cute and got that rustic yet modern look. The hot drinks are good and the waffles are pretty delicious. Would definitely come back for some morning waffle and hot coffee or tea latte.

Caffebenes are popping up all over this side of the town! I don’t mind though because Caffebene is the only place with the Misugaru Latte. Yum!
We came in on a very, very slow and gloomy saturday morning, which is good for me because I hate waiting in line and for my drink. I was helped quickly and efficiently with polite smiles, please and thank you’s.
The décor at this location is very eye pleasing; I love the funky little chandelier above the big table and the huge clock that I’m sure no one looks at to check time. The tables and chairs were pretty unique too.
Parking was a bit annoying since it’s a shared lot with a lot of other [somewhat busier] stores, so it is probably best to come during odd hours or carpool with your group.