Caffe Bene

Great place to study, but everything is so overpriced. They started to give out wireless passwords but they say it’s only 5 hours valid. Plus the code won’t allow multiple people on the wifi using the code. I get the idea behind this, but I just don’t understand why their drinks are so expensive, they aren’t good! if you’re gonna make me pay to study here at least make it good (or cheaper).
The taro milk tea I had was so sweet, the boba sucked, and it tasted like Vietnamese Che but in drink form. I was not diggin it, I had a bad sugar high and felt antsy after. I’m torn because it’s a great place to study, but it’s annoying to be paying more than $ 5 for a bad drink. Overall, the music is good and I probably resort to just getting the cheapest thing on the menu.

The Honey Bread Caramel Cinnamon with light caramel was delicieiuse (delicious)! Soft texture, similar to a sponge cake but crispy on the outside. Ask for light caramel because the honey on the bottom of the bread is already sweet.
Great place to study with FREE WiFi. Just wished the chairs were more comfortable. My first time here, and it won’t be the last.

I tried this place twice hoping the first time was just a fluke… but unfortunately both times I was pretty disappointed. Their mojito drink tasted like sprite with mint leaves and frozen raspberries tossed in. Another occasion I tried the peppermint mocha and found the peppermint flavor to be extremely overpowering.
The atmosphere is great, but be prepared to pay for it! Every item on the menu was grossly overpriced.

AMBIANCE: AWESOME PLACE TO STUDY (When its not super crowded and you have to fight for tables…) with free wifi, plenty of outlets, spacious tables, and clean bathrooms!
When this place first opened, I would come here all the time to study but now its gotten much more popular and more crowded. The music in here is a hit or miss, sometimes they play super loud EDM which makes it super hard to concentrate and other times, they play nice study relaxation music which makes for quite inconsistency & inconvenience sometimes.
FOOD/​DRINKS: Woooo are they pricey… around $ 5-​$ 6 for a drink. ummm. idk about that
Their desserts are cute and delicious but also very very pricey (paid around $ 12 for brick toast plus a scoop of gelato – *says silent prayer to wallet*). That being said, if you don’t mind spending a bit extra, this place is decent.
I had the tiramisu cake, very moist and frosting was the perfect amount of sweetness. Their gelato flavors are also delicious (Green tea and mango are my favorite!) The macarons are delicious with an amazing balance of chewyness and sweetness.
OVERALL: cute place to come and chat, grab a quick dessert, and maybe study (depending on the music selection) but pretty overpriced for what it is.

:Quick Review:
Everything looked so tasty! Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Pricey for what it is too, not a fan :(
Saw a lot of ppl with their laptops and books, but it was kind of loud so idk if anyone can actually get any studying/​work done.
:Food Review:
C O R T A D O — espresso & milk
— tasted like a dark roast that was extremely bitter; even sugar couldn’t save it
M A N G O * B E R R Y * MO J I T TO
— a bit too sweet and I have a sweet tooth
— mango tasted sour so it clashed with the sweetness
G A R L I C * B U T T E R * C R O I S S A N T
— I could definitely tell it wasn’t fresh and was microwaved because it was deflated and soggy
— I did like the seasoning

I love this place!
The desserts are so amazing! I’ve tried their mango shaved ice, red bean shaved ice and their mochi/​red bean shaved ice (I’m not sure if that is the name of it). I love their presentation of the shaved ice! My favorite of all the flavors I’ve tried is red bean! The red bean one comes with strawberries! So delicious!
I also LOVE their waffle desserts! I’ve tried so many I can’t even remember, but they haven’t disappointed me yet!
The desserts are phenomenal here! The ambiance is so young, cool and hipster! It has great décor and makes you feel very comfortable just hanging out for hours here. Whether it’s to catch up with a friend or quietly do your work on your laptop or read! It’s great!
My only criticism is that the staff that works there needs more training and needs to stalk their inventory better. On several occasions, I would order something and be told that they are out of that item.
Being out of stalk of certain food items has happened to me several times, so I’ll just share one of the worst of all the experiences. So this one time, I went to Caffe Bene and wanted to order two desserts, a shaved ice and a waffle. So right off the bat, we were told that there was no chocolate ice cream, so we had to order something else for the waffle. Then after we paid, 10 mins later, they came and told us that there were no strawberries so they couldn’t finish the waffle dessert we had ordered and again, we had to pick something else. (If you look at their menu, half their menu is practically made with strawberries, so I don’t know how they could have ran out of that). Anyways, after a lot switching and apologizing, we finally got our desserts, but I think they just need to get more organized and get their act together.
But aside from that, this place is GREAT! I

The setting for the place is very nice and spiffy, plenty of room, and great décor.
The food was okay, but nothing special. I have one of their smoothies while my girlfriend got one of the waffles. The waffle was decent while the smoothie left me craving for some Jamba juice. Unfortunately, all the items were overpriced, which left my wallet craving for Jamba juice prices.
Overall nice establishment, but with all the other tea, brick toast and waffle places in San Diego, let alone Convoy, I think there are much better choices around.

Caffe Bene is a popular coffee house chain that originated in South Korea. While caffè translates to «coffee» (in Italian), «bene» means «fine» or «good». Luckily, their coffee actually lives up to their name. Nice to see them finally open in San Diego.
The Good
–Extensive menu /​nice variety of sandwiches, desserts and beverages
–Free Wi-​Fi
–Air conditioning
–Cool study place (lots of room /​space)
–Décor /​aesthetics is nice
–Plenty of outlets
The Bad
–Pricey
–Parking (lack of)
–Can be noisy inside (music too loud)
–Service, food, and drinks = inconsistent
–Difficult to find seating at times
I feel like they need to work on their consistency with: food, drinks, and service. This time we went, their cold chocolate was too sweet. However, the coffee drink I ordered was good.
The main thing keeping me from visiting this place more often is lack of parking. Min Sook is in the same center and it’s popular as well, so between the two, parking is scarce in the lot and on the street.
I’d stop by if I noticed parking was available, but there are so many other places where I can get drinks, desserts, and sandwiches.
Overall, this place is alright (I’d rate it a 3.0 — 3.5). Parking and pricing really drops the rating of this place.

I like how spacious this place is, and has pretty good aesthetics. It seems to be a really good study area because there’s so much room and free wifi. Not too much impressed with the desserts here though.
We got the Mango Yogurt Bingsu, which had mangoes, greek (?) yogurt, shaved ice divided into layers with a scoop of mango sorbet on top. We didn’t think that the yogurt would be greek yogurt, so we were kind of surprised to taste that the yogurt was sour. Not exactly what we wanted. The mangoes had a bunch of fibers in them that it felt like eating hair… but I mean at least that means that they use real mangoes? They would get stuck in our teeth though so it didn’t really feel that great to have. The shaved ice part was literally just ice so that part was tasteless. The only thing that really gave it flavor was that one scoop of sorbet at the top, but the amount of ice outweighs the amount of sorbet, so it still tastes watered down. We got a small size so it was cheaper, but a large size of just that for $ 13.99? No thank you. Glad we didn’t.
I know now to avoid the bingsu, so if I ever come back I’ll have to try their drinks.

Today was the first time that I’ve gone to Caffe Bene and not ordered their misugaru patbingsoo. BUT instead I order the multigrain shake frappé, which is also calles the misugaru frappé. So I basically got the patbingsoo in drink form. I also ordered the french vanilla gelato.
The frappé was really good! It has black sesame, black bean, black rice, brown rice and barley which are all really good for you. The drink isn’t too sweet and is more on the nutty side. It
The gelato was good. However, I probably wouldn’t buy it again. It was really sweet after the 6^th or 7^th bite. they have a smaller cup, which would have been better, but they don’t use it for gelato… although it’s above the gelato. It’s great in the patbingsoo, but I don’t think I’ll order it again by itself.
Still no complaints about Caffe Bene!

A «bene» place to study and drink tea.
Pros:
–Drinks and desserts are pretty good.
–Plenty of modern-​style chairs and tables.
–Clean and very tidy and the menu looks extensive
–Free WiFi is always a good thing, especially for students.
Cons:
–Parking lot is packed and small.
–Tables and chairs are soo square it makes moving around kinda tight.
–WiFi is slow at times because of the high number of patrons.
What do I usually get?
I get tea and lattes most of the time. Thats basically my go to thing for cafes, and they are good. Nothing toi special or unique, just good.
There is a unique drink that they have which is a non-​alcoholic mojito that has different fruit flavors. I had the peach or mango (its been a while) but the better one was the watermelon one. Mmm. I’m such a light-​weight.
The only desserts i had was the korean-​version of the Filipino dessert, Halo-​Halo. It has ice cream, beans, shaved ice… and some other stuff. Haha. But yeah.
The other was their brick toast… which i thought was oh k. Not great, i would go to another location for that.
They do have macaroons and café sandwiches, but i haven’t tried them.
The 3-​star rating isnt really true because if i was to rate just the drinks themselves, it would be 4-​stars. But the parking lot being packed because the popular korean restaurant/​karaōke bar that’s nearby makes it hard to get to. I’ll change the rating once i try a few more different items on their extensive menu.
Would i come back? Yeah, because i want to make my review and detailed as possible… and because it is a good place to study.

Caffe Bene is an awesome café located a block away from Jasmine. I’ve seen other cafes and tea spots in San Diego, but not very many were this large. The plentiful seating is good for working and they have wifi. I brought my laptop here and had a relaxing time here.
The spicy chicken sandwich I ordered was so-​so. You would imagine it to be quite spicy and bold with the buffalo sauce, but it was extremely mild in flavors. I would say that it presents people with a different take on what they’re used to, with the sweet buns having a much stronger taste rather than its usual passive role in a sandwich.
I also ordered a mango mojito and I will be sure to return for the coffee.

Not everyone makes a great Café au Lait, but fortunate for me, Caffe Bene a very good one, not to mention a pretty good waffle as well.
The café au lait cost $ 3 for a medium. It did not come served in a cozy mug because they did not have any yet, although they did have them on the shelves for sale. The original waffle with just butter and plated on a drizzle of chocolate, cost $ 4.95. The waffle was suppose to come with powdered sugar, but they forgot to sprinkle the waffle for some reason.
The café au lait was quite good and had a smooth rich flavor. The coffee to hot milk ratio was just right which made for a very comforting cup of coffee. The original waffle was very good. It had a nice golden brown crust with a light spread of melted butter. The flavor of the waffle was semi sweet with hint of herb. Its texture was very moist and a little doughy which I liked very much.
although, the small parking lot competes with other businesses in the complex, so it can get a little tight, Caffe Bene does offer a lot of seating and plenty suitable for study group. They have a Wi-​Fi and provide good service at the counter. Depending on how busy it is, they either bring you your order, or call you up to the counter to pick it up.

Came here after a night of karaōke next door at Min Sok Chun. When you walk in, the establishment is big and the ambiance is pretty impressive. It was a Friday night and there were lots of people, but you were able to find seating easily. I wasn’t sure what I wanted so I asked a few questions and I was offered samples of the gelato.
I didn’t want anything heavy at 10p, so I opted just to order the gelato waffle $ 6 with chocolate gelato. The waffle was a bit on the doughy side and not enough crunch for me. The gelato was perfect as it was light and not too sweet.
The parking lot sucks so it’ll be a challenge if you want to try this place for a $ 5 dessert. Make it worth your while by staying a couple hours chatting it up with friends or studying/​working.

Everything is so fancy looking here. let me just poke at that plastic sample again just to make sure it isn’t real.
The menu is extensive and overwhelming but its a great excuse to go back several times to try everything on the list.
They have snacks like waffles to honey toast, fun and delicious shaved ice concoctions like mango, strawberry, green tea, cookies n cream and red bean. They come in two sizes, large and omfg big! You need to share this with at least one other person or you’ll be taking the rest home in a to go cup and sipping it out of a boba straw.
One thing that makes this place stand out (other than the space and a new place to study) is they have non-​alcoholic mojitos! YESSSS!!! Mostly spritzer water (or clear soda) fruit of choice (peach and mango mix is so good), a lime slice here, a few mint leaves there and wa-la…your fruit mojito. They can ease up on the ice though but this is a great refreshing and fruity drink if you are not into a heavy liquids like milk tea or boba.
The waffle was eh-​ok. I like mine a bit more crispier on the outside. This one was a bit undercooked and doughy in the middle.
The green-​tea shaved ice reminded me of a simpler but bigger halo-​halo. Ice, green tea milk, green tea ice cream, red bean and some cool whip on top. It was sweet and refreshing and the green tea taste was not to strong. The red been did compliment the green tea well. I wonder if they would add coconut jellys to it… hmmmm.
Its a nice layout and spacious. Free wifi with purchase and plenty of study areas. don’t mind the edm music in the background.

Heard about this place… so I had to give it a try! I’m a lover of waffles, so you know I had to give it a taste test.
Ordered: Liege waffle with strawberries and caramel sauce no whip cream.
Waffle was a bit undercooked. I like my waffles to be crispy on the outer edge from the sugar and soft on the inside. The strawberries weren’t very sweet, but that’s ok bc I like things a bit tart. This dish was ok.
I did have a bit of #foodie envy for my friends who ordered drinks… so I’ll probably go back to study and try some other items on the menu. They have a lot of seating and offer free wifi. Lighting is great and the atmosphere seems welcoming. The staff are friendly and the service is quick.
Parking might be a challenge in this spot… the parking lot is small with a lot of businesses in the complex. If you can find parking nearby, or street parking a couple blocks away… then this is worth a try!

I tried the cookies and cream shake, which tasted exactly like cookies and cream. We shared the green tea bingsu (bottom layer of ice, middle layer of green tea flavored ice, topped with green tea ice cream, whipped cream, nuts). It was ok but could have been more flavorful. Next time, I’ll stick to ice cream or waffles.
Everything is über pricey; however, I feel that it is generally worth it because the quality is fairly good. I really like the open seating and ambiance. It’s a pleasant spot to get a bit of work done, meet up with friends, or bring a date.

Date of visit: 9÷12÷2015
After sushi, we all wanted some dessert, so we opted for some boba from Caffe Bene across the street. Upon entering, it was immediately obvious that this place is great for those looking for a nice study café. The interior is really spacious and there are a lot of tables. The atmosphere is really quiet (unless you get my group of friends to go inside) and the staff is extremely nice.
Although there is a menu right when you enter, you have to place your order at the counter and then find a seat. From there, one of the staff members will call your name and you pick up your drink/​food from the other side of the counter.
Bubble Milk Tea. There aren’t a lot of places in San Diego that call boba, «bubbles,» but that was the only interesting thing about this drink. The boba seemed a little old and chewy in a not so good way, while the tea was way too milky and sweet. It tasted more like I was drinking heavy cream with sugar than milk tea. Of course Cam really liked the tea, but I’ve definitely had better milk tea at other places.
Overall, this is a great place to visit if you’re looking for a café, but skip the milk tea. Their strawberry mojito (no alcohol) was pretty good and their shaved ice bowls looked amazing.

Prime location with fast and free wifi, plenty of seating, and catchy music. The interior kind of reminds me of a more urban version of Document Coffee in ktown LA, albeit with more desserts and smoothies. Sometimes you’ll hear old school kpop — okay, not that old, but circa 2010 which was at the height of my kpop fandom — no shame, whatsoever.
Everything on the menu is marked up with premium pricing that makes even Starbucks look affordable because at least you can get refills, perks for returning customers, and can customize drinks to your liking.
On a hot summer day, we ordered the mango ice parfait ($ 13.25) and the pictures do not lie on the minuscule portion. It’s shaved ice: thick chunks of crunchy ice that’s pretty tough on your teeth. If you’re looking for soft and fluffy shaved snow, this is not the place to get it. The mango sorbet (gelato?) on top is pretty average as well.
Overall, the interior is spacious and great for studying or hanging out, but the actual menu offerings leave a lot to be desired, coupled with premium pricing.

After my birthday dinner with my family, my nieces wanted to get dessert somewhere. I mentioned this place since it just opened over the weekend and they were excited to try it out. It’s very rustic looking and spacious!
You order at the counter and they have a few fake desserts on display. It is a little more expensive than their competitors, but worth it. You’ll get a buzzer to indicate your order is ready. We had the a couple waffle desserts, the mango bingsu (shaved ice parfait), cheesecake, and a cookies and cream crumble frappé. My niece asked for a candle, but since they didn’t have any, they gave me extra strawberries instead. The desserts are very pretty and yummy. I really like their waffles! This will be my new spot to have dessert on Convoy!