Caffebene

Love this little coffee shop, it’s very cozy and the coffee is delicious. They offer a great menu of coffee, bubble tea, tea and light sandwiches and dessert. Definitely a place to visit for a true coffee shop experience

Very relaxing atmosphere with a laid back vibe. I’ve only been on late weekend afternoons, so not had any problem with it being too crowded. Food and coffee beverages were solid, and the staff was very helpful. Several nice, thoughtful touches like free popcorn for munching (didn’t try it but thought it a cool idea) and paper and crayons for coloring (my kids loved that part!)

It is a good place for breakfast. Home fries are outstanding. Coffee taste regular, but I’m not a coffee person, however hot chocolate is really good.
I visited the place on Monday morning and is not over crowded. Staff is very kind

Good for studying. Free wifi. Outlets available.
But. I saw a bug crawling around the table :|

I’ve never been here during their busy hours, I’ve only been here in the evenings to study and I did not have a problem finding a seat.
Overall, I think this place is great! They have a large selection of pastries that always bring out the fat kid in me. They also have a great section of sandwiches and drinks!
The workers are super friendly and helpful. The lighting is bright which is important if you’re trying to do work. The music is also not obnoxiously loud.
It’s great place to hang out or catch on some work on your laptop. There’s also no limit on the internet usage, which is definitely a bonus!

I ordered 3 pastries to go. The bill came to just over $ 10. That’s not bad considering the pastries are better than most. However, the star deduction comes for my being charged $.54 for a cup of ice water.

A very nice addition to the Washington Heights area. Good coffee fair pricing nice environment. Very pleased.

I’m a late breakfast type of person. One time I invited my cousin out for breakfast but woke up super late and trying to find a spot that sells breakfast until 2pm is hard but we found caffebene ! It wasn’t extraordinary but it was good.

Good location to get school work done. Free wifi, friendly service, and decent smoothies. Yes, it is a franchise so you know what to expect; there is a lot of packaged foods. Sometimes it gets busy and the music can be annoying but it is your typical gelato/​coffee/​smoothie/​panini space basically made for students. Every time I’ve been here (quite regularly) there are a handful of computers but everyone is a paying customer, I have yet to see wifi moochers hogging table space, it just doesn’t get that packed. The space is quite big and there are multiple plugs along the bars for computers (obviously welcoming people with laptops). It is a decent college food café, free donuts and all but i dig the smoothies.

My least-​favorite Caffebene location. I would go to literally any other location before I went here, even the ones in Brooklyn and Queens. If Taszo next door weren’t always so packed, I’d choose to stick with that shop. This place is so small and cramped, particularly the tables on the right side of the café. Good luck getting one of those — every weekend I’ve tried to come here, a huge group has taken over every single seat from like, 10 am to 3 pm. They’re also extremely loud, so it’s difficult to study or get work done. The seats at the counter on the left side are flimsy as hell, I’ve seen at least four people an hour overbalance or nearly fall trying to sit on them.
It’s a shame, because Bene’s wifi is great, and their desserts and pastries are delicious. Overpriced, but that’s pretty standard for Korean chain coffee shops.

Caffebene is my go-​to spot on Sundays when I need to get some studying or work done before the week starts. Other reviews have mentioned the «Wi-​Fi moochers» that come here for extended periods of time, and I guess I’m one of them. But to be fair, I usually sit on the stools against the wall. I’ve never experienced the place being incredibly packed either, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find a spot (contrary to what others have pointed out)
What I like about this place is that it’s well-​lit and quiet, with plenty of outlets and unlimited Wi-​Fi! They do play music in the background, but it’s never too distracting. I usually order their smoothies (pretty standard), mojitos (worth a try), or Thai bubble tea (pretty good considering that there is no other boba spots around here). There was one time on a not so busy day when the barista completely forgot my order. She ended up upgrading my drink, which was nice. There’s also free popcorn in the front of the store for customers to grab and munch on.
Overall, this is a solid place to do anything really. I’ve seen people come here for dates, meetings, study sessions, etc. I was worried that the café wouldn’t do well in this part of town, but it seems like it’ll be here to stay!

The place was nice. Good nice relaxing vibe. The food was so so. Bubble tea was ok, I’ve had way better bubble tea in my area in central jersey. The waffle ice cream I had was ok. The waffle was candied but the only thing I really enjoyed here was the side of hazelnut ice cream and green tea ice cream gelato. I probably wouldn’t go back but if I did i will have the gelato ice cream there and that’s it.

Let me begin by saying that I came here on a Sunday around 530 and every table was taken mostly by people on their laptops taking up a four-​person table.
Listen: just because you order 1 coffee or 1 damn macaroon doesn’t really give you the right to sit there for ¾ hours using up their Wi-​Fi.
I get it you probably can’t afford your own apt or pay for your own Internet but geez I got there with my family and we waited for one of you to get up and you all acted like you didn’t see us. Real paying patrons should get priority seating! (Just for the record we spent about $ 35 in one sitting.)
Luckily when I came back 2 hours later with the exception of two Wi-​Fi moochers that were still there at least we were able to sit down and enjoy it if not I would’ve definitely started to ruffle some feathers!
Now…
I remember when this place first opened. It was quiet and like others here have said here, it was in pretty fierce competition with their neighbors next-​door. Needless to say I’ve noticed that it’s not really that competitive seeing how they’re both very very different types of cafés to begin with.
Taszo is more of your hipster type café with small faux fancy things to eat on the menu, so don’t expect to get a full meal here. You can get pretty much any fancy type of coffee here, the grind is good I will say, it’s nice to pop in here when it’s not so crowded and just have a quality cup of coffee.
Benne on the other hand has a playful dessert menu that I think is pretty much their bread and butter. It can be a little bit overwhelming as their choices all seem pretty alike but they really are different.
My niece ordered the waffle with a scoop of gelato her waffle was really soft and warm delicious… I ordered the waffle with glaze and almonds I didn’t really like it the waffle is really tough I thought it was going to be soft and warm too but I probably will not order that again. and my sister ordered The caramel cinnamon honey bread. Her choice was the winner of all three it was amazing sweet moist and just absolutely one of the most best desserts I’ve had in a really long time. My sweet tooth will definitely drive me back here for that particular dessert hands-​down.
Hopefully the service will remain consistent and I won’t have to come back here and edit my review ;)

This has to be the cutest café you can find in Washington Heights. I’m surprised that many people in CUMC still haven’t discovered this nice little study spot.
Note that the hours on Unilocal are not accurate – I was told that they open til 10pm in the winter and will extend their hours to 11pm once it gets warmer!
I’ve had the strawberry honey toast, the sandwiches, and many of the pastries. I’m happy with what I’ve tried so far and can’t wait to get their drinks and waffles!

It’s a decent coffee & breakfast place in the 157^th 1-​train area. VERY friendly staff and delicious cappuccino, what else you need? The perfect spot to work on Sunday morning: quitely, Wi-​Fi with the great speed, relaxing music. Love to be here!

This used to be my go to place for a cozy afternoon with my laptop in Washington Heights, but so much has changed! For one, their WiFi router is all messed up and can’t connect with my laptop anymore. The new staff is rude and of course, unhelpful. Speaking of which, they now have a Mexican cook and a Dominican barista that spend the whole day yelling curses in Spanish to each other. This used to be a really nice and quiet place, but now I feel I’m in a ghetto coffe shop thanks to these two guys. Please get rid of them.
Other than that, everything’s still fine, coffee’s great, illumination is nice and easy in the eyes and the music is as easy listening as– hey wait, where’s the music? There’s no music anymore!
Aside from these kinks, the place’s still nice. I’ll wait for a few months before coming back again though.

I was so thrilled to find this little gem in Washington Heights on my most recent trip to NYC. It was walking distance from where I was staying at my friend’s house and I happened upon it by chance. And boy was I so glad I did! I was planning to just stop at a Dunkin, but I will not pass up the opportunity for a Misugaru latte. Actually at first I tried to order their seasonal cranberry almond latte, but they were out of one of the ingredients, so I’m subtracting one star for not being properly stocked first thing in the morning.
Too late I noticed they also sell bubble tea. NEXT TIME.

Who knew the Heights was so fancy now? This place is a block from my apartment and it’s so nice to have the convenience and reliability of a nice chain eatery.
Had to edit my rating — they forgot the cheese on my sandwich and charged me for a coffee that I didn’t order.
My roommate is a diehard fan of Tazso but I’ll bring visitors to this place. For day to day, I’ll stick to the deli on the corner — same quality food, half the price and faster service than Caffe Bene.

I think having two cafes nextdoor to one another is a sign that Washington Heights’ gentrification is well and truly underway — I know this is sort of a bad thing for a lot of reasons, but my inner yuppie is like, «Bring on the Trader Joe’s!»
Anyway. This place is pretty generic, but clean, quiet, and well-​equipped for studying.
I love Taszo (nextdoor) as much as the next girl and the coffee there is a million times tastier, but it’s nice to be able to use your computer without being shunted to a single table in the back. There’s also a pretty wide menu and the gelato looks tasty!

This place just opened and this is my first time dropping in. I wanted to post a review and get the place listed so that all the other folks who have been waiting for this place to open will get on down here.
In general, I like Caffe Benes even though some of the other NYC locations have issues. The overall design of the stores is usually good, the chairs are nice, they keep the places clean, and in general know how to make for an inviting, open space.
This particular location isn’t as big as I had hoped. It has a slightly smaller seating area than the café next door with room for roughly 20 folks to fit comfortably. They could fit a few more tables in if there wasn’t this giant display of pastries to one side. Perhaps they don’t want so many people hanging out.
The food and drinks are the same as at any Caffe Bene: tasty, if a bit overpriced. yes, even up here in the Heights. We’ll see how well that goes over. I’ll be interested to see if the local folks dig waffles as much as the usual clientele does.
So far all of the staff I’ve encountered are friendly and attentive.
Free Wi-​Fi without any restrictions. However, there is a sign on the wall that emphasizes that seating is for PAYING customers only. Not sure why that needs to be stated right now.
The only outlets in the place are along the south wall where the couch-​like seating is. There’s enough for 12 people who can fit in that area, so there should not be a need for jockeying.
Can Caffe Bene win out over the local café literally right next door? Perhaps. Or maybe they will split clientele. There’s no designated laptop area here, no hours where you can’t bring a laptop, and no jerks foisting arbitrary no-​laptop hours on you unexpectedly. So for the remote workers in the area, this could be a preferred spot.