Cafe Bene

My new fav place in the world! The green tea bingsoo blew my mind away. Better than I thought it would. My friend and I went here for the first time on a Sunday afternoon and it’s seriously the cutest place. I would love to come here and just hang out and chill.

*2.5 stars* I like how the place is spacious, cozy and has plugs everywhere so it’s good for studying BUT I find the prices ridiculously overpriced though for their food. It’s slightly absurd to me how a bowl of instant ramen is like $ 3 when it’s $ 0.50 a bowl at the Asian supermarket, (what?). Service is quick but quite impersonal/​cold. Their drinks are standard bubble tea café price and decent but not amazing, but I’d go somewhere more legit next time (somewhere Taiwanese as opposed to a Korean BBT café such as Green Grotto or Gong Cha).

– My First Impression –
I had a sudden craving for Korean style dessert. Since I was around Yonge and Finch, I checked Unilocal and found out this Café had a 3.5 rating and decided to give it a try. The entrance was quite hard to find since Café Bene was located on the second floor. The interior décor looked nice but the restaurant was very hot. I was non-​stop sweating until I left the café.
– Food and Drink –
We ordered 2 items:
1. Oreo Coco Bingsoo — a scoop of chocolate icecream and whipped cream layered over oreo crumbs on top of shaved ice made with milk. I normally eat Taiwanese/​Chinese shaved ice and it’s usually tasteless. I liked how the Korean shaved ice has some flavor to it. The melted chocolate icecream and the milk shaved ice mixed well together. The oreo crumbs added a layer of crunchiness to the dessert. The dessert was huge and you can definitely share it.
2. Caramel Cheesecake — it was an average cheesecake. Nothing special. The cheesecake was way beyond sweet. I would rather try a less sweet dessert.
– Overall –
Originally we wanted to try their crepes and other cakes. However, they told us they didn’t have any crepes and some other cakes we liked. I was quite surprised they ran out of food on a Friday evening. Also, it took us for more than 15 minutes to wait for someone to come and take our order, servers were not very helpful. I would revisit if their service improves.

Cute café on the second floor. Well hidden. Got a section for our group and it was nice and secluded (kinda). Ordered the red bean shaved ice. The shaved ice are called snowflakes… And when it arrived the ice was really fluffy and snowflake like. I like it better than the normal Taiwanese shaved iced. Then we noticed that there’s a $ 3 surcharge if you share your food and don’t get your own items. So ordered a toast brick. Average. But overall service was good and the snowflake was very good. Would come back again.

Oreo green tea tastes ok. Iced latte was terrible. It wasn’t even cold and had no flavour. Might try the waffles next time though and I hope it’s better than what I had today…

It’s quite a hidden place. This Korean café locates at the second floor of the building. It’s bigger than expected. Their snowflake ice cream is good, must try. But don’t go there after a full meal as their desserts are sizeable.

I went there cause I was expecting good bingsu/​shaved ice. It was a big disappointment. Small portion with way too much ice. The same kind I had in Soul Café a few days ago was much better.
Got a latte as well which had a pretty lazy artwork made with some kind of caramel syrup. Coffee is so overpriced, Starbucks feels cheap in comparison! $ 3.5 for an Americano?! Give me a break! Everything else is $ 4 and over and comes in one size. That might be understandable if they had some amazing coffee but they don’t.
The only good thing about it is the interior which is kind of cute, but the place tries too hard to appear more than it actually is. I’m not a student anymore so if they can’t serve good food/​drinks then I’ll look somewhere else.

Café Bene is located on the second floor of a building. My friend and I came on a Wednesday night around 8:30pm after eating dinner. The environment was nice. It was not too big and quite cozy. Perfect place to catch up with a friend or do some work! They had the perfect chill Korean playlist as background music since this is a Korean place. As for food, I ordered the rice cake bingsoo and a white hot chocolate and my friend also ordered a sweet potato latte. Since Korean shaved ice is different from Taiwanese shaved ice, the toppings creates the entire flavour for the shaved ice. I was a bit iffy on the rice cake bingsoo but my friend wanted to try it so we ordered it and I was quite surprised. I really enjoyed it. The toppings included rice cakes, red bean and cornflakes. Although after you’re done eating all the toppings, there is still quite a bit of ice left. The white hot chocolate also tasted really good. It wasn’t too sweet. Overall, I would visit this place again to try their other bingsoo flavours (there were so many!) and also some of their other foods/​drinks.

Café bene is a warm and cozy place which makes it an absolutely great place to chill with friends and family. Just don’t expect much in the way of food.
Ambience was great, tons of wood on the walls featuring a rustic look and warm lighting all contributed to an enjoyable sit-​down experience. There are two big screens showing k-​pop. This is a Korean café after all!
We got the green tea bingsu which wasn’t bad. It was actually my first time trying bingsu (I feel Taiwanese shaved ice is better). The shaved ice had tons of toppings such as corn flakes, strawberries, bananas, tapioca, and beans. Once all the toppings were eaten, there was a lot of ice left. The chocolate oreo waffle was definitely over-​cooked, as it was brittle (the waitress did tell us it was though). The sparkler was a pleasant surprise though! Again topped with similar to ingredients. It is important to note the two items weren’t overly sweet which was nice. Also had a chamomile tea which was your standard tea. They had these super cute coffee cup holders with their branding.

Perfect for students hanging out or studying at the café with large group tables and smaller singular ones. We were placed in a corner table facing two walls with very minimal leg and table room which was disappointing. Also, the wifi was not working for us although we mentioned it to the staff 3x and all they told us was to restart our computers (although the wifi didn’t even work on our phones either).
We ordered the affogatto which was mediocre and green tea bubble tea. Oddly they didn’t have just regular iced tea (no milk) options.
As long as you don’t mind the noise, I would come back for the study space as long as they fix their wifi, and possibly try their food options (although based of previous reviews, are not that appetizing).

I love this cute little place. Its private, fun, nicely decorated and I enjoy their deserts late at night. Definitely worth the try.

The décor is cute and dainty, food is not up to par though. The ice cream waffles are very dense and dry, seems like they just toasted a frozen waffle. But the service is good. For the money, there are way better places around.

Such a cuteeeeee café that makes me feel right at home! Love the wooden décor, plants placement and booth seats where friends can just chat and catch up and forget about the time. This place reallllly has a «homey» vibe… To put that into perspective for you, The table next to us were actually painting their nails! I know right! Lol. I’m actually kind of glad that sweet o clock next door didn’t have the green tea shaved ice available (because the girl that knows how to make it is on vacation… Wtf?) so I was able to discover this place. We ordered the rice cake shaved ice and green tea Oreo shaved ice. Both were really tasty and not overly sweet. HOWEVER, the ice was not fluffy and snowy enough. They were chunky and I actually felt like I was eating chunks of ice… Not good :(When you are near the end of the dessert, there’s not much flavour to it left! Wish they could’ve drenched the ice in condensed milk or something! I mean, I know I’m eating an ice dessert but I actually don’t like the feeling of eating crunchy ice! Having said that, I would still come back to try their other Korean style desserts.

Second time coming here and I really love the environment. It is small and cozy, it it is also very private because it has wooden separates around some tables.
It is a great place for students to study as well because there are outlets everywhere and their work is fast since not a lot of people are there using it. They also let us play cards here which is nice since a lot of cafes do not allow this (gambling reasons).
The only thing is that finding parking is difficult, especially before 9pm. There is a 2 hour maximum parking at metro which is around a 5 minute walk but park at own risk!
As for food, their volcano waffle is really cool but it didn’t actually taste as good as it looks. This time, I got the white chocolate mocha bingsoo and my friend got the mango bingsoo. Mine had bananas and cornflakes, it is definitely worth to try. My friend didn’t like her’s because her mangos were frozen and too sour. The syrup tasted really artificial as well.
This place is a little bit hidden, you have to walk up a small staircase at the entrance of a wings restaurant.

Quick update. They got rid of the PS3 private rooms (Nooo!). I get it though. They were taking too much space. On the bright side the place is spacier now and there are more available plugs to charge up your devices. TVs are still there but are turned off. Not sure why. They might turn them on during special occasions. I don’t know.
Otherwise it’s the same menu and nothing else changed. Check out my previous review.

Cozy and nice Café:3! It’s located on the second floor of the building. Price is reasonable– approximately $ 12 for 3 people for shaved ice? Would definitely recommend everyone to come and try it out!

I came to this place multiple times. I love this place the environment is amazing the seating is great. The way the service working is unique the lady will come give you the menu with a bell when you ready to order to use the bell to call her. I ordered caramel makato which was good. What I really love about this place is the environment so if you want to come here with friends or a girl this place will be your good choice as it is nice and organized. They got the red light above each table I guess we will know what the lights are for.
Regards,
K

I’ve been meaning to try this place for years now, but didn’t have a chance to do until recently… it was certainly not worth the prolonged wait. My issue isn’t with the décor or staff, but with God awful drink I had to awkwardly sip during my time there.
Thought I ordered an oreo milk tea, but received a block of ice with half a cookie sitting on top at a hefty price tag of $ 6 — talk about let down of the year. Considering the nature of the Unilocal reviews boucing between ratings, it clear that this place is a great example of hit or miss. Would love to come back to check out the private rooms or order shaved ice, but it may be a while… at least until my wallet stops sighing.

Pretty hidden place. It’s right across from Chatime, second floor with the black windows.
Absolutely LOVE this café! They have booths that are arranged in a manner that offers you a bit more privacy than other cafes. The lighting is dim and when paired with the booths it generates an intimate environment. They also have a room that accomodates larger groups; equipped with a big screen tv and a DVD player for those who wanna watch movies or play video games. They equip you with the basics but not the essentials so you’d have to bring your own movies if you wanna watch something and game console and games if you wanna have a video game jam. Most importantly, they have a service button! However, the button does not remain for long… once you’ve placed your order the button is out of reach…): Well, at least it makes ordering a lot easier than waving frantically at a server to get their attention!
I’m not much of a fan of shaved ice but woah, their dessert blew my mind! I ordered the Grapefruit Shaved Ice shared between my friend and a Cappucinno on the side while my friend ordered the Multigrain Tea. The Grapefruit Shaved Ice was a mountain of shaved ice laced with condensed milk amd grapefruit juice, toppled with pieces of grapefruit, banana, strawberry and conflakes and finally, a scoop of mango ice cream to top it off! It hit the spot! The Cappucinno was nothing special (maybe because I’m not a coffee drinker…). I tried my friend’s Multigrain Tea and it was delicious! It reminded me of those chinese cereal packets you get from T&T. Definitely going for that next time! Oh btw, these dessert are massive so its best that you share! (Sharing is caring anyway, haha). Unless… you’re that person who has a really big sweet tooth.
I totally recommend this place!

First time trying after passing by this place so many times. Café Bene is pretty popular in Korea and I thought I would give this place a try.
It’s located upstairs and its barely visible unless you know exactly where it is. It appears small but there’s a good amount of seating.
The menu has a fair amount of selections including coffees, teas, combos with desserts and of course shaved ice. Honestly I felt the coffee was average and my friend and I received them in takeout cups. I wished it were in actual cups which would have made the experience more pleasant. The shaved ice however was amazing! We got the coffee flavour and its meant for sharing as well. The combination of everything was really good.
The service is like any other typical Korean café and she was friendly enough. I would definitely come back for more shaved ice!