Bean Around The World UBC

Overpriced, their coffee is not that good, their staff are not friendly at all!

The staff in here are so nice, and the old barn setting is wonderful. They even have a few beer on tap if you have maximized your caffeine input for the day.

I came here for a sunny noon lunch and ordered the following:
Tuna Wrap ($ 8) with lettuce, onion, herbs mayo, and nuts
Chocolate Chip Cookie ($ 2.95)
Small Dark Roast (Marine Roast) ($ 2.20)
I was anxious to get a spot on the patio before seats filled up so I ordered something to be served cold and that’s how the Tuna Wrap came to be. There was a good mix of tuna with the other vegetables which filled out with a satisfying crunch from the nuts which were either cashews or almonds (sorry nut allergists). I love mayo with my tuna so I thought this wrap was the bomb and the size was pretty good too.
I’m a sucker for chocolate and I almost made it to the cashier but caved and wanted to try the Chocolate Chip Cookie. Regrets: none. This was a chewy cookie with chocolate chunks (white and milk) in every bite so I didn’t have to go searching. This was also a large cookie and so I didn’t have any complaints paying $ 3 for it at a café.
The coffee isn’t bad either. You’ll pay a little more than Starbucks but the selection is good and the Marine Roast I had an advertised smokey taste that wasn’t too acidic. Thumbs up for a casual pick-​me-​up.

The vibe here is very chill as it is mostly students. The only problem I have with this place is that there are a lot of students who freeload the internet for more than 2 hours with only one drink in hand. This annoyed my friend and I who just wanted to sit and chill with me. Given the area I am not surprised by the self absorbed demographic that visits here, it’s just annoying. I didn’t make too much of a fuss about it being on compass, however, I feel that the establishment should say when enough is enough when it comes to extended loitering. My drink was made to order, customer service was good. Oddly this is the only location that I have come across that has an impossed min charge.

I’ve been coming here for about 3 years. I keep coming back because it has a nice vibe and their drip coffee is decent, plus I am always on campus for school and work.
At lunch there is a buzz of conversation and while it can get loud and crowded, this place is pleasant on a rainy day.
Pros about this place: I usually like the pizzas, and the espresso drinks are good. Nice background music. Also, they serve beer which is never a bad thing.
Con about the Bean is that it is a bit expensive, can get very busy and it can take about 20 – 30 minutes to get any hot food at lunch time.
To go on a tangent, I have tried about 5 of their selection of hot an cold wraps, and each one has tasted either horrible or very bland. as in no taste at all.
I just ordered the Italian wrap and it was so bad I could not take more than 2 bites. I really tried, honestly I did.
The food (except pizza) has always been sub-​par for me. My wrap looks as if it has been sitting in the fridge (or freezer) for about 4 weeks, despite having been heated up under a grill. The spinach was obviously from frozen. It slithered out of my mouth like a wet pile of seaweed. It was so terrible and it was not the first time this has happened, that I was compelled to come write a Unilocal review about it.
The poor rating comes mostly from the food. Avoid ordering wraps or sandwiches if you want to enjoy your lunch (and keep the rest of it down). Managers could work on improving this. If you’re charging $ 8 – 10 for a wrap, that should ideally be $ 8 – 10 worth of fresh food in my wrap.
My advice: come here if you want a cozy spot to drink a coffee, but don’t order any food unless it’s a sweet treat or a biscotti

I would give 3.5 stars. One simple reason: Too expensive. They charge ~$ 9 for a simple sandwich. Other than that the food tastes fine and the interior looks very nice. This place is very busy with professors and staff memebrs of UBC during lunch time. Location is very convenient for studenta living in T bird or Totem.

I don’t remember Totem at UBC campus being like this… then I graduated in the stone ages, when cell phones looked like stone brick pavers. Bean Around the World is the best you can get on campus. Coffee that’s better than the Starbucks near the EE Building, fresh sandwiches, and brewskie. I bet with all the frosh, this place probably gets pretty crowded at lunch during the week.

Very good sandwich and soup here. Their tuna sandwich is one of the best I ever had. And one of the few places in the middle of campus that you can get beer. The staff are friendly as well. The only downside, last couple of times I visited the Wifi connection did not work. Wonder if they installed wifi blocker or something …

A nice place to get some work done while enjoying one of the better coffee options on campus. They usually play good music. Friendly staff.
The recent $ 4 limit on credit/​debit cards is a hassle when grabbing coffee to go. Has reduced me to trips to far inferior Starbucks when I can’t collect enough change on my desk.

A recent experience here sort of soured my outlook on this coffee shop.
I came in for a pitcher of beer with a few friends (on a socially acceptable Friday prevening). After taking a few sips we all noticed the beer tasted a little flat, so we asked the manager if she had checked the pressure on the tap recently. She said yes, they had just adjusted it. We told her that it tasted flat. There was an awkward pause, then she reluctantly offered to pour us a pitcher of something else instead. We said yes. She took our pitcher away, and came back a few minutes later with a mug of first beer that we ordered, trying to show and convince us that the beer did not look flat and that we were crazy. She was kind of acting as though she thought we were just some dumb students trying to get free beer. But we kept insisting that it wasn’t that it LOOKED flat, but tasted so. After a few minutes of circling around, she gave up, left, and poured us a new pitcher… but only filled it halfway. Pretty poor service — I thought the customer was always right? I mean yes, at least she did replace the pitcher. But IMO the way she handled the situation seemed cheap and rude, especially since my friends and I spend a lot of money in her store on a regular basis. Again, I’m satisfied that she did solve the issue, but there was far too much ado in achieving that, and she made us feel like it was our fault for not knowing what beer is supposed to look like or something.
Speaking of cheap and rude. They recently put up signs in the seating area asking customers to «limit their laptop/​study time to 2 hours.» That is just stupid. I mean sure, it’s kind of an unspoken rule in most coffee shops, but blatantly asking customers to leave so they can make more money? Especially on a university campus where people only go to coffee shops because it’s a nice place to sit for several hours to do work? Call me crazy but IMO kicking people out of your store is basically customer service no-​no #1. Especially if you are spending $ 15 on a latte and a sandwich.
The only reason I keep my rating at 3* is that all the staff (other than the manager of course) are extremely pleasant and very good at their jobs. The quality of the food and drinks here is also very good (again, a testament to the employees).
Anyway, it sucks but I will probably be finding a new café to hang out in now. although unfortunately this is still the only place on south campus that serves alcohol. To my knowledge anyway (if you know something I don’t, please tell me).
And It’s still way better than the Tim Hos.

Very good pizza and sandwiches, as well as freezing cold beer glasses. Relatively expensive though

The Unilocaler who started this review may have gotten the name wrong. I think the complete name of this coffee shop is Bean Around The World Coffee House & Bistro.
Nonetheless, this is a great oasis of a coffee shop. It is a bit off the beaten path, at the edges of the campus. If you don’t live on campus you might not know this place exist.
This place has great selection of beers and actual hearty meals. There’s tons of indoor and outdoor seating. There’s also some nice big screen televisions to catch some current events or sports happenings.
Since I live nearby, I’ve walked or bike. I don’t actually think there is any decent car parking, which is a negative for those with cars and coming from other neighborhoods. But that’s the great thing about coffee shops right, they are meant to be your local spot to get coffee and hangout.
Bonus:
There is a very active community garden surrounding the patio area, which makes for nice smells and views when sitting outside.

In a somewhat obscure area of UBC campus, Bean Around the World is the best you can get. Coffee that’s better than the nearby Starbucks, good, fresh sandwiches, plus beer! It can get crowded at lunch during the week, full of students with their MacBooks and iPads out… many aren’t bad to look at, so not to worry!
Solid service, solid coffee, a consistently welcoming respite during the workday.