Cafe Groove — Restaurant in Beijing

Used to be cool.

Cafe Groove holds a special place in my heart because it's where I went on my first date with my wife. I used to come here all the time chill out with a coffee. Back then it was a quirky, bustling cafe with decent food and a wide selection of cakes. Maybe it's nostalgia talking, or maybe it's just the post-covid economy that we felt had hit most of Beijing, but the atmosphere felt pretty dead when we went this time. Clientele had become mostly young Chinese profressionals or students eyes glued to laptops.

These days, it seems the expat crowd is nowhere to be seen and it has been remodeled in a style that isn't too far from Starbucks. Hardly any customers when we went mid-morning. Those were there were not deep in conversation either.

My espresso was decent. Wife ordered a tea which was nothing special. Croissant was pretty underwhelming, tasted a bit like a store bought croissant that had been reheated.

Overall, it was disappointing because we have such good memories of the place, but in truth it's still OK, just a...

One of the few cafes I used Google Maps to find in Beijing that's actually still there! A good place to sit and get some work done - lots of outlets. Note that they only accept...

Really huge space with lots of seating options. Coffee was fine. Only thing is they played 90s pop really loudly...so probably not the best for...