HumbleBean Coffee & Pâtisserie — Restaurant in Bengaluru

I had a surprising experience. 8 PM on a Sunday. The place has only two people and they were overwhelmed by the visitors/patrons/pickups for delivery etc.

I asked to request for a small thing (while placing the order), a bit of mustard sauce to go with my sandwich. The answer I got was, we don't keep it. I was take aback, asked to see the kitchen person or manager. Sorry, not available (both have left for home). Incredibly on a Sunday night!

So, who makes the sandwiches? Answer - They are in the freezer- we will heat them and serve them. You are at the counter; will you do both (manage the stream of visitors and the stream of orders/kitchen work)? Isn't it going to lead to poor service and lack of hygiene?

Ans. We use sanitizer and gloves. Okay, well should u not follow certain hygiene rules (like wash hands with soap and water and then begin on the sandwiches)?

Asked to speak to manager or kitchen person to sort this out. Sorry, we won't call them.

Asked to speak to owner (Mr. Somanna), sorry again.

Meanwhile, still awaiting my sandwich.

Finally, it arrives. The bread was cold. I had asked for it to be warm.

Ans. Sir, you are unreasonable.

Wow! Unreasonable. Okay, did I not say that while placing the order. What's unreasonable in asking for it to be warm.

Oops, sorry Sir, We are overwhelmed today. It was warmed but kept aside. Busy with many orders.

Got it, sure, it was warm, now it is cold. So, surely this is not a streetside coffee shop. You claim to be a patisserie!

We agree Sir, sorry to disappoint you. We will refund you.

Okay then. Thanks. This is not a criticism of your people. Rather, in my opinion, at the minimum -

You may have different people for the front-desk/counter and for pulling in the ingredients into sandwiches for the order streams (See Lavone down the street from where you are and observe) Establish clear guidelines on hygiene rules (Do a "work study" on how the food is being handled and make corrections) Never leave the service understaffed for a manager/kitchen person on busy periods (On very lightly loaded workday afternoons or whatever maybe)

Feel free to ignore these, if they do not work for...

My experience at Humble bean was not all that humbling

Yesterday, my friend and I went there to work given the weather. Upon reaching there, we informed the staff about our plans of working from there. We found ourselves a seat in the smoking area as it was quite serene there. After an hour of working, a staff member informed us that since the smoking area is small, and given the weekend crowd, we’ll need to move inside. Not entirely convinced, I agreed to move inside, however, I mentioned that it’ll take some time as I was in the middle of some work. After 2-3 mins, the owner comes to us and in a demeaning tone says “ We only give these tables on a rotating basis for 20 mins, and we have a booking for the smoking area so you will have to move inside”. Only to find later that the reservation was for her (talk about owner supremacy). Clearly fed up with their system, I immediately moved inside as I had to complete my ongoing work. Again after 30 mins, a staff member comes to us and says that we will have to move to the other section of the cafe as these tables are reserved for a meeting.

Clearly, my experience at Humble Bean was deprived of basic customer service. Following is my feedback to them-

If you have restrictions for working in a certain space, the customer should be informed well in advance not after they are all settled in that space If there is meeting planned in a certain area, the customer should know about it especially when they have already been asked to move once Be more cognizant of the customer's needs. If somebody is in the middle of work, you can’t ask them to move immediately. You need to give them some time Building up on #3, the staff should be cognizant of the ask from the customer. If the customer is in a deep work zone, you can’t ask them to work next to a coffee machine which was case when I was asked to move the second time Be a little more upfront about your ‘asks’ as an owner. Don’t hide them behind policies the staff wasn’t even aware about

Overall, my experience at Humble Bean was quite inconvenient. Maybe it was a case of ‘wrong place, wrong timing’ or they sincerely need to look into their customer...

Being into coffee, I discovered this place through Instagram. Okay, so the first impression on entering this place is like entering into a coffee lab with crazy equipment installed. If you love coffee, try out this place! If not, worry not, the staff will help you out with your worries 😋

Food: So we tried a couple of things here. Coffee: We tried the syphon brew, cold brew latte, cappucino and macchiato. They were all quite good, however, the Cappucino was okay (I'm not a fan of milk with coffee 😅 and I didn't find it that great for the pricing). You also get to choose from about 5 varieties of coffee beans for your coffee; a few of them have additional charges. In case you are new to coffee and wish to experiment, they also provide coffee tastings (both hot and cold).

P.S. I really wished to try their nitro brew, missed it. I'm guessing it'll be really good.

Savoury food: Foccacia sandwich - A very hearty serving; quite nice. Definitely give it a try! I have tasted better foccacia but the sandwich is definitely a try.

Dessert: Baked cheesecake - The cheesecake overall was quite good, the density and the base. Something about the strawberry compote wasn't hitting it right for me! But you should give it a try!

Ambience: The space is a cute cafe! If completely occupied, the place may tend to get noisy. The table to table spacing isn't that great.

Value for Money: I guess it's on the higher ends of the pricing spectrum in the coffee places! Quite pricy

Staff & Service: Staff and service was absolutely amazing! Very...