Milk & Beans Coffee Shop — Restaurant in Crescent Springs

I am normally one to not write reviews much less negative ones of a local business, but this one has to be written. I am disappointed to be writing it to as I had high hopes to not believe other poor reviews I read and to trust friends who love this establishment.

My friend and I arrived to the shop around 9:30 AM, around 30 mins after it opened. We paid the 6.50 for my baby (11m) and her boy (16 months) to play and ordered our food. There is 1 area for babies of this age to play in as mothers are not allowed in the general bigger play area. It only includes a couple of toys, 1 board book and some mirrors. Yet you pay the same as those who use the big installation, that does not seem fair price wise.

Onto cleanliness and safety. Within 5 mins of arriving my friends boy nearly swallowed a couple coffee beans he found lying on the floor and she had to quickly sweep them from his mouth. The high chairs were disgusting with food stuck on them, crumbs still present from prior uses-not what I expect coming in 30 mins after opening knowing I'm probably the first to use it that day. In the general area where the small baby area is there are no outlet covers on the outlets posing a safety risk. While I understand this area isn't intended for kids this whole shops motto is for kids. Adults can easily remove the cover, children don't know not to touch outlets. The bathroom was horrible. There was poop on the changing table and the diaper genie was full. The small baby area the soft toys seemed to have dust and dirt accumulated and the mirrors clearly had not been cleaned.

Lets talk about the food/food service. It took nearly a half hour to provide us with fruit, yogurt and granola for our kids and my friends quesadilla. I had my baby with me when ordering and asked for no granola or granola on the side since she is still little and cant handle granola. I was served fruit and yogurt covered in honey--something well known that babies CANT eat and was not mentioned on the menu so I had no clue to say "no honey" because I never thought a child portion of fruit and yogurt would come with something that is a known danger to babies. I went to the counter to discuss this and ask if there was a remedy but after standing there for 5 minutes and the girl not attending to me, I threw in the towel as to being attended to. It took nearly 40 minutes if not 45 for me to receive my breakfast sandwich. The taste of the food was fine, temperature was fine as well.

Overall, I am simply disappointed. While I understand you need to pay for the installations-cost should be based on what you are able to use. Also, if I am paying 6.50, I am expecting routinely cleaned installations and toys. For the price of the food, service should be excellent. And if a place is built for kids, it should be safe for kids. Accidents happen in seconds even with attentive parents and areas built for kids need to be as safe as possible.

Unfortunately, I won't be back anytime in the near future and won't be recommending this to my...

I was torn about leaving a 3-star review, because the concept for this place is AWESOME, and I loved it enough during our first visit (maybe 6-9 months ago?) to buy a 10-visit pass. However, I don't plan to get another pass. The good things are that they have GREAT coffee and food options, and the enclosed play area with toys is nice for semi-independent play for my 2 and 5 yr olds. HOWEVER... Lately we've been coming in the afternoon and the play area is a disaster by then, and quite unappealing. It looks like our play area at home after the kids destroy it and before I clean it. I immediately have the urge to go in and clean it up just so that my kids will want to play, which isn't how I want to feel after paying $13 to play there. Toys are all over the floor, lots of toys are in the "need to be cleaned" basket, nothing is where it belongs (plastic food on the floor or train table, costumes in the play kitchen instead of the wardrobe, etc), the white floor tiles are grey/ dingy, dress-up costumes are dusty from being dragged on the floor, etc. Also, I haven't seen any toy rotation, so the toys that were new and cool to my kids 6 months ago are the same ones that are here today. :( The staff looks "done" by 1pm, and despite having 2 or more staff and a totally empty cafe by then, they don't start to clean or organize the toy area, even when we first arrive and they watch my kids walk in and make comments like "it's messy mom" and "I don't want to play here." :( A few times they also forget to turn on music, and the silence doesn't make it feel like a welcoming place to play.

This place has SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I want to love it, and I want to support it. It...

I used to RAVE about this place when I first started going - when I had a pre walking baby. THAT area is wonderful.

Since my son has been walking it’s been a lot less enjoyable. We’ve only been like 4x over the past year… all but ONE time my son got sick the next day. I have a hard time believing each of those small toys are cleaned on a regular basis… it’s made me extremely paranoid.

I love the idea. I love having a place to meet girlfriends while our babies play. But last time we went we couldn’t even relax. They had the back door open to a room full of balloons. Besides the fact busted balloons are an extremely dangerous choking hazard; the floors are SUPER slick. We watched FOUR kids (our own included) almost bust their heads falling bc they slipped in their sock feet.

And not only were there 3 people behind the counter - I’m fairly certain I saw the owner and not one person checked on any kid that had fallen or made any attempt to make things less dangerous. Another mom finally closed the door to stop the kids from going back into that room.

I inquired about the balloon room once before (privately on Facebook), but nothing has changed. So I hate to be this Karen-ish but a child could be seriously injured / not to mention a HUGE liability...