Caffe Bene — Restaurant in Los Angeles

The workers here are nice, everyone has treated me nicely or at least alright EXCEPT for this older lady, who I think is the manager. I have been coming here, probably at least 20-30 times as a regular customer, enjoying the nice ambiance, a good place to get my work done, and the food and drinks are decent (except they are a little pricey), and the service has been decent too. Well, at least until I came across that manager, who I feel shouldn't even be working here (management should really do something about her, maybe get her fired). Basically what happened was that I had just walked into the cafe and sat down, and I started to get my work done when suddenly, within maybe 1 or 2 minutes of me sitting down, the manager came up to me, with no smile, just a serious face, and asked in a very unfriendly almost annoyed and angry tone if I ordered anything. I said no, and then she told me that I had to leave. I just thought this was really rude and I felt forced like I had to buy something in order to even stay here. AND what if I was actually planning to order something later but wanted to just get some work done first? I just felt disrespected and it kind of seemed to me all she cared about was the money and that I must pay to stay. I've been a regular customer here so it truly left me disappointed that even as a regular customer, I was asked to leave. This experience really was disappointing because I like to go to cafes often to do work, and now I feel like I can’t do that here without buying something every time.

After this incident, I started looking at other reviews to see if anyone else had experienced a similar situation as mine, and unfortunately, I wasn't the only one. And unrelated, but as I read other people's reviews, I saw multiple people saying how this place is racist against non-Asians, so please be aware of that if you do decide to come. But because of this and my poor experience, I will no longer be coming here or...

Classy cafe with lots of food, dessert, coffee and drink choices. I love the relaxing interior design of this Korean brand. A great place to have a meeting, work on your laptop or curl up and read a book. It's spacious with lots of tables and a ramp and seating for wheelchair-bound folks.

If I compare C. Bene to Starbucks, I'd say this place was a lot classier. Like when I drop by Starbucks, I just want to take out my order. If I stay, I don't want to linger once I've finished my meal. But Caffe Bene is beautifully designed, very clean and relaxing. I just wanted to sit here and chill.

We ordered the ff:

Portobello Mushroom Sandwich - 4.5 stars. Smothered in cheese, this sandwich hits the right spot. They serve it with a lot of red onions but don't worry, they're cooked well and are actually sweet.

The Misugaru Drink - 4 stars. At first taste, I was not sure if I liked this drink. It tasted like a bag of warm aromatic oats that you would feed a horse. Like drinking your cereal in coffee form minus the coffee. I did not give up on it though and kept taking sips. Eventually I decided I liked it but next time I'll order the smallest cup. Oh, it's supposed to be really healthy for you!

Banana Walnut Toast - 2 stars. It was good but the problem is this: No honey bread dessert can measure up to the honey bread that Bear Hug Cafe in Chiang Mai offers. So now I hold up all honey bread to Bear Hug's. Unfortunately, the honey bread here falls short by a mile.

Affogato - 5 stars. They serve you a small scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream and a cup of Espresso. You poor the coffee into the ice cream and voila! You have your Affogato! It was glorious!

Milk Crepe Cake - 4 stars. Yummy. I will have to try the other crepe cake flavors if I get the chance to return...

Read the below to hear about this cafe and how they operate: We went in as a group of three and sat down to order our food. We ordered a zebra iced vanilla latte, a hazelnut latte, and a ham and egg sandwich. The food itself was fine.

We had called ahead of time and were told they closed at 10 PM on Memorial Day. Then we went to the front, and were told by a worker the kitchen will close at 9:30 PM, but that they will still be open until 10 PM. Around 9:30 PM, five or so people were still there and they chose to play a childish and demeaning “we’re closed” song even though there were thirty minutes left to spare. Our friend went up to a worker cleaning near the door and told her that they should update their hours online as it states they are closed at 10 PM and she told him they were closed at 9 PM. The worker went up to another one of the customers and told them “we’re closed, please leave”. There was a sign on the door that clearly states they were open from 10 AM to 10 PM on Memorial Day. To make things absolutely worse, we left momentarily to grab something and come to pick up our friend who was there, and around 9:50, the manager who is leaving decided to drive and do a full loop across the parking lot after seeing our friend is waiting outside for us to arrive, believing him to be a transient when we were paying customers. Beyond the fact it’s actually illegal to advertise a time, and close doors earlier than that, this left a terrible taste in our mouth. I don’t believe we will be...