Cafe Yen — Restaurant in Town of Goshen

Took a trip to Café Yen in Middletoen, NY. When we arrived, it was a little noisy inside.

The barista that greeted us was nice and welcomed us upon entering the establishment. The decór was decent enough, though not quite what we expected.from the photos we saw online.

We figured out what we wanted. Hot chocolates for the kids, a latte for my wife, and I went off-script and ordered a peppermint mocha. A change from the normal "House Blend" I like to get before deviating and trying new offerings.

It took them a pretty long time to make our drinks, and for some reason, the barista lost his smile and pleasant demeanor and was getting a little short with me whenever I tried to say something or ask him.a question. I don't know what happened to him, but he seemed to get less nice as time went along. Maybe it was the small talk we attempted at how nice the decoration on the chocolate and coffee was?

They also served our drinks staggered. Like, we got one hot chocolate, then a few minutes later one coffee, then they worked on other people's drinks, then came back with another hot chocolate, followed by another few minutes wait, then finally the last hot chocolate. As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed we still had a latte to receive.

They were out of lids after our third drink order, and he seemed annoyed that I asked for more lids. I don't know if they were busier than normal, but his attitude got worse as we waited, and as far as we saw, only one other person, maybe two, ordered something while we waited.. All in all, the order took about 20, 25 minutes. We had five drinks; two coffees and three hot chocolates.

The kids said the chocolate was good, but they like pretty much anything. In all of our outings, they didn't have a favorite, and said all of them taste the same. Weird.

My wife liked her latte enough. I DID NOT like the choice I made. It didn't really taste like peppermint, and the chocolate had a weird flavor. It was kind of a chalky mess.

All in all, this was not a pleasant experience for us. Needless to say (but I will, anyway), we won't be going back. Maybe other people will have a better experience. We, ourseves don't need to try again.

Some places are not for everyone.

Edit: The owner contacted me and accused me of faking the pics and the review. I'll admit this review isn't new. As I went with my family a little over a year ago, so maybe things are different, but I certainly went there. Everything that I said was 100% true, and I certainly took those pictures. I've no need to"fake a review," and this only proves to me that the attitude of the staff here is less than pleasant. I got the name wrong, but the pics show I was there. We visit a lot of coffee shops, and I'm not from here originally. I definitely didn't know my way around as much as I do now. I posted this originally on my FB page and was moving my reviews from FB to my google. As you can see, these pics are from my FB post, along with the date and from my camera roll.

An apology and an offer to visit again and make it right might have been a...

Good coffee, nice food. Best coffee place in the area for sure.

Espresso blend has gotten a bit too roasty over time though, but maybe some people enjoy it. I wish it didn’t go over the medium roast. It used to be more of a nutty-smooth experience, now it’s more like tobacco/dark chocolate.

Update: Still like the place for a hangout, but the coffee and pastry experience went a bit down, comparing with 2-3 years ago. A cortado is not served in a typical small glass for cortado anymore, but rather looks like a cappuccino - in a 6oz classical round cappuccino cup, if I sized it correctly by the eye. A flat white I got was more similar to a latte size, or a big cappuccino. The beans got really smoky and bitter. The pastries lost its nice crust they used to have on the outer shell. Still good, and pretty good for the popular cafe. But it just lost its specialty coffee shop feel.

But neither Cafe Yen positions itself as a coffee shop, so take my review as a biased review of the coffee snob.

Will still like to come here to hang out from...

Second time having the Falafel Wrap and just as delicious as the first time. Lavender Lemonade is a nice iced tea to wash down the wrap. Also had a Thai Green Iced Tea with no sweetener because I wanted to taste it, and yes, it delivered with a nice clean refreshing taste. Love the atmosphere, vibe is very simplistic and earthy using some basic elements. Plants being one of them. I saw a chess/ checkers board in the far room. It was a toss up as to whether we wanted to sit outside or stay inside. We chose inside today, but would love to sit outside next time! Very welcoming and unpretentious vibe out there as well. Tables are equipped with umbrellas for those that are concerned with the sun. There’s also a nice size fan running. Customer service was great and very cheerful. We’re locals and love supporting our local eateries. Definitely a place you’d like to meet up with a friend or two and be able to talk without having to contend with the noises of hustle and bustle of the perhaps larger franchise...