Twisted Bean Coffee Company — Restaurant in Urbandale

I have been here a few times and always love my experience. First, the staff is always so friendly and welcoming. I usually come with my young daughter and they are very patient with her as she orders her own food/drink. Today we got a: Warm chai tea latte - delicious Coconut Steamer - daughter said it was awesome Bacon breakfast sandwich on brioche - this is always a hit for me Oatmeal - my daughter liked it! It’s made with water rather than milk, in case anyone has a dairy allergy. I’m sure you could upgrade to warm milk for a cost. It comes with brown sugar and walnuts. Note, the picture on their board shows blueberries, but a little sign in their display case notes it only comes with the brown sugar and walnuts. Just FYI We opted to get ourselves a treat before we left, and each got a muffin. I got the blueberry and my daughter got the lemon poppyseed. We both noticed after biting into them that they were dense and “sticky” as my daughter put it. It looked and tasted like they had been previously frozen and then thawed. They did not look like the muffins shown in the display case (picture of display case taken after we ordered, showing the case is still full and we did not receive a muffin from the case). This was the only disappointing part of our adventure, but we will definitely come back another time. I will note that on a previous trip here, I had gotten a scone that was more dry than usual for scones. Still a great atmosphere to come for a drink and hang out with friends, or...

Excellent coffee, nice atmosphere, friendly staff... However, coffee is expensive and they charge $1.80 for a refill. I'd rather go to Friedrich where the refills are free.

Edit (after their reply): I know that you get a refill with one of your ceramic mugs, but do you think that I'm going to lug around your mug just to get a free refill? No doubt, you coffee is excellent, but I stand by my opinion and 3 star review. Most of your competitors offer at least 1 free refill. I'd say that you don't have the market cornered in excellent coffee and might want to reconsider allowing your patrons 1 free refill per coffee purchase. While your mug policy is fine for your regular patrons, others like myself who try your coffee one time find it absurd that they're paying almost $5 for one coffee and refill. If half of your customers on any given day are "new", then you might want to consider the likelihood I'll come back again. Why don't you look to your competitor in Ankeny, Porchlight coffee, who offer a free refill? Maybe I might have purchased a breakfast pastry to go along with my coffee if you didn't charge for a refill. Sorry for the rant, but at least one refill should be free or at least just a nominal charge...

Had the cold chai tea and a bacon breakfast sandwich. Cold chai tea was a chai flavored milk shake filled that was mostly sugar. They microwave their breakfast sandwiches, which was stale when I ate it about 3 minutes later. Sandwich had lots of pre-frozen egg and bread, with two thin strips of bacon. Service was fine. Location is tough to get out of.

In response to the owner,

Thanks for your reply, but the frappe was very different from my recent experiences in Oregon, which had much lower sugar content than what your establishment served.

The “fresh” brioche bun was stale several minutes after I got it, typically a result of microwaving. If not from the microwave, the end result was still the same. There was no “thick cut” bacon, it was thin strips of bacon found at any typical fast food restaurant.

It’s great to have a response from the owner. I never post reviews. This instance sticks out to me. The description from the owner is completely separate from the reality of what I...