Bean.Co Cafe — Restaurant in White Bear Lake

I feel so awful giving 2 stars, but it's much warranted here. The aesthetics of this place are great!! Super modern look and is very clean! They offer sandwiches and a few bakery items that look good, but they are quite pricey. Because of this, the entire store, I kid you not, smells like straight eggs. Some ventilation or an air purifier would likely fix this small issue. Onto why it's... put politely..... maybe not the best cafe. They had QR codes that you could order from and view the entire menu on! I thought that this was super helpful--at first. I placed my order @ 1:52 (empty lobby) and a couple came in to order and got their drinks before me @ 2:00. I went up to the counter to check on my order incase it was lost, and the gentleman, Carl, let me know that it didn't come through in his system. He apologized and was super kind to me and helped push through my drinks right away! I ended up receiving my order @ 2:15. I appreciate Carl for being so nice to me through this, and I understand technology issues. I'd love to see this error with the QR ordering be fixed or eliminated entirely to prevent future confusion & lost orders. Onto the drinks... to put it bluntly, I'm pretty sure their cold brew was expired. It wasn't bitter, savory, sweet, salty, or anything-- it was just straight sour and left a spoiled taste in my mouth. I added Salted Caramel & Oat milk to my drink (I usually do this at other cafes), but I couldn't taste any of the salted caramel unfortunately. I also could not recognize the brand of the oat milk container that was used--- was not a fan. I ordered a second drink-- they have it listed here as the "Strawberry Acai Cloud" and the picture/name sounded great! There was no description under the drink so the name was all I could get from it. My mistake for not just asking or avoiding. The drink I received didn't look anything like the picture & I believe it's also made with soy milk? Not a huge issue but I am just not a fan of soy at all. Ended up dumping out both drinks because they were very poor quality and a waste of money & time & a drive for me. Just an unfortunate situation. In short, only come here if you wish to take photos for social media & not consume anything, even the air. Or to visit Carl....

Honestly, everything about the coffee and food was great. There was a nice variety for all of the crepes, smoothies, baked items, ice cream, and coffee. There is something, however, I'd like to mention about the menu as of Mar 29, 2023. The menu has duplicate items in some cases like the "Cookies N' Cream" and the "Cookies & Cream" coffees in the same category. Like, was this really glanced over? Because I noticed it almost right away. Also, there are 2 instances with typos that I've found. Pictures are provided. I feel that the quality assurance of the spelling degrades the overall quality of the atmosphere, and it made me wonder: what else was glanced over?

Aside from that, the atmosphere was quite pleasant, with plenty of green to fill the space and bring life to the shop. Its modern take on design was also refreshing, and the place felt very new. The bathroom was clean and fancy, too.

One more thing to note on top of the typos: the "kido friendly" poster needs to change. I love the adorable designs on the toast and you should absolutely keep it, but the text needs to be different, for the reasons following: It is spelled "Kiddo", with 2 D's There is a typo circled in my picture The "...try one today!" Needs to lose the "..." because it made the text feel like it was an afterthought, and not an important piece of information. It also felt awkward to read. Maybe change it up to something with big, fun, colorful text to mention urgency in trying it, or just drop it altogether. The ":)" feels cheap like I'm reading a text message. The font feels "default" in a sense, and if the title mentioning kids wasn't there, I wouldn't know that this was being targeted toward a younger audience. Mix it up a little!

I know that sounded quite critical, but I'm nitpicking. I really want to see this place shine, because I loved the food and most of the atmosphere! I will 100% be coming back multiple times in the future, and I hope to see this place grow.

Also, Leila was the only one working when we walked in, and she was handling everything like a boss. She was doing a great job and the quality of everything(coffee and food) was...

This place is so good! I've gone there now twice and both times the service and food were excellent. I got the peanut butter power bowl and it was amazing. The portion was a bit small at first but it's very filling. All the fruits were fresh and good. I also got the fruit smoothie, very good. You can tell they actually blend real fruit in it. And lastly, I got the Dolce Nutella crepe. Very good! Watching them make it is very fun as well. Overall, very good. It is a bit expensive so be prepared for that. All 3 things cost about $30. The wait can sometimes be a bit as they don't always have alot of people working. And the portions for the power bowls are a bit small, but I still highly recommend this place. Update on the peanut butter power bowl, they seem to have increased the portion size. It's pretty large...