The opening of Caffe Bene in Malaysia is like a bomb that releases cascading mushroom explosions. Ever since Caffe Bene unveiled the first franchise in Malaysia on 8th of March, patrons flock to the outlet and sum up a queue that requires patience to get a seats. There are now two Caffe Bene in Malaysia, which is in Sunway Pyramid and Mont Kiara.
The power of Caffe Bene is undeniable, as the cafe not only becoming the largest coffeehouse in South Korea, but also has more than 1000 stores opened around the world within 6 years. Currently, there are 945 stores in Korea, 283 stores in China, 86 stores in USA, 5 stores in Indonesia, 5 stores in Philippines, 4 stores in Saudi Arabia, 2 stores in Malaysia, Mongolia, and 1 store in Cambodia, Singapore and Japan. In fact, there is more new Caffe Bene coming up every few minutes worldwide.
Caffe Bene combines European open-air cafe concept with Korean culture “Sarangbang”, hence lead to a traditional and modern contemporary interior that is so charming, and pleasant to eyes. Walls for their Mont Kiara outlet are painted in light grayish with uneven tone to create a rustic touch, adorned with huge round clock written in Roman numbers. Furniture is in wooden, pays a good matching to the entire theme colour.
In Italian word, Bene means good, and the word Caffe suffix with Bene literally means “Good Cafe”. The name serves well with the cafe’s philosophy, which aims to provide the best coffee to the customers. Close monitoring is given from securing new crops to roasting, blending, distribution till brewing and serving. Apart from that, Caffe Bene has their own established system to ensure the beans quality after roasting, seeing that humidity and temperature may affect the beans condition during transporting.
The menu in Caffe Bene focuses on drinks which mainly spans over coffee, fruit juice, tea, tea cocktail, smoothies, frappe. Food menu is limited to only waffles, thick toast, cakes, bingsu and gelato. So it is suggested to come over after lunch or dinner, as it is best to have dessert or something sweet after meals.
Order here is of self-service. Just head to the front counter and place your order from the menu printed on chalk board. So we made an order of hot green tea latte, Honey Bread with Garlic & Cheese, and Strawberry Bingsu during our visit. The staff at the counter gave us an “UFO”, which vibrated once the order was ready. Went to the food collection counter to get our order. Violaa! Ready to eat!
Strawberry Bingsu (RM10.80)
This Korean dessert is bottomed with shaved ice, beautifully laced with berries, topped over with a scoop of home-made strawberry gelato and drizzled with milk. Pretty huge for single portion, and more than enough to feed us two. Other options included cookies & cream, green tea and coffee.
Just one word to describe our bingsu: INCREDIBLY SWEET. It was good at the first few spoonful, chilling and refreshing. But as we tucked in more, the sweetness from all ingredients started to develop in our palate, especially the milk which was on the sweet base. We stopped taking after finishing half, giving white flag. Too sweet.
Honey Bread with Garlic & Cheese (RM16.00)
The Honey Bread with Garlic & Cheese on the other hand, was delicious from the beginning till the end. The thick toasted was gracefully smothered with garlic butter, generously topped with melting cheese. Glad that the rich, cheesy melting cheese didn’t make us feel cloying , as the plain taste thick toast clocks in just right to balance up the creaminess, and buttery flavor.
Green Tea Latte (RM13.00)
Summergirl put high expectation for their green tea latte but it turned out disappointed. The green tea was overly sweet, lack of milky flavor, not so smooth and with a sandy feeling to the throat.
In short, we do like the ambience and concept of Caffe Bene, but there is still room of improvement. Food is good, but no comment for the beverage till we try out other choices. For bingsu, it is great to have with friends, as it will be much enjoyable when such a big bowl of dessert is shared together.
Photographer: Summer
Write Up: YLing
Addres:
Caffe Bene – Solaris @ Mont Kiara Outlet
K-G-04, Solaris Mon’t Kiara, No.2, Jalan Solaris , 50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Business Hour: 9.30am – 12.00am
Caffe Bene – Sunway Pyramid Mall Outlet
LOT OB5, G-2 Oasis Boulevard,
Ground Floor,
Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall.
Business Hour: 10.00am – 10.00pm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caffebene.asia
Website: http://caffebene.com.my/
