Benjamin French Bakery & Cafe

We came in here hoping to relax with a coffee after a bit of walking. The ambience is really nice, with both indoor and outdoor seating. There is a speaker system that plays European cafe music, so it really adds on to the experience. However, be advised that sometimes people may be smoking marijuana outside, a smell I personally am not very fond of.

The ambiance aside, this is the worst coffee we ever had in Orlando. The beans are completely over-roasted, the coffee tastes like it’s screaming and me and it wants to bite me. Even an iced latte, which is already diluted in milk, tasted pretty harsh. Upon asking the cashier where they source their coffee from/ what brand (e.g., Lavazza, etc.), she said that it comes from a wholesaler. She showed a bag that only had an “Espresso” sticker tag on it. I’m not sure where the wholesaler got the beans from, but they messed up big time.

As I tried drinking my cappuccino, I just couldn’t swallow the harsh-tasting substance, and I had to ask the ladies inside for some milk to soften it up. Bad-coffee-review aside, the staff were very attentive of the issue and responded exceptionally.

My one piece of advice to the owner is to test different coffee beans and select the ones that are not heavily, exaggeratedly over roasted (such as what we had). We did not order food because it looked pretty bland, but as we did not try it, there is no general consensus. I would definitely come back here for the outdoor seating and ambiance, but I wouldn’t touch the coffee ever again unless the coffee beans are replaced with something smooth.

Parking: there are about 4 spots in the back of the bakery and one of them is accessible.
Restroom: private, needs a code
wifi: staff wifi and guest wifi, both have passwords