10 Overhyped and Overpriced Cafes That Aren’t Worth Your Time & Money
Not every trended café is worth your time or your hard-earned cash. Some places will lure you with fancy interiors, picture-perfect dishes, and promises of a good time, but once you’re there, the disappointment will hit you much harder than a Monday morning.
There are coffee shops that are great hangout spots and there are those that live on hype than on quality. You don’t have to raid your wallet on lackluster lattes or Instagram-worthy décor that looks like it’s just for show. Some cafés, that seem like a dream when you see them online, aren’t that good in reality.
The Glasshouse Café
This trendy café is known for its entirely transparent structure, it’s also stunning during golden hour. Unfortunately, the beauty ends there. The coffee is watery, the pastries are stale, and on a hot day when perched under glass, it feels like you’re in a greenhouse experiment.
Cocoa & Canvas
This is a café that also doubles as an art space. Sipping coffee while painting is sweet, but the overpriced materials and underwhelming beverages make it hard to enjoy. Sadly, the “art” snacks are more about style than substance, leaving you both hungry and frustrated.
The Mystique Lounge
The name might imply a magical experience, but it isn’t. With this café’s mysterious décor, it’s more interested in being a nighttime Instagram backdrop than providing quality coffee or food. If you’re into pretentious vibes and enjoy loud music that makes you have to yell to talk, this is definitely your place.
Honeycomb Haven
The honey desserts and hexagonal chairs of this bee-themed café look cute but don’t excuse the poor service. The honey latte is overly sweet, the desserts are average and the menu prices can sting your wallet sometimes.
Cloud Nine Coffee Bar
Floating on cloud nine? Not quite. The soft, dreamy cloud décor is inviting at first, the pastel plates are colorful and alluring but the experience is hollow. The coffee lacks depth, the pastries are unimpressive, and the staff too often appears more focused on keeping the look than delivering good service.
Ember & Ash
This industrial-chic café boasts minimalist interiors and an air of sophistication. The service is slow, the food portions are underwhelming, even while its ambience is visually striking. Paying $30 only to eat half a sandwich in a moody warehouse is not the definition of a good outing.
Petal & Pour
This flower-themed café focuses on a garden theme, but they seemingly forget to focus on the coffee. The menu items infused with florals are shockingly average, and so are the beverages — they taste like something you would find in a perfume bottle, not on your plate.
Verdant Vine Café
This café is decked out with vines and greenery giving an ambient, natural vibe. Between the overpriced drinks, limited seating, and lukewarm service, it feels more like a chore than a treat. You’ll get amazing photos, but you won’t be back anytime soon.
The Velvet Bloom Café
This café often gets praise for its ‘elegant’ floral aesthetic, but as the popular saying goes, “All that glitters isn’t gold”. The food arrangement and design are cute, and the flower walls and dangling roses look beautiful on your feed, but the food here is bland and overpriced. The tiny portions feel like samples and not the actual meal.
Eclipse Rooftop Espresso
At this spot advertised as exclusive and trendy, you’re really just paying for the great ambiance, but if you want good coffee this shouldn’t be your first pick. Crown it all with long wait times and sky-high prices and you will wonder why you didn’t just go to your local café for a fraction of the price.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.