We decided to go into the Beans N Beans cafe due to the promise of free coffee when you buy 1. Because why would you want to pay full price when you can get it for half?<Asian genes>
Anyway… the place looked very hip and young, something that our own ageing hips would not recognise.The industrial decoration and stylish text against the total black brick background should draw its intended target demographics and one can never go wrong with the Buy 1 Free 1 attraction. We rated the decor an 8/10. The place even had some games that one can play among a group of friends like Jenga, UNO (though it was UNO Frozen), some crocodile-teeth thingy and another pirate-on-a-barrel-with-sharp-swords thingy. You can stick to the board games like Monopoly or Snakes & Ladders but we wanted a quick game so we chose UNO. It did not turn out to be short after all. We probably spent an hour hanging out there as N & S desperately tried to lose in order to finish the game. There were also goofy props that one could use to accessorize oneself like hats, wigs, moustaches, glasses, tiaras, masks and wands so that a happy picture could be snapped and uploaded into one's social media account to portray a life full of happiness, care- freeness and everlasting youth.
Surprise, surprise…none of us knew that it was R’s birthday. Not even J, who has been R’s good friend for the past 3 years!!!! So please excuse our incredulous and disbelieving looks when R casually mentioned that it was his birthday and he wanted to treat us to coffee. After his birthday was confirmed via his identity card, which was really lame of us to have even requested of him in order to believe him, we counter- treated him to the Korean dessert, bingsu.
We had green tea bingsu, which looked nice but probably tasted ordinary. But hey, R’s birthday does not come everyday. Bingsu is practically a dessert made out of shaved ice topped with sweet stuff. Kind of like ABC here in Malaysia but with Korean flashy looks. Our bingsu, which cost RM 17.80, was infused with green tea syrup flavour and topped with a scoop of tasty green tea ice cream plus some gelatinous condiments which we have no idea what they were. R generously shared his birthday treat with us and we happily obliged (while still trying to finish that stupid UNO game!). We rated the dessert a 6/10. Maybe we overrated it because of the auspicious celebration.
The coffee tasted okay. Since we could only have the same free coffee as the one we bought, J & N both had the cappuccino, originally priced at RM 11 each but now given a 50% discount. J being a coffee connoisseur rated it a 7/10. Well, he actually rated it a 6/10 but S added an extra mark because the bear design was so cute, in its left facial nerve palsy way. The barista has done his homework on inclusion policy, we see. N was too busy focusing on trying to rid himself from the ever- growing collection of Anna & Elsa cards in his hands to care. R & S each had a tall glass of iced caramel macchiato, which would have cost RM 12.20 but now cost RM 6 per glass. Since neither of them were coffee aficionados, they just drank their drinks quietly. No cute bears either so they rated their drinks 5/10.
Overall it was a joyous occasion and we ended it by getting R a set of 4 cupcakes from Wondermilk. We could not rate them as R ate them all and we are sure he would say they were all lovely if we asked him.
Wondermilk cupcakes: red velvet, salted caramel, butterscotch & peanut butter and chocolate flavours
May the force be with you, R!
