Capriccio

Saw a coupon for this little place in a Parkway Museums District brochure (coffee) and wandered in for a quick bite. I ended up just getting the Cubano sandwich and Dasani water to tide me over before exploring the parkway. Quick service, sandwich was nothing spectacular, but still a cute little spot which I’m sure gets really busy during morning hours with people who need their fancy caffeine fix. Prime location.

Great location and a cute spot. Awful service, however. Enough to keep me from ever going back.
Shout out to the girl with the pink hair for having some of the worst tude ever!

The coffee’s fine, but the actual reason i swing by daily is due to the delightful individuals who are paid to run this place. God bless them all.

Nice little place. Staff is friendly. The pastry selection is tasty. The coffee is great, the smoothies are good, the sandwiches are sandwiches. They have outdoor seating that passers-​by always mistaken for public seating for their Chinese take-​out grub. The view of the Ben Frank is lovely though. Yippi!

This place is super convenient if you are nearby and one of the only places in the immediate area. So I like it a lot for that reason. If I am in the mood where I am willing to walk more than two blocks, then I usually don’t bother with this place is it’s OK, not great.
I had a chicken panini that was pretty tasty. I would probably get it again. Perfectly crunchy and extra cheesy. Doesn’t come with anything, so you will want something else if you’re hungry. Otherwise you’ll be hangry. The iced tea is actually really tasty and I’m not sure why it’s so special but it tastes like a hot summer cooler. Really good. Even in this winter.
The menu is small and for lunch, it’s mostly sandwiches. They have two salads and they should have more. Probably be back soon.

Nice place, decent location, and sunny building. Coffee left something to be desire. All to-​go cups. Employee had to personally unlock bathroom for me. OK, but not amazing.

Terrible Service and Heartless Management. This restaurant discourages my faith in humanity. My mom was a patient at Magee Rehabilitation Center recovering from a spinal cord injury and as an exercise she went on her first «field trip» in a few weeks to Café Capriccio on 16^th street which is a few doors down from the rehab center. What a mistake! The objective of the exercise was to balance walking, ordering a drink and counting the change for a drink while accompanied by two uniformed physical therapists from Magee. My mom only had enough change to pay for a little less than a bottle of water or half of a hot chocolate at Café Capriccio. When my mom asked for half of a hot chocolate, the cashier asked her manager for permission and she said «no» and gave her tap water instead. What a disgraceful way to treat a handicapped person.

Another one of those «hire some cute girls and who cares if they do a good job» places. The cashier was horribly rude and the coffee was incredibly bitter. The place was also a mess and it wasn’t even busy. I ordered a chicken caesar salad and it was so bad. The chicken was ice cold and mushy. It reminded me of the ready made chicken strips you can buy in the refrigerator section. I’ll never be back.

This coffee stop is very clean and the ambience is very nice. The coffee taste really good too. However, the employee serving me was taking too much time talking to a coworker instead of quickly taking care of my drink. 3 out of 5.

I visit this place every Sunday because it’s the closest place to my job that’s open and serves coffee with vegetarian food. That being said, it has got to be some of the worst coffee I’ve had. Horribly bitter. Adding copious amounts of cream makes it tolerable, and I enjoy the space with its big windows and fresh air during summer. These are the reasons I reluctantly choose to return.
There is one barista I often order from who has long dark hair and is very sweet, so I can’t write off all of the staff as miserable. But the barista with red hair has a bad attitude almost constantly, and it honestly affects my experience negatively.
If they could bring down the exorbitant prices for mediocre food, step up their coffee game (seriously, isn’t good coffee the most basic requirement for a café?) and be a little kinder to customers and each other, I would be very happy to update my review.

This place is right in front of my office and in the summer time, I often stop here before work for some ice coffee, which i think is pretty good.
I’ve had the chocolate croissants, Spinach/​cheese croissant, Mozzarella/​Tomato sandwiches, and all are really good.
I’m happy to have this spot so close by, especially on those days when I don’t pack my lunch and need something quick to eat.

If there’s one thing that gets this non-​coffee drinker excited about a coffee shop, it’s a damn good cup of tea, and Capriccio delivers. Their black vanilla bean is near-​perfect, and I’ve been tempted to stop in here at all times of day. The location is also prime, nestled on the corner as a stand-​alone building. That means lots of space, which they take advantage of by providing lots of outdoor seating. Sure, there’s often traffic whizzing (or crawling) by on the parkway, but this is the city…
I recently tried their pastries, as well, deciding on the almond croissant after a bit of deliberation. I thought it would just be a few almonds sprinkled on top, but much to my surprise, there was a creamy, delicious almond paste wrapped up in the center — the perfect sweet morning treat.
As already mentioned, there IS a $ 5 card minimum. This has screwed be a couple times, but I usually try to keep a few dollars cash on me anyway.

I really don’t like it here, there is a $ 5 credit card minimum which is not posted anywhere. I came in last week and the barista was outside handling the trash and then came in and made my drink without washing his hands or putting on gloves. EW. There is lots of outdoor seating but so far all I have seen is the area overrun with kids. I think the baked goods taste bad, even though they are made, «in-​house.»
The baristas have been rude and the coffee shop is always a huge mess, spills on the floor, dirty counter tops, and overflowing trash cans. I have been here a few times at various times of the day and it is always gross. I work across the street and really wanted to like this Starbucks alternative but I really hate it.

Being French I know how a real croissant should taste like and it doesn’t taste like the one I had there :/​! The cappucino was good though.
Also the waiter/​cashier asked me if I wanted her to warm up my croissant and chocolate croissant, I said Yes (big mistake!), she used the microwave: O !!! I didn’t say anything but everything tasty chewy and the chocolate croissant had chocolate outside, on top of it which makes it difficult to eat :/​
There are better places for croissant (Amuse restaurant inside Le Meridien, close by)

This place is just terrific. I am so happy when I can patronize establishments that are successfully competing against big chain stores. Their coffee and pastries are terrific. Unlike Starbucks, DD and other chain stores, Capriccio does all of their baking on the premises. My two favorites are the Cherry Walnut Bagel and the Spinach Feta croissant. My boyfriend and I love going here. It is a good atmosphere with a friendly (for the most part) staff.

I really (I mean REALLY) like their chai lattes and smoothies. Especially the chai latte. This thing really puts Starbucks to shame! They’re price for them is decent. These two drinks are never inexpensive anywhere.
I have to say I don’t care for their coffee though. Got it a couple times and was underwhelmed. The first time was out of curiosity. The following times simply for convenience as its close.
Never purchased anything to eat here.
Cute building, very small but there is never too many people anyways.

I had a few work lunches here during my trip to Philly and had no real complaints. I ordered the tuna sandwich to-​go one day, which was just fine, but totally fell apart while eating it.
Another day I ate in house and ordered the spicy lentil and spinach soup. The portion size was much larger than expected which was nice, but the soup was nothing to write home about. It wasn’t bad, but just tasted like your average lunch/​café chain.
Service was quick and efficient. The people behind the counter were very friendly, and dealt well with me when I couldn’t make up my mind and kept forgetting to order things. They were also very quick to open the restroom (which was locked) for customers as soon as they walked nearby.
Not a bad lunch choice for the area!

I always prefer local options, so when we stayed at the nearby Windsor Suites last week, we frequented this shop every morning instead of the Starbucks across the street. My iced soy lattes were excellent and reasonably priced. I also purchased a multigrain bagel both times. The first morning, it tasted slightly… rancid, but not enough for me to not enjoy it. My next bagel the following morning was much better. They are certainly not the world’s best bagels (I would compare them to Starbucks’s or Dunkin Donuts’s bagels, actually), but still enjoyable.

Not recommended. I get coffee here at least once a week and I’m realizing that I really should stop supporting a place that I’d actually love to see close so that a better café/​restaurant can move into its awesome space at the corner of 16^th and the Parkway in Center City.
First off: the coffee. It’s not good. I have a strange weakness for flavored coffee and the reason that Café Cret perpetually gets me back in the door is because they rotate flavors and when I walk by their whiteboard sign every day, I’m oftentimes intrigued by the «flavor of the day» *even though* about half of those I’ve had so far have tasted completely toxic. When will I learn? The regular coffee is far worse… I agree 100% with the other review who used the term «garbage water».
The food is persistently disapointing. The breakfast sandwiches are made with the same weird, pre-​prepared egg patties that Dunkin Doughnuts and 7-​Eleven use except Café Cret charges way more for theirs. The croissants are passable after 10 – 15 seconds in my office microwave but whatever you do, don’t ask them to heat it for you there because — for reasons unknown — what they’ll do is flatten it on their panini press… the poor thing comes out looking like something you’d scrape off the schuylkill expressway. And definitely don’t waste your time on the bagels: they are never fresh and they are oftentimes bordering on stale (the stale bagels issue is something in particular that I want to note that I’m truly not exagerating: I’ve had bagels here that I truly felt were within hours of the point that they would’ve started growing mold).
I also have had the same experience as others who have observed that the baristas range from extremely nice to petulant and rude.
The only reason that I’m giving this place 2 stars is because I can’t otherwise account for the fact that I’ve spent so much money/​time here in the 6 weeks that I’ve been working at Race & Broad. Obviously they have something going for them but it’s probably just the location. I honestly have nothing good to say about this place.

Frigid here in the city of Brotherly Love… out of Penn Center and walking, chilled to the bone this morning.
Very adroit barista — my café AU lait was perfect… extra hot, nice foam, all without me even asking. The cashier is from my hometown in CA:)! See how far a smile goes? Even Susan Cain couldn’t argue that point, yeah?!!
PS open at 6:30 AM. Useful to know.