By far the best coffee shop on the UIUC campus- good coffee, friendly staff, and a great atmosphere!!

I went here to order food, but I had very poor customer service. I ordered one sandwich, but the one who took my order got my order incorrect after I waited 30 minutes already. After fixing my order form, I waited another 20 minutes until I found out they had given my order to someone else. I had to get a refund after this frustrating interaction and they were not apologetic after this incident. I understand that they had other customers to tend to during this hour, but after making accident after accident and for wasting my time, they could have provided better customer service. read more

I like their chai latte and tiramisu a lot, but the service is just not consistent at all. I always do takeout with their tiramisu, but sometimes I get a fork, sometimes not. Sometimes I get a bag and sometimes not. Sometimes the fork drops on the counter, and I get a new one, but sometimes the same dirty fork gets packed or given to me without a bag. read more

What a great little cafe to spread out, grab a drink, meet with friends, sip, nibble, and otherwise enjoy a little time. The vibe here skates the edge of hippie, but doesn't go full on astrological sign moondoggy. It's a come-as-you-are feeling and instead of focusing on the hot and trendy or hipster and aloof, it's more like, "You're cool with us, man." I eyed some desserts pretty darn hard, but really just ending up grabbing a canned drink. The service was nice, and when I asked very very kindly for change in quarters to feed the meter, they were nice enough to oblige. That parking situation--there are a few, coveted spots out front dedicated for customers, and then otherwise you fight street parking--is perhaps the only downside to this location. read more

Their half sammiches are gigantic. The ciabatta bread was very good, and word on the street is that the nine-grain is to die for. Something in my roast beef provolone sammich didn't sit right with my stomach though. I may be reverting back to the Jimmy John's 2 doors down for my 'wich fix now. read more

Probably one of the first coffee shops I had ever been to in Urbana- Champaign. I frequented this place as a student who needed somewhere nice to study, as a TA to hold office hours, and as a place to go on dates. This place is perfect with a wonderful staff, great ambiance, lots of variety with seating and the food there is fan.tas.tic. It's definitely a bit more "hipster" in feel but I really love that vibe for a coffee shop and think that it's super welcoming, super friendly, and super comfortable no matter how long you're there for. read more

This place has a good vibe and cost interiors, However the food and drinks are average. I had chai latte and a croissant. The tea had like 1 tsp milk or was 1% or something, it didn't have the late taste to it. The croissant was okay but too thick, so hard to take a bite. read more

customer service is really bad. specifically, whenever i go i usually have to wait a while at the register before ordering food because there is no one taking orders at the time. it's also a gamble on whether the employee working there is in a bad mood. also, the cafe is always so loud and the food/drink is overpriced. i really don't recommend going. read more

The thing I love most about Paradiso is the atmosphere which is warm and inviting. It reminds me of the local coffee shop back home in the town I grew up in. There is plenty of seating and it doesn't feel claustrophobic like other smaller coffee shops. Good coffee too. read more

Caffe Paradiso - Chai latte - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Urbana, Illinois

It's a good place to work, but sometimes it does get too loud because there are too many people. There coffee is good and I love there sweet potato cake (a must try)!!!! Overall, I totally recommend this place! read more

I LOVE YOU PARADISO! I don't like going when there are a lot of people there, but that's for every single cafe. I usually come here when I need to crank out some work and it's a wonderful place to come! The coffee is always good, but I always get the matcha latte which is beautiful! Their pastries are from a different shop so I'm not going to comment on them here. The only thing that took a star off from their review is the price/quality of their sandwiches. The bread was really hard and kinda cold, but I paid a good 7$ for 2 pieces of hard bread with turkey and lettuce in it. But if you come for the coffee, it's totally worth TL;DR ambiance 5/5, coffee 5/5, service 5/5, food 2/5 read more

Caffe Paradiso - Green Tea (Matcha ) Latte - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Urbana, Illinois

Great chill local coffee shop on campus. They have delicious drinks and do seasonal specials that are always amazing. They also often have pastries that are delicious, but not always. Chill atmosphere inside to do work and if you fine in you can get actual glasses so you aren't throwing away plastic/paper. One of my favorite spots in CU! read more

Horrible customer service. Will NEVER go to this place again. Today the girl working in the afternoon was extremely rude and obviously in a bad mood, but she does not necessarily have to express her feeling to customers if she were professional about her roles and responsibilities. She yelled at me like "what the heck" and "how rude and disrespectful you are" for using the toilet for 30 sec. I recently have health issues and I wanted to go to the bathroom really urgently. While there was a sign "cleaning", there was obviously no one cleaning at the moment, and even there was a guy using the toilet. After going back and forth, I really had to use to the toilet after waiting for 10 minutes or so, and the girl appeared and said "it takes about 4 minutes to clean" so I said I'd just wait there as I was really urgent. I'd rather wait for 4 minutes for using the toilet. After 1 minute she was mopping, and all of a sudden, she yelled at me exactly like "okay whatever, what the heck! Use the toilet." After using the toilet, she again yelled at me like "do you know how rude and disrespectful you are?" Is this appropriate attitude to your customer? With this terrible experience, I no longer want to visit this place ever again. read more

Nice place nice decorations and nice coffee. I had a latte here one morning when I was visiting this area. I wanted to try the sandwich but it is only available after 10am, so I just had the coffee. The staff was not very good though. But if you wanna find a place to study or just to chill for a day (and with coffee), this is a good and quite place for you! read more

Caffe Paradiso - They use intelligentsia! - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Urbana, Illinois

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Made my sandwich wrong the first time, nicely asked for it to be made again and it was made wrong a second time, all of which I was very understanding of. I sent my friend up to ask it to be made again how I ordered it since it's honestly quite an expensive sandwich and the worker said to just take off the topping I didn't want even though it didn't even have the topping I had ordered. They acted as if it was my problem that they made my sandwich wrong twice and gave me a hard time about requesting it be made how i ordered. Situation could have been handled better by the staff member. Coffee and sandwich were decent, but a kind of degrading experience. :( read more

Their tiramisu and matchamisu are some of the best I've ever had! If you'd like to come in to have the best experience, try coming early because by Noon the place can already be packed. read more

My favorite coffee shop in the CU area :) if you're in the area, make sure to visit!!

Fresh beans. Great baristas. Their in-house cream cheese (garlic herb) is delicious! Lovely vibe!

Caffe Paradiso is a gem, this place will always have a special place in my heart. Spent a ton of time here while I was in university, it's not as fancy as the fanciest nor as grimy as the grimiest, just a perfect mix of homeliness and quality that isn't easy to replicate. Without hesitation I'd call this the best cafe in Urbana, and I'd even argue best in Illinois. The drinks here are awesome, and spending a day here is one of the most consistent campus memories. You come here thinking you're just getting coffee and you end up getting in on the good times that seem to make the foundation of this little Urbana cafe. P.S. Get the Mayan Mocha while you can! Best drink here hands down! read more

There must be some mistake. Am I on hidden camera? The menu says that a small coffee is $2.40, with an in-house refill of $1.40. I assume this is my fault, I must just be missing the fine print that says every cup comes with a free indentured servant, or is delivered on the back of a domesticated cheetah. And I assume that the "small chocolate milk" for $3.75 comes in at least a half-gallon sized cup, since I can buy a gallon of delicious Oberweis chocolate milk for less than that at the grocery store. One chocolate Big Gulp, please! My complaints with the service, too, are all my fault. Why must I insist on employees who acknowledge my existence? It's so petty of me. And my obsession with tables that aren't covered in trash is really getting embarrassing. Yet, I persist, constantly interrupting the baristas' conversations to ask them to get me some coffee, or inconsiderately wiping the tables that have been lovingly encrusted in grime. What's my deal? Clearly, I don't deserve to go here anymore. So, you know... I won't. read more

- Overrated - Expensive - Hipsters Three strikes and you're out, Caffe Paradiso. read more

I love to come here and study! Great atmosphere for students and any conversation you need!

Just no. Probably the rudest, laziest, most unprofessional employees ever. There's always crap on the tables. Crumbs, used napkins, spilled drinks. I'm sure part of the blame goes to impolite customers. But that doesn't mean the employees should sit on top of the counters and play with their phones or chat with their coworkers while paying customers are cleaning up after previous ones. On top of this, the food and drink are overpriced and poor quality. My 6 year old cousin makes better sandwiches. I've given Caffe Paradiso plenty of chances, but even its close proximity to my apartment won't get me to go there anymore. read more

I preface this with the fact that I just got my seasonal flu vaccine and it's making me feel like crap. That said, Paradiso, very very very lightly flavored (and I use that word generously) iced water does not "organic sweet plum berry" iced tea make! There was nothing sweet, plum, or berry about it, and certainly nothing flavorful enough about it for me to tell you if it was organic. I want my $2.75 plus $0.50 metered parking fee back, thank you very much. In my less cantankerous moods, decent coffee (they carry Intelligentsia beans, but none of the supposedly godly Los Delirios), decent pastries, free wifi, but overall pricey as hell (something about the fees for green coffee going up). Combined with the hordes of happy chirpy undergrads that frequent this place, I'll be taking my business somewhere else. read more

Everyone seems to love this place, and I've tried to like it, but I can't say I'm a fan. Drink quality is up to par, but it would be great if the staff would occasionally get around to actually preparing the said drink instead of chilling out talking to one another while not making eye contact with a customer. This is one of the only places I've ever been where I get consistently frustrated by the service. Crazy that I would bother them by actually ordering food, right? You also kind of have to duke it out for outlets at times, which doesn't make recovering from the lengthy ordering and waiting for your drink process any more fun. read more

I like the ambience of this place, it's really cool! And usually the coffee is good here too. But when I ordered coffee last weekend from the caffe, while the woman was making my espresso she leveled off the grounds with her finger. C'mon caffe...that's not even cool to do outside of a pandemic, let alone in one. Please train your baristas correctly, or at least buy them utensils to help make things better for them and the customer. Surely disappointed. read more

So, I've lived in Chicago for approximately 8 months. I have not been able to find a coffee shop that I actually like. This may be because I'm outgrowing "hanging out at coffee shops." I might also just be too busy, or more comfortable at home. At any rate - Paradiso is not just a cafe - it's an institution. Everyone who has ever gone there regularly knows this, and most can just sense it from being inside. There are some things it could do better with: some of the furniture is a little uncomfortable, sometimes the music is a little loud. At the end of the day, though, this place is a slice of your life in Champaign. I remember fondly the smokiness (although I no longer smoke), the cramped Rentertainment, the progressive expansion, the awkward open mic night experiments, the pasta nights, the yard sales, the employees, the friends I made and met there, regularly, day in and day out. I did a lot of growing up there and for good reason. It's a great environment. They really do most everything right. 1. Product: you can stand by product quality! Intelligentsia coffee, Mirabelle pastries and breads. Good business practice means knowing how to make money without cutting the wrong corners. The owner knows what she's doing. 2. Service: baristas know how to make drinks! Seriously! This place has a hipster feel of course - but most of the hipster baristas I run across in Chicago are too busy trying to be cool and can't actually make drinks. The baristas at Paradiso are cool, and are competent at customer service and drink making. Again, the owner knows what she's doing. 3. Environment: It's close to class, but not that close to class. It's close to dorms, but not that close to dorms. There's nice, tree-lined Urbana to your east. I heard lots of albums for the first time there. And there's a chance you'll make a friend or two. Not to mention, really comfortable bathrooms. I know that seems strange to say, but when you're on your 10th cup of coffee on a study binge, the bathrooms better feel right. I really should write more, but that would be more of a memoir, than a review. Just suffice to say, the place is great. read more

This place is decent. A little on the pricey side but that's to be expect for this type of place and the location. Food is mostly solid and the coffee is good. My biggest complaint is the double parking situation, which is INSANE. I would NEVER park behind someone in a parking lot and box them in, yet every time I come here someone does this to me. This is a coffee shop on campus, people have places to be, ridiculous. read more

I'm excited by Caffe Paradiso. I love the wireless, the vibe, the performances, the coffee, the sassy baristas.... ...basically, for this Californian, Pardiso has all the vibe and energy of the coffeeshops I love back home but now in my soon to be new 'hood of C-U. The sandwich was a little lackluster, but the fruit that came with was a nice touch, and the service was great. It was a great way to treat myself after having gotten an apt. today. Woot. I can't wiat to keep my graduate student nose to the grind stone here. :) read more

The clientele is made up of two seemingly incongruous groups: (1) trendy Koreans, and (2) burnt-out hipsters who spend their time staring forlornly out the windows and smoking cigarettes. College students monopolize tables for hours, so good luck finding a seat on the weekends and afternoons. If you are not averse to meeting strangers, most people are willing to share their table if asked. Paradiso also can't seem to hold onto owners. If you ever come here and feel slighted by the service, wait a few months and the management will have been replaced. Each owner makes few changes to the menu, though you'll see their personal touches elsewhere (the current one seems to love those hand-painted, ceramic houses that grandmothers collect). In spite of its quirks, Paradiso is the best place in town for coffee and espresso. They serve Intelligentsia Coffee, which is unrelentingly bold and rich; if you hold the coffee to the light you'll see that it is completely opaque. After a cup, I usually feel as though I just had a particularly filling breakfast. Like most cafes, the food is bland and expensive, but suffices if you have managed to acquire a table and don't want to risk losing it by leaving for real food. The best part of sandwiches is the bread, which is provided by Mirabelle (a fine bakery in Urbana). Chips are usually smashed into a coarse dust before being served. I've had the best luck with the pasta salad, though it is only offered in the summer and some of its variations are fairly terrible (any "pesto" version can be considered safe). read more

My wife loves this place. We stopped by for her to get tea and some food and she did enjoy her order. They are severely lacking in parking but the worst part is that the place severely needs a power wash and deep cleaning. Service B Parking D Cleanliness D Restrooms NA Host Staff NA Lighting B Noise B Food B Drinks B read more

I really like this cafe, it provides a really good place to get away to during the school day. The coffee here is decent and there is typically some sort of deal on Hooked so the prices can be tolerated. I hear the food here is good but I've only tried the baked goods, which are fantastic, so I can't say for sure but I have a good feeling about it. read more

Caffe Paradiso - Large latte for the price of a small with the Hooked app! - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Urbana, Illinois

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This place knows how to make a terrific espresso-based drink. Their mocha is nice and bittersweet. It does not taste like Hershey's syrup with coffee in it. They also have some delicious pastries and cakes on rotation. The parking situation isn't ideal and it can get extremely crowded, but I think it's because it's such a nice place to study or work all day. Love this place! read more

I am not sure about the current state of Caffe Paradiso (has the name changed or is the title a typo?), but when I was at UofI 5 years ago it was rocking. Cool atmosphere, good coffee, yummy fresh made food. Great place to study or just relax. The music they played was always great and I was often asking who it was so I could buy the album. They were open 24 hours during finals week (are they still?). I remember being there one night at about 5am and the owner came in and made a large batch of scrambled eggs for everyone that was still there (for free). Ever since, I get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking of the place. I always go back whenever I am in Urbana, though it's been a few years. I hope it is still cool. read more

It's okay. It's large, lots of room. But the tables are tiny. They have free wifi, but everyone connects to power strips and extension cords that are strewn about haphazardly. Watch out so you don't trip. And people would unplug your computer if you weren't paying attention. It looks more like a dorm area than a business. The tables and chairs are mismatched, which I'm sure is the style they're going for. It would be cute if it just had something a little more to connect everything together, instead of a bunch of furniture thrown in. It looks like left-overs from the dorms and frats that surround the area. And it was sort of dirty. Like dusty. And the windows weren't clean. And flies. I can't stand trying to study with flies buzzing around me. It's sort of the little things that can make a place be "wow." And the coffee was, in my opinion, rather overpriced. Very good, but I was a little miffed at paying over $2 for a 16 oz. house coffee. I guess because it's closer to the school they can over charge. But my friend loves that brand of coffee, so we go there. I don't know, the potential is totally there. It would be better if they kept it cleaner and more organized, and wiped the tables down on occassion. But they do seem to have good hours - open until 11pm I think. And the people behind the counter were nice. read more

The atmosphere is great and it is an excellent place to study. However, their drinks are not that great and very overpriced. read more

Food was a bit overpriced and while my salami panini tasted pretty good two other people in my group ordered turkey sandwiches and there was more lettuce between the slices of bread than anything else. While comical, they paid just as much as I did for mine. I wanted a coffee but they were way overpriced and I decided to get a cup when I got home. The decor is a hodgepodge of random styles that my mother calls "bohemian",sure mom I suppose! The service was ok at best but I could tell the people behind the counter reay didn't care one way or another if you were there or not. 3 stars because my sandwich was pretty good. read more

Caffe Paradiso - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Urbana, Illinois

It's a nice place to study or pick up a cup of coffee. Lots of electrical outlets. The drinks are decent, too. Based on those, I would give it 4/5. However, based on my experience, the food availability appears to be unreliable. Of the past 4 times I tried to get a sandwich (their primary lunch/dinner option), they have only had it available 1 time. Each time they were out, I was told it was because they ran out of bread. When they did have it, it ws a good sandwich (I recommend the ham + all vegetables), but the seeming unreliability is quite an issue for me. read more

I'm moving out of town and very sorry to be leaving Paradiso behind. Their coffee is Intelligentsia, their tea is Rishi, and they make the best (brewed, not from a bottle) chai latte in Chambana. It's my writing and reading spot, I love it, and the people-watching is especially entertaining after a big campus party or football game. But there are some downsides: * Yes, the coffee is expensive. I think it's worth it, especially when I'm planning to sit for awhile and essentially renting table space. Many disagree. * The best time to write at Paradiso is during breaks or in the summer when campus empties out. During the semester, it can be loud and hard to get a table, and the internet is slow when there's a ton of students procrastinating by watching youtube. * The food is fine, but generally unexceptional. The pastries and soups are the best bet (macarons and corn chowder - yum! - not together, of course), and they always have a variety of vegetarian options. read more

Their straight espresso is astoundingly bad. One of the worst espressos I've had. It was very sour and bitter. Very thin, watery crema. No skill at all :/. They used an improper amount of water and timed the brew poorly. The barista sheepishly handed me my drink after I looked at it and asked if it was the right order.....Coffee shops shouldn't be allowed to have espresso machines if employees will just put it to waste. The WiFi is awful. But the food is delicious. I think they get pastries from Mirabelle and Pekara. Their bagels are good. My favorite drink is their raspberry latte. The only downside is that even if you size up your drink, they put in the same amount of espresso, so you'll have pay extra for more caffeine. read more