I grab my Friday morning coffee almost every week at Soma. I love the atmosphere & the music they…read moreplay, it's become a beloved weekly routine for me. It's not my favorite place for espresso drinks, but their Blackbeard drip coffee hits the spot for me. My husband also loves their juices. The back patio is a perfect spot for meeting with a friend during the summer, and they have a prime downtown location as well.

Went here after work for a matcha. It was well-mixed; however, the barista was very light-handed…read morewith the vanilla syrup. Not too inviting... definitely a grab and go spot. Service was decent.

I've been to Smoothie King a handful of times now. The first time I ordered through DoorDash, I…read morenoticed that some bowls were really full while others weren't. Mine happened to be one of the less-full ones, but it was so tasty that I even came back for more. In Bloomington, I've tried both Smoothie King and Rush Bowl. Rush Bowl definitely gives you more quantity, but their açaí bowls taste icy and have a hard, slushy texture. Smoothie King's bowls, on the other hand, are soft, smooth, and packed with flavor. There was one visit where someone took my order out of the mobile order pick up fridge. They seem to have more people now than ever working but they still have someone very new working by himself on a Thursday night.

The Smoothies are fantastic. They had a really delicious gut health smoothie that was super popular…read morebut they got rid of it. I'm not certain why. The only thing I would say about the Smoothie King is that you have to be patient, sometimes there's only one person working and they're trying to fill app and to go orders as well as tend to the people in Store. I'm looking forward to finding a decent replacement for. my gut health favorite.

Wife and I were told about Brightside by a friend and just by chance I had a Dr appointment…read moreyesterday just down the road. I was hesitant at first as I'm only 6 months into my body demanding that I eat gluten free. My wife has been on the journey for over 10 years. Starting with the look and feel of this place, it's amazing top to bottom. Staff/Owner went WAY above and beyond. Everyone was super nice! NOW for the food... There was no option for 10 Stars otherwise that's what I would have given. I had the biscuits and gravy and a cinnamon roll. Oh My Goodness was it oh so delicious!! My wife had a Cuban sandwich which I tried and will definitely share that with her next trip. Yummm The BREAD!! We have eaten all over the world and THIS was the best bread we have ever had. It's hard to believe that it's GF. We HAD to have a loaf to take home. This am I took a slice out of the freezer and toasted it and ate with some homemade blueberry jam:) it was heavenly!!! Thank you Brightside for being so incredibly awesome!! WE will be back soon.

I have no clue how this place has 4.9 stars out of five on Yelp. I went here. I ordered the…read morebiscuits and gravy first of all. I was with four people and they served every single item one at a time so there is one worker literally walking, probably a marathon because they kept going back-and-forth and then my biscuits and gravy looked like somebody threw up all over my plate. My latte was only milk no coffee, my friends coffee it was iced coffee. They filled it up 3/4 of the way 3/4 of the way and he paid for the whole thing and then the rest of the food looked like that food you'd see at the chum bucket. i'm glad this place is hidden because I don't want anybody else to go through what I just went through this morning.

Consistently great drinks and good light breakfast/lunch. They make food to order, but are…read morewell-staffed and usually pretty quick even when busy. Some of the baristas come off as warmer than others, but everyone acts professional. Out of the meals I've tried, the loaded hummus and avocado toasts are my favorites. The pretzel bun on the weekly sandwich was also a winner. I didn't like the cold cheese slices on the veggie sandwich, but that may just be my taste, and I'd get the sandwich again without the cheese. Great muffins. Had to try the blueberry scone twice to get a good one - the first one had just 2 blueberries, and the second had a passable number but still could've used more, although the scone pastry itself was excellent. The two cookies they make (choc chip or oatmeal raisin) are good but not outstanding. On Fridays, they have homemade brown sugar pop tarts - haven't tried this yet but I do intend to. All drinks are excellent. I really liked their flavored seasonal lattes that I tried this February (had to go half sweet though), but the plain tea and lattes are also good. Matcha is my favorite, and theirs is pretty good. The biggest problem with the place is that it's ALWAYS really busy and difficult to find a seat, which isn't something that they're doing wrong but is still a deterrent if I'm looking for somewhere I can chill out while eating and sipping a drink. Individuals will be more likely to have luck getting one of the counter seats than a table, but these are also in the area where everyone waits for their drinks, so there is not much personal space to be had here.

Really good cappuccino in proper sized ceramic cups that comes in 1 size as it should!!!! Avocado…read morescramble was really good. Excellent friendly service.

Love Hartzell's. It's my go-to whenever I crave for an icecream. They have so many amazing…read moreflavours. I personally love Dusty bean and Chocolate lovers. The seasonal flavours are delicious too. They have the best service and ambiance too. Sweetest people.

Went there tonight with friends and thoroughly enjoyed it. The staff were really nice and helpful…read moretoo! Highly recommend!

Wonderful, local coffee shop! Clean restaurant, friendly…read morestaff and a good variety of teas/coffees. They offer food as well, I did not order but will order next time-menu looks great tho! Seating is fantastic-outside tables, inside by the bar area and a decent room to the back with lots of outlets if you need to plug in.

If Yelp allowed zero stars, that would be my rating…read more My wife and I took our two daughters to Inkwell for breakfast around 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday. It was busy. That's fine. It's Sunday morning in downtown Bloomington. Busy happens. What followed was not "busy." It was astonishingly poor service and even worse problem-solving. My wife and daughters ordered, and then we waited. After AN HOUR, my wife went inside to ask what was happening. She was told, "Sorry, the IU basketball team is here. Let me see what happened." Apparently the arrival of the IU basketball team creates some kind of breakfast singularity in which ordinary customers cease to exist. The employee said they would check. They never came back. Another 45 minutes passed. So after ONE HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES, my wife and daughter -- both of whom had been loyal Inkwell customers -- were left feeling like they simply did not matter because more important people had walked through the door. That is what makes this experience so disappointing. Restaurants get busy. Orders get lost. Mistakes happen. But when you discover that a family has been waiting an hour, tell them you will investigate, disappear for another 45 minutes, and then offer essentially no apology, urgency, ownership, or attempt to make things right, that is not a kitchen problem. That is a customer-service problem. Eventually they agreed to refund us. So the single star is awarded because Inkwell did, in fact, return our money after failing to provide breakfast and did not lock the doors to prevent our escape. Cherish it.

I come here pretty often because of the location, and I've found them to be pretty consistent in…read moredelivering fresh poke and bubble tea. Something I like here is that a lot of the proteins are marinated/sauced, and the marinades are very tasty, although this does result in the bowls coming out really saucy when you add sauces and dressings on top of that. All of the poke I've ordered has come out delicious. The unagi in the unagi don was a little tough, but the other proteins seem to be good quality and the veggies are fresh. Even the small bowl is filling enough for a meal for me, and since most toppings are free, you can load up with the veggies you want. I never feel like they get stingy with the portions. I'm not super impressed with the other food besides poke. It's not bad but nothing special. The spring rolls were unoffensive but could've been grocery store frozen spring rolls, and were only served with the duck sauce packets you get with Chinese takeout. The caramel pudding was okay but the texture was a little grainy. They have really good drinks if you know what to order. Some of their bubble tea is just the basic flavoured stuff, but the fancy-sounding teas - anything from the specialty drink series or pure tea series - are really good. They do run a bit sweet and I'm still not sure if you can adjust the sugar level. Maybe I'll remember to ask next time now that I've written it down. The staff here are nice, and the assembly-line ordering for the poke means it's very fast to grab food here. They take a little longer to make drinks but they're still usually a little faster than most bubble tea places in town.

Overall, a solid spot - especially for poke…read more The poke bowls are really good: fresh ingredients, nice portions, and a great variety of toppings and combinations to choose from. It's a reliable place if you're craving something quick, customizable, and satisfying. They also have a wide selection of boba drinks with lots of different flavors, which is great in terms of variety. That said, I found the drinks to be a bit too sweet for my taste, and it would be great if there were adjustment options available. That's really the only reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5. Still, a great option in Bloomington for both poke and boba - just be mindful of the boba if you do get it here.

I come here a lot because it's right across the street from IU Jacobs, and it's the only…read moreindependent coffee shop that opens early (they open at 6 am M-F and actually have food out when they open, unlike the nearby Crumble and Inkwell that open at 7/7:30 but don't have baked goods out until about an hour later). The baristas are always friendly. The place is spacious with a good amount of seating, but it can sometimes be hard to find a good seat inside because, as you would expect, students come to study/work and stay for a long time. I love their baked goods - they have interesting and unique offerings and everything tastes wholesome. Besides their Soma-made bakes (muffins, loaves, scones, dessert bars, cookies, and more), the bagels (I think from Gables) and Piccolo Dolci pastries are great, but they have these two muffins that are from a different supplier that I didn't think were of very good quality - I recommend avoiding the chocolate cheesecake muffin and banana nut muffin. I think the veggie/cheese sandwich is decent. It's just deli cheese slices with lettuce, cucumber, pesto, and mayo, but the bread is good and if you want something simple it's surprisingly satisfying. The coffee is pretty good. I am a decaf drinker so I appreciate that they have both decaf coffee and decaf espresso. They have a really good loose leaf tea selection and the teas are legit. Between the variety and quality it's the best tea selection I've found at a coffee shop in Bloomington. The quality of the chai and matcha are less impressive. I feel like there's a slight artificial flavour to the matcha, but to be fair, I've only tried it with flavour added, so maybe it's better unsweetened. When I asked for half sweet, that was better than regular sweetness. Both are still better than Starbucks. But I'd definitely recommend the loose leaf tea lattes over the chai/matcha. As mentioned in my previous review, some things are self-serve. It turns out they do have glasses and mugs available if you ask, but if you don't ask for dine-in, the default is disposable cups. Brewed coffee is self-serve, with your choice of (usually) two regular roasts and one decaf. If you want a toasted bagel, you have to slice and toast it yourself in the toaster on the condiment table. It seems like you sort of have to know what to order here, but as I'm learning what's good, I really appreciate the offerings that are good, the comfortable unpretentious environment, and long hours at Soma.

You will find this coffee shop right across the street from the main IU campus. There is a small…read morelot available in front of the the shop that has spots with a 20 minute max. Since the shop is so close to IU campus, most people walk here. The dining area is large and has couches, tables/chairs and bar seating along the front window. You can imagine that the place is usually filled with IU students working away on their laptops of in small social groups, given the shop's close proximity to the campus. The women that were working during my visit were all so very helpful and friendly. they helped my make my selection. They serve a wide array of hot and iced coffees and also has teas, smoothies and juices as well. The coffees come in 3 sizes, yep you guessed it, small, medium and large. The light food options that they have includes cookies, scones, muffins, parfaits, quiche, zucchini bread, brownies, and cinnamon rolls. I ended up getting a large iced pumpkin spice latte. It took about 7 minutes for me to get my drink. It was very savory and hit the spot. It was gone in a matter of seconds. Anyway, I highly recommend checking this place out. It is a traditional coffee house, with a great staff, savory drinks and delicious treats. I highly recommend checking this place out.