Coffee Culture - Toronto, Ontario

I went in and ordered a latte and some food, totalling around $20. My husband was saving a seat for us. As I was about to pay, the guy working there asked if my husband was getting anything. At first, I thought he was just making friendly conversation, but then I ... was surprised when he informed me that we couldn't sit in the coffee shop unless we both ordered something. So, apparently, it's okay for two people to come in, order $2 coffees each, and sit down, but my $20 purchase wasn't enough because my husband just wanted to sit with me? It doesn't make sense. I should also mention that there were plenty of empty seats in the café when this happened. Feedback for the owners: Instead of strictly enforcing rules, I'd suggest evaluating situations on a case-by-case basis and prioritizing friendliness and good customer service. It seems unreasonable to turn down a substantial order and lose business when the cafe is empty just to uphold a black-and-white rule like that. there are a lot of similar stories to this in the other reviews. I used to be a big fan of Coffee Culture, but we will never be back. Read more

Coffee culture has become a weekly indulgence. I really enjoy their butter Croissant and Mocha Latte, especially dipping the croissants in the latte 😋. You can even try their frozen caramel and sandwiches. The place is family friendly, with high chairs and a baby changing station. There is also ample ... parking available nearby. Great place to relax for a bit, on the week ends. Read more

I'm writing this sitting in my car right now after having been kicked out 5 minutes into walking in. This place has notoriously bad reviews, and I wanted to give this place a chance because I love supporting small businesses, especially family businesses because I am part of one myself. I ... noticed the other reviews say this place is very rude because the woman prefers you order your drink before sitting down. Fair enough. I go to the counter and look at the menu, then ask them if they have an "iced americano". He says yes. He seems nice. So I order a medium iced americano, listed for $3.89 on the blackboard. He makes it, hands it to me, and keys in the amount to which I tap. I take my drink to my booth and sit down, and glance at my phone. I saw a charge for $6.54, and think "Oh, that's a pretty expensive iced americano. My usual place charges $5.50 for a large after tax". Then I remember the menu has it at $3.89. I've been charged 50% more. I think it's a mistake, so I take it back to the counter and let them know I was charged extra by mistake. This is where all hell breaks loose. The lady and man both come out from behind the counter to explain to me that this is the correct price - an iced americano is $6.54. I say why? The menu says $3.89? But no, apparently that is for a hot americano. Adding tap water ice cubes costed me the other $2.50. She explained that they don't offer that and they had to make it special for me so they upcharged into the price of a latte. I said it's not a latte, it has 0 milk inside. She says it has iced cubes and is not on the menu, so they charged me the price of a latte. Keep in mind, I'm not too pressed about the $2; in fact I'd be happy to support a small establishment with higher prices. I pointed this out, and just said as a suggestion, I think they should warn their customers they are going to upcharge significantly, instead of saying yes they have something and then pretending nothing happened. She did not take this well. I was smiling the entire time, speaking quite politely, and she handed me my money back, took my drink, and told me to leave. I reiterated that it's not about the money, it's about the principle of deceiving their customers. But nah, I got kicked out and she went back in and refused to hear another word. Unfortunate experience, I was really hoping for these other reviews to be proven wrong and thought they just needed a chance. Read more

Unfortunately I had a less then stellar experience at this location. I have been coming here for years and moved away so it had been some time since I have been here. Anyhow I came here because I was to meet my brother to enjoy a coffee and converse. I ... got there before my brother and met a kind gentlemen who I believe is an owner. He served me kindly and I took my seat. Now when my brother arrived a little later he joined my seat but found that there was no outlet to plug in his laptop. So he found another booth with an outlet and that is when we were met with extreme rudeness and disrespect from the female owner. She barked and yelled for us to purchase anything before we were to take a new seat. She assumed my brother was not going to purchase an item and so she continued to yell and over talk. I told her I had been coming here for years and have never been met with such disrespect and unkind customer service but she did not want to hear any of it. So we left and we will NEVER come back. I wish her business all the best. Huge learning lesson about the importance of kind hospitality, customer service and friendliness. I hope this review finds whomever reading it well. All the best Read more

Edit: Just to update everyone, I followed the instructions from the franchise to send them an email and a copy of my receipt, and they have yet to respond back to me for about a month now. The lack of response via email to date shows just how uncaring they ... are to their customers and unwilling to enact change to their business. I suspect whoever is administering the Coffee Culture and Cafe account is using a bot service or third party vendor to respond to Google reviews given the consistent response and language used. Make note of this before you consider going to this cafe. -- Original: There is this online challenge going around to test 1-star reviews and I thought to join in on the fun, although this is nevertheless a fair and constructive review of my experience. I went with a friend of mine to grab coffee and we decided to try out the challenge here. I’ll start by saying that many of the negative reviews expressed here are valid and reflective of what I observed, although not exactly what I personally experienced because I took the time to prepare for the visit by following the advice from other reviews before settling in. There is a sign outside telling the customers there is a staffing shortage and requesting customers to order in advance prior to sitting down. If you follow this simple advice, you won’t get berated by the lady at the front (who I presume is the owner). I was a bit bummed they didn’t have the Oreo Frappuccino in stock, so I had to opt for the mocha flavour, which was still decent if you’re a chocolate lover, but it tasted more coffee than chocolate so be prepared. I was also hungry, so I opted for the Asiago breakfast sandwich, which was tasty. The couches could use an upgrade as I noticed they were a bit worn out. In addition, it may help to have the staff couches made available to the public as seating was pretty limited. Fortunately, there was a sign to tell you not to sit there and it was a miracle I didn’t get berated by the owner. This goes into my next criticism about the place, which is the atmosphere. As rustic as the place was in a positive way, I didn’t like the stress of being constantly vigilant of the owner and being careful of stepping on any eggshells. For example, my friend arrived just a bit after I arrived as we were lining up to order, but she was afraid to cut in line to join me to order at the same time for fear of creating a scene with the owner. I felt the lady was miserable about her job and life choices. This is not to say that I and many others don’t often have those feelings sometimes, but don’t take it out on the customers when they don’t follow the rules or make an error in judgment. One advice I have for the business is to install some stanchions to direct people to the front once they enter similar to what most cafes such as Starbucks have to queue people and prevent people from sitting down first if they are adamant to have customers pay first. In addition, hire a person or two to serve customers who are seated and lining up. I can understand that many customers will not read the signs no matter how many you put on the windows as they’re more focused on figuring out what to order and as someone who is visually impaired I probably won’t even bother to read the sign as a first time customer. In summary, this is a staffing and design issue that the coffee chain needs to address if you still want to keep this cafe operating. Read more