Centre Place Café - Winnipeg, Manitoba

RBCCC's Centre Place Cafe is a decent deal. It used to be regularly open on weekdays. Post-3/11 however, it only opens for major events (World of Wheels, Ai-Kon, Winnipeg Comic-Con, etc) and it appears this is unlikely to change in the near future. Compared to some other venues' concession menus, ... you'll find that pricing is more or less reasonable for what it is. A can of soda is $2. Not fantastic, but not horrific either, considering you'd be paying $2.50 at a Mary Brown's, for example. Alcohol starts at $8. Fries are $6 (used to be $5). Coffee is $3. Their prices are taxes-in, and overall appears to be reflective of the fact that there are numerous alternatives not too far away. Seating will ultimately depend on whatever arrangements an event has made and agreed upon. In the case of Ai-Kon, there'll be plenty of tables right beside CPC and scattered throughout the bridge from the north to south buildings. On the other hand with Winnipeg Comic-Con, you'll have to walk around to the seating area just past the ATMs by the escalators. There isn't a dedicated tray drop-off point, so you'll have to either abandon your tray at your table and hope a cleaner comes around to retrieve it at some point, or worst case just hand it back in to the cashier if they're not too busy. Ordering and pickup is the same sort of system as Costco's food courts pre-kiosks, you tell the workers what you'd like, they're generally pretty quick to get everything ready and keep the line moving, you get your food, then you shuffle down to the cashier at the other end of the counter and pay. Back when fries were $5 and for a short while after they became $6, they were served on a platter/tray style container, not dissimilar to what you would see at a Wayback Burgers or Fatburger, and even at $6, the amount you got for that price was actually quite fantastic. And yeah, you can tell they're using Cavendish fries, though there was one time in October of 2022 where that wasn't the case. Sometime between fall of 2022 and summer of 2023 however, they switched to using cups instead. Sadly I must say that these cups are rather lousy as you just don't get as much as before. I have a couple of images below that should provide a proper comparison between then and now as far as that goes. I do hope that they would revert to the tray style container on these, though an argument could be made to keep the cups/cylinders as an alternate small or medium size if it was at a lower price like $4. It just stinks since you're done with it as quickly as you'd be done with A&W's, and they too have just the one size. If something precludes you from heading a good distance elsewhere for food, say an intricate cosplay or being an on-call volunteer/staff member for the event you're attending, Centre Place Cafe and its offerings are surprisingly competitive for what it is. Yes, at the end of the day, it's still convention food with a markup, but the one thing they have going for them is that it's not to the point of total obscenity, and again, with the understanding that they're in a sea of nearby options that people can choose from. Read more

My office is in the RBC Centre. I always thoroughly enjoy the food. My favourite soup ever is their Sweet Potato Pumpkin Bisque! The Staff is always lovely! Really good quality of food for lunch! : ) So Yummy.

Pretty good lunch and a good price. Calamari and a tossed salad for a little over 10 dollars. With my 500 ml chocolate milk my lunch was around $13. Long line up but i didn't wait long for my order.

Pros: Good food, rotating daily lunch specials, friendly and courteous cashiers. Cons: Counter staff in the morning make it seem it's an inconvenience to them to place your order or they barely acknowledge you. Convention Center staff usually gets preferred service than walk ups.

What a disappointing place. I’ve worked downtown for over 15 years and the Winnipeg Convention Centre Place Café was always an excellent place to grab lunch (I’ll admit I was there 2-3 times per week). There was always a great selection of everyday menu items (salads, sandwiches, wraps, ... excellent house dressing) made to order by smiling staff. My office staff would look online every morning for the daily specials and everyone would discuss what they were going to get for lunch. Not anymore. The menu is so limited and the food has no taste. The plain, bland salads and sandwiches are incredibly expensive considering there is a Subway across the street where we can have our sandwiches made to order for almost half the price. The lunch entrees used to come with your choice of salad or fries – not anymore, and no substitutions are allowed. It’s quite incredible to see such a great, busy café transform into an overpriced, unappealing lunch spot that is no longer on anyone’s lunch radar. Read more