Camellia Tea & Coffee

Great place! I came in here for coffee this morning and the staff were friendly, atmosphere was quirky, music was at the perfect level, and most of all, the coffee and sweets were fresh and delicious. Couldn’t ask for more. Wish I could pick this place up and put it right near where I live, as I am just visiting :) P. S. Try the almond croissant!

Camellia used to be great, with better lighting, and friendlier/​more attentive staff who actually knew what they were doing. On my most recent visit, I ordered an americano with no room. I got a bitter mug of coffee that was filled 75% of the way, and the same thing happened to my friend. Not a good start.
I also ordered a pastry soon after. I was offered to have it toasted, and when I went to pick up, the plate was thrown on the table before me. to make things even worse the pastry was just barely above room temperature. Ugh.

–I’m extremely curious to hear what kind of experiences this establishment has encountered to feel the need to put up such an extensive list of rules and regulations for their customers
(Especially the ‘SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY IN THE BATHROOMS WILL BE REPORTED TO THE POLICE’)
there has be an amazing backstory explaining such a sign, otherwise I’ll feel like a criminal for doing anything that I do in there.
–Beautifully crafted cakes and sandwiches

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, you’re in the best mood. Whoa, wait what. I took another person’s drink?
Alright I’m sorry – but you suddenly see the barristas’ disgusted faces. Was it because they weren’t calling out the drinks loud enough or was it my fault for sitting close and paying extra attention?
When it was my drink. I didn’t even hear them say anything audible. Is Ceylon too difficult to pronounce?
This place used to be awesome. Until the employees got tired of working on such a nice Saturday out.
Aight no hard feelings. I’ll still come by because of the awesome décor and its proximity to the sky train. Okay good, now they are clear in the air.

Gorgey little café. Staff is very accommodating and the coffee and treats are great. Love the décor, little chandeliers hanging from the roof and art for sale on the walls.

Camellia Tea & Coffee
Date Visited: 03.25.2016
Will Return: Yes
Price: $$
Walked by and saw this little coffee shop and decided to go and try it out, This place was very clean and decorated with a lot paintings they played coffee shop type music, there was a lot of people with laptops but thats normal for a coffee shop.
Jasmine Iced Green Tea (³⁄₅)
Recommend: Maybe
I ordered this sweetened but it was very bitter when I drank it, Though it did taste very nice and refreshing, Maybe I will try it again next time.
Ham Croissant (⁴⁄₅)
Recommend: Yes
This was pretty good the croissant was very crispy and didn’t have a lot of oil there was tomato, cucumber, egg, lettuce, onion, cheese, and ham! The whole thing was delicious, but the raw onion… that part wasn’t so good.
I will come back and try the other menu items, But no more raw onions please!
Food: (⁴⁄₅)
Service: (⁴⁄₅)
Atmosphere: (⁴⁄₅)
Overall: (⁴⁄₅)

I’ve been coming here weekly to meet with a friend to learn Mandarin. Every single time I just get a simple Americano, so I can’t review the cakes and pastries, which look great. I can talk about the service and ambiance. The counter staff is polite and friendly. The café is clean and there is usually a spot open on a weekday evening. The ambiance is «quaint» and cute.
This place is really growing on me and I love coming here to hang out and chat!

This place is great, I come here every time I have a break between school and work.
The staff and super friendly, and the tea lattes are AMAZINGLY delicious. Over the past couple months of going there I’ve tried a lot of their drinks and food, and would say that the half sweet Cream Earl Grey Tea Latte and the Berry Forest Cake are the best things on the menu. So good! Their mushroom soup is delicious too.
I wouldn’t recommend their cheesecake or matcha frappé however. The cheesecake is hard and tasteless and the frappé has bits of matcha left in it after blending.
In all, cool place with great tea lattes and desserts, and a social atmosphere. Don’t go if you want peace and quiet, but definitely give this place a try with friends or to try their tea lattes.

So overpriced and different signs for what to do or not !! They expect their guests to leave in 2 hours. We are talking about a coffee shop by the way!

Been about 4 times and always thought pretty good. Today family day I went with my wife to get espresso and a tea. I have noticed so many signs of what you can and can’t do which is really off putting. I don’t want to be told how to act to spend money at your business. So I waited for my coffee and tea and I did notice them pour an espresso in a small paper cup which I was hoping wasn’t mine as they always kill the taste. So it sat there for a minute or two and the girl asked who’s it was and they said mine. I asked don’t you have espresso cups and they gave it in a normal coffee cup. Of course sitting few minutes was cold and no crema at all. I had one little slip and left it. I will say that I will never come back as that’s pretty crappy espresso skills. Tip. No espresso should be served in a paper cup unless asked and invest in espresso cups.

Our new favourite coffee shop, you can tell they have a passion for food, they make all their goodies from scratch you, is not the classic café bar with the outsource pastries. Everything taste delicious home made with excellent ingredients. Their coffee is awesome and they have a great selections of teas.

Love this café.
Excellent desserts and lovely beverages.
Great place to meet people as I find it quite quaint.
Low lit lighting kinda cozy, great for first dates ;) ;) ;)

I was looking for a nice café that opens til late in burnaby area. Camellia seemed to be one of the best options i have. The staff was really kind, the ambience was calm and classy, and their ice cream coffee float tasted great too. I didnt get to try but their freshly baked pastries smelled so good! Camellia has free parking lot in the back as well as one hour free street parking (i parked over 3 hours and there was no problem…). I will come back for sure!
–
Update: I come here quite often these days. Tried their affogato and a Berry Forest Cake. They both were very good. The cake was not the dense type of cheesecakes like NY one — it was a rather softer, fluffier type. I enjoyed it. The service is always good and the ambience is pretty good too!

This place is pretty good!
It’s quite spacious and the music they play is PERFECT volume, just loud enough to hear.
The desserts were really good. My friend and I split the caramel flan, the chocolate tart, and a slice of the raspberry cake. Loved everything, especially the raspberry cake… it was pretty bomb.
They have a two hour seating limit but I don’t think they really enforce it.
When we went yesterday it was pretty packed, but usually it’s a lil less busy.
If you need to study, you might be torn between Camellia and Ki (right next door).
Camellia is for you if you like better drinks and more dessert-​y stuff. Ki is more for bad bubble tea and cutesy asian vibe u no?

This café is extremely close to Royal Oak Skytrain Station and underneath a new apartment building, and is spacious and gentrified compared to the rest of the neighbourhood. And maybe because of this, they got the wrong type of people because there are signs in the entry area and washrooms prohibiting all manner of activities, such as camping out to study and bathing in the washrooms. Now that Ki Tea House Café (encouraging «study and socialize»)has ironically opened up right next to them, some of the student crowd has apparently moved over because on a Saturday afternoon there was fast enough turnaround that finding seating was never a problem for us.
Ambiance and seating is nice. Cakes and coffee (no drip coffee — huh?) were nicely priced, tea a bit steep even if you do get a big mug (my nothing-​special-​tasting «Sleeping Rabbit» hot tea was $ 3.25 before tax). Some cakes are apparently made in-​house, but we saw them refilling their Berry Forest Cakes and it looked like these were pre-​made off side or possibly bought from a third-​party. Still, they were decently delicious, and price for portion is better than Breka, even at the Fraser and 49^th location.
Counter selection of cakes and sandwiches is small as the small refrigerated counter also has to make room for savory grilled-​to-​order sandwiches, which were of a pretty decent size.
TIP: Ask about sandwich contents if you have allergies since it’s a bit tough to see in the counter when the sandwiches are whole. My friends got croissant sandwiches (below) which were pretty packed with veggies alongside the meat, and had a layer of egg at the bottom. One of my friends was allergic to eggs and they were super-​nice to her by re-​making a replacement sandwich from scratch, minus the egg.
Overall, price for portion plus ambiance (minus the off-​putting signs, I guess) plus polite and friendly service adds up to high marks here. Would score higher if they had more of a food/​cake selection.
TIP: Wait at the counter for your order. If you fail to hear them call out your order, you may miss it, so pay attention!
If you like, you can grab a copy of KLIP Magazine from the desk near the front door and flip through it to see if they have a 10% off coupon advertised. (Yeah, a bit cheesy, I know).
It’s order-​at-​the-​counter service so after ordering I let myself take some photos this time. Below you can see a croissant sandwich, Berry Forest Cake (left; $ 5.95) and supposedly made in-​house Strawberry Cake (right; $ 7.50), which had a light, refreshing taste plus fun crunchy chocolate beads.

This café is super close to the Royal Oak Skytrain station. This café is mediocre in size. There’s a few small circular tables that can seat about 3 persons, some square tables against the wall that seems to be popular for group meetups. A bit further in, there’s a lounge-​like area that gives off a more relaxed atmosphere.
Camellia seems to be a trending café on instagram for some of their pastries and I decided to go there to grab something small with a friend. When we went in, there weren’t many choices in their display. I initially wanted to try their millecrepe but there weren’t any. The cakes/​pastries also didn’t look fancy or delicate like most pastry/​dessert places. Don’t judge the book by its cover, right? Really, there weren’t many choices, and my friend wasn’t really turned on by their presentation so we just got the berry almond tarte, ice cream coffee float and iced green tea. They don’t offer table service so you just order at the counter and pickup when they call it out. The berry almond tarte was served immediately but the drinks took a little longer and they don’t bother call twice. We waited awhile for the green tea and thought they forgot about but realized it was sitting there for awhile.
The berry almond tarte was very bland. The only thing flavourful was the berries. I can’t really tell what kind of berries they were, though. If I really had to make a guess, I’d say blueberries or blackberries. The taste of almond (or frangipane) was so faint I wouldn’t have known it was almond if it wasn’t for the name. The crust tasted stale and hard. The ice cream coffee float was not up to par either. The only highlight was the one scoop of ice cream on top. But it wasn’t a scoop of to die for ice cream, just fairly decent scoop of vanilla ice cream. I’m not a coffee connoisseur so can’t really comment too much but to say the least, I could taste the cream apart from the coffee. Am I suppose to stir??? My friend said the green tea was ok. I didn’t bother to try. You can’t really mess up on green tea, can you?

Camellia Tea and Coffee is my favourite café in Burnaby so far. The environment is nice and comfortable. It is good for a small group of friends to get together, sit, enjoy the drinks and pastries and chit chat. I like their creamy earl grey tea latte, a chocolate hazelnut cake and a raspberry cheesecake. The creamy earl grey tea latte smells and tastes so good! I highly recommend this beverage! Both desserts did not disappoint me!
The café has a note on the wall. If the café is busy, we can only sit for two hours maximum and should let others sit. I agree and it makes sense. ;)
I would definitely visit this coffee shop in the near future!

I love this place. It’s my new/​former home away from home, when I need reliable WiFi, a cool drink (iced teas, matcha, espresso) and something amazing to nibble on (real French macarons, some amazingly creative cakes, and what I can only call inventive eats, like a matcha pancake stack). It’s changed a bit since I left Canada for six months and returned; the signs EVERYWHERE detract from the beautiful, chandelier-​bedazzled décor. What do the signs say? I don’t know, I’ve waited in line for 15 minutes on several occasions for a yum sandwich to get made-​to-​order, and I still didn’t have time to read it all. Basically: don’t stay more than two hours, don’t be doing illegal things in the bathroom, don’t be a douche.
This last part is the only reason why I’ve given it four stars instead of five — I’d hazard that the people who need to read this, don’t, and the people who do have way too much time on their hands.
Regardless, grab a cold drink and sit on the patio. Ah…

If you’re in this area, this is a really nice place to catch up with a friend, meet up for a date, or get some work done on your laptop! Looks like there’s a high school around ’cause clientele was primarily younger, Asian kids on their laptops. Not loud atmosphere though.
I got a London Fog Latte and is just strong, fragrant enough, and came in a large, tall, glass — at least 10−12oz. Price was ~$ 4, croissant was just under $ 2!
Friend said croissants were really nice, but I thought it was ok, not flaky enough for my liking. I’ve had better at Whole Foods!

I’m totally crushing on this place! I love that little coffee shops are popping up in everywhere in Burnaby.
I booked marked this place because its in «neighbourhood» and I love coffee!
Love the décor, different type of seatings, and cute tables. They serve Umbria coffee which is a bonus. Local paintings on the wall. Located near the Royal Oaks Station.
I came in on a rainy morning, the place was quiet only another couple enjoying their coffee. They had some fresh baked pastries and desserts all very tempting. I ordered a latte and a fresh cinnamon donut. I sat on the corner near a window while classical music playing in the background, I enjoyed my coffee and watched the world pass by hmmm… perfect!