Aroma espresso bar

Since this location has opened we’ve had what can only be described as an up and down experience. At first this was an exciting alternative to the several Second Cups and Starbucks in the area. Despite the name Aroma Espresso, the star attraction is definitely not the espresso drinks but instead their selection of food. The espresso drinks are inconsistent at the best of times and downright awful at the worst of times. Considering the wonderful experience I’ve had with local brands of a similar size in Vancouver such as Caffe Artigiano, Waves and Blenz it’s sad to see a Toronto company can not compete in terms of drink quality.
The star for aroma is the food. Their croissants and pastries are fantastic, assuming they have baked them. Do not expect to show up to this location at the time they have posted on the door as open and expect to be able to get a pastry. No you have to wait at least a half hour to 45 minutes for the full selection to be available. And if you want to go late at night around say 730 or 8 to get a sandwich, there is a possibility they will have randomly closed their kitchen.
To make matters worse they as of this weekend they are not opening until 9am which for those paying attention means that they are not likely to have the full selection of pastries and food available until 930 or 945. A coffee shop that has no pastries until 930 in the morning? Pathetic.
Bringing up that west coast comparison again, Caffe Artigiano, the company that realistically spearheaded latte art in this country but also has a wide selection of food, has 7 of their 8 Vancouver locations open before 8 on weekends.

This is a new aroma café near north york centre station. It has a lot of windows, which makes the entire store bright and sunny. The coffee is just as good as all the other aroma locations. The only downside is that when the patio is closed (rain/​snow), the store gets packed and it is difficult to find a seat. Otherwise, this is a great place to study or meet with friends.

New location, nice patio, friendly greeting/​cash out, but my experience was somewhat strange.
I ordered an Iced Americano, requested less ice, and it arrived at least 1.5″ from the top of the cup. When the barista asked if I wanted «more water», I said yes, and she literally turned on the tap and shamelessly added more water.
I found that very odd. Shouldn’t your servings be more or less consistent? Why are you adding more water… from the tap into my cold drink? Don’t you have a filtered pitcher or shouldn’t it be topped up with more espresso?
This has never happened to me before, so it I left with a less than good impression of this location.

Really nice place, exactly what you expect from aroma; good coffee, and specially good food. They have a nice patio which is always crowded. Inside sitting area is a little small. But overall really nice place for coffee or midday snack

This Aroma offers the standard fare, but it’s the outstanding service and clean restaurant that garner it 5 stars. I work in the area and this Aroma is a welcome relief from the standard hamburgers and noodles that are offered for lunch. Every time I go in, the service is friendly, fast and helpful. From day one, I switched my morning coffee and lunchtime locale to this Aroma. Also, the patio is beautiful and comfortable.

yAs super super love this location. Just grab some coffee and you will feel like heaven in a summer day. Nice and fast service in the place!

Believe it or not, this location is the first time I’ve ever stepped inside one of these aroma espresso bars. I can’t believe I’ve avoided it for so long, given how many of them there are around the city, but for some reason I’ve just never been compelled to give them a try. Until now, quite obviously.
I think I was drawn by the shiny new location. Something like the visual equivalent of new car smell, I just can’t drag myself away from unscuffed floor tiling. Also, I wanted wifi and a plug.
I got both things. There’s a decent amount of seating both inside and outside, and I saw that the patio was actually almost full, with happy lunchers taking advantage of the summer sun. I chose inside for the air conditioning and power outlet, which was not bad either. There are normal tables and chairs, high tables with bar-​stool height chairs, and even low tables with squishy comfy seating. Goldilocks would find her ideal seating in here.
I’m assuming the food and beverages are quite consistent across all aroma espresso bars, but in case you are out of the loop like me, the food looked quite good, and the smallest size for a coffee is medium, not small. There were also little samples of what I think was cornbread, and that was actually quite delicious.
Overall, definitely fulfills the triple threat of a) ladies to lunch spot, b) study spot, and c) hanging out with friends for chats and sips spot.

Recently I’ve become obsessed with patios. I love the fact that they have a lot of tables outside. I tried the house blend and it is comparable to other branded coffee shops. Reliable wifi, and great and outstanding customer service. I also think the little complementary chocolate deserves a star.