Starbucks

I have been here a few times, it was always crowded and one employee was super unfriendly or had a bad day with an attitude (Ian I think, the bald guy). Such a shame, won’t come back.

Starbucks is my happy little place despite being extremely commercialized, mechanized and impersonal.
As much as I wish to say that I only frequent hip, trendy, small local cafes, I must say that I love Starbucks. Regardless of which country I am in– Taiwan, Canada, the States, I can always find respite underneath the vacant stare of the green Siren.
So yes, this is a confession. Like countless other people, I have been seduced by the coax of overpriced coffee, sitting at one of those tiny brown tables with an Apple laptop, sipping on bland brewed coffee, measuring my life away in coffee spoons.
Now, onto this actual branch.
It’s located right across Fairmont Royal York and Union Station on University and Front. It seats around 40 people, and has an open patio. It is one of the larger Starbucks branches I have seen in the city. I like this Starbucks because of the crowd it attracts. I would say most people are tourists, waiting to get onto sightseeing buses to tour the city.
There is one long table that is perfect for work. Staff is friendly. Thumbs up for the location, crowd and convenience.

Droped in cause i needed a set! Many people working, Clean and nice.
NOTE outside setting you can only use if you are a customer. The tables were very dirty — not wiped off!
Serves were nice and ok! I found the internewt a bit slow at the time i was in the store!
Would return again!

It’s a Starbucks. I loitered here for an hour with a cup of their coffee. No one kicked us out. It was good.

I always pop in here between the Porter shuttle and Union Station. It’s a small Starbucks, and sometimes is crowded, but it has a nice patio space when the weather is good. It’s far enough off the street that you don’t feel as if all the passerbyers are in your face.
The staff her are really awesome. The last time I was in they were so friendly and funny that I had a bellyful of laughs all the way from the cash to the barrista bar. I good dependable Starbucks location in my books.

Starbucks gets the interior right. Patio is north facing so not a lot of sun, this can be good or bad. You decide.

I stop here for a coffee whenever I have to kill time waiting for a Porter Airlines shuttle to the Island Airport. It’s standard Starbucks fare, which makes it a decent-​enough place to hang out.
Free wifi, nice little patio. Look out for the always-​sticky-​dirty wooden tables near the windows, though.
Update: Within minutes of posting this, an employee wiped down the table beside me. Well played, universe.

Closest Starbucks to the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre, this location on Front Street (by the intersection with University) offers outdoor seating during summer months. Inside, there is a sizeable dining area that comes in handy during the winter. Free Wi-​Fi and friendly baristas add points to this location. Same typical fare as other Starbucks, this location offers Canadian specialities such as butter tarts, caramel pretzel sticks, and Nanaimo Bars at special times throughout the year.

In which I ponder the approach to a review of a single location of a chain
Starbucks… At once I loath it for what it has done to convince the general populace that «gourmet» coffee must taste overroasted and otherwise damaged, I must also admit that it provides a necessary public service that might otherwise be unavailable– a predictably warm, semi-​comfortable, passably clean environment in which to recharge your laptop and get free wifi.
Well, it’s also an acceptable place (I’m running out of adjectives that mean «mediocre») to meet up with some friends or kill some time, get out of the rain/​snow/​sleet if you are not a postal worker, etc.
Wait– what am I doing, everyone already knows what Starbucks is, I mean my iPhone even autocorrects me when I don’t capitalize the «s». How is that for ubiquity? It doesn’t even capitalize the «m» in mom (don’t tell my mother).
So basically the above is a semi-​rant against the «man» ruining something that I think is «cool» and «counter-​culture». I feel like a hipster. No wonder everyone hates hipsters.
Anyways, this location is nice and spacious, wasn’t super crowded when I went (around 6 pm on a weekday), some comfy looking couches that I didn’t sit in because I think it’s weird to sit directly beside a stranger in matching couches.
They knew what a ristretto is, but only because there is a button on the machine that says «ristretto».
And so, before I launch into my tired old rant against buying «gourmet» «espresso» from a barista whose entire training consists of locating the «start» button on a super-​automatic espresso maker, I will end this review.
PS I will still come here 2 more times just so that I can become its «Duke» on my never-​ending quest to dethrone the current «Queen» of Toronto.

Busy location. Wonderful interior. Manager was friendly and funny.