Brews And Bites Coffee

I live nearby and was excited when this place opened its doors thinking it would be a great nearby alternative to Starbucks.
Unfortunately, despite several visits this place continues to disappoint.
The décor and ambience in the space are pleasant however it all goes down hill from there.
Pretty sure the staff don’t know how the use the espresso machine, I’ve ordered an Americano three times and every time I’ve had to send it back becuase it’s way too watery.
The food is expensive, uninspiring, and often doesn’t appear to be fresh.
The service is average at best.

This morning I went into Brews and Bites. It didn’t send a good message when one employee was behind the counter doing his best to quickly help customers and the other one had her back to us working on a Sudoku puzzle. Maybe this woman was on a break, but if that was the case she shouldn’t have been behind the counter. Sure didn’t message positive customer service. That pose of indifference may work at a club on Granville at midnight, but not at 7:45 AM in a coffee joint.
But two stars instead of one because at least the dude was eager and doing his best.
(…and come to think of it, it probably doesn’t work at a night club either.)

They charged me $ 2.50 for a croissant that is a week old.

Very comfortable seating– this is important. Today I shared two of their grilled wraps and a muffin. The food was great! Everything was fresh and tasted homemade. The zucchini carrot walnut muffin was soft but dense and not too sweet. The wraps were the perfect size and very flavourful. I would love to go here to read a book and drink coffee.

Came by here before my dinner date. I was stuck in rush hour traffic on the way out to 49^th Parallel or Kafka’s (couldn’t decide), and I remembered Brews and Bites and got off the bus and went in. Very sleek and spacious interior with cute décor. Other than myself there was one other patron on the other end of the café.
I had the white chocolate mocha which was under $ 5. Decent and tasted quite nice; not too sweet and not bitter like some white chocolate mochas I have had before (like starbucks). Quiet place to study, which worked out well for me that day. Don’t know how long they have been open for, and I assume that the only reason why it was so quiet was because it was 6PM on a Friday night. They are open later than most coffee shops on Mt. Pleasant/​Gastown, so I hope that they get more patrons soon!

Brews?! Oh Coffee Brewing…
The interior of Brews And Bites Coffee is spacious and modern. Seems like a great coffee shop to chill with your friends and have some work done.
I think the problem is this café is just so unmemorable. The cappuccino was ok. The baked good was ok. The barista was ok.
A little out of the way from the train station.
I would walk a mile uphill for some beers but I doubt I would walk just to have coffee here.

Came here to study and am happy to say that it’s a very nice & memorable experience. (Thanks to the great service!)
I ordered a Turkish coffee, which the barista said supposedly stronger than espresso.
It has a very unique smell – very savoury. It smells & tastes like Indonesian Rawon. Same spice, maybe? Compare to espresso, it is rather light with a bitter aftertaste (which I thoroughly enjoy).
I really dislike acidic /​sour coffee, so Turkish coffee fits my tastebud well.
The barista gave me a complimentary Hazelnut Turkish coffee, which smells sweeter. It tastes similar with the Turkish coffee albeit being sweeter, creamier & a little nuttier.
If you like sweet lattes, this might be a better choice than the original Turkish coffee.
My friends order iced caramel & americano.
The iced caramel is very sweet (for me, my friend really love it, though!) it’s also creamy with little hints of coffee.
The americano is very nice. The barista will ask you if you want any creamer or sugar. The americano is (again) not sour, which is great news for me!
When it almost closing time, the barista gave us free Danish and muffin! (If you’re reading this, thanks a lot!)
The Danish is really, really yummy! It’s not crunchy, but the cream cheese & jam is a great combination! :)
The muffin tastes a little like poundcake. It is quite sweet.
Both are served warm.

The name is a bit deceiving. ‘Brews’ refers to brewed coffee, not the beer type. The sandwiches are quite expensive and they are quite small –not the best value. The sandwich itself wasn’t bad but the price needs to be lowered and/​or the size increased. I felt the guy at the counter tried to upsell me to a combo when I clearly told him I just wanted a sandwich. I ordered the sandwich and he asked what drink I wanted for my combo (menu prices are for the sandwiches only, didn’t see anything for combos). Not sure if the drink was included I was gonna say what drink I’d like, then I said I just want what’s on the menu for whatever comes with the posted price. Seemed if I’d ask for the drink he’d have charged me for more when all I wanted was a sandwich. I likely won’t be back.

I will definitely give this place another try because they are very new and I’m sure things will improve. I live right next door so was excited that this great modern looking Café opened up. Went over on a Saturday morning at 10 am, they had run out of eggs for all the breakfast items (again, sure it’s just a teething issue which will be sorted). I would definitely recommend putting fresh food in the cabinet rather than display items, looks much more appealing. Maybe some extra training for the weekend staff. I will definitely be back to try again once the teething issues are sorted.

My best friend and I would walk by this place as it was being built as it is not too far from the train station. Very clean and sleek interior, very hipster décor. There is a lot of room inside but a few seats, however, we were informed that this would change shortly.
My best friend and I came here before heading to the Bolt Bus for Morrissey.
I ordered a London Fog with almond milk and sugar free vanilla which was made awesome. The cost was under $ 4 which was appreciated.
They do make smoothies with simple ingredients which is refreshing for a modest $ 5.20.
They barista was really friendly.

Nice space when you walk in, it’s clean and could have a decent atmosphere by adding some music or friendly staff. Went in around 9:00am and it was dead as a door knob. No signs outside or anything enticing to wanna go in. Seems pricey for what you get. I ordered a «Blueberry» muffin which is actually a cranberry/​orange muffin with one lonely blueberry on top.
Sadly, would not go back even though I like supporting smaller businesses instead of McD’s or Tim Hortons or Starbycks, which are all on the same block or two.

The space is clean and quiet.
Service was a tad slow even though we were the only customers in the store.
We tried their latte. What irked me was that our barista was using his fingers to spread the ground espresso instead of using a tool as I often see at other coffee shops.
The drink itself tasted fine, but it still bothered me.
Driving tips:
It’s located on Main Street, but it’s only accessible when you’re going southbound.
So if you’re going northbound you either need to turn couple blocks early at 1^st Avenue or drive past it and do a giant loop at Terminal Avenue.
Parking is very limited too — I had to circle around the block couple times.

The space is beautiful, but the food was awful.
Coffee is decent.