Fresca Cafe and Gelato

My local for a latte and salad. I do like this little café and especially in the spring and fall when I can sit outside.

I went there, and had a cheese crêpe, a mixed berry crêpe, and a tiramisu.
The food was overall, good, but expensive. The cheese crêpe was excellent. The mixed berry crêpe had a good berry sauce, but that’s pretty much it. Barely any chocolate or whipped cream, which the description said it would have. As for the tiramisu, it was hugely overpriced ($ 10 for a slice). It almost felt like the pricing was a mistake. And it didn’t taste like tiramisu at all. It was more like a tiramisu cheesecake. The portions were small too.
The service was poor too. The waitress forgot the soup I ordered, and never came to give us the check for 20 minutes after we were done. Had to go up near the entrance and ask for the check.
The only thing redeeming about this place is the ambience. The fake fireplace looks pretty, and it’s in an upscale location.

I frequent this neighborhood café and enjoy the high quality drinks for mid day consumption while working. My go to’s are the smoothies, chai tea latte and chai frappé. The layout is nice with ample seating inside and outside under a covered area. The bathrooms are very clean. The atmosphere is good and has free wi fi and awesome people watching. I have been coming here regularly for over 6 months and the service needs to be improved. There is a sign as you walk in that asks you to wait to be seated. This, to me, implies that the café wants to know who arrives so that they can serve you and recommend menu items. I consistently have to go in to order, ask for my bill, and sometimes even bus the table or bring my own drinks AFTER I have been seated with a menu. Take care of this and I know more people will come and order more great food & drinks.
And, I’m back today at usual time. I clarified service in case I misunderstood but they claim they do table service inside and outside. I waited 10+ minutes and watched server visit table two away from me AFTER I checked in with the barista inside. They are all nice and the seating location is great!
I gave my verbal feedback– hope they use it!

Food is mediocre at best and the service is terrible. We’ve been here three times to try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it gets worse every time.

I’ve been here several times. Food and drinks are great, but it always lacked great service. In the past, I never once had anyone smile or seem happy. To me, that’s like 50% of my experience when I dine and/​or drink out. Tonight was completely different. And it couldn’t have been appropriately timed, since I was meeting a very good friend of mine who I had seen in nearly a year. Amelia was so amazing, from giving us time to order, to making recommendations, to offering many smiles, and making us laugh a lot. Overall, it was a perfect evening, all thanks to her amazing service. May the Greek God’s shower her with fresh mountain water and continue to drift her safely to Fresca café. Did I mention the latte chai? OMFG. Try that ish now … BOY!!!

Chicken and Spinach Alfredo Crêpe. 4.5 stars. Delicious. Generously sized and includes a side salad.
Apple and Walnut Salad with grilled chicken and an orange-​honey vinaigrette. 3 stars. The grilled chicken looked fairly tasty but it was tough and dry. The mixed greens were fresh and it was a generous serving. It included dried cranberries, walnuts and blue cheese crumbles. The orange-​honey vinaigrette was sweet and reminded me of orange sweet rolls. Not a fan.
Service. 5 stars. Several people in our party of 7 ordered waffles and our server let us know up front that it would probably take at least 15 minutes with as many waffle orders as we had. I appreciated him letting us know and I actually timed it. All of our orders were out in 22 minutes which seemed very reasonable for a party of 7. Our server kept our water glasses full and cleared plates as we finished.
Sanitation rating. 98.5%. Reasonably close to perfect. 4.95 stars.
Ambiance. 4.75 stars. Indoor and outdoor seating. Faux fireplace indoors, nice artwork with a European flair, black wicker patio furniture with bright red umbrellas, gelato counter with 16 flavors, white ceramic serving dishes, fairly decent plate presentation.
When we finished our meals, we had a nice surprise from Shaun Jay. He entertained our group with several magic tricks. It was a fabulous way to end our meal. You can find him at Fresca Café every other Sunday and he also has his own Unilocal page:
. Definitely a fun little show.

My family and I visited this restaurant at least 1 – 2 times a month for almost a year on the weekend. Today we went and I was told by the manager that he did not like my tone when I complained that we had waited over 10 minutes and had asked two times for someone to take our drink order. I told him we did not have to spend our money with them and left. We will not go back. I would rather wait 30 minutes at Toast than eat here again.

I sat down and 20 minutes in, I was neither acknowledged nor served. 5 tables came in after me and we’re all served. Take your business to Toast Café, get served and your food under ten minutes.

When I worked nearby I came here almost every single day. Great service, wonderful coffee!

I want to give 4-​stars, but this café doesn’t have that warm and inviting feel that I prefer. It feels a little bit like a cantine. Not too bad though, I would come again, because I really like Waverly place nearby, it’s my favorite park in the area. They have a lot of different crepes here, both savory and sweet. I had the three cheese crepes for 9.95 which was served with a salad on the side.
My wife had the quiche Florentine, tasted fresh and home made with a good crust on it. Good size portion for 7.95. It was served with fruit on the side (really, it was like one strawberry cut in half), a bit odd at first to have fruit with quiche, but cleans the teeth I suppose (if you know what quiche Florentine is, you know it’s packed with spinach waiting to get stuck between your teeth). Anyway, wish they had cheese and onion quiche on the menu, that is the favorite.
We had coffee with our meals, no free refill which surprised me. Fresca has a high cleanliness rating, but it didn’t come across as super clean to me. Little bit dirty on the tables, floors and chairs, nothing major though. Service was friendly, just very very slow, and it didn’t look that busy. Will probably come back at some time because they have a lot of tasty snack options for a light meal on the menu, and the location is good.

Do not live here, so first time. Horrible service, dirty tables. The only one that seemed to be conscious of doing a good job was the runner. We came here on Sunday at 10:00a.m. where they were not very busy.
I usually only write a review if it’s a positive but I felt the need to write one here. We all work very hard for our money and when you go out and receive horrible service, cold food, it’s a shame and a big waste of money.
I felt that the staff were very young. They were nice but it seemed like they did’t have a flow or had much experience doing what they we were doing.
Cold Lattes were delivered to our tables, and the floors were filthy. Being it was my first experience here, it was so bad that I won’t be back.

It is really nice to go somewhere nice and just study. The place is really clean and nice to sit and do homework. I say that the food is alright and the drinks is cheap

I’ve only been here twice. the last time was maybe 2 yrs ago. First visit, amaretto latte and a nutella, banana crêpe. The crêpe ok, I’ve had better. The latte was good but not hot at all… I drank it, w/​o complaining about the temp. Fast forward 2 years later, amaretto latte «extra hot» and a bluberry cheese pastry/​croissant. Almost 20 minutes later, I receive my items. I’m preoccupied with my phone and on a time constraint, so after 5 sips and amused by the latte art, that I realize that my latte is not extra hot, not even hot! I also notice around me that a lot of people were seated with no drinks or food in front of them. I noticed a couple seated outdoors waiting for quite a while for their food and upon receiving it, the waiter place the food on their tables, then picked the items up (after 5 minutes of realizing oops wrong order) and then proceeded with taking that same food to the rightful patrons. That’s a no​.no. So before I had to dash out of there, I let the cashier know that latte was not hot and what’s the deal? He apologized and insisted that my latte will sure to be hot on the next visit. Good grief, the barista is so slowwwe, talkative, and bops to much to the music playing in his head.

I love this place. It’s small and quiet most of the time. They have wonderful service for the most part and the food has been consistently great. I have only had two minor bad experiences where I requested that they remake my food; which they did and I loved it.
I love the coffee when you order it in a medium cup. I often order it with whipped cream and they often forget it; however they correct it that that problem. I do love the and the many flavors. I also like the fact that they will change the crepes for me to add different things, they are the best!
The gelato is homemade and tastes velvety on the warm waffles. My favorite is coconut; however they have different flavors often and all are worth a try.
This is my favorite date spot!

I want to love this place. I want to come here all the time. But at 5 tries, I think I am giving up. The patio and location is awesome. And the menu IN THEORY is awesome. It’s just that every time I go, I am so disappointed by the coffee beverages, the food is good but really expensive for what you get, and it is always understaffed. The kids that work there try really hard but they are just that… Kids. I have never seen more than two people working and that means that both servers are double tasking at the cash register and as baristas. They work really hard but it’s hard to give service when you are spread that thin. With these prices, you expect great service.
I haven’t had the gelato but people I have dined with love it and the waffles are really great.

I used to love this place; I’ve been a client since they opened, so this is a bitter thing to do, leave a crappy review.
Since the owners took over, the food has remained relatively the same, pretty decent. But the coffee, which was spectacular, has gone from sugar to $#!£.
Lord knows I’ve given them plenty of opportunities to get the hang of it, but whatever the 2 – 3 girls that were baristas before had, these people do not have.
It’s burnt tasting almost without fail. The other option is the taste of hot milk with a dash of coffee flavor.
If it’s coffee you want, and you have the misfortune of being in Cary at that moment, the only other option is Crema. This option is no longer.

One of the better gelato places I’ve been to in the area. They actually give you a decent portion of gelato for 4 bucks and there are a lot of flavors. Try going earlier in the day though, because I went with my parents at around 9 or so at night and they were out of quite a few flavors. I had the limoncello and watermelon sorbettos and they were refreshing and delicious without being too heavy. The limoncello is definitely on the tart side though, so if you’re into more creamy, sweet flavors — opt for the coconut or hazelnut or tiramisu, all very nice flavors. There’s a bit of a line if it gets busy, but the area outside is SUPER nice so it’s great to stop here on a relaxing evening.

Went here for the first time with a friend after dinner because we wanted something sweet. Little did we know the crepes would be massive!!! They are delicious though but be warned that they are a lot bigger than you would think. The plate was about four times the size of my hand. I got the Nutella crêpe with strawberry & banana slices along with a scoop of biscotti gelato.

Beautiful (seating area) both inside and out!
Their gelatos are really creamy and they have plenty of drink options available!
Unique flavors too! Raspberry flavored italian soda? Biscotti flavored gelato?
Honestly, the italian soda wasn’t all that great for my personal taste but the biscotti gelato tasted like a super milky/​creamy version of a cookie!
Plenty of seats available + a very calm atmosphere~
They have food/​pastry options too.
I think it’s a solid place to chit chat with people~
However, when it’s slow, it can get awkwardly quiet!

While the name and inside suggest this is just a gelato and coffee place, they actually have full service and food, including breakfast and dinner. Their dinner food was delicious and well-​priced. We got the bruschetta and salads. The salads are HUGE — I’d recommend getting only a side salad which the waitress told us was big enough for 1 person. Even though we were full, we couldn’t skip out on gelato. The peanut butter gelato was to die for! Sticking with the theme of huge portions, my friend and I got a small to split and it came with 4 scoops!
Great location in Cary — I’d like to go back when they are having a concert in the shopping center. Either come hungry or split the food because they bring alot. The waitress was very nice and gave good advice on the food options. Will definitely be back!