Pallet Coffee Roasters – E. Vancouver

We finally got around to visiting the 3rd location of Pallet near the East Hastings and Victoria neighborhood. We had great experiences not too long ago at the Broadway and Kingsway locations

This location is on a side street north of Hastings in a semi industrial/residential area. You won’t miss it as the Pallet building stands out quite obviously.

There is plenty of parking on Hastings. It may be a bit of a challenge finding in the side streets near Pallet just because there are so many other shops and factories nearby it seems.

This location is multi leveled.  There are extra seating on the 2nd floor, but not too much.  Then there is the basement where I think the washrooms are located.  Here is a view of the main coffee bar from the 2nd floor seating area.

You can also see the open kitchen behind big windows near he back of the shop.

Be forewarned that the 2nd floor is really really stuffy.  There was hardly any air circulation up there.

I ordered a regularly coffee and it was consistent with the other locations. There was nothing special looking on my brewed coffee so I skipped the picture.  However, this time I ordered a kid’s hot chocolate for my special guest. 

We were so happy that they put so much effort in making latte art on the kids drink.  I don’t think Starbucks bothers doing this at all.

The baristas here were very friendly.  This location feels a bit smaller than the other 2 since there was no long wooden communal table here.  Aside from the air circulation issues on the 2nd floor, the drinks seemed consistent with the other locations.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Pallet Coffee Roasters–Kitsilano Vancouver

We wandered into Pallet for a morning coffee break while in the neighborhood.  This is a very high end looking coffee shop with nicely decorated wooden tables. 

It was quite busy on this Friday morning but we managed to find some seats in the large natural wood table.  The shop is very bright with big windows letting in natural light.  It is also very spacious.  They’ve got an indoor living wall growing too.

 

The baristas here are pros when it comes down to latte art.  We ordered a mocha:

Very detailed oriented art with even a heart shape floating on the left side.  They roast their own beans and with this mocha, it had a great balance, not too bitter.

We also ordered a brewed coffee.

The brewed coffee had the perfect taste that I like. Strong, but not bitter and with just the right amount of acidity.

They only have one size for most of their drinks.  They are equivalent to a medium size if compared to other shops.

We also ordered a salted chocolate cookie. 

The cookie was still hot like it just came out of the oven.  It was superb, not overly sweet.  It was large enough for the two of us to share.

After our cookie we wanted to get some water at their really neat looking self serve water station:

Surfing their website we learned there are actually 2 other stores in Vancouver.  We were quite satisfied with our visit and look forward to returning to this location as well as visiting their other outlets in East Vancouver.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.

Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie

Chez Christophe is located in the Burnaby Hastings area just east of Willingdon.  It’s a cozy little neighborhood with newer condos built in the surrounding area. 

They got a small outdoor seating area, however the morning sun was just too bright this morning.  Too bad they didn’t have table umbrellas up for the tables.  Luckily they had plenty of comfortable seating indoors including a few at the counter if you want to chat with the baristas.

We got here on a weekend morning just when it opened.  Just when you walk in you will smell the aroma of  freshly baked goods.This place serves some high end looking French style pastries including different croissants macaroons, beverages, and of course, chocolates!

Pastry Selection:

Chocolate Selection:

Maybe it was still too early but there wasn’t a big selection of macaroons so no pictures unfortunately.

We ordered a small latte.  The barista as you can see is quite an expert with the latte art.

The drink itself was not strong enough for my liking though.  It didn’t have enough acidity for me.  I still enjoy the ones served at Caffe Artigiano.

This is their basil berry tea.  It’s quite a fresh looking iced tea. It’s unsweetened and really does have many pieces of basil inside.

We also ordered this apple pastry.  It is like a cross between an apple strudel and a croissant.

It was very crispy on the outside, just like the the croissants you get in Paris.  The apple filling inside was also very tasty and was not overly sweet.

The service here was very good and the prices were very reasonable.  Too bad it was too early in the morning to try more of the other good looking sweets and pastries.  Definitely we will be interested to come back at a later date to try more.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Coffee Versante–Richmond

Coffee Versante is located on Lansdowne Road, across the street just south of Lansdowne mall. It’s on the floor retail level of a relatively new condo. It’s name stems from the beauty spa operated just next door of this coffee shop.

This was going to be another Groupon deal, hence the visit.

We parked at the mall and walked over before realizing that there are free parking stalls for this coffee shop’s customers.  Anyway, the coffee shop was relatively quiet with one barista on duty.

The coffee shop is very neat and tidy with a unique setting.  There were a couple of tables occupied at the floor level.  In addition, you can go upstairs where you can find a few more tables.

It’s not a whole lot of tables, but it sure is a long table where you can hold a casual business meeting with your team if you wanted.

Upstairs was nice and bright from the big windows.

The Groupon deal was any 2 drinks with a fruit waffle to be shared.  We ordered a regular latte for the first drink.

The latte had some nice latte art. Flavor wise, it was too weak.  It was more on the milky side when compared to the one I like at Cafe Artigiano, or the one that I make at home myself.

For our second drink, we got the matcha latte.

Unfortunately, the matcha latte was lacking in several departments. First, it did not have any matcha taste at all. Second, it tasted like a milky powder mixture like the ones you see being used for mixing bubble tea.  We were not sure if they steamed real milk to be used for this drink.  It was likely a power and water mixture steamed into a latte drink.  Color wise, it looked more towards a very pale green to  almost a yellow shade.

The star of the show however, was the fruit waffle.

The barista really took his time to prepare this for us.  It was worth the wait as you can see how pretty it looks. The fruits used were very fresh and washed clean.  It had a gentle sprinkle of icing on top, just enough that it did not ruin the fruity taste.

The coffee shop had a nice cozy design to it and was quiet enough to chat.  Unfortunately, the drinks we tried were not up to par and the seating would be rather limited despite having 2 levels of seating.  If they replaced the large conference table with smaller tables, then it would make things more flexible if things got busy. 

It’s hard to tell if this location is good enough to draw enough street customers anyway.  Perhaps they are catering to the customer coming from their spa operation next door.

Hopefully, when we get a chance to visit again, there will be improvements in the drink preparations.

SFDD gives 2.5 out of 5 Delights.

Caffe Artigiano - Downtown Vancouver

There are a few different locations of Caffe Artigiano downtown.  We visited the one across from the Vancouver Art Gallery.  We picked up some macaroons next door at Faubourg before ordering drinks here at Artigiano.

We sat in the patio which extends across between the 2 shops.  The patio is rather spacious and it was a nice day so it was preferred than indoors at Artigiano.  The coffee shop was rather dark and stuffy so it was not comfortable to be sitting inside.  It was not as comfortable as the Main street location.

We ordered a latte:

It was done with style with the usual nice latte art floating on top.  It has a strong bold flavour that was not overtaken by the steamed milk.

We also ordered an ice mocha:

It had deep chocolate flavour without being too sweet so it had a good balance.  Most importantly, unlike Starbucks, they don’t fill the cup with 3/4 ice.

The drinks were good but if not for the patio, we would probably not visit this location if we had to sit indoors in the stuffy dark shop.

SFDD Gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights

 

Waves Coffee - Richmond No 3 Rd

This is the 2nd Richmond location we visited for a coffee break.  If it were not for a 2-1 coupon, we would likely not be coming here.  This location is located in the same complex as London Drugs (London Plaza) just across the street from Richmond Center Mall.

The coupon we had was for a Waves Size Mocha as you see here.

We got there on a Friday afternoon and there was only one clerk on duty taking orders and also making the drinks so she was a bit overworked.  Well, not much to this mocha. It looks ugly and not at the same level as 49th Parallel or Cafe Artigiano or JJ Bean.  There was hardly any espresso flavour to the drink, just mostly sweet chocolate flavour which makes us think there is a problem with their proportioning of the ingredients.  Could have been a bit hotter too.

Well, it was 2- 1 after all.  Definitely would not pay their full price $4.xx.

Parking at this location will be in the covered mall parkade. It is not very pleasant when the mall is busy since there are a couple of Chinese restaurants above.  During Dim Sum time you will have to suffer some road rage finding a spot in the crowded lot.

A disappointing drink and a disappointing attempt at latte art, why bother even trying?

SFDD gives 2 out of 5 Delights.

JJ Bean - Main Street

After dropping off my car at one of the Kingsway dealerships for service, I took a stroll to Main street and popped into JJ Bean to hang out while I waited for my car.  It was my first time visiting this busy coffee shop. 

There was only a couple of people ahead of me in line, however the coffee shop was packed with people on a Friday late morning.  What I disliked right away was the lack of a ‘big’ drink menu.  Usually you would see one behind the counter that you can look at while you are waiting in line right?  Not here.  You have to approach the cashier first, then the menu is printed on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper on 10 sized font next to the cash register.

Anyway, I ordered a latte.  The latte was done really nicely with the latte art.  I gave some kudos to the barista for taking the time to do that. 

Again, shops like this really put Starbucks to shame.  When was the last time you had a nice tasting drink at Starbucks with nice latte art?

The latte had a rich espresso taste to it despite being diluted by the milk.  If you wanted deeper flavour, you can go for a cappuccino.

JJ Bean is on a busy part of Main street so the parking won’t be pretty.  As mentioned it is rather busy and not as comfy as the seating at Aritgianos.  I hope to see a bigger menu next time.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.

Waves Coffee - Steveston

We were out for a stroll at Steveston on the Friday before the labour day long weekend and took an overdue coffee break at Waves on Bayview in beautiful Steveston Village.  They have a special now where a latte can be had for $2.50 so we both gave it a try.

This is what their latte looks like.  Not much to it, we were not even sure if that is considered latte art. 

We watched the barista prepare the latte.  They added some cold milk into the jug that already had some old steamed milk, and then just reteamed.  I don’t think they are supposed to do that, even Starbucks uses fresh milk for all their drinks.  Definitely a minus.  Perhaps they were being cheap since it was a $2.50 special.

The latte was not that spectacular but for $2.50, oh well.

We also ordered a raspberry scone.  The scone was quite fluffy and was not too sweet.

The best part of the visit was the scone, not their coffee.

Definitely won’t be getting the latte at full price.  Won’t the milk burn if you re-steam it?

SFDD gives 2.5 out of 5 Delights.

Caffe Artigiano - Main Street Vancouver

There are several locations noticeably popping up over the lower mainland for Caffe Artigiano.  The newer one seems to be here on Main and King Edward neighbourhood.

This is a very spacious location.  We’ve been here twice on the weekend during busy hours and had no trouble finding a table to chat.  The baristas look a lot more professional than the ones at Starbucks and the drinks you see below will prove this correct.

This is a mocha.  It was very strong with espresso flavour and was not sweet.  It was a lot better than Starbucks mocha because Starbucks makes it very sweet.   It had a bit of coffee art on the top. The milk was very smooth with the right temperature.

I noticed the menu had 2 cappuccino choices.  One was traditional cappuccino while the other one was Artigiano’s cappuccino.  Certainly I wanted to try the one with the store name backing it up. 

It had a deep intense flavour without being too bitter.  Temperature and milk was also done right on target.  The art on this was a bit nicer than the one above in the mocha.

We decided to share a blueberry scone.  It had lots of blueberries however the pastry portion did not taste that great. It had a taste of uncooked oil surrounding the scone.  It was not great as it was way too dense. 

The drinks were great but thumbs down on the pastry.  We’ll still come back though for their beverages.  This part of Main street is mostly paid street parking.  You’d have to circle into the residential areas to find a free parking spot but keep your eyes on the street signs because the spots may be restricted to residents only.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 4 Delights.