Today I met up with Monkey Joyce at yet another cafe, where she could not eat anything. I have to stop inviting her to places that serve dairy, given her lactose-intolerance.
Located on the section of Robson Street that is currently seeing a lot of one lane reducing construction, and less traffic as a result.
This is the cafe’s new second location. They offer your classic hot and cold coffee options, tea, pastry and desserts.
They also have a few savoury options like sandwiches and wraps, which don’t give you too much variety with meat, cheese, and greens. In truth nothing different or all that exciting to set them apart. The desserts were more appealing. Sliced and individual cakes, tarts, and a brownie. They even had gluten-free options.
I would stick to their croissants, a showcase of shapes and options. I grabbed the chocolate dipped and pistachio cream stuffed wheel and a chocolate croissant shaped like a bow. I appreciated the pageantry of both, their flakiness and how stuffed full of cream they were.
Between the two I liked the bow more, extra crispy with its honey glazed exterior. I was impressed by the end to end chocolate cream centre, at a 2:1 ratio. It had the texture of a custard and the flavour of a malted chocolate.
Whereas the chocolate pistachio wheel was heavy, the pastry dense with layers to hold up the thick coating of chocolate and the luscious nut cream within. The chocolate was a little too sweet for my tastes, and I would have liked it just the pistachio centre. This was fragrant and roasted against the chewy pastry.
However, the cafe is most proud of their bubble waffles, offering a free one with every cup of coffee purchase. The offer is for one undressed, but you also order one dressed and topped. With Joyce’s dietary restrictions we had to omit the Nutella, chocolate drizzle, scoop of gelato, and candied coated chocolate bits in their Royal waffle. Pictured is just a plain waffle with slices of strawberry and banana. A little bland and nothing all that remarkable. What was off putting was the utensils that were served with in. Two sets of golden knife and fork, from their drawer that were caked with leftover bits of sugar and chocolate. A different set was taken to the back and washed for hygienic use.
Worth mentioning is that there is a popular
Taiwanese bubble waffle cafe chain located a few stores down. They have been opened since the beginning of the year and been seeing much success in their flavoured and stuffed, authentic bubble waffles. Therefore, in comparison the ones at Caffe W are a tough sell. If I am being honest, I liked the ones there more, and would head there if craving such a snack in the area.
We also grabbed a couple of hot beverages. A dirty chai latte with a shot of espresso and a London fog. Both as expected and pretty standard.
In closing, Robson has another cafe to consider for croissants and hot beverages. I just wished they had something to call their own and make them a destination, given the other speciality branded cafes on the same block that they are competing with.
Caffe W
1172 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1B5
(604) 336-7404
caffew.com
