Wagashi Tea House — Restaurant in Alberta

Despite having good food, I can't say I will be going back to this establishment in the future.

We had a couple of orders of the breakfast bento box, an omurice, onigiri, houjicha latte, matcha latte, and a couple of waffles for 3 kids. Having been to Japan a few times, I can say the taste is similar - it was definitely nostalgic.

However, this is where the positive comes to an end.

The service is uncomfortable - politely impolite, perhaps. We did not have a reservation, and they were nice enough to allow us to walk in. The service was polite, but the subtleties of the impoliteness were shining through from their passive response or lack thereof. What hammered the last nail was during payment. The lady was absolutely annoyed that I was trying to pay with tap (which is an option), and it was not working. Eventually, we did pay with a card, and she handed us the receipt. We did not hear a thank you, a have a good day or asked if we enjoyed the food. I'm not implying they should be grateful, but I feel a thank you or come again is pretty customary to any sit-down establishment. This might be the first Japanese restaurant that I have experienced this.

This tea house is situated in a garden center which is quite fitting for a tea house. Since it's in a public place, the garden center's foot traffic is visible, can be heard, or even enter this area. But do not expect to be welcomed if you see a friend eating there by chance. In my opinion, this is not a kid friendly environment. They may look like a cafe, but they are not welcoming like one.

PS. I am actually surprised that this place charges $3 for maple syrup. The prices are on par with higher end local brunch spots which have a certain aesthetic and unique food presentation, so this seems to be a disconnect. Why not incorporate this to the meal price? This just make reminds me of going to...

Charming cafe inside a garden centre. The owner is very nice and informative, and all the food is very fresh and tasty. We ordered the Croque Monsieur, Eggs Benedict, and Wagashi Waffle, as well as a latte and daifuku mochi. All were fantastic!

Croque Monsieur: served on a flaky, buttery, crispy croissant with good quality cheese and fresh, lean ham, and they did not skimp on the fillings. It was very tasty!

Eggs benedict: amazing hollandaise sauce and incredible bacon. I like that the different toppings can be mixed and matched if you choose to order two eggs (but we did not, as we were not that hungry). I also really liked that you could get just one egg. So yummy!

Wagashi waffle: Just wonderful! The waffle itself is really unique, with a soft and fluffy inside but a sweet and crunchy outside that could withstand the ice cream topping without getting soggy. I don't like matcha, and was able to substitute vanilla ice cream instead. Really lovely!

Not pictured was the latte and daifuku mochi. The latte was very good, much better than Starbucks, and topped with a cute steamed milk heart. The daifuku was nice and fresh and the mochi was soft and chewy. It was full of azuki (red bean) paste, and the kinako (soybean powder) is roasted and ground in-house. It was literally the best kinako I've ever had.

You can tell that the owners really take pride in what they do, and it shows in the quality and presentation of their items. I will be returning the next time I go to Canmore, hopefully for lunch or dinner...

walked 25 minutes to get here with my friend only to be treated poorly. we were not aware of their reservation system and wish the staff had explained to us their seating system instead of treating us like we were stupid. i wish someone explained to us their "check in and check out" system instead of kind of kicking us out even though we were paying customers

we ordered and sat at an empty table without a "reserved" sign and an older man with apron asked us if we ordered - with rude attitude. we said we did and asked if we could stay in to eat, and said "no we are cleaning the tables" in a tone and kind of gave us a look, even though we were there at 1:30 and they close at 4. there were also other people sitting and eating at tables. i said "oh okay we'll do takeout then i guess." he just said "yeah." and without apologizing or explaining, he walked away and gave us rude looks....he talked to us like we should inherently understand their seating system.

not having seating available or using a reservation system is completely okay, but what we do not understand is why this was not simply politely explained to us instead of us kind of rudely being kicked out, and given attitude. not worth the walk or money we spent!

a simple "we apologize but we have no seating today" or "you must make a reservation to sit" or "here is how our check in system works" would've been completely fine. treating us like we are stupid or an inconvenience for wanting to sit completely gave us a bad taste in our mouth and we will...