Ambit Cafe — Restaurant in Burnaby

I so, so want to give this cafe a five star review because it's local & cute, but every time I come here, I just shake my head in frustration. It could be so great! 1st visit: myself and my family had noticed the place a couple of times after first moving to the area. Finally after seeing the coffee and muffin special sign outside, we decided to go in and partake of said special, I guess it was 2 or 3 days into the new month and we were told that sorry, we missed it. Period. I have to say at this point that the two young women that are working here regularly seem a bit, (inexperienced?), unconcerned, not really customer service oriented? Im not sure, although they are generally friendly, just more interested in whatever they are doing/talking about to each other. We hummed and hawed for a few moments and then went next door to Starbucks... Anyway, 2nd time, I went in and got the muffin and coffee, it was OK, but coffee was smoking hot, had to wait a while to drink it, no clean tables although very quiet. 3rd time, I came in at about 2:30 because of the sign outside (and the 2 more inside), I asked for the soup and sandwich special and was told sorry, it has become very popular ( in November, go figure), and they had no more. I was disappointed but hey, it was well past lunch time, I did mention they might want to take down all the signs. I ordered an avacado toast and tea, they asked me if I was eating in and I confirmed. The bill was over $16 so, no tip, (I don't tip for counter service anyway since they won't bring the food out when it's ready). They packed the toast to go so I was offered a plate when I mentioned that I was eating in, (had to move food onto plate myself, resulting in a messy maneuvering), I then asked for salt and pepper... They looked at me like I had lobsters climbing out of my eyes! By this point I was already laughing under my breath, (S&P came in ginormous costco style containers, I won't even bother describing the application of both, accept to say that I ended up with full pepper corns on my toast). I took my food to go sit down, (after trying to guess where the cutlery was), and got to the table section, (where only two other guest were sitting), and realized that there wasn't ONE clean table in the whole cafe. Did I mention that there were only two other people in the place? The toast was good, (despite the crunchy pepper corns), but not $17 worth of good. If you're managed to get this far in my review, you'll realize how much I want to like this place and the staff, but if I could give it -1 stars for service, I would. If you own this Cafe, you might want to consider the people who have taken the time to leave an honest review, on the other hand, maybe you just don't give a s - -t! 1 thing going for it tho, it's really nice and quiet and you can always find a free seat, (it just might...

Nice atmosphere, great beverages, mediocre food that's far more expensive than it has a right to be.

We went the other day. Husband had a blueberry shake and I had a London fog that both tasted great. A bit spendy, but that's to be expected from an independent, chic looking cafe.

Where they really drop the ball on is their food and the ridiculous prices they charge for some of it. $13 for a standard grilled cheese sandwich with no accompaniments is...I have no words. You can pay something like $1 extra for soup of the day, but if you don't want that particular soup, you're left feeling like you just got jobbed. I had the refresh salad and that was one of the most unbalanced dishes in terms of flavours I've had in recent memory. All it was was salt with some more salt. I had to return it after a couple of bites as it was so inedible it bordered on vulgar. I offered some suggestions on how they could make that salad absolutely spectacular with just a few tweaks (ditch the kale and arugula, swap the feta with goat cheese, add some grapes, replace that horrific Dijon dressing with a raspberry vinaigrette, and - I forgot to suggest this - maybe source out a different kind of smoked salmon, and add something like farro) but I rather doubt they will take any of those suggestions to heart.

I get the feeling this started off as a cafe that offered a few bakery items and then someone got it in their head to add breakfast and lunch items but didn't come from a culinary background and/or hire a restaurant consultant to work on their menu.

This place has potential, but for the prices their offering, that's not enough to have...

Very unimpressed and disappointed with my first visit here. Cold, impolite customer service while overpaying for mediocre sandwiches and pathetic soup. The sandwiches were served after 10ish minutes, but the soup took over 15 minutes and when we finally did get it… it was the most underwhelming, unsubstantive soup I’ve ever seen. It was straight broth with 3 chickpeas and one small 1.5 cm piece of potato in it. The atmosphere sucked because it’s so quiet in there and you are forced to be basically sitting with anyone else who happens to be in there… closely cramped together and forced to deal with the rudeness of other customers eavesdropping and sneaking glances at you. Employees again, did not give friendly and warm service; I did not feel welcomed despite tipping. All in all, felt ripped off by people who don’t care about providing worthy service and food for your hard-earned money. Don’t think I can recommend this place to anyone, very bad experience coming here, personally. Quite shocked at how much they money they ask, for what they give you and how they treat you.. Avoid this place. You’re not missing anything, and you’ll dodge feeling jipped and...