Ki Cafe — Restaurant in Burnaby

October 13th, 2023 Update

We just keep on coming back to this place. Love the food, drinks, decor, the relaxing ambiance and their extensive collection of Manga! Our daughter is in love with their soft serve Matcha ice cream and we can see why as they really do make an awesome Matcha ice cream! She loves it so much that she no longer has the patience to let me take a photo of it before eating. She dug into her Matcha ice cream right away this time, so...no photo of it this time!

Galaxy Blue Rose Matcha Parfait CocoMango Baked Cheese Tart Baked Matcha Tart

Loved all of our drinks and nibbles but next time, I think we're all going to have our own order of Matcha Soft Serve ice cream. Their Matcha ice cream is soooo good and I'm really tired of taking just one scoop and letting our daughter eat the rest of it!

Service: Good Parking: Paid parking directly in front of the store. Free parking nearby, on the street. Location: #105 - 6888 Royal Oak Ave., Burnaby, BC

Original Post Ki Cafe might very well be the most charming cafe in Burnaby or even Greater Vancouver. Our daughter was certainly charmed by it. Mostly because of the Manga! There are several large shelves against the wall in this cafe, filled with Manga books. Our daughter is going through a bit of a Manga phase right now so she was quite taken with the Manga shelves and really wants to come back to this place again.

On to the main event though. The dessert, because this place is a dessert cafe. You can get a wide variety of desserts here. Cake, cheese tarts, waffles and bubble teas are amongst the many treats they offer. If you're not in the mood for sweets, they do also have a few savoury items on their menu including Omurice and Karaage Don.

Ki Cafe is currently participating in the Vancouver Ice Cream Festival. While our daughter ordered a Melona Ice drink, I decided to try the Vancouver Ice Cream Festival offering: Purple U Parfait. It's a gorgeous twist of Matcha soft serve with Ube soft serve. The two flavors were so beautifully intertwined with each other, and I loved all the wonderful toppings that came with it.

Our Manga loving daughter is eager to come back here for the Manga, and I'm just as eager to go back for their yummy desserts!

Service: Good Parking: Free parking on the street Location: #105-6888 Royal Oak...

First things first, I was blown away by the aesthetics of this café. The last time I was here was at least 5 years ago, prior to their recent renovation. There’s a wall full of manga, and lots of anime figures on display on the shelves. I love the green shrubbery décor, it feels quite magical. They usually play Japanese music of K-Pop. The staff are super friendly and welcoming. They have a no laptop policy for dine-in and is self-serve styled (order at the counter, they will bring you the food/drinks, but you put your own dishes away). I would caution that during peak hours, it gets extremely busy and the food/drinks take quite a while (ballpark at least half hour).

Okonomiyaki Waffle ($12.50): This had perfect amount of sauce and was topped with a generous portion of bonito flakes & green onions. 10/10 would recommend, and the price is very reasonable to me.

Omurice ($12.50): Omurice is a popular Japanese fusion dish that is a combination of a traditional Western omelette and Japanese fried rice, hence “Omelet rice = Omurice”. There are only a few chunks of meat (chicken?), but overall, it is quite filling from the rice. I really enjoyed the flavour of the fried rice with hints of sourness from the ketchup and was extremely tasty.

Peaches & Oolong Cream ($6): The oolong was very fragrant and strong. The “cream” portion wasn’t overpowering, and is not similar to cheese foam. It’s quite airy and blends well into the drink. I think their sweetness is already adjusted, as I did not find it too sweet even at regular sweetness (for reference, I always get 50% sugar at places like Chatime or Coco).

Velvet-T ($6): such a yummy and refreshing blend of flavours, I had to ask the server what was in it because I couldn’t pinpoint it. This drink is made with Lavender, Lemon, Mint & Strawberry. I had it at 75% sweetness. I also love the boba jelly/pearls, which has a nice bouncy texture for that...

I can understand the 1hr seating rule, but the “no laptop & studying” rule is ridiculous and going too far.

What’s the reason for banning laptops? If it’s for noise, people talking causes a lot of noise too. If you worry people are going to stay in the coffee shop for a long time, your 1hr seating rule already prevents that from happening.

How are you going to monitor and check people are not studying in the cafe? If people are coming alone and just reading books they brought, are you going to count that as studying and kick them out? If they are writing something in their notebook, are you going to count that as studying and kick them out? Good luck policing that. It screams negative judgment against people who use laptops and study at cafes, worrying that they will ignore the 1hr rule. People who come to this place to just chat with each other and socialize can also go over 1 hr easily too. Just open a to-go shop if you are going to police and micromanage who sits and doesn’t sit.

On a side note, put the no laptop sign on every table. It’s misleading to not do this. Not doing this makes people think they can use their laptops on certain tables that do not have the signs because there are other coffee shops that have sections for laptops and sections for no laptops. And tape the outlets because the outlets under tables without the signs make it appear as if these are the areas where laptops are accepted. Have the sign on your front door so people can go to another place and save their time & money if it doesn’t suit their purpose for coming to a cafe. There is my tip to help your micromanaging.

Kudos for disabling hot spot sharing too. Do you know people use hot spot sharing for purposes other than working on laptops? Are you also going to have a no phone policy too?

The tea is way too sweet. I couldn’t taste anything but sugar that they were supposed to include, hence the 1...