Coffee Bureau — Restaurant in Edmonton

I had high hopes for Coffee Bureau as it is regarded on the web as one of Edmonton's best coffee spots. I am from out of town and at home, I am an espresso enthusiast. While on the road, I try and find Cafes that can produce the same quality as my setup back home. I enjoyed the overall vibe of Coffee Bureau, however my shot of espresso was severely under extracted and my drip coffee tasted watered down.

This is not a case of my palette being off because I had been to Ace Coffee last weekend (the roaster Coffee Bureau uses) and they were using the same “No. 1” bean/roast in their cafe that day and my beverages were spot on. I understand espresso is a delicate art because I pull shots everyday at home. However, in this case either the barista had an oversight or the bean wasn’t quite dialed in/calibrated that day. I also feel like the ratio of bean:water was off for a drip because I don’t know of any med roast that tastes that thin.

Anyways, my long winded write up was likely unnecessary, but I feel like I need to articulate the reason...

I recently visited Coffee Bruneau on a Sunday morning and had a rather mixed experience. While the coffee itself was pretty good, my interaction with the staff left much to be desired.

The man working that morning was extremely rude and pretentious. He was very dismissive, passive-aggressive, and condescending, speaking to me as if I were an idiot. To make matters worse, he was on his phone while making drinks, clearly distracted. At one point, he even laid his phone on one of the machines he was using, which is extremely unsanitary. I have circled the spot in a picture below where he placed his phone, though I was too uncomfortable to take a picture at the time due to his behavior.

Overall, the quality of the coffee doesn't make up for the poor service I received. I hope the management addresses this issue to ensure a better experience for...

I echo most of the positive reviews here so I'm not going to rehash them. However, I will add that regular coffee comes from a thermal container and in my opinion the temperature is too high. This has a detrimental effect on the coffee, and so your mileage may vary depending on when you get the coffee in relation to when it was brewed. Espresso-based coffees don't have this problem, of course.

I also think that asking for tip at the till in a place like this is a bad practice. They are great people, don't get me wrong, but this trend among quick stops with limited service that ask for tips at the machine is getting really old really fast. It puts me off, you may not care about it, and...