Loafe Café - Alumni Centre UBC — Restaurant in Electoral Area A

Subpar experience at Loafe for brunch on a Friday. The location is quite popular for students, with many tables filled by students with their laptops/books! We couldn't find an available table, so had to settle for sofas outside the café (inside the alumni centre). I could barely taste the oat milk in my decaf Americano, and the blend was not very strong itself. The hot chocolate was fine. The Mushroom Ricotta Rice Bowl ($13.95) had a nice marinade on the mushrooms, and a decent amount of ricotta (on a bed of rice and arugula). The rice is very plain, and perhaps a little mushy/overcooked.

I was disappointed with their Midnight in Havana Rice Bowl ($15), having asked for no arugula, and it coming with the bowl anyways. The place was packed so I didn't feel like asking them to remove it. The pork shoulder was not tender (it was more like dry pulled pork). They were able to use a balsamic dressing instead of their garlic aioli at my request, which was nice of them to accommodate. There are some inconsistencies with their in-store menu and what's online on their Square site, as the Square site says the bowl comes with caramelized onions, but in-store it's pickled onions. On top of the pickled jalapenos, I thought it was too much acidity toppings wise and would have benefited from the caramelized type. Self-service after you receive your order. Would be interested in trying their baked goods (which are unlabelled in their display case), but would...

Excellent pastries, nice coffee, delicious food, and amazing service. They make great mimosas as well! The chocolate croissants are particularly good, but sell out quickly.

Prices for coffee are reasonable, but pastries are on the pricy side (though I find them superior in quality to similar offerings at UBC Foods or AMS locations). Food is on the pricier side as well, but you get large portions (and again, it’s quite good quality).

My one true complaint is that the pastry case doesn’t have labels, especially because I don’t want to hold up the lineup asking employees what each item is. Some things are obvious: almond croissant, cheese scone, etc., but others aren’t: a selection of unlabelled muffins, cakes, and loaves is presented every day. It’s mainly for this reason that I’ve tried so few things from that case: I always seem to be there when it’s busy, and I don’t want to make ten or fifteen people wait behind me while someone tells me what’s in each of the muffins.

Having said that, I find myself coming back over and over (mainly for more chocolate...

4/9/24 — very interesting encounter. as i was waiting for my food, i watched the worker girl in the orange shirt put spread on a single piece of toast for five minutes just spreading it back and forth slower than molasses…i understand these are just students but come on it doesn’t take Gordon Ramsey skills to put spread on toast even taking 30 seconds is a questionably long period of time to put spread on a piece of toast…i even noticed her co worker watching her with a confused look on his face probably thinking the same thing I was.

my low rating however is because the quality and portion size has gone down so low, especially for the price they charge for certain items. their service is so slow (i can see why food takes so long lol) and the food just isn’t good. i got the huli chicken bowl today and there was so little chicken, no sauce, missing the jalapeños, and..the chicken tasted like bad fish??? very...