La Bosco Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Greater Strathcona

-not COVID friendly (no staff that regulate people coming in, such as customer limit in store, no markings for social distancing, staff who deal with food do not wear mask at all or with the nose out of their masks, the tables are very close together, and the line up area and waiting for food area is highly inefficient as there’s no regulation for safely distancing or order) -the only thing COVID safety related is the optional Hand sanitizer.

-a big thing is that they are also not doing take out cups and plates for food and drinks. In the pictures you can see everyone is using in store reusable cups. Not safe.

-not assessable for disabled community. There’s not enough space to accommodate for them nor is there an automatic button for door opening. Entrance is narrow too with tables crammed in everywhere.

-there’s little to no selection of food after only 3 hours after opening. In the entrance of the store there are some ordinary bread like baguettes, sour dough bread, and artisan bread but nothing remarkable that one cannot get from Walmart and the like. Pastries included a very pricy and limited selection of slightly different mini cookies for $2-5 each package, plain chocolate slice of cake for $8, puff pastries like danishes and croissants for $3 and up.

-the decor is trendy and instagram friendly. Lots of plants. Almost too much plants. They could cut down on plants and put in pictures of their items to accommodate for visual customers. The menu is so crammed with words that are 2pt size. There’s also nothing different from Starbucks drink wise other than their “Dutch coffee” and “dalgona coffee” which you can get for cheaper anywhere else.

-I ordered an “iced matcha chai latte” as it’s not hard to make one as I am a barista myself who has 3+ experience. But they told me they don’t have it. They only have either match or chai. THEN WHY DID YOU WRITE IT AS ONE DRINK. Took 20-30 mins to get a single medium drink. Others before me were waiting for longer than I have for a single beverage. Long story short, the drink was trash. How did they mess up milk and matcha powder? Didn’t mis properly as I presume they only mixed it through stirring the power in. I also got a MEDIUM. The sizes are whack. They overcharge you for the smallest things. They told me this 12oz cup was their 16oz medium cup. Tell me this isn’t a small size at Starbucks or Tim Hortons. Heck, their small sizes are half a size bigger than this. Cup is also cheap. Thin. No name brand on cups.

-clear this establishment doesn’t care for safety of the times (they are open from 9-9) or the functionality of a cafe (only 1 barista while there are 6 part timers who fetch the ready-made pastries).

I understand these are tough times for a store to have a grand opening, but there should be proper measures taken to create the great first impression to customers. Otherwise they will not be back due to the hectic and chaotic atmosphere they were faced with.

Wish them luck but unless changes are made to the system and food menu I will not be...

Been here a couple of times already so this review is kind of a summary of all of the times i have been there. The food and the pastries are pretty good but objectively, it's overpriced. The place used to be an autobody shop i believe? so it's a fairly large space with cute decor.

My friend tried to justify the pricing by talking about the type of food that they serve and the experience of the cute place but I dont believe there's much of an experience there? Yes the cafe is cute, but i think that's all there is to it? It's a very casual setting so i don't think it can be compared to a more fancier place? (if you go to a fancy restaurant you pay more for the setting / type of place and the type of service you get)

Every single time i have been there they have managed to do something wrong as well. I normally order a chai latte and one time they gave me an iced chai (not a big deal, i just took and left). I also usually get the cakes or whatever i'm ordering to go, but there have been multiple occasions where they initially plate it then have to go through the process of boxing it up. It's not really a big deal but i would prefer it if they would pay more attention to these things especially if they ask me 3 times if i want it to stay or go. Servers are friendly though!

I don't normally drink chai from a lot of places but i think the chai here is VERY good. I can't have regular milk so i normally have to substitute it with like almond milk or something else. With a lot of places, I find that if you substitute the milk with almond milk, it tends to taste like dirt or something similar after. That does not apply at this cafe, I always change it to almond milk now because i find that it actually makes it a lot better. I have had the Matcha cake, the Strawberry cake, the cheese soufflé cake, tiramisu cup, and a couple of other things. The cakes are all pretty good (especially the ones with cream on them). I also don't normally like cheesecake but the one here is also very good. The tiramisu cup also has real espresso inside.

Edit* The service has improved since I first made this review and the staff are still friendly. The pricing of the cakes for reference is around $6/$7 a slice. or around $30/$40 for a whole cake. I have tried the boscoade and it's pretty good. I've only managed to try the mango lemon because they use fresh fruit so if the fruit isn't good or they run out, they can't serve it (which means good quality fruit...

La Bosco is a beautiful and well decorated cafe with thought out finishing touches and a lasting aesthetic. The room is spacious and bustling with lots of ambient crowd sound. Ordering can be difficult, mask + barrier + active cafe makes for a slightly shouty process.

The menu boards aren't very descriptive although there are a lot of options and different drinks. While there is a more detailed menu at the till, it's a busy spot and it feels awkward to sit and read through some of their more creative selections. Asking the till person for details would also be a tedious process.

As such I ordered a standby. A cappuccino and a Danish. The Danishes glisten in the case as you approach the til and seem like an impossible to ignore option. With great flavours like sour cherry , or grapefruit and custard. They're are amply sized and fairly priced at 4.50 ish.

The cappuccino was perfectly fine, a static 6oz option is all that is offered.

Unfortunately my Danish was not as delicious as it looked. The custard seems to be this delicious puddle of cream in the centre but in actuality it was 1mm of gelatinous shiny eggy rubber. The Danish is awkward to eat due to its size and the slices of fresh fruit just sliding around the rubbery centre. As such I used a fork and knife. The pastry is beautifully layered but dense, a touch drier than anyone would hope and just too thick.The bottom crust has great crackle but is a struggle with the plastic cutlery.

The soups look incredible, they have a showstopping bubble of pot pie topping and will definitely be my next stop when I come back. The sandwiches also sound delicious.

I think this is a great little cafe that is clearly on its first few days and trying to keep up with what seems to be a non-stop interest. I would never truly judge a new upstart on their first week and I am excited to come back and see how things are at a...