Detour Cafe — Restaurant in Hamilton

This place is not new to me. We come here every 6 months. Today's experience was the lowest I have experienced in an eatery in a few years.

It looks like the business of hospitality, businesses forget that consumers drive their business.

Any how, the food quality is still good and above average. It takes a long time, to get the food at the table. So, if you are hungry and expect a quick food, this place is not the right place.

Water served in glass bottle, but it was near warm, definitely not cold for a summer day.

On the price side, the prices are premium and for a small town eatery ,expensive. I think the mgmt/ owner justifies that based on higher food quality or better ingredients. But there is still evidence of cost cutting. The price is high, the quantity is low.

For example a weekender breakfast of $14-15 comes with one slice of toasted bread. Odd.

Coffee does not come with re-fill. If you are spending some $30 for break fast, the coffee re-fill is part of it. Again odd.

The horrible side of today's visit:

1-My daughter and I Sat close to the kitchen door. My daughter wanted to sit on the bench facing the store and I sat opposite of my daughter, facing the wall. The chair was very wobbly or maybe the floor was very uneven. I decided to sit on the bench beside my daughter , facing the store while waiting for food. The staff that initially greeted us, said to me that we can not take two tables and if other customers arrive, we must change to one table, in which, I reluctantly agreed. I did not want to explain why we did that.

2-This staff member also was odd from the beginning. Even though I'm not Canadian born, but have lived in Canada most of my life, and speak English fluently. So, in the beginning, at the time of getting seated, I had difficulties communicating with this staff. Asking questions and getting answers were repeated few times. But I did not make a big deal out of that.

3-Another issue was that the food was just brought to us and we just had started to eat, and then all of sudden, abruptly, she comes forward, interrupted us, and asking how the food was. I just replied good, meanwhile I had no idea how the food would be. Again, I let this go. Thinking she probably just started this line of work.

4- The worst part with this staff was when I got my coffee towards the end of the food, in which I had to get up and go to front of the place, and add cream. I, accidentally poured too much cream, then I sipped the coffee few times, and then, since the coffee was too creamy, I asked the same staff to top up my coffee a bit. Her answer: I do it for you this time, but we normally don't do that. In which I declined the top up and went back to my table.

I then spoke with the mgr in charge, Noel. Noel listened, did not take much of action to remedy my negative experience. His reply for adding a tiny amount of coffee top up was that the store's coffee is very expensive. Discussed few more things, and then got the bill, paid and left.

I left my name & tel # for the owner to call me and discuss this.

I was very disappointed that I spent about $30 and had such horrible experience. But, life goes on.

We still enjoyed the rest of our...

Edit: Detours changed owners recently and things have changed... and not for the better. I can no longer recommend what was my favourite spot in Dundas. I'm quite sad about this. My wife and I work from home a few days a week so we visit Detours once a week and have done for the last 4 years. first the good - the coffee is exceptional. Arguably the best coffee in Hamilton if not Ontario. It's seriously that good. Although their new espresso machine serves their coffee at a higher temperature, it's not really a bad thing. Just different. Try the Flat White. Now the bad Food - The quality in the food has gone down considerably. But the prices have skyrocketed. It's $17 for a scoop of avocado, two fried eggs on toast and a handful of arugula. The prawn sandwich is a scoop of prawns and celery on a slice of toast, for $10. Grilled cheese is reasonable, unless you add soup and ham and then you're at $17. The weekender comes in at almost $18 for 3 slices of toast, two eggs, a 1/4 of cheese and a 1/4 of salmon or ham. I have no problem paying for good ingredients but they're served in such poor portions, with such unimagination, and are so expensive it just isn't worth it. Nothing on the menu is worth what they're asking for any more. The breakfast sandwich, which used to be $7-8, was a lovely fresh olive bun, reasonably priced and delicious. Now it's $9, fewer ingredients and served in two slices of bread. It's not great and its the best thing on the menu... They also no longer offer fresh juice (at time of writing this) Service - Table service is gone. You have to order at the bar. The problem with this is that you don't have a table first. I've watched many people leave because they just weren't offered a table. There is a tip option (starts at 20%) when you make your purchase but I have no idea what service I'm tipping for. I have to get my own water, my own table, and order at the coffee bar. The people that work there (who are awesome) appear to be struggling with these new changes as well. There is no order to things. The new layout - There are fewer tables then before. Detours is almost ALWAYS packed. I have no idea why anyone would want to reduce the number of tables in a place as popular as Detours......

Ordered a Cortado from the lady at the cash who was having a conversation with another employee while taking my order. No biggie. Receive the “Cortado” and on my way out it immediately spills and burns my hand multiple times due to a loose lid. Barista carelessly didn’t secure the lid for whatever reason and filled the cup to the absolute top. Once I exit the cafe I decide to stop in order to secure my lid and check why my “Cortado” is so watery in comparison to all the other ones I’ve had. Lo and behold it’s not actually a “Cortado” but a coffee. Which coffee blend? I don’t know because i never ordered one. Anyways mistakes happen and typically i would have walked off and chalked it up as an accident but considering my whole right hand was burnt I had to go inside to let them know of the mistake so maybe it doesn’t happen to the next person.

I go to the counter to let her know she made a mistake and the barista immediately deflects the blame on me, typical gas light. After blaming me she immediately disappears into the back without trying to resolve the issue. What an insufferable and incompetent employee. Just a horrible representative of the business and if i was the employer i would be very concerned especially since the business is so dependent on customer service.

Luckily one of the other employees/baristas overheard what happened and quickly made me what i ordered when i didn’t even say a word to him - way to take initiative. Sucks he had to take ownership of a grown child’s mistake and I appreciate what he did. You guys should give him a raise.

Sucks one miserable individual can make the whole business look bad.

If it wasn’t for my experience with a rude and ignorant barista I would be giving this place 4 of 5 due to the nice decor and really nice...