Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in Kitchener

Genuinely, I despise leaving negative reviews. I've always enjoyed visiting Smile Tiger, and historically have always looked forward to my next visit.

Today, the male barista taking my order was inexplicably inattentive and condescending. Took him a while (pushing the boundaries of rudeness) to turn around, and when he finally did, not only did I have to greet him first, he "greeted" me without a shred of politeness. I tipped anyway, because I always have a healthy fear of those who handle my food.

The other barista Lia made my drink, and I was handed an absolutely filthy cup covered (every square inch) in mystery brown stains. Could have been coffee, could have fallen on the floor. One smudge of mystery brown substance is tolerable, but having the entire cup covered was just silly. When I brought up the issue of my cup's hygiene (still respectfully, at this point), the male barista caustically and sarcastically interjected that "yeah, it's a matcha". Firstly, he misunderstood what I was even asking; secondly, I didn't ask for his unwarranted input. To be clear, I can respect the defence of a co-worker. The problem was entirely his unprovoked tone.

The female barista remade my drink, and filled it less than before. That's fine, I thanked her and told her I appreciated it. Sat down, tried a sip, and was immediately assaulted by an acrid taste, as if the milk had been stored alongside onions. At this point, I no longer care. I later bring it back to the counter and tell them to just dump it. Money down the drain for both the vendor and the buyer. To be clear, I do not blame the female barista at all. And the oniony foulness is just an unforeseen incident, I hope. Everyone has long days. And maybe to be fair (though traditional customer relations may disagree), the male barista asks "Oh no, is there something wrong with your drink?" to which I said bluntly "it tastes like onions". "Onions?? :)" "Just toss it don't worry about it" "Okay! :D". And that was that.

Do note that on this day, not a single person was offered a mug or a glass. Not only was I never asked whether my order was for here or to-go, every other patron in the cafe (at a table) with a hot drink— from the old man to the dude on the computer—was wielding a paper cup. Update: And everyone with a cold drink was wielding a plastic to-go cup. The shiny stack of mugs and glasses sat glistening on the counter, utterly unused.

Cherry on top, I guess a friend of the male barista visited the cafe shortly after I arrived. He went over to her table for some time, just yapping with her. Today's visit felt like an intrusion of inconvenience into The Barista's Hangout, instead of the simple cafe visit that it was. Most of the events that happened today can and should be swept under the rug as "human allowances" that are plausibly deniable but... for them to be THAT continuous? Just feels off and unwelcoming. Like re-training is in order. They were working the Saturday shift between 3:50-4:00 p.m.

Three stars because the blueberry Earl Grey scone was quite good, albeit a little stale. For someone who grew up on the hipster Ossington street in Toronto, I'm totally bummed that the only place in KW with that similar artisanal vibe has been going downhill, if the other reviews are...

Usually love my experience and I have special memories with this café but I was very dissapointed in today's experience. My sister and I wanted to take our mom out for a cute coffee date this Sunday afternoon on what would have been our parent's 34th wedding anniversary with our late father. We wanted to sit down and enjoy our 3 coffees and 3 desserts which came to 44$ but they were served in paper cups and paper plates to go. It was about 4:30 pm and I asked why, because we are sitting here and want to enjoy it in actual mugs and plates and not paper cups which ruin the coffee taste. It's not the same. We were told because they close at 6pm and don't want to make dishes. That's 1.5hrs away. I asked to make it in mugs instead they said no, that again they don't want to make dishes. I looked around me and noticed everyone in the café had paper cups. Safe to say at least in the 2hrs before closing the 2 workers decided to be lazy and didn't want to make dishes. Imagine.. going to a restaurant 2hrs before closing and the kitchen packs you meal im takeout boxes because they are closing in 2hrs and dont want to have dishes so they can go home earlier. This is essentially what happened here. Very dissapointed in today's visit. Its not my problem when you close, especially if its 1.5hrs away, if I ask for my coffee in a mug and a plate as I am sitting in your restaurant to enjoy it, you shouldn't answer with no especially that you don't want to make more dishes. That doesn't concern me, you have a service to offer and it was not professional. At this point I should have just gone to starbucks if I wanted to have my coffee I paper cups. We paid 44$ for paper cup/plate service which is just horrible for the...

I was from out of town in K/W and looked for a specialty coffee place. Smile Tiger came up and it looked promising with it's rating, latte art in beverages and I was informed that they supplied some grocery stores with their roasted beans. The cafe itself has a good vibe to it. Older historical building, spacious layout, seating for those who want seating for 2 or join the "last supper" type table where a multitude of people doing business or school work can be found.

Now the coffee.....ordered was a pair of espresso based beverages with normal milk. I found it to be waaay to hot and micro foam over steamed, tasted over extracted bitter tasting and no tasting notes to be found. Both beverages tasting completely different and one not drinkable. I immediately thought that was odd given the ratings and wondered if maybe improper dial in might be culprit in terms of the taste. I recall the barista just putting the portafilter under the grinder to obtain their dry dose....a quick level...tamp and in the machine it went. There was no zero measurement of dry dose that I could see as there was no scale to be found when I went to the counter to confirm and possibly no shot timer.

I didn't finish the beverage and had no interest on asking for another to be considering the results would likely be the same. Great spot....but I expect more from a specialty cafe and a roaster in providing a good tasting espresso beverage. I think some proper dial in, consistent dry dose measurements and timing maybe a great opportunity to really produce some fantastic...