Alchemy Coffee — Restaurant in Markham

The service staff here can only be described as rude, disrespectful and full of prejudice. What was meant to be a happy Mother’s Day lunch turned into a reminder that there are still places in Canada where our family is not welcomed.

We entered the restaurant after the Yelp waitlist signalled our table was ready. Upon entering the restaurant we were greeted by an incredibly rude counter staff who essentially made it clear that he did not want to serve us.

The moment we entered the restaurant we were met with attitude and hostility. The three staff present were surprised at our appearance and questioned why we were there for the whole restaurant to hear, saying phrases like “who are they”, “why are they here”, and “I don’t want to deal with them”. It was clear in their attempts to pass on the responsibility to service us amongst each other that they had no intentions of making this an enjoyable experience. We later discovered that they concocted a deliberate plan to force my family out of the restaurant.

When they were finally ready to seat us, we were advised that only counter seats were available despite there being several empty tables that could for our family. We reluctantly agreed as we waited incredibly long for a table and our entire family was starving.

After we were seated, we could hear the counter staff and waiter chatting about us out loud for the entire restaurant to hear. They made several disrespectful remarks about us, including prejudicial comments based on our perceived background. They also talked about how their plans to force us to leave didn’t work and that they were “surprised we stayed”.

When the server came, he was incredibly rude acting as if any small request, such as asking for water after being subjected to unnecessarily long wait times or answering questions about the menu, were an extreme burden. His tone and attitude clearly showed we were not welcome and his responses were full of condescending remarks, acting as if he was forced to serve people who were beneath him.

The lack of service and basic human decency eventually reached a point where we could no longer tolerate the service - or rather the lack of - being provided and our family decided to walk out of the restaurant. In all my time in Canada, I’ve never had to walk out on a restaurant due to the staff. However, this is a stark reminder that my family will never be welcomed everywhere - certainly not at this restaurant.

These service staff created such a hostile environment that ruined Mothers Day for us. As a final slap to the face, despite being told we were leaving due to their attitude, the staff showed no remorse and even had a smile on their face as they were told why we were leaving.

If you are still reading this review, please make sure never to choose this venue for any important celebrations in your life. The staff were apparently overwhelmed from serving 5 tables, and they apparently have no problems with being rude, disrespectful or prejudicial. Until management makes meaningful changes to the culture of this restaurant, my family will never be coming back and I hope no one else would have to be subjected to the conduct my family...

I'll start off by saying this place was a disappointment from start to finish. I walked in to this tiny location that had all 4 tables occupied. This is usually a good indicator of a great place. We sat at the bar table facing the window. It was extremely cold! My date and I were shivering. They served my coffee lukewarm at best which turned to ice cold within minutes of being served in this very cold establishment. For a place called Alchemy Coffee they served me a very weak tasting coffee with way too much sugar and milk. They don't have an option to add it yourself.

We then ordered sausage eggs Benny and French toast. Instead of the bacon the French toast comes with we requested sausage which the waiter said he would substitute. The French toast came without the bacon and included sausage. At no point was it explained that would have an additional $4.50 charge, especially if you're not giving me the bacon that should have been included on the plate. The French toast was the only good part of this meal. We also requested to order a side of fruit but this place doesn't serve any fruit whatsoever 😕. My sausage eggs Benny came out with the minimalist amount of hollandaise sauce. It had a great orange colour but absolutely no taste. The sausage was a 0/10 with no flavour except FENNEL, lots of fennel. I asked for some table salt and was given takeout packs of salt which I found odd that a restaurant doesn't have any salt or pepper shakers. Disclaimer I have some high blood pressure and eat most things relatively salt free but this sausage needed some sort of saving if I was going to try and eat it. It was terrible! Overall, I cannot recommend this place to anyone. We did not enjoy ourselves or the food besides the French toast. I would have given a 1 start if it wasn't for the...

So I normally don’t take time to write negative reviews but unfortunately, my experience here warrants this review.

So, this spot has bad parking and is super small and very tight so be prepared to wait a while on the weekends. Fine not a problem. We waited about 20 or so minutes for a table and we’re greeted by our server. Our server was a nice gentleman who was friendly and have little complaints other than having to get up to ask for water and extra cutlery. Again, not a big deal.

The food was mediocre. We ordered smoked salmon eggs Bennies and the pancakes. The eggs benny was not my favorite, it was basic and didn’t need to kale or mushrooms and didn’t have hollandaise sauce. The pancakes came with a condensed milk sauce on the side which was not enough and the pancakes were dry. Again, the food was okay, nothing great but I would have still been fine with this experience.

What set me off with this place was the end of this experience. We were about to pay and as the other guests in my party were all trying to pay and at the counter, the girl with half black and half blonde was EXTREMELY RUDE. She was so aggressive and literally said “you guys need to figure this out because I’m not doing this’! she repeated this more than once. I was shocked by her reaction and walked back to my table. We were trying to pay the bill not run out on the bill! She then proceeded to roll her eyes and whisper to the girl beside her and was obviously talking about us. After realizing that I was watching her reaction, she tuned her back to us until we left very shortly after.

I will NEVER come back here just because of that experience alone. Terrible...