Starving Artist Waffles & Espresso — Restaurant in Markham

Service has huge room for improvement.

There were 3 tables ready to be seated and we were the only one in line, not only were we not seated after waiting for 10 minutes, not a single staff acknowledged us, no hi, no we're getting the table ready for you, nothing. And we know they can see us, one of the trainee staff probably noticed we've been around for awhile, and prepped water for one of the table, but it seems like she wasn't allowed to seat us, so we were continued to be ignored. The family of 4 behind us had enough and left, we left shortly after as well. We were literally invisible to the all the staff.

Another time I went, there was a long line up, which was fine but it was poorly managed. For some reason they are not taking names down and giving out a number, customers have to literally stay in line, everytime a new customer comes in we have to tell them "no they're not giving out numbers", and every time the staff is ready to seat people, they had to figure out who came first and table for how many. Just grabbing a pen and paper and give out numbers would easily solve this inefficient unpleasant initial experience.

Both times I was there , we noticed that the trainee are not allowed to do anything else but cleaning tables or stay stationary at the cashier even though there's no one paying, they were widely available to help out, but seems like they're not allowed to take orders or deliver orders or seat people, meanwhile there's only 1 or 2 staff serving the entire place from greeting to seating, taking orders and delivering food and drinks. I get that trainees can't do everything but you'd think they can at least help greet customers and manage the waiting list perhaps?

The 2 stars given us for the food, the one time that we made it to be seated and served food, it was decent. The food was yummy and filling, but with such service where we can't even get a table when there's plenty available, some customer don't even get to try their food to give it any stars, so definitely look into training and small adjustment that can improve efficiency...

Visited around 10:45 a.m. on a Tuesday. The café is tucked beside Shoppers Drug Mart, with plenty of parking available. You pass through a charming patio to enter, which was shaded nicely thanks to the size of the Shoppers building.

Given the recent heatwave, we opted to sit indoors. We were greeted at the door and offered the choice between a two-person table tucked farther inside or a four-person table closer to other diners. We chose the smaller table for a bit more privacy and ease of conversation.

Menus were provided right away, followed shortly by tap water. When our server checked in to ask about drinks, we let her know we were fine with just water. Later, when we were ready to order, she came promptly when we called her over.

A standout moment: we ordered just one smoothie, and she kindly asked if we were sharing, then offered to split it into two cups without us even asking. A thoughtful and appreciated gesture.

The Pineapple Banana Smoothie was a highlight. It was perfectly balanced between sweet and tart, and incredibly refreshing.

My sister ordered the Halloumi Benedict. She noted that while the waffles leaned toward a sweeter flavor on their own, the combination of waffle, egg, and halloumi was well-balanced and worked beautifully together. The egg was jammy and spot-on in terms of taste, texture, and presentation.

I had the Fully Loaded, which features a potato waffle topped with bacon bits, sour cream, chives, and cheese. It leaned a bit salty, but not overwhelmingly so, still quite enjoyable overall. I loved the potato waffle which has the slightly crispy edges but was soft to bite with a texture that resembled mash potatoes. As someone who isn't usually crazy about waffles, which was such a nice alternative.

Each of our mains came with a side salad (lightly dressed and refreshing) and a choice of fruit salad, maple baked beans, or potato salad. We both chose the fruit salad, which was impressively varied with orange, grapefruit, watermelon, blueberry, blackberry, and banana.

Note: Payment is cash...

I have been looking forward to coming to this restaurant and was really excited to try it out today. I have read on the reviews that it could be quite a wait, so I went in with the expectation that it would take a bit longer. But even then I still wasn't prepared for the level of service that I got.

First of all, we were sitting in the restaurant for around 15 minutes before anyone even came to greet us and to give us water. After putting in our order, we waited patiently for around 30 minutes to get our food. During this half hour, we saw many tables getting agitated over the long wait. One couple next to us eventually just walked out the door without ever getting their meal. The waitress seemed unfazed by this and quickly cleared their table for the next customers.

We continued to wait until we saw three tables get their food, and they had all come in after us. I then flagged down the waitress and asked if she can please check on our food since we have been waiting for a while already. A few minutes later our waiter came back and told us that he had accidentally dropped our order. He said he would make sure to put our order to the front of the line though so we can get our food as soon as possible.

I was about to tell him that I will wait when he asked our entire table to give him our orders all over again. So it appears that he had lost our order completely. At that moment, we finally decided it was no longer worth our wait and we left the restaurant and went next door to Osaka instead. I was extremely disappointed by the service. The restaurant had a nice vibe and a great menu and I was really looking forward to this meal. Hope they can improve upon the service as their performance was really...