Jam Cafe - Lonsdale — Restaurant in North Vancouver

We live in the neighborhood of the restaurant and have eaten here many times - all experiences have been very positive, until this weekend and unfortunately, we will not be returning. I''ll start by saying the food is great, and the servers are good. But the front host staff and management are incredibly rude, and the waiting policy is absurd. We arrived this morning at 9:30 and put our "name" on the list for our group of 7+baby. We were expecting a wait for such a large group, and on a busy weekend. The host said it'd be approx. 30 mins, and that in order to be seated when a table is ready, the whole group needed to be there. No problem, makes sense - she didn't say anything else. It was pouring rain, and there was nowhere to wait inside. So, we went across the street for a coffee. 10 mins later, we returned to the restaurant and checked our spot. The host had removed our group from the list. Confused, so we asked "did a table become available while we were gone?". "No, but you weren't here so we removed you from the list". But no table became available, hmm. Not once did the host say you have to be physically present in a line for the duration of your wait - only that the whole group needed to be present when a table is ready. It's incredibly odd that they're "checking-up" on waiting customers just to make sure they're still around... Such a waste of people's time - you can't even go to the bathroom, or take your child for a walk!

After much back and forth with the manager (who was incredibly rude and couldn't articulate the reasoning for why we were removed from the list), the appropriate response could have been to apologize for their lack of articulation of what is required of waiting customers, but rather we waited nearly an hour to finally be seated (instead of 30 mins had they not removed us from the list!).

While the food is pretty good, an absurd waiting policy and management that doesn't appreciate customer service, have really tainted our view of this place. It's a shame as this is where we'd always take out-of-town guests and family members for birthdays. Hopefully they re-visit their policy, and encourage management to improve...

Our daughter had a Professional Day, so we were able to go out with my mom for breakfast on a Monday morning. We decided to try out the North Vancouver location of Jam Cafe.

From what I know, other branches of this restaurant tend to be super busy with lineups out the door. Not the case with this one. We walked in and got a table very easily! (Weekends might be a different story) It's a very spacious restaurant with a fun vibe to it; while there was no lineup to get into the restaurant, it was still quite busy inside.

Featured here: Lavender Latte Mocha The Fat Elvis Waffle Blueberry Hill Pancakes The Gravy Coops

The Fat Elvis Waffle is supposed to have peanut butter drizzled on top but our daughter isn't a fan of peanut butter. Instead, the restaurant drizzled condensed milk on top. This was at my request as I had searched the menu to see what other ingredients might possibly be used as a substitute for peanut butter. I was very happy that they were able to grant my request.

My jaw dropped when the Blueberry Hill Pancakes arrived. Blueberry Hill? More like Blueberry Mountain! It was a ginormous stack of pancakes! I managed to get through half the stack. The leftovers lasted us two more breakfasts before they were gone! If you like Blueberry Pancakes I highly recommend the Blueberry Hill Pancakes. These pancakes were not only huge, but they were covered with a very generous portion of blueberries & blueberry sauce. There's a bit of lemon curd on it too, but not quite as much of it as the blueberries. I wouldn't have minded a bit more lemon curd; however, the sparse amount of lemon curd still worked fine for me as it's the blueberries I was more interested in.

Very impressed with this place. We will definitely come back sometime!

Service: Good Parking: Free parking...

I truly always enjoy😍 the atmosphere🦄 and food here, and this visit was no exception in those regards. The food was, as always, delicious, and the ambiance remained warm and inviting. However, this time, the service fell short of expectations.

We woke up so late for long weekend we asked if they still open or not they said yes still an hour though Upon arrival, our server informed us that the restaurant was closing soon in 10 min and hurried us to place our order, even though we still had an hour left we had been told by another one While we appreciated her giving us a heads-up, the service afterward felt rushed and inattentive. No one checked on our meal, and when I requested overcooked eggs, they initially brought sunny-side-up instead. Though they did correct the mistake, other issues persisted.

Our coffee was never refilled, and when we asked for warm milk to go with it, we were given cold milk instead, which unfortunately made the coffee cold we did not touch and . When we inquired about getting a fresh cup, we were told that the coffee machine had already been cleaned, leaving us without a coffee we were rushed to go somewhere then we would spent time again to stop for coffee in JJ this time

Despite these issues, I want to acknowledge Kevin for his respectful and proactive service. He noticed the problem and kindly took the coffee off our bill without us having to ask, which was a thoughtful gesture that we appreciated.

While the service didn’t meet the usual standards this time, I still love them for its amazing food and great atmosphere. I hope to see improvements in service on our next visit . I always support server buy leaving tips but does not mean I am always...