Cafe Latte Cino — Restaurant in Ottawa

Was it the worst meal of my life? No, but only because that one included food poisoning.

I ordered a chicken, spinach, pesto crepe, a biscotti, and a cup of regular coffee. I had assumed that I would be getting edible food because I paid $30+ for this meal.

As we went to grab a table, I had a sip of my coffee and it was BAD. As in I have had instant coffee taste better. It was dusty and devoid of any real flavour other than that coffee you left in the back of the cabinet for a few years. I took it back to the front and the girl, who was really lovely, asked if I needed it to be heated up or a new one. I was trying to find a polite way to explain myself and I am assuming it was the owner, an older lady, spat out that I didn't like it in a very rude manner. Not towards the server, but to my obviously untrained palette. She suggested the blonde roast which the girl eagerly got me. I tried a sip and just realized that this wasn't going to be the place for me to find a drinkable coffee.

I nibbled the biscotti as I waited 25+ minutes for my crepe to come and found that it was covered in that cheap white and milk chocolate you find at bulk barn. The kind that tastes more like wax and sugar than actual chocolate. I left it on the plate and just hoped my actual meal would arrive.

It did arrive. Cold, covered in powdered sugar, and with a small container of artificial maple syrup. Somehow the actual crepe was both crunchy like a papadam and raw and eggy in the centre. The one ounce of chicken inside was the same kind sold in a gas station chicken caesar wrap- tough and bouncy. I will say it did have 7 (I did count them) fresh spinach leaves and the pesto was not homemade but decent. The part that confused me was the fact that it had shredded cheese thrown in as an afterthought. It wasn't melted- in fact the whole thing was stone cold. I managed a few bites and gave up on the whole experience.

Save yourself the time and money and go...

Went here for a panini, and whether the bread wasn’t fresh or they grilled it too long, it was so hard that I literally cut my mouth on it. I also watched them put the panini bread in the microwave before making the sandwich and grilling it, and pretty sure that dries up the bread. It wasn’t a fluke because my sister had been the day before and her panini had also been hard as a rock, but she wanted to give them another chance because she’s had good paninis here in the past.

I went up and showed the panini to the manager/owner/whoever she was, and asked for our money back because they were truly inedible. She proceeded to suggest that she wasn’t going to give our money back just because we didn’t like them. I explained that they weren’t edible, to which she replied that she would give our money back today but only this once because “they are fine”. I literally knocked the sandwich on the plate to show her how hard it was, but there was no indication of any kind of recognition on her part that the outside of paninis are supposed to be crunchy, but the inside bread should still be relatively soft. I’ve eaten paninis in Italy; I know what they should taste like and it certainly wasn’t like this.

Would not suggest eating here, because the proper response if you are giving good customer service is “I’m sorry it’s not made properly, can we offer you something else?”, not “you’re wrong, the panini is fine.” Terrible experience in terms of both food and...

It’s the 3rd time I’ve come here and I now definitely know why I don’t come more often. Each time I’ve waited a long time for my food; but this time all I ordered was a latte and a slice of pre-made cake on the display. It took 1/2 an hour to get my order, and only after I reminded them for it. Yet, they had my chit sitting in their pile on the counter. There were 3 staff on, but they all seemed like they had no idea what they were doing. Order chits were scattered all over the bar and they all moved so slowly, barely wanting to put any effort into doing anything, while the orders piled up. But the number of customers wasn’t even that bad. It’s not that they were so busy they couldn’t manage. The entire time I watched as they slowly meandered around, serving everyone’s drinks extremely late (lots of people complaining), and serving tables all out of order (orders were made in whatever order they believed they were supposed to be, but they also forgot about half the customers). The other people at my group table had their orders forgotten about too. I’m not usually a person to complain, but this was just kind of pathetic. In summary, speed of service, order of service, and a proper system of teamwork and organizing order chits NEEDS to be taught. Very obvious that little to no training was provided to the employees. I’m a former coffee shop worker myself and I have no clue what else explains this scenario....