Balzac's Port Dalhousie — Restaurant in St. Catharines

Landlord needs to fix up the building! I'm a long-time resident of Port and a long-time customer of Balzacs's Port Dalhousie. It pains me greatly to write such a review but after this morning, where I saw several people trip over the broken tiles on the threshold (upstairs, to the deck), I have just about reached the limit of my patience. This state of disrepair is really embarrassing, especially given that this is World Rowing Championships Week and, we have visitors from all over the world Today, it was visitors from NZ and Korea who almost wiped out on that step! The building has been in a sad state of disrepair for several years now - peeling paint on trim, warped deck planks, bricks in the exterior walls coming loose, missing mortar over door openings and windows, brick patio that is in dire need of power washing, extremely weedy plant beds, leaking rain gutters... Before the owner of this outlet blames the poor condition of the store entirely on the landlord, I have also recently noticed that the interior could do with some daily upkeep as well. Yesterday morning, during our daily visit, the floors in the upstairs lounge were noticeably dirty and the outdoor areas weren't being bussed at all. General litter including napkins, sugar wrappers and dirty dog water dishes. No-one had come out to open the umbrellas or wipe down the tables. This has been a common occurrence throughout...

A delightful little cafe with a broad selection of organic coffee blends, as well as a range of espressos and frozen drinks. It's right near the lake, but has the ambiance of a hip Paris café, with sweets, including cookies, squares, biscotti, tea biscuits and croissants. Unable to decide which coffee, the barista, kindly offered me samples of all the different blends on tap. I found I really liked Balzac's own blend, as well as the Farmer's. It was late in the day, so I opted for a decaf, which is dark roast. I prefer medium roast, but the decaf was fine, not too bitter. They use organic, free-trade, bird-friendly and many ethical products, too. If you want to take it home, you can buy bags of coffee and seasonal, special blends. Upstairs, there's a door to a side patio with tables, shaded by umbrellas. On the top floor, there's a modern, bright space, cafe tables for laptop working. Wall posters of the famous French playwright, Honoré de Balzac decorate the walls. It's an ode to Balzac's painstaking formula for making coffee, "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee". At his namesake café, the baristas do it for you! This is a very community-minded cafe. They offered me bulletin board space to advertise my local yoga classes, which is an awesome way to support locals. Bravo...

This is a cute little cafe right by Port Dalhousie . We had Coffee Canadien ,Carrot Cake and Butter Tart. The drink was made with care and tasted good Carrot Cake was soft and but the topping was too sweet seemed frozen food product. Butter Tart tasted fine. The ambience is great and it has upstairs patio and washroom . Thr girl who took our order was friendly. The also have a great collection of whole beans which they roast themselves . There is additional seating at the back and few chairs outside. The view is nothing special as it not facing East on Lock St but the adjacent st which has nothing .The ground level patio has pretty much no view at all. The stuff seems overpriced (for being frozen out of box) .The medium drunk alone costed little over $6 and dessert $5 (frozen) for the portion which made the total over $20 . They were also out of most of the baked goods (i guess the ones they bake themseleves) we wanted so we chose the ones left . Would like to try there coffee beans in future and probably grab a drink but not...