A Corner Cafe North York — Restaurant in Toronto

Before stepping in… do yourself a favor and consider another coffee shop! — A once-loyal customer who gave them one last chance yesterday.

Looking for the best way to lose customers? Corner Café has the playbook.

First, they hiked their prices ($10 Nachos to $12...). Okay, inflation, we get it. But then came the kicker: a $10 PER PERSON requirement just to touch a board game. No mention of this policy anywhere—until you order. Later, they started having staff awkwardly announce it when you order. (Still, why would you do this to your staff and your customers???).

Here’s how it plays out: if you’re a group of four stopping by for coffee (you know, since it’s a coffee shop), and not everyone’s hungry, you’re apparently “not eligible” to play. Even if three out of four order food, unless you hit their $70 threshold, no games for you. That’s not customer-friendly—it’s a punishment.

And the latest? If you bring your own board game to quietly enjoy with your friends, you’re told you can’t play it—because “they provide board games.” Make it make sense.

Their website claims: “We prioritize customer satisfaction with a diverse menu to ensure everyone has a great time. Enjoy coffee while working or hang out with friends and family over a board game.” In reality, nothing about their approach shows customer care. The way questions were brushed off felt dismissive and negligent.

To be fair, if the food menu beyond drinks had variety and was more compelling, maybe it would make sense to encourage ordering. But forcing people to eat just for the privilege of using a game board? That’s not hospitality—it’s gatekeeping.

Oh, and the cherry on top: asking customers to leave 5-star reviews in exchange for free popcorn chicken or whatever the name is. That’s not building loyalty—it’s desperation.

I genuinely miss the way Corner Café used to be: a welcoming spot with caring staff who valued their customers. Sadly, those days feel long gone. The current team could really benefit from some customer service training—because right now, this is a textbook example of how to drive...

It's a good spot for brunch and games, even drinks. But there's a lot wrong with it.

1. Price: The cover charge is $10/pp or you buy that amount in food and dont pay it. BUT they still require you to buy an item per person if you don't want to play. For example, you can't buy a large pot of tea (that comes with multiple cups for sharing) and just have that. Their logic is that you should buy a teapot per person, which makes no sense.

2. Service: Service is pretty bad. They don't come to take your order, but if you get up to go to the counter, they will say you should sit down. At times we've sat for 30mins+ before they come.

3. Disorganized: Once they took our menus when we were still looking and ordering because they "dont have enough" and new customers had come in.

4. Menu: while its a great brunch spot, it's pretty bad for game nights. They basically have no shareable snacks, just fries. It's pretty bad trying to game and the only options are full plates of brunch food. When you're open late, do you expect people to order eggs benedict or pasta at 10pm? It seems like a no brainer to have simple apps or sides like mozzarella sticks or jalapeño poppers.

Drinks are great, i just think it's trying to be two things at once and unfortunately being mediocre at both. Their crepes are also mediocre, sadly, despite being pretty. It didn't taste fresh at all.

Also, DO NOT ORDER THE FRIES NACHOS. It's just fries with salsa and sour cream on the side, nothing at all like nachos lol. You can see it in my pics.

I've seen this spot change businesses so many times in the past few years. A corner cafe is always busy which is a good thing, but maybe management could do better to improve on their...

A very welcome addition to the neighborhood, we've been eyeing this place for a few months now as it's always busy with people playing board games, enjoying a meal, or even studying on their laptops. We finally decided to see what it was all about.

Their menu is a bit overwhelming, I think they are trying to be an all day brunch place but also include small snacks and drinks for the board game cafe side of things. We ended up asking how much the minimum spend was for board games and it is $10 a person before taxes and tips. Their menu seems to be strategically priced so you basically have to get a food item and drink item to meet the spend, as most drinks hover around $7-8 and most food is not quite the right price to make it $20 total! For our first visit, we ended up spending quite a bit more than expected and getting chicken and waffles, nachos (which ended up being fries), and a pitcher of juice. The waffle and fries are recommended, but the nachos are a pass for me.

They have a large variety of games and we ended up playing one for the entire time. It was a bit hard because of how loud some of the other tables were though - I think this can be an improvement point since they were screaming at some points and no one said anything. I don't think it would have been unreasonable for staff to address it. It is a hard because as a cafe they are doing so many things - a study spot, date spot, and board game spot - that everyone is working at different volumes on different things.

We will definitely be back, but it would be nice to have an option to pay just to do the board games. I don't need food or a...