Aroma Espresso Bar — Restaurant in Toronto

Very rude and inconsiderate customer service (The manager - manager with blonde highlights, Persian accent). I planned to have a weekly business meeting here throughout the summer on Tuesday mornings with a new colleague of mine. I had never been to an Aroma Espresso Bar before. Being our first meeting last week, I waited for my new colleague and offered to buy her a drink. She politely said, "No, thank you, so much". I was going to order a drink but I started feeling naucious, so I decided to drink bottled water (finished it before entering the coffee shop).

My colleague and I had our first meeting and we used the internet and got wrapped up in our talk and didn't order anything. Note: I understand that this is not what you should regularly have a habit of doing at coffee shops, but all the same, most coffee shops will still welcome you, knowing that return customers are a key to a good business. People will eventually order as they come.

So, we had our second meeting today. I arrived early. One staff member was very kind (not the manager). I directly approached the counter and said, "I'm planning to order as soon as my friend arrives. She will be here soon". I asked the lady if she could clean off a table for me and she was very polite.

No more than 10 minutes later, my colleague arrived. Just as I was welcoming her and about to ask her what she would like to order, we were interupted from the side. It took me a second to understand what she said as she interupted our conversation while we were greeting one another. She immediately said that we needed to order something if we wanted to sit here. When I mentioned that I was just planning to come up and order, she responded, "Well, I watched you last week and you didn't order, so I came to tell you that unless you order, you will have to leave. We don't give out free internet here."

Wow, there's a number of other ways to handle this situation other than to interupt a greeting and call someone out in front of their guest. She could have first asked her employees if they had spoken with us already. She could have given us 5 or 10 minutes to see if we were going to not order. She could have spoken to me privately and not in front of my colleague. She knew we weren't frequent guests, and could have not made a quick judgment on our second time there. She could have waited until the end of our second visit and seen if we were truly free loaders. She could have welcomed us and asked how our experience was last week, asked if we enjoyed the experience, had tried any drinks before or food and gave a hint instead of directly calling us out.

When I tried to ask her why she would jump to conclusions so quickly, she told me that I could leave if I didn't order. I again tried to explain myself, but she cut me off and told me to order or leave. I walked to the counter to order and spoke with her again away from my colleague, but she kept interupting me and rudely insisting that I should leave or just order.

I can't say that I've ever been treated with such a rude greeting, or at least without any attempt to understand another's perspective. She was judgmental, not willing to listen, and just insisting that if I didn't order I should leave. As I continued to ask for clarification and share my perspective she finally said, "Are you going to stand here and argue or are you going to order something?"

Well, I won't be back. I probably won't be back to any Aroma Espresso Bar. Try rebranding yourself as a cafeteria, diner, or something. Most coffee shops have a loose kind of feel and are looking for bringing in guests/customers to third spaces with a vision to capture long term customers. This was my second time and will be my last.

After reading the above reviews, I can see that this same lady (blonde, manager) has some personal problems. She lacks people skills, appreciation for others, is proud, judgmental, rude and shows no desire to even see things from her customers perspective.

Stay away if you are at...

This is hands down the best Aroma in the GTA. I work in Pharmaceutical Sales and have picked up food from probably every Aroma in Toronto and this one is by far the best of them all. Azadeh and Sira are the owners and they are the most attentive, hard working, disciplined team I’ve ever seen. At the other Aroma’s I’ve been to the service has been slow, they’ve forgotten to include cutlery for my takeout order but at the Bayview Village Aroma I have never, not once experienced any issue like this. It has become my “go to” spot for all of my lunch meetings to such an extent that I actually will stop by here to pick up food for any downtown meetings I have. I can’t speak highly enough of Azadeh and Sira. They have done such an incredible job with their business and I would highly recommend Aroma @ Bayview Village to anyone. It’s the only Aroma I’ve been to that has that “family feel”. They know the regulars by name and make sure that they do everything they can to accommodate you. You don’t find this kind of service very often, it’s rare in this city in my experience. Anyways, if you’re reading this review and you’re on the fence about coming here stop reading and just come. The food is awesome (I recommend the chickpea salad sub olive oil and lemon dressing or the Mediterranean Pasta Salad) you can’t go wrong with either. Thank you Azadeh and Sira for doing such a great job with your business it’s always a pleasure...

Went in there yesterday afternoon (Feb 4, 3:45pm) to order coffee. Woman seated at a table with a dog. No idea if it was a service dog (no obvious vest or identifier, which is not really relevant) but the dog was sitting on the bench, with face on the table. Service/guide dogs are well trained and don't sit on seats with their faces on the tables, licking the table. I mentioned this to the woman working, and she did nothing, claiming the manager wasn't there. Doesn't matter if manager was there or not....all staff have to be trained to know regulations surrounding service animals. If they aren't concerned about health regulations outside the kitchen, who is to say they are concerned about them in their kitchen.

I response to the owner’s reply:

1. I NEVER complained about the dog barking. I never even mentioned barking, so I don’t know where you are getting that from.

2. The dog was NOT in a stroller. You are absolutely making this up. The dog was seated on the bench with its face at the table. Not in a stroller.

3. I was not with a friend, so why would I have complained about lot hearing my friend. I came alone, and left alone.

4. When I asked for the manager, that would have been the time to tell me that you were the owner. Instead, what you told me was that there wasn’t anything you could do because the manager wasn’t there.

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT LADY and stop making up stuff...