Church Street Espresso — Restaurant in Toronto

Church Street Espresso was reccomended to me, unfortunately my experience was less than ideal and I will not be returning.

Having a cafe open so early in the morning, with patio seating, sounded like a great place to have breakfast. The entrance is a little tricky, the first step is awkward and if you aren't paying attention or didnt read the sign, could trip you up. The barista who took my order seemed distracted and didn't explain or offer any reccomendations when stating it was my first time visiting. After ordering the spinach/feta/mushroom quiche, I added on a 'side' pancake, which was listed on the menu. The barista said they couldn't do that and after pointing out it was listed on the menu, she felt the need to verify with a manger before they would accept that as part of my order. And they don't have small orders of chai lattes? That doesn't make sense, especially because all of the other drinks do. And it was the most disgusting chai latte I've had. The tea bag was not steeped in hot water, only placed into a cup of cold milk, which is not enough time to cold brew. So it was more like ill flavored milk. After waiting almost 20 minutes for one pancake and quiche slice from the display, I was disappointed yet again. No butter was provided and the maple syrup was gross, I would have expected more flavor or to feature decent maple syrup. And the spinach on the quiche was so dry it was unbearably crunchy, I had to scrape it all off. No one came to ask how I was doing, to check on service  or ask about the food items. I ended up leaving because it wasn't worth the time to deal with that barista again...

I've been a regular here for about 2 years. But as a former barista, I started noticing the little things; Such as how they pull/extract espresso shots. As a customer who pays for extra shots, I expect them to be espresso shots. Not watered down used espresso pucks. I learned today they pull/extract more shots than needed with one puck of espresso. So yes, your standard americano only has 2 shots when in actuality it should have 3 and they CHARGE you for 3. When trying to explain to their barista that you cannot pull/extract 3 shots with a double shot amount of espresso he reciprocated with sass and ignorance, and still charged me for the drink with additional shots and didn't offer to even put the missing shot in. Ignoring me completely because he couldnt apparently resolve this issue, or even acknowledge it, due to a line being infront of him. Hope this reaches the right eyes if you're as much as a coffee enthusiast as I am, because anyone who knows how to make espresso would HIGHLY be disappointed with...

So having never been to this particular coffee shop, I visited yesterday.

Church Street Espresso is situated on Church @ the Southeast Corner of Isabella Street.

I asked the bartender, a very nice young woman to "surprise me" , and she made me a "half sweet Hazelnut latte"....if my aging memory serves. She told me "I hope to see you again soon, so we can have you try something else".

Yesterday, the coffee (and her personality) were so delicious (and amazing) that I felt compelled to travel downtown from Etobicoke again today, to try something else.

Today she suggested trying "different milk alternatives", which by no fault of her own, I decided against....BUT once again....she was exceedingly kind and enthusiastic about her job, and she made a FANTASTIC "slight variation" of yesterday's drink, with Chocolate added today.

This may be my new coffee...