Marathon Cafe Scarborough — Restaurant in Toronto

I would give 1 star for good milk tea. Unfortunately, in this Scarborough location in particular, unless you come in with the cashier serving nobody, everyone else that work there who definitely would be aware of you waiting would still ignore you. There’s only one person serving at a time, nobody else will even bother offer any help.

There’s been time where I had to wait 10 min to get my mobile order milk tea that was sitting on the counter and I was the first customer in line. If my memory serves me well, I believe the cashier and another coworker were behind the counter but I didn’t know exactly what they were doing. I was just standing there looking at the milk tea that could have taken 10 seconds to transact and off I could go. No one bothered offering help.

I am not sure if the people that work there are doing anything as they are completely hidden by the supplies and shelves, but you can clearly hear chattering amongst them. More so with the guys coming out from the kitchen, I’d assume they are cooks? One chubby man in his late 20s / early 30s who pops in and out of the kitchen quite often and one mid-age man. Again, absolutely no one will care if a customer stands and waits for a while.

I did try to tell the girl who handled takeout to help out as she showed up from behind the counter. She didn’t say anything, gave me a dirty look and went back behind the counter and the wait continued. Even the customer who was in front of me nodded to me with agreement.

Just to add, the services are completely different in the Richmond Hill location. People work harder and more efficiently there and they would at the very least greet you upon your arrival. Not sure why the work ethic differ so much between the...

In the past couple of months, we would drive 1/2 hour there just to grab a 20-oz milk tea a few times a week. Because of their unique formula and taste of HK milk tea, we did not mind until last month the taste was not consistent after 5pm during weekdays. So I asked the owner, the older lady in an all-back pony tail, how I felt the inconsistency in their milk tea. I was able to mention how she mixed the milk tea behind the counter the previous night, and how the taste was off, including pouring only 1 pot of tea instead of 2 different pots to enhance the richness and more complexed texture of my desired milk tea taste. But she kept saying that there was nothing different and always the same formula. So I explained patiently to her in a more detailed fashion, and she even smirked in disguise how I was able to figure out her secret recipe with my taste buds only. At the end, I told her that we drove from far away and I would like to give her the last chance. Unfortunately, it was the same taste as the night before, only a cup of very bland taste of simple HK milk tea, with only one pot of hot tea in my milk tea. Sadly, she knew exactly what I was talking about in describing the complexity of her famous milk tea and how I liked my milk tea to taste like in the past. In conclusion, we have decided not to return to give them any business as they do not deserve my patronage and my contributions to their bottom lines. Now we make our milk tea at home everyday, being much more satisfied and saving lots of money plus time! A big thank-you to the owner from us, we can make better HK milk tea at home than many cafes outside, using many excellent quality ingredients in...

First, if you've never been to this place, one thing you should know, it's self help. i.e. You have to go to the counter for ordering, and also get your utensils from the cabinet yourself. It's no big deal at all. But I just wish they have a sign up somewhere, or at least put a note on every table, so the customers would know what to do when seated (other than sitting there waiting and being embarrassed).

Second, my advice is "DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING TO EAT". I repeat: "DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING TO EAT"!! Their drinks are good (we had ice coffee and hot milk tea). But their food, forgive me lord, are absolutely garbage. We are not picky eater to begin with. But the chicken wings my mom had was tasteless and half done. The HK rice roll (街邊腸粉) I had apparently was sitting in the fridge for too long, then reheated in the microwave. It's so dry (how can rice roll be dry!?) and all sticked together in one mess. If you read my other reviews you would know how much I like to take photos of my food. But I had no interest whatsoever when I saw their food.

Third, the service is zero. Not because it's self help, but because they don't want you to be there. All they want is for you to use the shortest sentence you can say to order, then no more interaction. At least that's what I felt.

That being said, this place is great if you just wanna hang out with a few friends and drinks some milk tea/coffee. Or just to chill out by yourself. Because no one...