SAM JAMES COFFEE BAR - BROCK — Restaurant in Toronto

This is my neighborhood spot and I’ve been going there since they opened including during COVID specially to support the business. Every single time I’ve been with my baby first as a newborn now as an infant, and with his stroller. Nevermind that not even once has any staff done or even offered or gestured to try to help with the door when I go in and out - when at any given time there are 6-7 people just standing around talking, definitely not all serving customers since there’s limit on number of people inside anyways. Their complete lack of manners and common decency in this regard didn’t bother or offend me as much which is why I kept going back. But today as soon as I got inside with my son who is 10 months old (again thanks to no help or offer to hold the door so I could drag the stroller inside), he started crying. No one else was in the store and I was literally by the entente - far far away from the counter where again 5-6 staff where all lined up behind the counter doing absolutely nothing. Facing the stroller with MY BACK to the staff I LOWERED my mask to comfort my son before proceeding further into the store when one staff yelled out at me to not remove my mask! I was shocked. I turned around with my mask pulled up again - I said “i didn’t remove it. I just lowered it to comfort my son fir a second. I know I have to wear a mask”. Instead of apologizing or just staying quiet he again said “so why did you take it off”??? I decided immediately I didn’t want to set foot in the store. I was still by the door!! I will never go back there - I understand it’s COVID but curtesy and common decency should be values that businesses adhere to regardless. The staff is a complete failure here as other reviewers have mentioned too. Too bad because the coffee is...

I popped in for a coffee and a quick bite to eat on a busy Saturday. Unfortunately the payment terminal had a brief outage, and I was short on cash by about $5. There were other people in line waiting for their orders, so I was apologetic about not having more cash. The staff were very understanding!

The person at the front said, no problem, the coffee will be on us today!!

They served me a great cup of coffee in a good sized mug, and then after just a few sips the person I was meeting arrived, but could not enter because they had their dog with them. So I asked if I could have my coffees and snack to go. No problem! The people behind the counter, while serving other customers, and trying to make the payment terminal work, very kindly put my drinks into cups without missing a beat, and being very polite about the entire thing.

I had a spinach and feta turnover type of snack that had really good, flakey pastry. It was enough for a light lunch.

All of the bread products looked and smelled wonderful, and when possible, I will return to make a larger purchase.

This coffee place is just north of Queen St. and it might be easy to miss, but I suggest making the effort to search it out, it is well worth the effort!

There was a large selection of different types of bread and snacks and a good assortment of coffee drinks, reasonably priced, baked in store, and staffed by...

Utter embarrassment of a place. I’d be embarrassed to call myself one of the employees and I’d be embarrassed to own the place. Absolutely appalling service every time. Thought it would just be a one off, the next time(s): perhaps they’re just having a bad day. No, every time, the workers are miserable, careless and sub par. Given them enough grace and won’t be going again. Luckily we have genuinely fantastic coffee shops in Parkdale like Larry’s, who care about their customers, the level of service and quality of coffee. Sam James uses its moderately well known name to maintain any kind of clientele, when in actual fact, its coffee is mediocre in comparison to nearby competitors, the service is appalling, the cups don’t fit the lids (caused a coffee explosion all over my clothes). Simple fixes that someone who cared about delivering a good service could recognize and rectify. I’d say the one saving grace is the Robinsons bakery. Even there, why would you bake and sell artisanal breads, and not have slicing capabilities. Small things that a competent owner would spot and rectify, but again, Sam James fails to deliver on quality and care. Imagine spending $65 on 4 coffees, 2 loaves of bread and a couple of pastries…. Go to Brodflour, go to Larry’s, go to Forno, go to Rustic Cosmo. There are plenty of options, all of which will look after you better...