Silver Fox - The Coffee Boutique — Restaurant in Toronto

As I spend a significant amount of time in Bloor West Village I can't imagine why I have never been to this beautiful, contemporary and spacious café, The day I visited it was unbelievably hot and so I deviated from my usual espresso based drink to try their nitro cold brew. It was amazing.

The interior of this café is open, spacious with somewhat limited seating. In the summer there is a beautiful and cool back patio with ample seating and various seating areas to ensure privacy and lower noise levels.

The sign on the door which restricts laptop use fully characterizes the atmosphere this café is successfully creating. If you follow my reviews, you will know that the coffee shop I'm looking for is primarily one which is highly conducive to coffee and a chat! This coffee shop brings back that traditional view of a café as being a place where people gather, talk and enjoy excellent coffee.

I was unfamiliar with the nitro cold brew process, and the proprietor of the café gave me a quick introduction to the process. As I understand it, he creates his own cold brew from his house roasted beans, and then passes it through a machine very similar to that used to give Guinness beer it's rich consistency. On this hot summer day, it was smooth, refreshing and really creamy. I certainly would try this drink again.

The beans used at this café are roasted by the proprietor and I will be very interested to return to this café and try some of their other drinks, which would perhaps better showcase their beans. The cold brew was excellent, but I'm not sure I had a real chance to experience the flavour profile of the house roasted beans.

I certainly will return to this café, both to try other bean blends and to experience it in colder weather. This is an excellent addition to the flourishing coffee scene in Bloor...

tldr: Great coffee and accesories selection, tasty drinks, friendly and knowledgeable owner, amazing community vibe.

Detailed review: I stopped in for the first time yesterday (just picking this place randomly from a map based on proximity to a stop I was making). I browsed the coffee merchandise before ordering and noticed many products being sold were good quality items that people who enjoyed making and drinking coffee would like (eg. high quality travel thermos, Hario V60, unbleached filter papers, etc). So if you're new to good home coffee experience, this local shop can certainly get you started. I spoke with Viktor (the owner) about what I want to try for an espresso bean. I so went with his suggestion with Classic blend espresso and a cold brew. I sat outside to drink the cold brew and it was so good I went back in to get a second drink and a snack (latte and cashew cookie). There are several things that really set this place apart. First, is that Viktor takes time to tell you some of the little things that all add up - like eco conscious cups, and BWT water filtration. Second is that this is a real neighbourhood coffee shop. I'm not from this neighbourhood but in the time I was there, many area residents came by and they chatted while they enjoyed their coffee. This is great to see because in these difficult times, supporting local becomes much easier when the product is so good and the owner is well-liked. I expect to have many more visits to try the wide variety of coffees...

The atmosphere here is really nice and suits the neighbourhood well but I had an experience that would probably stop me from ever coming back. The person who served me was very nice and helpful initially but when it was time to pay by card he 1) didn't tell me price 2) didn't let me choose my own tip (I'm 99% sure he actually inputted the tip amount himself which might not even be legal because I didn't agree to it???) and 3) didn't turn the machine towards me so I could see/double check the info. I just had to tap blindly. I was so caught off guard that I didn't even have the chance to question it in the moment. It really soured my experience and I probably wouldn't come back or recommend this place to anyone else even though it was hopefully (!) just a one-off experience.

EDIT: thank you Viktor for being so kind in your response. It does make me feel better about the situation, though I would maybe recommend that you at least turn the console towards the customer so they can see the total because it would increase customer trust (sometimes people input the wrong amount, etc.) and it would avoid future problems like this. Regardless, I respect this business and I wish...