Aidan’s Coffee & Food (West Hastings) — Restaurant in Vancouver

I visited this café for the first time and wanted to try something local or popular. Since it wasn’t clear from the menu, I asked the staff if they could recommend one of their most popular items. Unfortunately, the first person I spoke with didn’t seem to understand what I meant, even after I tried asking in a few different ways. Eventually, another staff member came over and suggested something that other customers often order.

While I appreciated the effort, I still didn’t feel very welcomed. The interaction felt cold, and the staff didn’t come across as genuinely friendly or eager to help someone new. The overall atmosphere made me feel uncomfortable, so I decided not to stay and asked to cancel my order.

However, they told me the food had already been started and refused to issue a refund. At that point, I could clearly see the coffee hadn’t been finished, and I ended up waiting nearly 10 more minutes for the sandwich to be ready. Based on my observation, it didn’t seem fair or transparent.

I chose not to take the food with me and left it behind. I paid for something I never ate, simply because the staff wasn’t willing to be flexible.

Overall, In my opinion, the service was unfriendly, unprofessional, and lacking basic fairness. I wouldn’t recommend this place—especially to someone visiting for the first time or hoping for a warm, welcoming experience.

Update (July 22, 2025):

I would like to acknowledge the owner's prompt refund. While the financial aspect of this issue is now resolved, the owner's public reply on Google Review has unfortunately created a new and more serious issue regarding professionalism and respect for customers.

My original review was about a single, poor service experience. This update is a necessary response to how the situation was subsequently handled in public. My detailed reply is below:

Aidan, thank you for the refund. However, I feel your public response on Google Review is even more unprofessional and disappointing than the initial service issue—especially in a place like Downtown Vancouver, where professionalism and respect are the bottom line.

Your apology feels insincere when it is immediately followed by public accusations. In my view, you chose to adopt your staff's one-sided story on a public platform to label me as "rude" and "threatening," which makes me feel this isn't about taking accountability, but about shifting blame.

In fact: I requested to cancel at the counter while still in line, moments after paying. The coffee-making process had only just begun and was far from complete. After being rigidly refused, I ended up waiting nearly ten minutes for an order I no longer wanted, which I ultimately left in your shop, untouched. It is fundamentally unreasonable to deny a customer's immediate request based on an order that was nowhere near ready. Your subsequent choice to issue a refund and publicly post my bill ($17.31)—an act that, in my view, disrespects customer privacy—reinforces my impression that your approach appeared to focus on the money, not on respect.

In my opinion, the management approach your response exposes—using public judgment in a way that seems intended to discourage customer criticism—is perhaps more alarming than the service failure itself. This only strengthens my conviction in keeping the one-star rating.

This was never about the $17. It has always been about professional respect—a principle that, in my experience, you have now failed to...

Took way, way, way, too long.

If you can't handle the crowd, let them know while they are ordering that they'll wait for over 30min near the counter.

The line was so bad three different people I've never met and I were complaining the entire time, this is not a single man's opinion. People were irritated in general.

Edit: Your lack of taking responsibility here is probably the direct cause of the bad customer service. The fact that you were busy is no excuse in my opinion. If getting a simple coffee and sandwich order takes ~30 minutes (even when you do hear your name being called), you should make sure to mention that while the person is ordering. Same with respect to me not hearing my name called - I understand that you called my name and I didn't hear, still I think it's well expected that after 15 minutes of someone not picking up their order, you would make sure to call that person again. Regarding the clapping - I'm terribly sorry that this insulted you, that was definitely not our intention! We were genuinely happy to get our food as we had somewhere to go and were afraid we were not...

Ordered an iced americano and the three-cup chicken to go. Service was amazing, the gentleman behind the counter had such uplifting positivity- it really brightened my mood. After a short wait with my coffee, my meal was ready and the staff member behind the counter informed me that they still had many baked goods from this morning left over (it was 1:30pm) he asked if I would like anything. The doughnuts looked quite tasty so I said that I would have one of those and took out my wallet. He said he wanted to give it to me for free and would not accept my money. I felt bad as I had not tipped for take out. I will definitely return and tip next time to return the favour. Amazing establishment would give it more than five stars if it...