Breka Bakery & Cafe - Fraser — Restaurant in Vancouver

Tl;dr: be careful ordering if you're Celiac

Breka's food and drinks are great, if a bit spendy. That's not in dispute. Their breads are amazing, the Bienenstich is top tier (we're from Germany and have grown up with this cake), their donut game is dope. The service and atmosphere leaves a little to be desired. The latter is the fault of them being an exceedingly popular location with inadequate parking and a small space for how intensely popular. I get why they haven't moved; it's the flagship location and if you're from the neighbourhood you know the history of the location so moving would be a bad choice. The service though...yeah I'm left with the impression that their hiring managers perhaps have a bit of an implicit or explicit policy of hiring international students who are likely a bit vulnerable/naive to local labour laws. It's not like I'm sitting here going, "they're taking our jobs!", naw. I'm sitting here going, "jeez, I hope they're not taking advantage of their staff".

HUGE NOTE for Celiacs. If your autoimmune disorder isn't so bad that you're able to walk into a non-GF bakery, be advised their GF items are often on the bottom shelf of their display case. I politely suggested they keep their GF items on the top shelf so there is a lower likelihood of crumbs from non-GF items falling into the GF items. The gentleman at the till rolled his eyes, said, "really?" (his voice dripping with disbelief and a complete lack of caring) and then told me my total. Listen, I get that it's perhaps unreasonable to expect a non-GF bakery to not have any cross contamination with their GF items, but maybe at least try? Also, I'm not 100% convinced their mango coconut mousse is, in fact, GF. I'm not Celiac (just gluten sensitive) so it's not a huge deal if I have a bit of white, refined flours but after not quite ⅓ of the mousse my stomach started feeling the way it feels after I have a forbidden bite of a donut...

This is not the first time that’s happened but it happened again so here’s my experience. I ordered a drink and did not tip. The first time around when I didn’t tip, my drink took an awful long time for them to make. It didn’t bother me that much and it was the first time happening so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe it’s just how they like to react from seeing a lack of tip. The second time around, maybe months later when I didn’t tip, I ordered one drink to go. The numbers of readied orders were going above my number so I thought they were serving customers that actually tipped first. It turned out they didn’t even have my order, that they most likely threw it away from lack of tip? I was still polite despite how agitated I was. The drink turned out bland, way too watered down so I wanted to get a refund. They took their sweet time to look for the receipt and when trying to proceed my refund a female cashier asked me to insert the card into the machine. When inserting my card it will prompt me to enter my passcode which wastes a bit more of my time. I had all the time so that’s why I stayed to get the refund. She just wanted to waste my time to satisfy her ego so she told me I couldn’t tap and insisted that I insert my card. She covered the tap part of the machine from preventing me to tap but since it’s portable I took the machine from her and proceeded to tap, which not to my surprise worked conveniently. I would have given everything the benefit of the doubt but when she showed that she wanted to waste my time repeatedly just because I didn’t tip, here’s the story for anyone who is interested to know what they’re really about. Somehow I have a feeling that it hasn’t happened to only me. Does breka give conditional service based on tip or no tip? Is this the foundation of Breka’s...

I'm obsessed with Breka! IYKYK. If you DON'T yet, well you should! 24/7/365 people! Need I say more?? Every Dingle Day or night that you have a craving for a delicious absolutely delightful pastry, donut, sandwich, panini, pie, cake, tiramisu.. i mean the list goes on and on - You can go there and fulfill your heart's desires! And yes, you heard me right - 365 GLORIOUS days of the YEAR!! And don't worry, if this location is off your beaten path - there are 7 locations in the lower mainland all serving up the same delights. So if you're a local or you're new to town or just here for a visit, I HIGHLY recommend finding one of the delicatessen bakeries in your travels around the city and try it for yourself! You will NOT be disappointed...you may, however, be upset with me for letting you know about this place, because if you're anything like me and have any sort of sweet tooth, this place will completely change the way you look at donuts and tiramisu and all sorts of beautiful things you've tried in the past. To say that there is no comparison you can't but what you can say is that this stuff is what Tim Hortons and the like should strive to be... **PS: I highly recommend the créme dè caramel donut or the hazelnut one...the Apple fritter has got to be pushing 1.5 lbs of deliciousness... To name just a few... Ok that's it for my pep talk/ motivational speaking for today - so cheers and sending my love where love is needed. Thank you, BREKA, for delivering quality products and service every day of the week. Signed Your loyal patron (and...