Cafe Medina — Restaurant in Vancouver

Firstly this sucks to write, I first visited cafe medina in November 2018 when first moved to Vancouver and had an awesome experience. Since then I’ve recommended this spot to several people and visited around once a year since then. This most recent experience however was so poor I feel it is important to share.

My partner and I arrived around noon. We were greeted by an employee at the front of house who informed us it would be around a 35-45 minute wait. Although there appeared to be several open tables we deemed it reasonable and waited outside. Over this time while we waited we saw countless people appear to go into the restaurant and get immediate seated. We had assumed that they had all already joined the waitlist and were returning during their window this was until a two person party approached us to ask if we were in line. We replied no you have to go in to join the waitlist only to see them enter and get seated immediately. We continued to wait for our seats, where most concerningly we noticed a trend where certain ethnicities were seated immediately when others would be told “we will text you in 35-45 mins.” When I went in to complain I had ‘conveniently’ timed it perfectly as our table was now ready. Later on I asked a table next to us who had been let in 15 mins earlier whether they had been put on the waitlist or not; which they hadn’t.

I should note I am unsure whether the profiling of customers is the under direction of the restaurant or just the actions of the employee who was working at the front of house. I think I overheard his name was James however that may not be accurate he was a taller guy with a receeding hairline.

Once we were sat we ordered coffees. Both mine and my partners drinks were enjoyable. Our waiter was nice enough. We ordered food which took around 25 minutes to arrive which felt long for some advacado toast and some waffles. My partners food was also served several minutes before mine leaving us unable to eat at the same time. When my waffles did arrive I was shocked to immediately notice a hair underneath one of my waffles. Due to its positioning there is no possibility that it belonged to myself or my partner (see photo). I noticed it as soon as my plate was placed but my waiter had already left so I had to signal to another waiter to have them exchanged. When I did finally get to eat the waffles they were very tasty but by this point the visit had been wholly unenjoyable and I was ready to eat as quick as possible and leave. My partners advacado toast was very tough to cut leaving a mark on her finger from the knife as she had to press so hard (see photo). Her toast did taste “okay” as she put it. The next table over who had ordered the same thing described theirs as bland.

Overall I left this most recent visit sad. My perspective on what had been one of my favourite brunch cafes in the city has totally changed. Despite finding hair in my food none of our meal was comped, which I didn’t really care about but maybe speaks to how little customer experience matters at Medina Cafe.

Do not...

Look, all I'm saying is if you're technically having breakfast with Owen Wilson (because he's sitting 2 tables away) then you've clearly chosen the right place to have breakfast.

My wife and I visited Medina on the morning of our last day visiting Vancouver. It was around the corner from our hotel and the menu looked promising. We cursed ourselves for not doing the "reservation by donation" option when we showed up early enough on a Saturday morning when we discovered a crowd and an up to 45 minutes wait. (The only way they take reservations is if you make a donation to a charity via their website.) No matter, we had time and got ourselves on the list. The wait wasn't too long and the host was very attentive to the waiting area so we didn't feel lost or ignored in the crowd.

She also, after being seated and noticing our server had some delaying complications at another table, came over without being prompted and stepped in to take our order. We felt really well taken care of.

Everything we had was fantastic. The Tea Sparrow English Breakfast tea service was spot on for my wife. The coffee was on point...excellent even. (Sadly, never a guarantee at breakfast restaurants...they got it right here...as strong as it needed to be.)

We both ordered single "liege waffles"...Belgian style waffles just don't get better than what we were brought...they're inexpensive too...though they can go up quite about with the available add ons which are plentiful...I opted for maple syrup (when in Canada...) and butter (when having waffles...) I really loved it and could see myself gorging myself into a waffle stuper eating liege waffle after leige waffle. Thankfully I had a cruise ship to get on so we avoided that crisis over over-waffleization. (But I could easily fly back for more!)

We also loved the Roasted Potatoes, Smoked Cheddar with Lemon Aioli. The potatoes couldn't have been more perfectly cooked and were an indulgent delight with the smoked cheddar they were mixed with. (The aioli came on the side which is good as I'm not a big fan of mayonnaise of any kind.)

Considering the volume of available and delicious looking vegetarian options on the menu, it's a miracle we got out after only waffles and potatoes...but, Harissa Burger (vegetarian option available), Paella, egg dishes and couscous...plus the fantastic coffee and thoughtful drinks of every kind...plus the really well done design and atmosphere of this place...it's no wonder it's Owen Wilson's choice for brunch...it definitely would be ours over and over if we lived...

March 20 afternoon. We are still shocked regarding a staff member at Medina and his behaviour - male, mid age, purple button down, blue eyes, lighter hair, acting as host/some kind of authority on the side. Not our server. Among items ordered, avo toast - add one egg. It didn’t come on the top, it was presented on a side plate with a bunch of green onion ‘garnish’ not a sprinkle but a lot. We didn’t expect that. Not an allergy but a preference/intolerance, did not want the egg with onion reasonably thinking an add-on egg would be plain added to the toast. Our server with no issue took the egg back for a remake - just the egg. Our server offered to take the toast back too, but that would be a waste & we of course declined. Then this male we will call Mr. Purple described above without introduction swooped to our table in tone and attitude while we were enjoying our other items & abruptly states “did you tell your server you have an allergy?” Like I’m in trouble (or the server is)…what!? No, this is not an allergy case. That was the truth. Mr. Purple wouldn’t let up arguing with us at the table that an allergy should be told to the server and I explained it’s a preference/intolerance there’s a difference and we didn’t know the egg was piled with green onion garnish. Meanwhile this ONE egg is being remade can he leave us in peace? It gets worse. Post egg delivery Mr. Purple comes up AGAIN with tone and says abruptly “I took your meal off your bill” not kindly more like a flip off to us - not with apology and grace and we didn’t even ask for a discount! He swoops off. As if that wasn’t bad enough and it is nonsensical and totally inappropriate, after our meal and tipping our server $20 for a bill of 4 waffles, 2 lattes, toast and one egg (ie generous tip), Mr. Purple stops us at the exit so close I had to put my hand up for safety and personal space it’s on camera and with elevated tone and voice says “just so YOU know, the menu has information on allergies and ingredients”. This guy should be fired! We had NO gripe ever nor did our server. We had ONE egg remade. This guy wouldn’t let up it’s crazy. I can’t even imagine how he treats those close to him if this is how he treats female guests just enjoying an...