cowdog (kits) — Restaurant in Vancouver

Today was my day off so I went to cowdog to start my day right. I have been to both locations before and they're both absolutely stunning. The Oak St location is a really cute and humble place with all the baking production happening there. The Kits location, where I went today, looks like a stylish but comfy luxury apartment.

I usually spend about $40-$50 just for myself because I only go once in a while on my days off so I might as well splurge on their treats and drinks that live up to the hype. I've tried all of their baked goods from the Oak St location and they are absolutely bomb especially when arriving upon opening. Everything is baked fresh and tastes the best warm out of the oven. To me, the cardamom bun is the best because it tastes like fall with a crispy exterior and pillowy soft interior. The hojicha cookie is nutty, sweet from the white chocolate, and savoury too from the flakey salt and walnuts to balance it out. The pasteis de nata is like the hong kong egg tart but slightly more elevated with its flakey exterior and even richer custardy egg filling.

I'm calling myself out here but I buy the iced strawberry matcha and iced hojicha latte just for me but today I bought three drinks to consume in one sitting. I have no shame though because I'm supporting a local business that delivers on the quality of their products. Those two drinks I mentioned, ABSOLUTELY recommend. The iced strawberry matcha is silky smooth, the strawberry syrup is perfectly sweet and compliments the earthy taste of the matcha so well. The hojicha is also super silky smooth with a comforting roasted nutty taste. - I also recommend to order them with oat milk just cause I feel like I taste the matcha and hojicha more and they also don't charge extra for oat milk since the higher than average but justified price is already reflected on the menu. The third drink I got today was the frozen matcha slush and it is unlike anything I've ever had before. It tastes like the Haagen Daaz matcha ice cream but not too sweet with more of the tea's complex and umami flavours. Even when it melts a bit, it doesn't get watered down and the taste and texture only gets richer. 10/10!!!

The baristas are super friendly and the service is quite fast. Today, the slush machine was taking its time to come down to temperature and the baristas were struggling to keep up with demand so it was really nice of them to offer refunds or alternative drinks to make up for the waiting time. I had all the time in the world to wait so I did and it was well worth the wait! Honestly, I'm aware they don't do tipping but sometimes I wish I could to let them know they're doing a good job.

Finally, cowdog does an excellent job with keeping up their social media prevalence and doing most of their marketing there catering more towards younger adult audience that dominates Instagram and other audiences as well . It's also really nice to see them engaging with their customers by sharing their customer experience stories to their own page to show their genuine connection to the community.

I know this is a really long review but it highlights a lot of the things that makes cowdog live up to the hype and convince others to have an amazing cafe experience with them time...

had the frozen matcha, really creative, great concept, perfect consistency, nice umami flavour, addictive, and being a slush it made the drink last a lot longer than a regular iced matcha. I don't think I'd be able to get it again sadly as it spiked my blood sugar and ended up having a bad sugar crash an hour or so later and put me in a terrible mood. I don’t know if its that they make it with sweetener or oat milk as it doesn’t may on the menu but i usually avoid both of those due to sugar spikes. nether the less they are one of my top 5 matcha spots in vancouver for the tonic matcha. gave a 3 for food as much of the drinks are sweetened by default, the matcha lattes just taste like milk not matcha, and they don't have traditional coffee orders on the menu (e.g. cappuccino, flat white), would also love an almond or soy milk option alt for oat milk. gave a 3 for atmosphere as its still a bit of an awkward vibe that feels like a fan club or that people are there for instagram rather than a nice coffee shop, but it's still tastefully decorated and they made the layout well to account for long queues without ruining the vibe for people sitting. service is...

I understand why cowdog (kits) was always so busy when I walked by… That is also why I decided to go on a Saturday, to test the speedy-ness of the coffee shop, the quality, etc. during a rush hour. And boy I am not disappointed…

I got the chocolate chip hojicha cookie with sea salt sprinkled on top, but there was also a delivious-looking cardamon bun as a different pastry option.

As for the coffee variety on-sale, they had a solid variety to choose from, I almost got a bag for myself, unfortunately, I also need mine ground on-site which these guys, fairly, don’t offer.

Most of all I think this is a matcha place, everyone would get the strawberry matcha or the hojicha drinks. I am a coffee person so I begrudgingly went for the simple iced latte (begrudgingly, because I am a coffee specialist, and getting coffee at hip places every time either backfires, or surprises me).

Long story short the oat iced latte was excellent, they do have great bean on espresso and know how to not burn it… With the hojicha chocolate chip cookie, it was a heavenly Saturday combo.

FYI this is a stop-by for coffee kind of store, not a stay-in...