Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe — Restaurant in Vancouver

My infant was very nearly seriously injured when we came to this restaurant. I almost never write reviews, but I feel it's important to mention this in case it happens to someone else. My husband, our 8 month old son and two friends were seated in the back corner under an old air-con vent. Besides the awkward placing of a wooden plank right by my head, we didn't think much of it. Shortly after ordering our food, the metal covering of this large vent came crashing down and landed right on the baby's high chair. Luckily my son was in my lap at the time by pure chance, and the metal barely missed us both by a couple of inches (and that is not an exaggeration considering my chair was almost directly under the vent). We were immediately seated a couple of tables away and assured by our waitress (who did apologize sincerely) that this had never happened before. I was in such shock that I had to step outside from nausea, still clutching my child. In my state I didn't realize until later that it appeared the vent covering had been fastened by duct tape!! (As shown clearly in the photos) Never happened before? It was obviously broken and haphazardly stuck back on. My issue is not with our waitress since it wasn't her personal fault, but the fact that this vent was clearly and knowingly broken, and management decided to not only cut corners in fixing it, but were happy to place guests right under it knowing it could be dangerous. And sure enough, my baby was almost slammed with a large sheet of metal. Even as I write this I'm getting upset thinking about what could have happened to him if I hadn't picked him up out of that high chair a minute before. We stayed and I tried my best to enjoy the meal despite remaining very shook up. What is even more surprising is that there was no sign of a manager to come talk to us, no checking in later to make sure that I or my baby was doing okay and not injured, absolutely nothing further was done after we were re-seated. It was as if nothing happened. We were charged our bill and waved out the door with a "Have a nice day!". Very odd. Please get your vent fixed properly and don't seat people - especially...

Walking into this café felt like stepping straight into a 1980s European road trip, but not the cool, nostalgic kind—the kind where your tour bus breaks down, and you’re forced to eat at the only place within a 10-mile radius. The décor screams “IKEA met a flea market and they decided to live together forever.”

Our server was friendly but had the attention to detail of a goldfish. I asked for water—she brought exactly one glass, as if hydration is a privilege, not a right. My husband requested coffee refills for both of us, and she enthusiastically topped up only his cup, leaving mine tragically empty like my dreams of a hot, delicious brew. Speaking of coffee, it was cold and uninspiring, much like the customer service training this place probably skipped. And just when I thought I could salvage the situation with some sugar, she swooped in, snatched our teaspoons, and vanished into the chaos of the café, leaving us to stir our coffee with sheer willpower.

To be fair, she was running around like a contestant on a reality show called “Canada’s Next Top Multitasker”—seating guests, taking payments, and cleaning tables all at once. I almost wanted to cheer her on, but I was too distracted by my lukewarm coffee and the faint scent of regret.

The food? It was…fine. Edible. Not offensive. But if you told me I had to eat here again, I’d probably fake a food allergy just to get out of it.

Overall, Dutch Wooden Shoe Café is a great place if you love retro décor, accidental fasting, and watching your server play a real-life version of The Sims on high speed. Otherwise, maybe just grab a coffee somewhere else—one where they acknowledge that two people at a table might...

10th of December at 11am

The food was ok, though when we arrived at the restaurant, there was no waiter to take us to our table. After calling out for a waiter, they came out, though didn't greet us and just stood there. I was with my client, as I'm a support worker, so I asked my client to get their vaccine passport out, as I did the same. The waiter scanned our vaccine proof and told us to pick a table. Still did not greet us, just pointed. When we picked our sits, the waiter just gave us a menu and told us to call them when we were ready to order food. When we were ready, I called out twice, raising my voice. We could hear the waiter chatting to someone loudly. I had to go up to the to the desk to call for the waiter a third -forth time just to take our orders. After we had made our order, the food that we received was not right. At this point to actually talk to the waiter was annoying and trying to stay professional in front of my client. The disappeared back onto their phone in the back. My client just wanted to eat and get out of there.

I would gladly come back and talk to the owners. If they would like. Though the service was disgraceful and...