Purebread Bakery + Coffee — Restaurant in Vancouver

One of the only 'Grab and go' spots near this part of the main, Purebread is a mainstay of the neighborhood and a regular lunch spot of mine. A classic 'upscale' hip cafe and bakery that Vancouver has become very famous for in the last couple of decades located at the north end of the apparently 'cultured' Mount Pleasant neighbourhood(it is not cultured but I'll let the provincials play pretend if it suits them). It offers coffee and a plethora of freshly baked goods, usually quite good and heavily differentiated from other bakeries and cafes in the city.

This location is conveniently located and has an aesthetically pleasing interior, although the layout does not lend itself well to customer movement and, as such, has become the topic of considerable fervor; I mean, just look through the negative reviews here. The good of this location is that it's easy to get to and the food is good.

However, I usually try to get in and out as quickly as I possibly can.

I find the service at this location unbearably slow and not particularly customer-oriented. Staff frequently ignore you to finish whatever task they're currently working on before serving you, which is seemingly sensible, but it often leads to you waiting for several minutes, and often, when they're not doing anything time sensitive, it is incredibly annoying. Often, the staff seems inattentive to what else is going on in the establishment, leading to confusion when you finally manage to go pay.

I find several of the staff to be standoffish and rude, bordering on hostility, which is incredibly unusual for a cafe/bakery. They can be extremely short, if not curt with me. Also unusual is the physical similarities between every member of staff; it's as if a hipster cult of femininity cloned themselves and decided to open a coffee shop, to each their own I suppose, but it's a bit jarring in a city as wonderfully diverse as Vancouver. If you do manage to get to the till, they also greet you with a tip screen on every transaction, which I find a bit rich when they're charging you 9 bucks for a pastry in the first place. Add the 18% into the price up front if it means you're paying your staff a bit more. If I'm paying 9 bucks for a pastry, I'll pay 10 bucks, haha.

Anyway, good food, terrible service, and weird antisocial staff, even...

It's a nice place, they have a big variety of baked goods and there's definitely a feeling like their heart is in the right place. Service is pleasant, atmosphere is nice. Looking at the interesting flavours of stuff I was expecting top quality.

Unfortunately I found the sweet baked stuff to be heavy, stodgy and too sweet. Definitely fresh, and I don't think they were skimping on ingredients or anything, but the recipes themselves just don't seem very good. Icing needs less sugar and more butter. Specifically, lemon loaf with blood orange icing and this thing that was like a piece of carrot cake done as a sandwich cookie, with icing between two hunks of carrot cake stuff. I mean, lemon loaf is often a bit heavy--but this was far more so, just totally dense, lump in the stomach kind of thing, while the flavour was . . . OK, but not strong. I didn't get the impression there was any lemon zest in there, nor did the blood orange flavour of the icing zing, and both the cake and the icing were too sweet. I'd rather eat lemon loaf from Starbucks, and I am no fan of Starbucks. The carrot cake thing again was . . . OK flavour, but heavy, and the icing too sweet. Definitely not at the quality level of, say, the carrot cake at Turk's on Commercial. A dark chocolate cupcake thing was better, but could again use to be lighter and with a tad less sugar and more cocoa, both in the cake part and the icing. Meanwhile, my wife's coffee was very good and my hot chocolate was very standard.

It's a pity, because it seems like a nice place with a good feel and good service and some good flavour ideas, and effort being put in. But the execution in the actual sweet baked goods is lacking. My expectations might be too high, but it's not a cheap place.

I can't speak to the savoury stuff, like scones with cheese and such; I've heard that's pretty good. If I go there again I won't...

The service at this bakery is awful. When I got there, there were already people waiting and there were staff at the back just talking amongst themselves and only two staff at the front cash. No one was taking our order. And it was just to put baked goods in a box, which shouldn’t take too much time. When a staff came to the people waiting, she didn’t greet any of us. I said “hi”, no hi back. Told her the items I wanted and put them in a box. I saw the stamp cards, and I inquired about it. I asked if I can use this card for this purchase to get a stamp, and she said “no, just coffee”. I saw another card and asked if this card and asked if I could use this stamp cards for the desserts and baked goods I bought? She said “no, just bread!”. I was puzzled, as there’s so many baked goods and I didn’t see any loaves of bread displayed and this looked down and tried to ignore me. Her tone was abrupt and she looked annoyed and as if she didn’t want to talk. So I refrained from asking her about the products or how the stamp cards work. She didn’t explain or introduce the cards. I said thank you. This staff didn’t say anything and spun around and went back to talking with other staff. She didn’t reply with a ‘thank you for coming in’ or anything. I just wanted to leave, and I did. As the experience didn’t make me feel welcomed. I am not sure 🤔 if I will come back to this Purebread bakery (near Ontario street, Vancouver, BC) as I didn’t like the service I received. It seemed unprofessional. I think this staff needs some customer service training. It is too bad, last year, another staff was very nice and friendly and welcomed me and helped me with their selection of coffee. They don’t wear name tags either, so it is hard to distinguish which staff are wonderful and which ones need re-training for...