Roots Café — Restaurant in Vancouver

Coffee shop atmosphere but with more substantial food options - diner food like burgers and poutine plus the standard premade wraps and baked goods. Coffee/tea and beer/wine to drink. Lots of seating. It seemed like I came at an off time, and it was nice and quiet. Veggie burger: The falafel patty was a little crumbly but very tasty. I got the salad for my side, and was glad to see that it was a pretty substantial pile of salad since it costs $3 to upgrade from fries. Everything in the salad was fresh. I liked the cranberries and crushed walnuts. The vinaigrette was more oily than I would've liked. Vanilla blender (with espresso): Pretty good. Nice taste and not too sweet. I thought it could've used more ice, but maybe I just waited too long to drink it. Looking at the baked goods display, I saw they have the same brownies, cookies, and bars that you see at quite a few cafes in Vancouver that don't do their own baking... I've tried most of them at various other places and would say they're mostly so-so. I do like the deep dutch brownie but everything else is just too sweet. Coffee shop atmosphere but with more substantial food options - diner food like burgers and poutine plus the standard premade wraps and baked goods. Coffee/tea and beer/wine to drink. Lots of seating. It seemed like I came at an off time, and it was nice and quiet. Veggie burger: The falafel patty was a little crumbly but very tasty. I got the salad for my side, and was glad to see that it was a pretty substantial pile of salad since it costs $3 to upgrade from fries. Everything in the salad was fresh. I liked the cranberries and crushed walnuts. The vinaigrette was more oily than I would've liked. Vanilla blender (with espresso): Okay. Nice taste and not too sweet. As an iced latte I would've had no complaints, but as a blended drink, I thought it could've used more ice... but maybe I just waited too long to drink it. Looking at the baked goods display, I saw they have the same sandwiches/wraps and baked goods that you see at quite a few cafes in Vancouver that don't do their own food prep... I've tried most of the baked goods at various other places and would say they're so-so. I do like the deep dutch brownie but everything else is just too sweet and that's the only thing you can taste. I would definitely recommend ordering off the menu for something put together in house rather than getting something out...

Extremely rude server ( the tall young Indian guy). Never coming back.

Ive been here two times. The first time I loved the place for its message (local cafe with friendly comfy environment) and serving as a community meeting point etc. The staff were friendly and we ordered food and drinks and things were good. We spent some time working on our project and left planning on coming again.

The second time was vastly different. We occupied the same corner seat as the last time, (we were three and had 3 laptops so pulled in an extra table). Suddenly the music on the sound system starts blaring really loud. Everyone in the place was disturbed and so I went up to counter and politely asked her to maybe see if they could turn the music down. She apologized but then 2 minutes later, the server ( tall thin young Indian guy) walks up to us and very rudely asked us to not use 2 tables. We were surprised since there were 6 empty tables in the cafe and no real rush.

So we asked him what the issue was. And he says" anyway you guys come in every week and dont buy anything". this was baffling since this was only our second time there. We did buy things the first time and were planning on it this time too but of course after such treatment, theres no way we will ever set foot in the place again. There was another gentleman who had complained about the sound volume too but he seemed to have picked us because we were brown and an easier target in his mind. Totally unacceptable service.

Cafes are in the business of being s third place to hang out, meet, and buy drinks and food as you spend time there. The money comes from building a relationship. Not selectively mis treating customers on their second visit. Very unfortunate since I would much rather support a cafe like this over a starbucks. But with servers like this, I would prefer not to be yelled at for no reason and go...

I went in to roots cafe Saturday May 5th at 1:15pm. I asked the girl at the front in a red shirt if it was okay I still ordered the breakfast sandwich taking into consideration their cut off was 1pm. She said no but you can still order the waffle breakfast as that's our special for the day. I was a bit confused seeing as it still came with eggs and bacon. I asked her if she wouldn't mind asking the cook if it was okay I still ordered the breakfast sandwich as it was only 15 minutes after. She told me I could order a BLT and then I said sure can you please just add some egg to it - as it wasn't a matter of price. She then replied "breakfast is a hard no after 1pm". I was so shocked at how rude and ill accommodating she was being to a customer I decided to not even get the Americano I had ordered. I would appreciate it if roots cafe hired cashiers to work at the front desk who are more experienced in customer service and know how to keep guests coming back. Rather then the rude and strict girl in red who was just straight up denying and making no effort to see if the cook would accommodate my request. At this point roots cafe has lost my patronage and I will tell my friends and family of the bad customer service experience I had here. I have been a server for over 5 years and I would never treat a guest the way...