Bready Cafe — Restaurant in Vaughan

It was my first time visiting Bready after having it on my bucket list for a while, and I finally stopped by on a Sunday morning around 11:30 am. To my surprise, the place was absolutely packed! Every table was taken, and there was a line to order. The crowd made it a bit hard to assess the cleanliness at first glance, but I did notice an employee quickly wiping down tables as soon as customers left, which was reassuring. Overall, it seemed decently clean.

Bready offers an impressive variety of options, from self-serve pastries near the line to those displayed behind glass that require employee handling. Their menu is extensive, including pastries, breads, drinks, and dine-in items like French toast, eggs Benedict, and sandwiches. While I appreciated the large, easy-to-read menu posted high up for customers in line, it was frustrating to discover that one item, the Vietnamese Cold Brew, wasn’t available during the winter. Since the menu is handwritten, it would make sense to update it seasonally to avoid confusion.

My mom ordered one of their Winter Specials, the Pistachio Latte ($6.25), which we both enjoyed. It wasn’t overly sweet and had plenty of real nuts, making it a nice treat. I opted for the Bueno Latte ($6.25), also a Winter Special, but I found it too sweet for my taste. I wouldn’t reorder it or recommend it, as the sweetness overpowered everything. I can only imagine how much sweeter the hot chocolate version might be, given it lacks espresso to balance the flavor.

As for pastries, I grabbed a Hazelnut Croissant ($6.50) from the self-serve area, and it turned out to be one of the best croissants I’ve had in a long time. It was wonderfully flaky yet soft, with a crunchy top that added texture and real nuts that elevated the overall experience. The filling was perfectly distributed and hit just the right level of sweetness. It was fantastic! We also picked up a Pear Croissant, but I haven’t tried it yet—so stay tuned for my thoughts on that one.

Update - the Pear Croissant was also delicious! On another visit, I also tried their Caprese Panini. I liked that they warmed it up, but it was too toasty, on the verge of being hard and hence, there was no chewy texture from the focaccia. The flavors also didn't come through as strong as I had hoped so for $14, it didn't feel worth the price tag. As a personal preference, this sandwich also had olives which I detest (I was easily able to pull these out though). I was, however, pleasantly surprised that the sandwich came with a side salad which had a delicious dressing to pair.

As a first-time customer, I signed up for their rewards program, which came with a free pastry from a select list. Unfortunately, redeeming this reward was a hassle. Despite it showing up on my account via their online ordering system, the employee at the register couldn’t find it in their system and repeatedly told me there was nothing she could do. This was frustrating and left a poor first impression. In the end, I placed the order through their website and showed her the confirmation, which resolved the issue but added unnecessary steps.

Service was otherwise friendly, but the space was quite loud, which made communication a bit challenging. We often found ourselves raising our voices to be heard.

All in all, despite a few hiccups, I’m intrigued to return and try more of their offerings. With such a wide variety on the menu, there’s...

Mixed feelings about Bready, definite room for improvement.

Environment:

Love the environment and style of the cafe, the space is open and bright. The space is generally quite clean, and tables are constantly being bussed and cleaned by staff. The only issue would be overcrowding at times, making it difficult to find seating. They would highly benefit from more organized seating and a host/hostess, especially as it can get so busy.

Service:

Generally good and friendly service by front-of-house staff. The owner, Mika, is very friendly, knowledgable, and actively engaged in running the cafe. Her effort in this business is very visible. I'm not too familiar with the business dynamics, and don't know how the partnership affects this business. However, I assume that it may be dragging down the service quality, as it has other businesses.

Food:

Can can be great at times, and poor quality at others. It does depend on what you're getting, but from my experience, usually whatever is made-to-order by the kitchen does not pass high-standard quality assurance.

At a previous experience at Bready, I had ordered an Avocado Toast. It took 30 minutes for an unbelievably small portion to come out, with very little avocado on it, even though the cafe was empty.

Today, I had ordered a Fig & Pear Salad with chicken for take out. Everything was fine, except for the chicken. It tasted extremely off, had pink spots on it, and was poorly presented. Meals should never go out like this.

Though I have more experiences with food quality issues, I will not currently be expanding on them in this review.

Overall:

I would still recommend going to Bready for a nice coffee or pastry. However, food quality assurance by the kitchen definitely needs to be improved.

*This review may be edited and/or photos added at...

I was excited and hungry to try this brunch place when walking in. But as I lined up to order, I noticed how unorganized and crowded the tables were. Chairs were bumping into each other, people were hovering to take a seat. Even though it is a brunch place, their tables are first come, first serve, meaning even if they have a single drink or pastry, they can still sit there. The tables were all in a random orientation, with different sizes and styles of chair all over the place. There were no waiters, which is perfectly fine, but this led to a lack of attention to cleanliness and the upkeep of the tables and chairs.

We ordered brunch items but it was unfortunate that we had plans to take it out because grabbing a seat was nearly impossible… luckily, we ended grabbing a seat after all.

When the cashier helped us, she placed items upside down in the take out bag and then put boxes on top of our croissants so everything was falling out. She forgot to give us a buzzer and did not sound very enthusiastic.

I had the Croissant Benedict on the menu, which the cashier had recommended. Although the flavours were good and the portion was nice, the croissant was cold. The only warm thing in the dish were the eggs. Everything else felt like it was just thrown together. It was quite a disappointment as you would think it is very normal to toast or warm up a croissant before serving it for a brunch item.

Lastly, I had the lychee iced tea. The menu does not mention that it was just plain unflavoured iced tea with lychee popping boba for lychee flavouring, which was unexpected.

Overall, I wish the place had cared and thought more about the details in making it a better experience...