Fern Cafe and Bakery — Restaurant in Victoria

Honestly I’ve been here over a dozen times because it’s in the neighborhood and I love to support local. The service is consistently unfriendly, the baristas are borderline rude and have zero interest in serving you. The food is okay, it’s great that it’s vegan but the burgers always taste very odd. The desserts are great, but expensive, it’s $6 for a small brownie! Also crazy they don’t offer free refills for their drip coffee, it’s $3.50 for a small mug and $1.50 for a refill. Of drip coffee, nothing fancy! I go here because I want a local vegan experience but I have to grin and bear the consistently unfriendly service and overpriced coffee and desserts. The staff always seem inconvenienced to have customers.

EDITED TO ADD:

In response to your reply…. Several local cafes offer free refills of drip coffee. For example, the Parsonage Cafe at the corner of Caledonia and Cook. And the drip coffee is high quality locally roasted beans by the Fernwood Coffee Company. Discovery coffee also offers free refills! So maybe check your facts before criticizing your customers’ knowledge!

Last time I was at The Fern (last week) we were the only customers in the whole cafe and the barista went out of their way to dry and polish cups and wipe the counter down before even acknowledging us. We were standing there for quite awhile, it was awkward.

EDIT 2:

I understand getting a mixed review isn’t ideal, however I’m curious how mine is “full of untruths”. I’m simply sharing my lived experience in your cafe. I have been referencing my experience last week but this is not the first time the staff have been standoffish or seemed annoyed to serve customers. I understand that my experience is not a common review, but that does not make it “full of untruths”. Free refills at Discovery and Parsonage have been my recent experience. Perhaps I have somehow gotten lucky? Bubby Roses also offers free refills on drip coffee. Little June offers free refills on...

I’ve been vegan for almost 10 years. The fact that this is the only vegan cafe and bakery in Victoria definitely works to Fern’s advantage, because there’s nothing to compare it to. We ordered the buffalo chickun burger, breakfast sandwich, cream of mushroom soup and a cinnamon bun. When you sell a product that’s imitating a non-vegan item like chicken burgers and cinnamon buns, you’re going up against the real thing. I’ve had non-vegan versions of these and vegan versions of these.

First off, the cinnamon bun didn’t actually have any cinnamon flavour, just the subtlest hint of cinnamon. The dough had a good texture, but that was the only good thing about it. Unless Fern is doing their own unique, less sweet, much less flavourful version of a cinnamon bun, they definitely missed the mark.

The cream of mushroom soup was basically water with floating spices and some mushrooms - no cream seemed present. Lacked seasoning and basically was unfiltered mushroom broth.

The chicken burger was very disappointing. The breading was great, with lots of flavour, but none of that matters when the texture of the actual vegan meat inside is like a sponge. No other way to describe the texture. Squishy and airy are not the kind of texture you want in a faux chicken product. One of the burgers had one strip that barely took up 1/3 of the bun, the other had 3 small pieces that did a better job, so consistency is also an issue.

Will not be coming here again and will be suggesting to others to tread lightly around Fern Cafe. Giving it 2 stars only cause the food came...

They do not have wifi here, which was super surprising as it is a cafe. When I asked about it I was told that they were "pretty strict on keeping it a restaurant," but if I have to wait 10 minutes for my food, some internet would be nice.

The chicken burger is pretty good. It comes with a very mild sauce which provides good flavor. The chickun itself is textually good, but I think they need to work on seasoning. It's very mild and I know there's something there, but I can't say I enjoyed the flavor or lack thereof. I read comments saying their burgers didn't come with enough chickun but mine was overflowing to the point it fell out of the bun. So no problems there! The price for the burger seems pretty fair as well.

The lemonade was disappointing, $3 for a very small cup. I wouldn't recommend it. Definitely not worth it. It made my gut hurt right after drinking it which typically only over-sugared, low quality lemonade's do.

I give two stars as the staff were very friendly, but the food was just ok. Nothing made me want to come back unfortunately. I was really excited because a friend recommended the fern but I am a bit disappointed. And no internet? Really? I have to say that's a first for me at a cafe. Gave me the impression that they really just want you to get your food...