Fernwood Coffee Company — Restaurant in Victoria

Service was friendly. These employees are honestly trying their best with what they're given -- and arguably are going way beyond. Atmosphere SHOULD get a 1 due to owner space-configuration (loud, crowded, uncomfortable), but the service sets up a positive ambience & I think customers are unperturbed as they expect their coffee/breakfast/brunch to emulate the rigors of Spartan survival to some extent.

I was disappointed by the quality of my meal. I've been to the Fernwood location on North Park which is less crowded and serves better breakfast sandwiches. My basic bagel bacon + tomato breakfast sandwich was dry, underseasoned, cold & lackluster (I couldn't finish it & regretted paying $10 for max $3 of ingredients prepared poorly*). Finally, I spent $5 on a "cappuccino". I have worked as a barista for about 5 years of my life & have family who own coffee farms (so I have intimate knowledge of coffee from sowing to roasting & am further informed of multinational trading practices [including how the global north economically rips-off the global south re:coffee production]). I couldn't even recognize my "cappucino" since the amount of foam was almost indiscriminate to my friend's latté. Excuse me! A cappuccino should be 1/3 foam! Truly, it was the cappucino-coffee disgrace that disappointed me: I won't fault a coffee shop for poor food, but I most definitely will for failures at producing the most basic espresso drink.

• max 3$ purchase is what the average consumer would pay for the ingredients at market price; whereas any business is purchasing ingredients in discounted bulk. This café spent less than a dollar on my breakfast sandwich ingredients. AKA I spent a logarithmic mark-up on ingredients for a logarithmic mark-down in...

We ordered a vegetarian sandwich, a bagel with two toppings, and a Maple Shay Shay. The food was fresh and enjoyable, and we were happy with our experience—until we were about to leave.

When we finished, we looked around for a spot to place our dishes, as most coffee shops usually have a dedicated station. Not seeing one, we asked the barista for guidance. He replied, “Put it on the tray there,” but didn’t point or indicate where “there” was—despite the tray being right in front of him. "Here" is the word dude! "There" is used for things which are farther away!

To clarify, we asked again, and instead of calmly showing us, he responded by aggressively tapping on the tray five times. It came across as unnecessarily rude and dismissive first thing in the morning dealing with this. It left a sour end to an otherwise pleasant visit. Won't go again as i don't want to spoil my mornings dealing with such staff despite the food.

Response: Yes it was today in the morning. Thanks for your response. Language differences can happen but a courteous attitude goes a long way in ensuring a good...

I've gone here 3-4 times and every time I leave disappointed. Their coffee is meh(I've had drip, mocha, latte, all lacking in strong flavors) and when you order a cold brew they just hand you a can of carbonated coffee that even when you buy the sweetened one, it tastes bitter and artificially sweetened. You would think for a place that makes their own beans they would have fresh daily cold brew...

Their pastries are bad. You might as well go down to Patisserie Daniel a block away that has real pastries. The first time I went there I ordered a brownie and they went through finishing the transaction only to tell me they were out of brownies and to pick something else. Disappointed, I chose a cookie that I didn't really want. It was hard and had little flavor. The next time I ordered a brownie and it didn't have a strong chocolate flavor and was way too dense for a brownie, it was like a mini kind-of chocolate brick and very similar to something you would get at Welburns.

I definitely will not be going to Fernwood again even if it is the closest coffee shop...