Next Stop Cafe — Restaurant in Winnipeg

June 22, 2020 Next Stop Cafe A Review by Hassan Hawash

The day finally came when my daughter and I decided to make our next stop along Pembina Highway be the Next Stop Café. Making our way inside, from that first smile upon entering Mona and Payam’s café you will be met with a freshness borne of country bred warmth. It’s really hospitality at it’s finest. I soon learned they are from a city not too faraway from Tehran, the capital of Iran.

They only just recently opened their café during the month of June, the delay was due to a little unforeseen interruption, as opposed to the intended March opening. On this occasion, a family friend Mayada, also from Iran, escorted us to our table. She, with her oh so noticeable beaming effusive dimpled smile, with the friendliest of personalities played the perfect host. The questions I had to know more and more about Iran could hardly be contained if not for my daughter’s grumbling stomach.

We had had a brief little exchange with Mona where I asked a bit about her country. She was ever so happy to share what she knew as I would be about ours while overseas. The background music caught my ear and curious to know about it’s origin asked if it was from Iran and sure enough it was. Light background classical piano.

Soon enough it was onto the menu. Perusing through the various pages, there again was a decided Iranian spin on some of the menu items. Variety, I reminded myself, is like a change which I understand is as good as a rest, refreshing. I learned that there is a nod on the menu toward vegans as there is to halal meat for those families looking to have a bite outside.

We both decided to tuck into chicken souvlaki wraps after deciding to call it an early lunch as opposed to a late breakfast. These wraps were very generously filled with grilled marinated chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, red onions, feta cheese and tzatziki sauce. It had to rank right up there with the most stuffed wrap that I ever had in a restaurant. My daughter felt the same about hers. She followed hers up with fresh watermelon juice. It was ever so fresh. I even took a sip. Delicious! I decided to go for the Cobana smoothie which included banana, coconut, coconut milk and date. The inclusion of the date again reminded me of the Middle Eastern touch. When it came to order, have our place cleared and settle the bill there was a user friendly button to push on to signal Mayada to come back. She came very promptly the couple of times that we needed her attention.

Upon leaving I noticed a wall mural. I could not help but ask if it was a painting from Iran. I was curious by the lettering on the license plate of the car in the mural – very same like I have seen in Arab countries. There must be a story to the scene on that mural. Curious again. What might that story be? Old meets new it appears to be. What do you interpret?

With all that said, Payam tells me that he and his wife have been in the café and restaurant business for going on 30 years. They most certainly have the experience it takes to be successful in Iran. Hopefully, the same will hold true here in their new...

Next Stop Cafe is awesome!! Conveniently located for many people (I live in the South), my guests came from the East...a small parking lot but there's lots of street parking...so no worries there.

The service is awesome! The waitresses are always very kind, informative and knowledgeable.

The food is delicious. The times we've come, we have tried many different things...koobideh, burgers, chicken wrap, tea, and more...the burgers are where it's at though! Delish!

The decor is beautiful...I love the lights...images...however, one thing which is sort of out of the restaurants control (I say sort of and I'll explain why, with a suggestion)...there's been several visits where we come and unfortunately it's mostly adults visiting with a couple younger kids...and because the adults want to visit, they don't tend to the kids and literally on two occasions had kids RUNNING around the larger table that the adults were seated at. No one said anything. To navigate this as a restaurant, the waitress or a manager on site could address the adults in the party to please remind their children to play at the table or to be calm and walk around the restaurant (if they want to permit that...it's way better than screaming and running). The restaurant can also have colouring pages and crayons and if they don't want to offer it for all kids at the beginning, they could have it as a tool in case they notice kids could benefit from some quiet, engaging activity. Just a suggestion. I remedied this by order pick up the next few times. Unfortunately going closer to closing doesn't help either because the kids are there then too.

Overall great experiences. I've been several times, happy with all the menu items...there's literally something for everyone or most dietary requirements.

Thank you and all the best!

I'll have to post more photos soon...they are in...

I had business in the area and was looking for a place to burn an hour and a bit, I saw Next Stop Cafe and decided to give it a go. Staff are extremely nice, responsive, and courteous. I wish I remembered the name of our servers because all were a pleasure!! We decided to go for the port style wrap... Let me say, that this was absolutely delicious!!! If I wasn't pressed for time I would have ordered another, or a different wrap! Fries were crispy, we picked the basket clean, pretty much licking up the sauce from the wrapper. The atmosphere was very relaxing, and I really enjoyed the mix of chill guitar. The server robot had us staring at it the entire time, with a cute cat face on the front, and it spoke to you as it departed your table, it even sang happy birthday to the table behind us!! The server-cat-bot does not run into you, even if you are standing in its way, it will go around and complete it's route, so cool to watch! And one of the best parts (In my opinion) was the milkshakes... If you are willing to fork over 8$ at Starbucks, save your money and go here instead for a treat. Better quality, made fresh in house, and if you get it to go it comes in a cute to-go can/bottle hybrid container. We had the Nutella milkshake 30 minutes later, and we had to try really hard not to finish it in 30 seconds, it's that good! I can say with 100% certainty that we will be visiting here again in the very near future, and try different items from the menu. Keep up the great work staff and server-cat-bot, if I could give another 5...