Urbana Coffee

This place is weird. It’s one thing to be in a hipster/​indie coffee shop but there is always a level of professionalism. Here, it doesn’t appear so.
I saw the two barista’s just sitting and chilling on the customer couch and I wasn’t even sure if they worked there or not. Usually I wouldn’t mind that so much. However, looking around, the place looked a bit disorganized as there was a) Only one coffee «slip» thing left, a couple of lids and like just two or three stir sticks b) A staircase downstairs which had a ladder (possibly the stock room).
This place just screams of indifference. However, sometimes I can look past those few things if they are busy or have really good food or beverage. This was not the case. The coffee here wasn’t warm and tasted like it had been in the carafe for at least 3 – 4 hours. It was terrible. I couldn’t even drink ¼ of it. I dumped it and ended up making coffee in the instead.
Overall, there are much better indie coffee places in the area. I’d rather go to Tim Horton’s than here.

Was here trying to kill some time. Bought the cappuccino which isn’t terrible, but the breakfast bagel isn’t amazing. I wish they had a wider food assortment instead of only pastries, beef patties and sandwiches. Some salad would be nice.
The interior should be cleaned up a lot more… the floors and seating area are all covered with grime. At 10am I dont think this is from existing foot traffic.
This place has so much potential since it’s in a great location, but sadly, it just doesn’t live up to expectations.

Ugh. After waiting in line for over five minutes while the guy who works here tries to up sell the girl ahead of me into buying a $ 20 gift card– and then making her two unimpressive sugary looking drinks, I ordered a small peppermint tea. It looked like a brand you may find at a dollar store– and tasted similarly, only it cost $ 2.25. Really? For a tea bag and water? Next time I’m looking for a tea fix I’ll head a wee bit north and go to either Golden Mint or Tao Tea.
I came here trying to relax on my lunch break and it’s incredibly noisy with all the employees friends coming to say hi and hang out at the counter. Really?
Btw– don’t bother With the gift card for wifi– there are other free providers in the area.
This place is loud and ugly– the atmosphere is dreadful– its dirty, the seats are uncomfortable, its loud, overpriced and I think it’s only a matter of time before its shut down.

Meh. I’d feel okay just leaving the review at that. This place embodies meh, I’ve had better.
I walk by every day on the way to work, so I thought… maybe this will be my alternative to Starbucks or (on days when I feel like being treated rudely) Tim Hortons. Nope. The coffee tasted burnt, in a bad way. And soy milk is 0.70 cents extra (I hate that.)
I was oversold on the 20 $ gift card. I like going out for coffee because it’s relaxing — I didn’t expect to have to say «no not interested» to some pseudo promotion (gift card — meh) repeatedly.
With the exception of the sales pitch, service in general was quite friendly though. But not friendly enough that I would go back again.

I couldn’t find a starbucks so I decided to give this cute little coffee shop a try. I ordered a double espresso over ice and I only had a few sips and threw it away. I asked to use the wi-​fi and the lady at the register told me to buy a gift card. No thanks. She was also not friendly at all. The interior is small but cute, that’s why they get the 1 star. I would definitely improve the service and coffee if they plan on staying in business.

Coffee adventure FAIL. This is my first 1-​star review EVER, so it says a lot! I came here to do some serious studying, and was in this neighbourhood so I figured this place looked like a decent option. Why oh why did I not read the Unilocal reviews on my phone before entering? :(
I started having 2^nd thoughts when the woman at the cashier was really pushy, telling me that I can’t use their wifi unless I get a $ 20 gift card thing which entitles the user to a free drink and 10% off everything. It sounds like a good deal right? But this is near Yonge/​Bloor and any place this central that has to try THAT hard to get customers is fishy… I was kinda in a bind though, so I forked over the $ 20 and had a large vanilla hot chocolate and got down to business.
The drink was fine. It would’ve been $ 4 though, which is pretty steep for hot chocolate (and the ‘large’ wasn’t really that big, just a regular mug).
The music was some lame radio station with a lot of ads and top 40. Not very atmospheric. Other than the radio, all I could hear was the lady pushing the «special deal» on every other customer…
But the clincher was when I went to use the bathroom. NO hand soap! (And it wasn’t like there was an empty dispenser or bottle… there was just no soap!!). Ewwwww. Good thing I carry around hand sanitizer but still… I stayed a bit longer because I felt like I had to since I paid that money to use their wifi… but as I saw more people enter and leave the nasty bathroom, it just made me feel really gross. All those people not able to wash their hands and then touching stuff… So I left and went to the Reference Library across the street. Worst part — I still have a $ 20 gift card to use up! Maybe I’ll try the marginally better (based on Unilocal reviews) location on Bay St… Wish me luck…

The coffee is fine, the location is convenient but I have been there twice in the past couple of weeks and each time I felt bombarded by their «promotion» of spend $ 20 and get $ 25. It’s posted all over their walls and I was quite aware of the promotion — but the barista kept pushing it on me until it just got awkward. When I didn’t go for the deal, she started on the baked goods, after telling her I just wanted the coffee, thanks, and that i had a gluten allergy anyway, she started pushing the bananas… seriously Urbana, if you’re reading this… you need to chill! Trust that people will read your signs regarding your promotions and if people don’t go for it, LET IT GO!

The atmosphere was decent. I got a great deal — $ 5 for $ 20 of food and drinks. I bought 2 sandwiches, a yogurt, 2 bottles of juice, and a slice of cake. The sandwiches were mostly bread and very little was inside. Cake was a little stale. It was a great deal, but there was nothing I tried that would bring me back.

So upset right now. Upset like Stephen-​Harper-​has-​banned-​cappuccinos-​forever upset.
I was really excited about Urbana Coffee. They’re a nice walk from where I live. They have a cute name «urrr-​ba-​nah» makes me think of Toronto and dark brown fair trade coffee beans.
This place reminds me to never get my hopes up.
First of all, the temperature in here is stifling. I feel like I’m sitting in a Pacific Rainforest. They try to create an artsy mismatched vibe through the furniture — which just comes off as being unorganized and yardsale-​esque.
In order for me to access the wifi, I had to purchase a $ 20 card. Which I did, my naivety thought «how hard could it be to use up $ 20 at an adorable café». Very hard… when all the baked goods are baked to rockhard perfection, the coffee and specialty drinks have no flavour, they even mess up green tea.
Never before have I so dreaded spending money…

Woah, people are really hating on this place! I’m not going to say this is best place in the world, nor could I really say this seeing that I didn’t stay in with my drink, but my experience was definitely not a one star. Just standard!
I got a spiced chai latte. It was nicely spiced. It was hot on a cold day. It was satisfying.
The best part was the baristo, whom I found to be very nice and chatty. He gave some good advice, joked about the how the signs aren’t up to date right now (they should really fix that sometime soon) and we wanted to stick around talking to him.
So there you go, no fireworks but no hatred.

This place sucks enormous donkey nuts.
The first time I went there, I was told that the only way to use their free wifi was to load $ 20 onto a gift card. Really? Starbucks, Second Cup and Timothy’s all offer wifi to customers completely free, but you’re (essentially) charging me $ 20 as a first-​time customer?
However, I like coffee and I’m always in that neighbourhood, so I fell for it thinking I would surely spend that $ 20 in a month. Only every time I went there, either the air conditioning was broken, the washrooms were covered in filth, or their wifi was down. It was starting to become an unpleasant chore to even use up that 20 bucks.
The final blow? I head there and order my coffee, and take more than 5 seconds to root through my purse for my card, and because there’s a line-​up behind me they start screaming «Come on! Let’s go! Pay!» So I finally throw them a toonie and say «I’m just looking for my card. Can I please have the wifi password?» (That’s the other thing. They change the password, so even customers who have been loyal for a year have to keep reloading the farking card to get the password.)
And they say «No! Card-​holders only!» And I stand at that stupid counter saying «Look, I have your card. It’s a green one. It has a balance of $ 11.63. My name is XX. You just served me 3 days ago.»
«Card-​holders only!»
«Then, what should I do?»
«BUY ANOTHER CARD!»
Thanks, I will buy a gift card — TO STARBUCKS.

My first experience with Urbana Coffee was unfortunately a poor one.
They have another location in Toronto, where according to my fellow Unilocalers, did not have a good experience with them. I was hoping that my visit to the Yonge and Davenport location wouldn’t be the same. Unfortunately this was not the case.
The coffee shop is situated in a prime spot with busy foot traffic from Yorkville. When I walked in, it looked busy with groups of people talking, some working on their laptops. Their free Wi-​Fi is one of their attractions and the reason why my colleagues and I decided to meet up to discuss upcoming projects.
Firstly, the Wi-​Fi wasn’t working. I didn’t have a laptop but my friends were trying to log onto the network, which wouldn’t connect. Fail.
Secondly, the food. I bought a lemon poppyseed muffin to go along with my double Americano, and when I brought it back to the table, I realized that it was hard. And stale. I will admit that sometimes I will eat stale muffins, the ones I make at home, but when I buy one from a coffee shop on a Saturday afternoon, I assume that it’s somewhat fresh. Did I return or complain about it? I didn’t, and I regret not doing so.
Thirdly, the food. Well, my friend’s food but it deserves to have its own paragraph to mention how disappointing it was. My friend bought a Dufflet’s lemon tart and after a few bites realized that it had an odd taste. It was stale. Again, it’s a Saturday, don’t coffee houses get a supply of food regularly?
With the disappointing food, unimpressive coffees and inability to do any work without a proper internet connection, my overall experience at Urbana is enough for me to keep going to Starbucks.