Gutenberg’s Cafe

This place is a mess. The menu is so janky, half of it is whited out which makes items hard to understand. You can’t spend $ 50 on new menus to not look like an absolute dive?
The vegetarian omelette is the «regular omelette» (no description of what’s in the regular omelette) with cucumbers and carrots (wtf?!). :/​
Our waters came in paper cups? The server was clueless. I asked what was in the veg omelette and she said vegetables and eggs. Thanks. It says it comes with hashbrowns or toast, she didn’t ask for my preference. I stopped her and asked what kind of toast they have she said she didn’t know. I asked if I could get a side of peanut butter, she said they have syrup.
How are you still in business? If I wasn’t so hungry right now I would leave. Get your shit together.

Very glad we didn’t just walk on by. Very unassuming interior, but the food was really good. Wonderful hollandaise, perfectly cooked poached eggs and the hashbrowns were really quite special. I love bacon, and mine was cooked just right.
Service was polite & friendly and my request for a substitution was gladly accommodated. Very good value too! Next time I’ll add a freshly squeezed juice to my brekkie

Worth the wait! Really well prepared breakfast, cooked to order. Incredibly delicious french toast. Very friendly staff. I went there 3x on my recent stay in Vancouver and highly recommend.

It’s an interesting concept. Given the name, you’d think it was some kind of german deli, but it feels more like it wants to be an old school japanese-​style european café. The other problem is that its food isn’t significantly better than McDonald’s across the street or the many other options on Robson. And for the price, it definitely isn’t that attractive to me.
The owner/​manager was attentive to a fault and I feel bad giving a poor review. The food was just ok, not spectacular, and given the wait even when I was the only customer there, I don’t know if I would ever come back. What they could have done to give me the wow factor was to give me a lot more food. If you’ve been to the best brunch places in the city, they pile on the carbs. So add some heaping portions of hash browns or a few pancakes. It would probably cost less than a dollar, but it would make the plate look a lot more impressive. In general, they just need to do things to make the plate impressive, and not concentrate on the service. People will go to restaurants with crappy service if the food is either amazing or feels like a good value. Sadly, this restaurant in its incarnation is neither.

Don’t judge the book by the cover. This little small café is located at the corner spot and hidden from the street.
We came here for brunch before the game started. I ordered the egg benny which came with wild smoked salmon and side order of hash brown. My egg benedict was good looking on the plate, and great in taste. The poached eggs were made just right. The hollandaise sauce was scrumptious. The side order of hash made me to die for :) Appreciate the home style diced hash from the kitchen.
The place is small but comfortable. The service is prompt and courteous. Will come again and try out other menu items soon.

Do not waste your time or money. While the staff is friendly. The food is mediocre at best. I ordered the salmon bagel. There was a picture on the menu of a delicious looking meal. Mine arrived and was nothing short of a disappointment. It was a bagel with cream cheese (too much but I always think it is too much), lettuce (not it the pic on the menu), two of the most measly pieces of smoked salmon I have ever seen, one ring of red onion, and 2 slices of cucumber (not even enough to get a taste per bite), 5 capers (ummm ya). My boyfriend originally tried to order a omelette which they were out of… How can you be out of components of an omelette?!? So he ordered a classic eggs Benedict which came out with lunch ham… I will say the eggs came out correct and the potatoes were good. Anyway, I would not bother with this place. Vancouver has some phenomenal eating establishments, this is simply not one of them.

This place is great if you want to waste an hour of your life!
We were staying at a nearby hotel and came in around 9−10am to order breakfast to go. Placed my order, paid and the cashier tells me it might be a bit of a wait because the cook is making breakfast for the large party over there. I look and see a table of 4. There were maybe two other people in the place at the time. The cashier asked the cook how long and informed me it would be another 20 min before he was done cooking their order and then he could start on mine.
«But you’re a restaurant, how is it that you can’t prep meals for multiple tables at a time?»
«No we’re a café, not a restaurant.»
Unless Canada has very crazy definitions of restaurant vs café, this was the most insane thing I’d heard in awhile, so I asked for a refund and left.

Wow, owner is fine but staff I dealt with at counter was so bad. Asking to get a receipt after paying with credit card was like an arduous task for this person. Maybe I caught her on a bad day but not good.
Can’t really say the hot chocolate we got was anything beyond average either.
Also, their garbage can in the danged café itself was overflowing with, well, garbage.
Not a good first (and last) impression at all.

By far the worst meal and experience I’ve ever had in Vancouver. The staff was overwhelmed by a mere 5 customers to the point where there was a 30 minute delay with the food being delivered. For a quick service café, this place was anything but. Very disappointing. Took me 15 minutes to even get coffee.

If you’re being let down and pushed around by fast food franchises stores in downtown area, take a load off at Gutenberg’s.
Gutenberg’s café is unpretentious diner style food. I’ve especially loved coming here for breakfast. One of the few places you pay $ 10 for quality food for the most important meal of the day. Great and inexpensive spot to meet for breakfast, a casual meeting or a even a hockey game. This is a local, independent owned store, serving neighborhood communities. Greasy spoon café, and most of menu is breakfast related items… all the good old goodies. Don’t expect a trendy or pretentious environment, do expect one that is true to the neighbourhood… prices are reasonable, attitudes are sincere. They are kid friendly! Choices of waffles, pancakes or crepes with fresh fruits to choose from.
Quite frankly, I’ve been coming this place for a few times and I did not see any negative stuffs about this restaurant. Restaurant has friendly staff, good service and tasty food. Speaking of food, I only had breakfast here and can not comment for others stuffs that I did not even taste it. If you want to have nice breakfast based on eggs and French toast. Go for it.
Lastly, I’d like to enlighten people who are looking for review not just garbage of people. Some people execute and revile the places unfairly due to experience that they had. I saw lots of good reviews about bad restaurants and lots of bad reviews about good restaurants. Mostly about the mistake that they did or slow service and extra charge for something. Get over it and stop the criticizing for one perspective by not regarding other factors.

Breakfast served ALL DAY? Seems pretty legit, especially when it’s after 11 am and you’re about to hike the grueling Grouse Grind. But eggs aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be…
To be fair, after we placed our order they cashier warned us that there was going to be a bit of a wait– fifteen minutes, she said. Granted, there were only two other customers in the restaurant, but we had ordered a decent amount of food so I figured it was passable. We were, however, assured that our drinks would come out right away.
«Right away» apparently means almost 10 minutes later. As a previous employee of Einstein Bagels, I can state from experience that a green tea latte and fruit smoothie don’t take that long. After we’re halfway into our drinks, one of the cooks comes out to say that my lox and bagel is «coming out soon,» but they just realized they were out of crêpe batter, so my mom changes her order to french toast. At least 5 minutes later they come out with the bagel and a refund for the crepes, but apparently didn’t register the French toast substitution. Worst of all, the cook’s excuse was that «it’s been REALLY busy this morning.» Aka, about 10% of the restaurant’s seats were filled. At that point we gave up and left.
To their credit, I wound up with an amazing green tea latte and a pretty good lox and bagel. To their discredit, it took them forever to tell us they were out of our order, and it took them legitimately half an hour to prepare a toasted bagel with lox, cream cheese, and spinach.
On the bright side, they did unknowingly prevent me from overeating.

Overall, strange and poor breakfast. first we were told to sit and wait for the server since we were eating in. but once it got a little busy, the one server got busy. so then we had to go up to the counter to pay. also, got silverware but all cups and plates were paper — why? i had the crêpe with cheese and spinach. it was bad. hardly any cheese, the spinach was raw and sprinkles on the outside of the crêpe. it was not good. the waffle was not good, low on chocolate sauce. the «bowl» of fruit came in a plastic cup, difficult to spear out of the cup, the honeydew was so bland tasted like daikon. salmon bagel was ok. server was perfectly nice. overall poor.

This is a fairly cozy place. Menu *looks* enticing enough when you read the signs outside the shop. So we finally decided to give this place a try after walking by it for the 100^th time.
Honestly, the food is overpriced for what it was. Besides the freshly cooked eggs (mine were sunny side up, and they were undercooked as you could still see runny, clear, egg white), everything tasted like it came out of a frozen Costco pack. That includes the sausage, hash brown, and bread. Also if you make this a sit in restaurant, I would expect real plates, instead of disposable paper ones. Overall it wasn’t worth the $ 12/​portion we paid for.
This place sits in no man’s land for me — there are cheaper places in the area for the same quality, and higher quality places nearby that has the same price point. So I won’t be returning.

Great customer service.
A little couple always smiley and sweet.
The crepes are Ok.
I’m not a fan of paper cup, plate etc…
Really???
What a waste…
Affording a dishwasher would make so much more sense.
And also the service is pretty slow.
Even if the place was empty every time I came in.
They are open for couples of years as I know.
So I wish them all the best with their business.
But I will not coming back…

The only reason this place is getting any stars at all is because the staff were really lovely.
Unfortunately, everything else was just awful… I came in because I saw on the sign outside that they had gluten free options. Just got diagnosed with Hashimoto’s which means I can’t have gluten anymore (thankfully, in Vancouver, not as hard as I expected) and that street is mostly McDonald’s and some little greasy-​spoon places, so I was excited to see a nice-​looking place that was available to me!
The guy behind the counter was incredibly friendly, suggested the Mediterranean hummus sandwich when I told him I was vegetarian, and then suggested the soup. Something «eden» I think. It was about $ 13ish all in, which I thought was reasonable for a fancy bakery sandwich and soup combo. He asked whether it was «for here» or «to go» and I said for here.
… enter my meal:
a tiny, TINY sandwich ($ 8 for that, really??) on GF bread that I recognized as being the Silver Hills GF bread, which isn’t the best GF loaf out there to begin with… AND it’s poorly wrapped in a massive sheet of paper, AND my soup is in a PAPER container… and this is the part I hated the most:
with a plastic lid on.
I said it was «for here», right? Why on earth would you serve me in a «to go» container? I thought it was a mistake, but a glance at the (uncleared) table next to mine showed two paper plates. Guess these guys are using disposable EVERYTHING. Which, in my opinion, is unforgivable for a dine-​in. What a waste.
The sandwich was incredibly unimpressive. The soup was alright, but way too spicy. I like spice, but it was like someone dumped a tablespoon of cayenne pepper into my sad little container.
Never again. Next time, I’ll go to McDonald’s and get fries or something.

Just had a renovation, and the current staff really trys to bring that extra friendliness towards eat customer.
So even though the food is a little more than the MacDonald besides it, it is nice to drop by for a change.

Walked by several times and had to try their Belgium waffle with fresh fruit and whipped cream — it was delicious, fresh, and tasted great! They also have almond milk for their lattes!
Will return again, the location is convenient, service was prompt and professional, and the restaurant itself was very clean and welcoming. Perfect for working on a laptop or reading a newspaper, they even allow dogs on the patio.

I wasn’t sure about this place at first but I looked it up on Unilocal and saw they had All-​Day Breakfast. On a rainy morning when you’re super hungry, this place surely satisfies. I went for two eggs over medium with a couple German sausages while the family had the waffles, OJ and a smoothie. Everything we had was pretty good quality and tasted like they took their time to prepare it well.
Certainly a spot to remember for the next time I’m in the area.

It was pouring rain.
I was desperately seeking the Fat Duck food truck while simultaneously looking for a wifi connection and a hot beverage. So I ducked into Gutenberg, hoping to cross the last two off my list and settled in for a work call.
First off, i’m too old for this place. It’s obviously a student hang out as lululemons, laptops and that unmistakable look of too much coffee, too little sleep and eye twitching, mid-​project nerves is alive and well in here.
The set up is surprising. A few bar stools, a few comfy chairs, some mismatched other things. It looks like a depot of assorted café furniture. But it’s comfortable in its own way and the price was right so I ordered a chai latte and set out to check their wifi.
The next 30 minutes I would spend here were not unpleasant but they did seriously lack on a few departments.
First off, though their wifi was ok inside, when I had to take a call and ducked onto the patio, as to not be that loud talker in the corner, my signal dropped almost immediately.
Secondly, the chai I had was from a mix. Way too sweet for my liking.
And lastly, the bathroom was super messy. And there is nothing that I am more nitpicky about then a messy bathroom.
From other reviews, the food sounds promising, but I definitely didn’t make it that far. Would I go back? If i’m in the area again, and it’s a Monday afternoon, and my feet are cold and wet and JJ up the street is closed… yes, maybe. But I wouldn’t go out of my way. Not bad but definitely meh.

The coffee is awesome !
I’ve also tried their mocha and green tea latte ~ the green tea latte is smooth and has natural taste of vanilla. It’s more round of flavored.
and the environment is relaxing , which is a great place for having an afternoon tea :)