Trafiq Cafe & Bakery

Everybody be talkin’ ’bout the cakes… I be boastin’ ’bout the sandwiches…
I remembered the name Trafiq from Unilocal reviews I’ve seen in passing. Any Unilocal review that has Main Street, pretty much means the same to me as Surrey, Langley, Whistler, Squamish. I just don’t get out that way.
EXCEPT
…for when my better half has plans to sell baby clothes on consignment. Of course MAIN ST is the haven for that. After like three hours of rummaging through clothes and hand picking the best items we took off to Main street on a HOT Sunday. We left the clothes and had 45 minutes before we would know what they picked.
We walked up and down Main and nothing caught our eye until
TRAFIQ
I KNOW THAT NAME…
We walked in and immediately were made to feel welcome by the staff. We saw lots of cakes and tartlets and such, but we needed food, food.
ABC — easy as…
We had the APPLE BACON CHEESE sandwich
Stop the presses
Go get this masterpiece and a chocolate chip cookie.
Then PM me your thanks
g

Amazing Cakes!!!
Specially the lavender lemon cake! wow! Service is very friendly and top notch! love it! Its my go to place for cakes!

Great place for a coffee and sweet treat! The cakes are to amazing ! The grilled cheese with bacon and onion jam, hits the spot every time. Downside to this gem is that fact they don’t have wifi as they try and flip tables. Not a place to go study. Considering it sits within feet of two other coffee joints, this place stands it’s ground!

CAKE, CAKE, CAKE. Shoutout to my cuzzo for hooking me up with a slice of the Vanilla Salted Caramel. TO. DIE. FOR. I just can’t even. I know I say that often but seriously. I went today and they didn’t have any of the salted caramel slices to give me so I opted for the Lemon Lavender and the Mango Coconut.
Yassss to the Lemon Lavender!!! I’m on the fence about the Mango Coconut and I may be biased as I love lemon ice cream and lemon cakes LOL Both cakes weren’t too sweet and the sponge portion was soo soft and semi chewy. I can’t even describe it.
Definitely NOT dry. The slices are a bit pricey at $ 6 each but they are HUGE slices. I can’t say too much about the savoury foods there but I did see a lot of people order food in to eat so the sandwiches might be tasty. I’ll be back to try other things but for now I’ll just inhale all these slices of cakes hehe.
Paid street parking is available in the front and on the side. A couple doors down from sawasdee!

I’ve been to this bakery before, many many years ago and I wasn’t at all impressed. Today, I stopped in for an Americano. All the baked goods looked so good and to be honest it took a lot for me to just leave with the coffee.
Besides gluten free options, they also had some very nice looking sandwiches.
It’s a spacious bakery, very busy, great for a coffee date or a meet-​up with friends. The staff are very friendly and pleasant.
This visit totally changed my first opinion of many years ago. I think next time I’ll probably indulge and get a slice of their many delicious looking cakes.

This delicious bakery will satisfy a discerning sweet tooth! My friends and I stopped in after lunch for coffees & dessert. I had a mocha and a slice of the chocolate marble coffee cake. It was a massive slice of cake but actually light, not dense or heavy or too sweet. Friends ordered the carrot cake and I had a taste. It was really good; I might have to order that next time. It’s a busy place but we managed to get a table for four. All the baked goods look fabulous so I’ll have to make several trips to sample them all!

Best earl grey & lemon lavender cake ever!!!

My first experience there I ordered take out — a 12 oz latte, a butter croissant, and a slice of Homage to Earl Grey cake.
I did expect the place to be a bit run down (not sure where that expectation came from though?) but it’s actually very clean and spacious — I saw people sitting down and working on their computers.
The workers are friendly and seem to often build relationship with regular customers.
I was mainly after their cakes, as lately I am in the search of some traditional sponge cake with honest buttercream (does that make any sense?). You know, sometimes you want to be fancy with places like Thomas Haas and Thierry, but sometimes you just want to eat a slice of cake, but God-​forbid please don’t let it be Safeway cake.
I was SO IMPRESSED with the Homage to Earl Grey cake. It was everything I had dreamt of — a bouncy sponge that’s not dry or metallic, a honest buttercream that is not overly sweet or dense, and that intense bergamot flavour… yum! The Earl Grey flavour really translated into this slice of cake, and that’s not something you can get just anywhere. At $ 6/​slice, it was really filling though — I shared it with a friend.
Since I was there on my morning coffee run, I grabbed a latte and a butter croissant. Their lattes are always made with 2oz espresso — good. I wanted to cut down the calories, so I opted for 1% milk. It’s not the best, but that could be my fault of using non-​whole milk. Will reassess one day when I feel less fat so I will order whole-​milk. The butter croissant LOOKED disappointing as it appeared a bit charred — indicating that the pastry will be crunchy and hard. Have I had better croissants elsewhere? Yes. Is this good enough I will buy it again? Also yes. So basically the surface was a bit hard but the inside is flaky airy goodness — clearly the croissant dough was folded many times to produce this fluffiness. However, I’m not sure why they had to over-​bake the outside? I think some people prefer this.
All in all I can’t wait to return again to try their other cakes — I’ve got my eyes on the salted caramel and lemon lavender. I would prefer to sit down one day over cake and coffee with a friend, too.

This is one of my go-​to places for cakes. I love their lemon lavender cake! Their Earl Grey cake is not bad also, very light Earl Grey flavour so even my friend who hates Earl Grey enjoyed it. But the ultimate guilty pleasure here is the chunky monkey! I think it’s basically chocolate banana bread but made with croissant dough, it’s soooo goooood!

I really enjoyed their hot chocolate and mocha selection.
Being able to choose the percentage of chocolate intensity is a nice feature !

Their cake’s description on the sign besides the cake is different than the description from the menu. I’m writing according to the menu description.
I can’t taste the Earl Grey in the chocolate ganache in the Earl Grey cake due to the bitteress of chocolate. The taste of Earl Grey in the Earl Grey — white chocolate mousse is not strong due to the mix with white chocolate. The mousse is smooth, creamy, and light sweet. The vanilla cake is course-​condensed; sweet but not too sweet.
Chocolate Decadence — The small chocolate dome on top of the cake slice is a chocolate paste ball — slightly sugar sweet with bitterness. The bitter-​sweet chocolate mousse is creamy, little sweet with bitterness. The devil’s food cake — same texture as vanilla cake with bitterness. The dark chocolate ganache is the most bitter component of the cake.
Mini pumpkin tart — sweet caramelized nut bits on top of the spiced light sweet cream. The taste of the spices can be stronger. The pumpkin purée inside — not sweet and taste natural. The pastry tart skin is not too sweet with butter taste.
I didn’t try the lemon lavender cake because the sign says the cake slice is made with lemon curd, lemon mousse, with a hint of lavender. This is not the same as their menu desciption: vanilla lavender mousse, lemon custard, lavender whipped cream, vanilla genoise. I don’t know which description is true. If there is just a hint of lavender in the cake then I don’t know if I am able to taste the lavender. I don’t want to buy just the lemon cake slice for $ 6.
The portion between the mousse and the cake is good. They charge their cakes with a high price within the neighborhood because of the amount of ingredients that they put into the cake, and also their cakes look fancy. The blonde short hair woman packed my cake slices into separate boxes and then put the boxes into a paper bag. Her service is better than the black (grey) short hair woman with glasses, who seemed not wanting to talk. Both food and service of this place are not exceptional; the place is only seemed to be exceptional within that area. I will only come here again if their service is better, or if I can’t find the flavour of the cakes elsewhere.

I’ve been here a few times now and am always soo impressed with their cakes! I’ve only tried their cakes but all of them have been delicious!
Coconut mango cake — this is one cake where you can definitely taste the flavours that are in the name. It reminded me a bit of the mango mousse cakes you can get from chinese bakeries but the flavour was even stronger than those cakes. Perhaps this is a personal preference but I felt that the flavour combo was a little too much by the time I got through the entire slice… The coconut was so strong that I felt sort of gross having ate so much of it. Also found this cake to be a little sweeter than I would have preferred.
Chocolate decadant cake — so much chocolatey goodness! This cake was not too sweet and had a really good ganache coating. The slice came with a decorative truffle-​like chocolate on top which was a nice add. Overall, good cake if you need a chocolate fix.
Earl grey cake — this is my FAVE cake at Trafiq, I think I am biased because I love earl grey, but it’s a perfect mix of flavour, combined with their top quality light cake texture but isn’t too sweet as well so you can keep eating it without feeling sugar overloaded!
My one qualm is I feel that the coffee/​drink selection is not up to par with their quality of cakes and snacks. I feel a little disappointed if a place is known as a café (ie. serves pastries and sweets along with savoury items like sandwiches) but doesn’t have a good coffee mix to go with those treats. While I love the cakes, I would also love a good cup of coffee to go with it so I can clear out the sweetness from my mouth!

My favourite café in Vancouver! The food is delicious. I love the Green Goddess sandwich. They pastries and cakes are fantastic… Lavender Cake is the best!
One of the owners who works at the counter is always kind and has a sweet smile on her face, even when it’s busy!

Cool place, friendly staff however it’s deceiving… They advertise organic pumpkin spiced latte however it’s not fully organic. Just the pumpkin is. The milk, which is more important to be organic, is not!
Also I don’t believe they use non-​gmo ingredients (specifically sugar and flour).
The only thing I have here is their tea. It’s loose leaf tea and delicious.
They only have two gluten free option for sweets and they do have GF baguette available for their sandwiches.
I only come here if I have no place else to go when in the area.

Love their Earl Grey cake. Fancy, subtle and chocalatey rich but not overly so.
What I’m not in love with is their ordering system. I placed my birthday cake order 36 hours in advance and ended up with a phone call at 5pm the day before saying that they’d basically sold my cake. Well, what exactly is the point in me reserving then?
So be warned, if you have your heart set on a cake from them for an occasion — you could be disappointed.
I didn’t have time for a back up cake, so I tried their lemon lavender. It was good for what it was, but the flavours were too soapy for me.

Quaint little coffee shop along the stretch of Main that has a bunch of other coffee shops.
Parking is available on the side streets.
The atmosphere is modern, with a touch of hipster. The layout is nice and spacious, with several tables available outside as well.
Staff are friendly and professional.
The pastries and desserts looked good, though I didn’t try. Gotta love coffee shops like these.
The mountain berry iced tea I had was quite tasty. Not too sweet, and quite a bit of tang. My friends had coffees and all of them agreed the stuff here is quite good.
The one curious thing is that the trash receptacle is quite inadequate for the volume of traffic. Trash was spilling out the top. The staff even had to resort to sticking our straw wrappers elsewhere. Definitely and eyesore. Hopefully they put a larger trash can in on the premises.

Only had the Earl Grey Cake and it’s very whimsical and pretty. The cake is very moist and light. Not too sweet which is nice. Would love to try some of the other items soon.

can’t stop buying cakes from these guys. I’m known now for being the guy that brings awesome cakes to parties. We’ve had the lemon lavender, the chocolate decadence, and now the opera! Seriously you want to impress people at birthday parties, or retirement parties, stags, lol any party that involves cake or even ones that don’t. Get a cake from these guys you WILL NOT regret it!
Hannah says we need to cut out sugar until we lose our winter weight gain but how can I do that while eating Trafiq’s cakes?

CHOCOLATE DECADENCE.
That’s it, just Chocolate Decadence — it will change your friggin life!!!
Rick introduced me to this place and their heavenly cakes. We have tried their lemon lavender cake for a friend’s birthday and it was delicious. For my birthday Rick finally fulfilled his dream of trying the chocolate decadence. I’ve been eating it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert and I am not ashamed. SO good!!!

Yummy! Just ate a lemon tartlette and this donut with pecans all over it wow. I’m definitely interested in going back to try some more goodies.
Second visit was even better. Pleasant, very clean and air conditioned environment. The croissant ham and cheese is incredibly good. The soy latte was good and very beautiful.
The customer sevice is amazing. It was very friendly, inviting and accomodating. You will get better service here than Starbucks… if it’s the same 3 women that I had the pleasure of meeting. You have to go here!