Gryphon Cafe

a little neighborhood gem. the coffee is all right, but the service is good and the surroundings are clean/​spacious. modern industrial décor adds a nice touch. not too crowded so great for doing work — wish this place would get more love

Gryphon is not trying to be all things to all people and that’s a good thing. That’s what La Colombe is for. They have a limited selection of higher quality items. Coffee is good. Plenty of seating (they don’t get a lot of foot traffic). The lunch menu is unpretentious and fresh. Décor is modern industrial and inviting. OK prices.
This is the kind of place where you can grab a decent meal, bust out the laptop, and finally start working on that paper without the rabid hipster crowd to contend with. The shop owners need to think about marketing and advertising to draw more customers because this is truly a diamond in the rough. People need a reason to detour into Olde Kensington.

Honestly their nitro coffee is great. My bf and I went almost regularly for a while, but we went away for a few days and when we got back the prices sky rocketed. I asked the barista what the price was for a coffee and he wasn’t able to tell me without checking. He also couldn’t tell me whether or not the prices went up and by how much. I guess we’ll just have to go to another coffee shop near by that has great coffee for less money.

We have given Gryphon many, many chances. Honestly we’ll probably keep giving them chances, because they’re the closest place for coffee to our office and their food/​drinks are actually great (when accurate to what was ordered). But the service here is THE WORST.
1. They are slow. Which is totally forgivable, except that’s not their only problem:
2. They basically never have what is posted on their food menu. They also won’t warn you of this until after you’ve ordered. Most of the time they’re not even sure of what they don’t have until after you’ve paid.
3. Food orders get mixed up regularly — once we ordered their Brussels sprout grilled cheese, and it was missing the cheese??? Recently we ordered the hummus salad and instead had a small salad and a cup of soup nestled inside the sandwich container (so strange).
We keep assuming these are just growing pains since they’re new, but now months have passed and nothing has improved. You could be so great, Gryphon! Maybe just get a manager who know what they’re doing?

This is a great café. It’s easy to walk by and miss it (it blends into the Oxford Mills building complex, of which it’s a part) but it’s definitely worth checking out. Free wifi, free refills on coffee, friendly baristas, a nice open space with plenty of seating, and an outdoor patio in the back. A small breakfast and lunch menu (oatmeal, yogurt/​granola, sandwiches, salads, soup).

Great little spot, very reasonable prices and they have wifi (cough cough La Colombe). Baristas are friendly and service is quick. We chatted today and they said they’ve been open for 6 weeks and that it’s been a little slow, but they’re getting a sign out front so hopefully that encourages some foot traffic. I don’t want to lose this neighborhood gem!