The Only Cafe

In Vancouver, coffee shops are numerous, so our goal was to hit as many as possible, including the The Only Café. This was the fifth shop to check out on our short trip to Vancouver. My son and his girlfriend recommended this place to us a long time ago.

The Only Café is located on west 4th between Stephens and Trafalgar Street in Kitsilano.

 

The Interior

The interior design to me was lackluster and seemed somewhat cluttered. The only thing that stands out about the cafe is the cloud light. There is plenty of seating and they have a few tables with free complimentary headphones to use, which is a pretty cool idea. Hopefully the headphones are getting cleaned regularly.

They also have a world map that you can scratch off where you are from. The wood furniture makes this coffee shop more natural but makes me feel like they don’t want you to hang around too long as the chairs and stools have no cushions making them less comfortable. There is 4 comfy chairs in the place but that’s it.

The Only Café has a few big windows that do let a lot of natural light in. To me, overall the place looked a tad run down and could definitely be freshened up.

As mentioned in a previous review, I normally don’t talk about the bathrooms but this place the bathroom seemed run down but clean. Go in, do your business and get out.

The Drinks

We ordered a Vanilla Latte, a White Mocha Matcha Latte, and a Green Tea Lemonade.

The White Mocha Matcha Latte, was pretty good, not to sweet, but as my daughter got closer to the bottom, the drink got a little gritty. It’s hard to find somebody who can make a great Matcha Latte.

The Green Tea Lemonade was super refreshing, not super sweet. I was impressed they are using paper straws. I am happy to see more places are starting to use them. Plastic straws will become obsolete.

The Vanilla Latte, was just ok. The espresso in the drink left me with a very strong bitter aftertaste. The coffee was just average. Super unfortunate as I was hoping this would redeem this café.

I am always excited to see when a place does Syphon coffees, but I am always leery to try them as I have had really good ones and a number of really bad ones. Syphon coffees are a fine science and I didn’t see anything making me feel that these guys could do them justice. That is a judgment by me and I was not feeling confident.

The Food

My wife and I split a Turkey Cranberry Sandwich, overall the sandwich was really good, and my only wish was that they used real turkey instead of just regular deli meat.

My daughter had the Turkey Croissant, this too was a good sandwich, however needs real turkey.

 

The Service

Overall the service was pretty good. The drinks and food took a little longer than I expected, but if it’s good, you don’t mind waiting.

 

The Hours

Sunday & Monday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Tuesday to Saturday: 7:30 am to 7:00 pm

 

Parking

There’s lots of metered street parking around the area.

Last Words

To put it simply, I really wasn’t impressed with The Only Café. They “seem” dedicated to quality and yet, I am not convinced. Fortunately for the cafe, it’s in a thriving, trendy part of town and even though the coffee culture keeps reaching younger and younger, it seems most people remain oblivious great coffee.