Lunch Break: Cafe Crepe is a waste of time

You read that title right folks. Café Crêpe's Robson Street location should be classified as a no-go for any local people looking to dine over their lunch break. I say this because this location has a tendency to ruin your schedule if you have any plans at all.

When we arrived, perhaps about ten minutes into the lunch hour, we were made to wait before getting a seat. No big deal here - perhaps just a taste of Paris coming through - for we were promptly seated after things calmed down. So far things are okay.

It took quite awhile for us to flag down our server to take our order. At lunch hour on a Monday one might expect that they would be "on it" for the daily rush. Whatever. We're still doing alright by any account I suppose. I thought about what I wanted, scrolled down the menu and pointed at what I wanted as I read it aloud to our server. I ordered a chicken baguette sandwich with the only side order I saw available: fries (I think they have soup too but nobody told us the daily specials). It's been a long time since I've had fries but no worries I guess. You only live once and there are bigger things to complain about than this.

What happened next?

By this point I was starting to get hungry. We waited. And we waited. We even waited some more. Finally after two bathroom trips and a lot of conversation it arrived: Chicken Roti Panini. No cuts of chicken breast to speak of, no greens either. Even the baguette didn't make it to the table. It was the wrong order.

Normally I would not send something back but the blog photo was not going to be worth the effort to end up showing you some greasy "where are the vegetables?" kind of dish. So another few minutes to track someone down and shortly thereafter my pre-made Baguette found it's way to our table. At last, things were speeding up a little.

At this point we stopped to look at the clock only to discover that we were already late returning to the office and I had only taken a few bites out of my sandwich. I did my best to get through it promptly so we could pay and get out the door. Suddenly I had a déjà-vu moment from the last time I was here with my friend: we fell behind schedule last time too... just not as badly as this time.

This place is the kind of place you bring family from out of town when you don't care about time or service. It looks nice enough inside, but it's not the kind of place you want to frequent on a regular basis.

Café Crêpe
1032 Robson St, Vancouver
604-488-0045

Photo: Ryan Weal