Koffie
The business district of downtown Vancouver isn’t well known for being able to find great coffee, unless you’re one of those cretins that thinks Starbucks is specialty coffee. Sure, you have Bel Cafe, but that’s not really in the business district. Giovanne is close but more of a Coal Harbour cafe.
Enter Koffie, king of the business district coffee shops! Serving great espresso drinks and even better than that POUR OVER.
Coffee
Pour Over (V60) $3.50-$4
After 10am each day you can indulge in their pour over service. Phil and Sebastian supply the beans and I had a Costa Rican. It’s a bean I’ve had before and sits on the more “accessible” end of their offerings. The end result was great – smooth, well balanced with great body to it. The tasting notes said grapes, but I got a Strawberry hit from it.
8oz Latte – $3.80
The espresso based drinks are definitely more on the strong and bold side of things at Koffie. Expect an espresso forward drink, using 49th Parallel beans. The latte was smooth and sweet, with a big punch from the espresso shot.
Food
Ham Baguette – $8.95
Koffie has a pretty fancy kitchen setup that allows them to roast ham daily, for their incredibly tasty baguettes. Chunks of juicy meat with a layer of wholegrain mustard and some salad. This was honestly one of the best ham baguettes I’ve ever had and is a lesson on how to make a simple lunch item taste incredible.
Tuna Salad Sandwich – $7.95
Nice fresh bread with nice fresh fish. The balance between the mayo and tuna was also great, with an added crunch from the cucumber and lettuce.
Banana bread – $3
An excellent effort from their baker here – it was moist and flavorful. The only thing that could have made this better would have been a big chunk of butter, but that’s because I’m a greedy bugger.
Staff
The owner is one of the most welcoming coffee shop proprietors I’ve run across in a long time. He and his staff are always keen to chat coffee, they know their offerings well and are always keen to know how your day is going.
Venue
Since their very recent renovations, Koffie is now a huge open space, with a dark brown wood theme running throughout, a huge bar area for the baristas and food as well as plenty of seating, including space outside (when the weather isn’t -5, which it is whilst I’m writing this review!). The overall style is incredibly pleasing to the eye and results in a relaxing and warm atmosphere.
Location
Well, for me, Koffie is in a bloody great location as it’s about a block away from Vancouver Coffee Snob HQ, but for everyone else there’s a Skytrain station (Burrard) pretty much attached to the building it’s in, as well as a million parkades and on street parking spots. If you’re looking for tips on free parking may I suggest dropping you car off in Kits and walking in – there’s no free parking in the city, you fool!
Bathrooms
There’s only one and it’s pretty basic. It’s cool to see the old chalkboard from their previous setup in there and it’s always clean and tidy.
Conclusion
You’re not going to find a better cup of coffee in the downtown business district in my opinion. In fact, you’re going to need to go at least a kilometer or two to find anything that’ll even equal this. Add on the fact that the food and service are excellent and you have not just a great addition to downtown but a great addition to Vancouver’s coffee scene in general.
