Symposium Cafe Restaurant Guelph

We go here for breakfast every Saturday. The food is great and the staff are amazing.

Best Calimari

Best Calimari in town. I visit once every few months. Never had a bad meal here. Service can be a bit slow when they are busy.

Long wait, mediocre food.

What a sad experience. We waited 45 minutes after ordering for food that was tasteless. I cannot believe that they think a 45 minute wait is acceptable. My husband had the jumbalya, I had "flat iron steak" and my son had a pulled pork. The food was flavorless. We will not be back.

Worst breakfast ever

Decided to go with my friends, wished we went to Timmy's instead. First off our waitress took our drink orders (I got orange juice, btw, it was $3.25. YES 3.25 for a glass of juice! Outrageous). When she brought us back our drinks we said we needed a couple minutes to decide what we wanted to order. She did not come back for 20 minutes, no joke. She actually seated the people right behind us and took their orders, brought their food before she took OURS. Well I ordered the 3 egg breakfast. I wanted a nice simple breakfast of egg whites and fruit with whole wheat toast. The toast WAS NOT whole wheat. It was just dried out white toast, with way too much butter that was already cold when it arrived. Then the 3 scrambled egg whites I got looked actually like 1 1/2-2. I know how 3 egg whites should look being that I make them all the time. I also wanted to substitute the greasy home fries for fruit but to do so, cost 1.50. Yeuck, why not make that little substitute free? and ALSO, to get egg whites instead of regular old eggs cost an additional $1.50 Wait wait...I'm sorry, you're taking AWAY from my egg and I'm getting less of it yet you're charging me MORE? The egg whites weren't even good, they were cold and runny. And needless to say, our slow and incompetant received no tip from me. I would never go back to this place Quick note on the decor: modern and nice items on the walls and shelves, but it's way too dark and doom&gloom in there. Also it didn't even feel like the air conditioning was on this 85 degree day. We were sweltering

A Very Long Wait.....

Our first visit to the Symposium Café on a recent Sunday shortly after 11:00 a.m., Seated quickly and server was quick to acknowledge our presence , coffee , tea ordered and delivered rather promptly (unfortunately they were out of Earl Grey my wife’s favorite tea, disappointing but not a huge issue). Waitress took our food order, in a timely manner, omelet for my wife, bacon and eggs for me, nothing out of the ordinary. So far so good .. we thought Then the wait began 10 minutes, fifteen.. Waitress came by once, apologized and suggested it would be a few more minutes. Another ten minutes went by still no food. Finally after what we thought was 40 or so minutes breakfast arrived. Inquired of the waitress why the long delay, explanation was busy, rush, things got backed up. Manager came over to the table a little while later acknowledged that we had waited a long time (actually corrected our 40 minute estimate wait time and suggested he checked and it was 25 minutes…. nice touch being corrected as a customer!!!) Again explanation … sudden rush of many orders, busy …… Anyhow breakfast was O.K although my wife’s omelet was somewhat runny and $8.45 for basic bacon and eggs, no coffee included a bit steep given other competetitors in neighborhoods. No attempt made to alter the bill total; I thought in the least they might have comp the tea and coffee Needless to say, based on this experience, and staff response to our obvious displeasure we won’t be back Many other choice spots in Guelph for breakfast, that offer better value in equally pleasant surroundings. An excellent kitchen should be rated on how they manage when things are busy not when situations are quiet. If you have a facility with considerable seating you should be able to handle the volume. If back-ups do occur management should acknowledge that the situation is inexcusable from a customer’s perspective and do something tangible to illustrate to the customer that their business and potential return is valued. Even fast food joints have gone out their way in the past with us to provide free coupons when unexpected delays have occurred. We would have expected at least the same from this level of establishment.