elm café

fun lunch, exceptional catering. i've been walking or stopping into elm not-regularly-enough since the opened. i have had manysandwichesi loved and a few that i didn't. i don't like the torpedo rolls, too dry. but everything else hits the spot and it's always exciting to see what they have come up with next. the hot chocolate is made with actual chocolate, and they offer almond milk which i like to have instead of normal milk (wish places would offer organic milk). also love that they use bows & arrows coffee.i just wish more of their muffins were chocolate based, but that's just me. i wish they had jacket/bag hooks under the bench inside.
i've had their catering on a number of occasions and i'm just so impressed by their quality and creativity. what a great edmonton success story.

a nice little place just a couple of blocks from me and a sister business of district coffee; i knew if it was affiliated with district, it had to be good. my first visit, the staff were friendly and helpful with explaining the different coffees they had for the day. even though, elm cafe has a smaller selection of baked goods that district has, everything still looked yummy and fresh. i went with my husband and we ended up getting 2 brew coffees (daily special), a muffin and 2 of their daily breakfast sandwiches. the coffee was a light roast which didn't suit my taste at all. the muffin, berry almond, was really moist and bursting with lots berries and a nice almond streusel on top. the daily breakfastsandwicheswere awesome, a fair size and delicious. the bread was really good too and could only imagine what their daily lunchsandwicheswere like (btw, the reubenesque at district coffee is awesome). being that it's nice and close to my house, the great service and most important, the great food, i will definitely be back.

addicted. i can't stop eatingsandwicheshere for lunch :s i have a problem. this would have to be my favourite place on the north side of the river to grab a sandwich for sure, always fresh, good quality ingredients. definitely also get a cup of coffee here, great coffee from victoria. i recommended this place to all my friends and have been thanked multiple times.

this is a divine sandwich place. super small but oh so good. check out their twitter on a daily basis for what they offer because it changes on a day to day menu. i know $9 for a sandwich seems like a lot, but if you value local shops and good ingredients, you won't blink twice because it's so worth it!
i always like meat in mysandwichesbut i blundered up an order once and the guy gave me a veggie sandwich. while i was driving away i realized that he gave me the wrong one (can't blame him though, i just had some teeth work done so my jaw was a tad numb - i was difficult to understand). but i was scrunched for time and starving, so i decided to eat it. hello tingling tastebuds. i never ever thought i'd eat a sandwich with no meat but there it is. i'm a changed woman. so whether you're vegetarian or not, go. just go.
the one thing that would be nice is if they had a 10 minute customer parking spot, long enough for you to wait for them make your sandwich.

i have been going to elm cafe since it opened. during this time, i've noticed the steady deterioration of quality and value of their offerings. i'm not sure if it correlates with the burgeoning elm cafe enterprise, but i suspect elm cafe has been a casualty of the business phenomenon of 'growing too fast' at the expense of other nate box businesses.  simply put, elm cafe has lost what made it special in the first place and ceded that position to the likes of farrow sandwiches.

the final straw was being charged $9 for a lackluster parmesan chicken sandwich the other day. the green in the sandwich was limp and the chicken was dry and stringy, and overall lacking in flavor. i suspect the $7 pricing ofsandwichesduring 12 and 1pm is meant to offset the poor intrinsic value of elm cafe sandwiches. 

once upon a time, elm cafe used to put out qualitysandwichesfor better pricing. now they put out mediocresandwichesfor premium pricing. as a result, i will not be going back.

love the coffee -- i usually get the americano. small spot but nice little patio. thesandwichesare amazing too ! can't go wrong with anything here.

service: i have been to this place three times and each time the staff was friendly and patient.

appearance: this is a small place with limited seating, there is bar like seating at the window for four people and there are tiny, slightly unstable table and chairs outside. the place appears to be clean and tidy.

food:
tea: they have loose tea...yes! always give bonus points if loose tea is available.

oatmeal coconut cookie: wow! this was a great cookie, fresh and soft, but with a slight crunch on the outside, so good with my loose tea!

jurassic pork - pork belly, cheddar, spinach, cukes, pickled apples
- this was a tasty sandwich, fresh, warm and all the levels of flavour made my mouth happy.

olive&let die - chicken, kalamata, bocconcini, 🍅, fennel, olives - this was a nice light sandwich and the olives added great flavour.

sandwiches overall: my only complaint is that i felt that thesandwichescould use a bit more filling, the bread part overwhelms the taste profile due to the lack of the filling.

go again: yes! and the names of the food are so clever :)

i’m all too often very comfortable with starbucks. this is because i’ve had bad experiences in toronto. let me tell you, for as big as toronto is, there’s a lot of garbage you have to sift through before you get to the good stuff. people don’t realize this. not everything is a caplansky’s deli or black camel. there’s a lot of garbage in toronto. so i don’t like to risk my morning brew.

and so i stumbled upon elm café. it looked like a doctor’s office from the outside, and i’m pretty sure it’s connected to a couple of medical offices on the bottom of an apartment building. i was pretty elated to see a coffee shop so close by, which says a lot about my standards for living in edmonton at that point in time. when i walked into the café, my first impression was “this feels like toronto, but smaller and tighter.” and that’s hard to accomplish. the coffee selection at first sight was exciting, and the sandwich selection was aplenty. a closer look and you’d see that they’d have a rotating menu of early and lunch sandwiches. one can only hope thesandwichesare good.

and make no mistake: thesandwichesaren’t good. they’re great. in fact, i’d go as far as to say that they’re my favorite sandwiches. your early sandwich was always paired with meat, veggies, a fried egg, garlic aioli. a lunch sandwich had so much variety. take it from meatball, to korean bbq, there was so much quality in these sandwiches. the drawbacks? you have to wait a while sometimes. yes everything is pre-cooked, but for them to put the sandwich together in the elegant and complex way that they do is pretty much the magic of an elm café barista. just take the time to feel the vibe and check instagram (#yeg!) while you wait for that sandwich. if you want something quicker, they also have ready to go treats: my favorite being the banana chocolate scone.

it’s just a shame i’m not as keen about the coffee as i am about the food. and i’ve had a variety of all their drinks. and they all taste fine, but not for the additional money you’d pay if you were to get starbucks otherwise. when i was living in the hood, i’d still go there to get my coffee. it was a shorter walk than it was starbucks.

went to come and try to find decent coffee in edmonton... success! being a bit of a coffee snob i find myself continually let down in north america. paying $5 for a watery flavoured hot beverage at any number of endless coffee chain choices. thankfully this place really delivers on real coffee. the food menu is very limited, so the breakfast we were hoping to have didn't quite happen. however the toastedsandwicheswe had were superb! fantastic little place allround. staff were friendly. straight foreword and very reasonably priced. i'll be back!

went for a breakfast sandwich on a weekday morning. i was really disappointed; there was only two sprigs of 'greens' and the bacon was really over done. probably won't go back for thesandwichesanymore.

oh, this place is delicious! i'm so happy that i stumbled upon it.sandwichesare amazing. great coffee and salads too. it's a really tiny shop with limited seating, but i like to grab and go anyways. i prefer theirsandwichesto farrow, hands down.

same impressions, different shop. if you didn't know that elm café was from the same minds that brought us district coffee then it wouldn't be too hard to guess as much, i had virtually the same experience, that being that i really really wish i liked this place more than i had. the setting is really hip. cute little coffee nook with a modern vibe and a healthy dose of much appreciated civic pride, there is a paved patio area with bench seating outside which as long as it remains shoveled will feel very in accordance with edmonton's "4-season city" policy, and a would make a nice year round spot to sit and drink. the food is also a pleasant surprise for a coffee shop, at district the focus seems to be on desert items whereas elm seems to be more lunch and breakfast item oriented.
but i still have a pretty lackluster opinion of the place because of the coffee, which is the focal point of any café in my opinion. the roasts used by the district family of coffee shops are just in my opinion bad, their espresso roast is just too sour and harsh on the pallet, and their drip coffees suffer from the same high acidity. if you like a acidic coffee then maybe you won't mind but another failure is in freshness. they only offer pour-overs after 2, though at least they offer it at all, last i was at district they didn't even have the option available. this day and age i kind of expect to be able to get a fresh made-to-order, pour-over on request from an independent specialty coffee shop, if i have to default to stale carafe coffee then i don't really see the point.
a really fair comparison would be to put elm up against farrow, really similar places; small, hip, independent,sandwichesand coffee. but farrow is overall better, with more interesting and expertly prepared artisan sammies, and pour-over available at all times and with more variety. so i have a tough time recommending this place.

i live in the area and have wanted to try this place for a while. it's amazing! one of the best grilledsandwichesi've ever had. too bad it's so tiny inside though, it would make for a great brunch/coffee spot. i'll be back!

awesome sandwiches. i lived in downtown edmonton for years before discovering this place and i'm upset that i didn't discover it sooner. theirsandwichesand coffee are the perfect start to a weekend day and they never leave me disappointed.

the wait time is a little bit long for a "take away" place and the lack of seating makes it a bit annoying to go there on a cold day but it's always been worth it. highly recommended.

so good. we have had two family functions catered by elm and i can't say enough about the professional staff from the chef shale to andrea the events co- ordinator, and the serving staff are very pleasant and accommodating.
the food is unbelievably good,thesandwichespure genius and the hordorves the best finger food we've ever had at a catered function.
the most recent function we had was a small reception after a funeral. they handled it flawlessly, setting up a beautiful light lunch while we were at the service , allie served us with friendly professionalism and respect for the event.
everything was quietly cleaned up and whisked away, leaving my kitchen spotless.
i would recommend elm to any one that wants a function catered perfectly.