symposium cafe restaurant & lounge

ok, no more no less. we have been a few time now. breakfast , lunch and dinner. number one, the hosts are always very friendly which is more than i can say about the servers. only once have we had a friendly server (male, older). always slow to get to us, slow and we always end up asking for everything, from ketchup to water or more drinks. the food has been hit or miss. never a problem with breakfast or sandwiches. the mussels are fantastic. the burschetta was very soggy once, the goat cheese sandwich was good (not enough gotacheese), the steak was not bad, just not as tender as expected. the place is not bad, it doesn't "wow" us but have gone back. the service and prices are what keep us form going more often.

no thank you!. went to symposium for dinner. a very friendly server showed us to a pretty outdoor patio. although there were many empty tables, none had been cleaned. so we had to wait on the couches. granted, it was busy, but the bussing of tables was noticeably lacking throughout the dinner service.

once seated, we were given the list of thursday dinner specials...unfortunately, it was friday :(
although the live music was good, it was so loud we had to ask to change tables in order to hear each other talk. the musician also had a really bad attitude and made several snarky remarks about no one paying attention to him.

all 3 people in my party ordered the vegetable tomato soup, which was horrible. extremely salty and acidic. sent mine back and asked to try the broccoli and cheddar instead. thankfully that one was ok.
the chicken pesto flatbread was mediocre. the sesame thai chicken wrap was actually pretty good. the only acceptable part of the meal!

even though we told the manager (we assume that was his title- he never introduced himself) that the tomato soup was inedible, no changes were made to our bill.
all three of us were asked to pay for our soup.
also, the washrooms were disgusting.

will not be returning to this restaurant!

desserts and pizza only!. i agree with most previous reviewers. symposium has a magnificent selection of desserts, but the lunch and dinner menus are far more unpredictable. on my last visit, a few days ago, i decided to order pizza ("the works") and found it quite good with lots of tomatoes and other vegetables. the pasta dishes offer tons of noodles in thick sauce: good for people with an infinite appetite. many tables are set up with low armchairs, making it hard to reach your plate, unless you sit at the edge of the chair. i recommend those tables at the rear with normal restaurant chairs. at the back of the dining room, the patio is nice and quiet during the summer. popular with university students.

well, we've found another place for breakfast in our hometown. our friends picked it as a breakfast spot for today and i'm glad they did! symposium cafe is part of a chain with locations in kitchener, london, guelph, brantford, hamilton and cambridge.

just decided to look out of curiosity at how this place is doing after having multiple poor experiences. my girlfriend and i went shortly after they opened because having been to the location in waterloo a few times, we excited to have one within walking distance of where we live. our first time we had some mussels and beer. nothing exceptional but the staff were friendly and the bill wasn't too bad, so we decided to try it for a full meal. this time around was different. we both had pasta and more mussels. this time the mussels were tiny and bland. i had flank steak pasta and my girlfriend had (i believe) carbonara. portions were actually way too much (so much so that we could have split a meal). i know many would say this isn't a bad thing but it was a huge waste and neither our pastas had much flavor- really quite bland. service this time was slower. we waited almost 15 minutes for our server to come for our drink order. from that point he basically never left us alone, but not in a good way. we were constantly being interrupted with random conversation- i think we actually spent more time in conversation with him than we had ourselves ! after this experience we figured we would give it one more chance in the hopes it was just poor luck. not so much. this time we tired the mussels marinara which again we tiny and tasted like someone opened a can of tomato sauce on them. for dinner we both had burgers ( turned out to be the "special") both burgers were overlooked and dry and didn't come with fries (they were extra) which pretty much negated the "special". service was average- kinda slow but our server was nice so it balanced out. at this point we decided we wouldn't have dinner there again, however they had a mojito and sangria pitcher night we thought we would try ( we have had these in waterloo and they were great). first and only time in my life i have sent drinks back (tried the mojito- fail, sangria-fail) both were made with sprite- i'll say no more on this. a final note: my patents went with friends for dinner and said the food was almost inedible- a friend couldn't even eat their meal ( this is a very unpicky person) on our final visit we actually witnessed a couple on what appeared to be a first date complaining about the food and actually pay while leaving their plates mostly untouched. all in all a horrible restaurant i would never recommend.

best cafe restaurant in k-w. the environment is beautiful, great for casual or formal dining. it's comfortable, unique, and their menus are out of this world!
it does take me a while to decide on what to order, from drinks to deserts, but the wide variety is what keeps me going back. i've yet to repeat a meal there!
and the prices were a lot lower than i had expected, my first outing there.
overall, what an exceptional dining experience: good atmosphere, great food/beverage selection, reasonable prices, friendly/young servers, and the restaurant is more than suitable for any occasion, and any group of people, any time of the day! four thumbs up for coffeebean!

will never return. will never go back! at first i was pleased with the atmosphere until we were stuck in a corner of the restaurant that had too many tables crammed together and surrounded by loud students. i had ordered the cream of broccoli soup and new york grilled steak, mmmm i thought. the soup was overcooked and slightly curdled, and literally 1 minute after receiving the soup we had got our main courses which nearly didn't fit on our small table. the vegetables were still dirty and the potatoes had no herbs our spice on them and the steak was oily (obviously pan fried, not "grilled"). halfway through the steak i found it was too rare to eat, i had ordered medium rare. after being asked by the waitress how the meal was i politely told the waitress of the situation she apologized and said i would get a new steak. she came back only too say the kitchen was too busy and that they could cook the half again. disappointing! later whom i believed was the manager or owner came by asking how the meal was, and i said ok. i told him what i thought he had not apologized and just said they were very busy, he offered me a 10% discount on our next purchase at the restaurant.

go for desserts only. i do like their cakes, and i think the environment is great for an afternoon tea sort of thing. however, i went there once for pasta and it wasn't so great. it was almost like just pasta and sauce with barely anything else.

if you don't know about this place you've been living under a rock. hands down the best dessert restaurant in town. my favourites are the loaded waffles/crepes and the hot chocolate. i love that they are open very late.

great burgers!. we came here by chance one monday afternoon and found that there is a special every day of the week. monday is $3.75 burgers, so we decided to try them and they were fantastic! i've never had a bad experience here in the past, their desserts are excellent, however i wouldn't recommend their frozen alcoholic drinks. thumbs down for both the frozen margarita and the frozen raspberry.

not absolute worst food i've ever eaten, but the worst food i've ever paid to eat. their cakes are delicious, however, but the service when i went there was terrible.

chai + amaretto = why didn't i think of this sooner?. symposium is a good place to curl up in the evening with a dessert and a friend, a date, or a book*. i was lured in by a "cake tour" - seriously, who refuses an offer like that? - and ended up spending a great summer evening talking over colossus chocolate cake and their signature chocolate brownie cheesecake. yum.

if you like your chai lattes mild in flavour but with a spiked twist, the amaretto chai is worth a try. it's definitely not as spiced as other chai i've tried, but this makes a tasty after-dinner drink.

*unfortunately, depending on how busy it gets, some small print on their menu notes that tables may be limited to 45 minutes - i'm not certain if, or how often this happens, though.

i went on a lunch date last week, and it ended up at symposium cafe in waterloo. as many dates do.

not for supper!. coffee & desserts are fine, but don't eat a meal here. i've had meals on a couple occasions and it was never good, especially any chicken dishes. i was disappointed since the symposium in london was good.

a great place for coffee, yummy desserts and atmosphere. highly recommended.