Camellia Tea & Coffee

This cafe is extremely close to Royal Oak Skytrain Station and underneath a new apartment building, and is spacious and gentrified compared to the rest of the neighbourhood. And maybe because of this, they got the wrong type of people because there are signs in the entry area and washrooms prohibiting all manner of activities, such as camping out to study and bathing in the washrooms. Now that Ki Tea House Café (encouraging "study and socialize")has ironically opened up right next to them, some of the student crowd has apparently moved over because on a Saturday afternoon there was fast enough turnaround that finding seating was never a problem for us.

Ambiance and seating is nice. Cakes and coffee (no drip coffee -- huh?) were nicely priced, tea a bit steep even if you do get a big mug (my nothing-special-tasting "Sleeping Rabbit" hot tea was $3.25 before tax). Some cakes are apparently made in-house, but we saw them refilling their Berry Forest Cakes and it looked like these were pre-made off side or possibly bought from a third-party. Still, they were decently delicious, and price for portion is better than Breka, even at the Fraser and 49th location.

Counter selection of cakes and sandwiches is small as the small refrigerated counter also has to make room for savory grilled-to-order sandwiches, which were of a pretty decent size.
TIP: Ask about sandwich contents if you have allergies since it's a bit tough to see in the counter when the sandwiches are whole. My friends got croissant sandwiches (below) which were pretty packed with veggies alongside the meat, and had a layer of egg at the bottom. One of my friends was allergic to eggs and they were super-nice to her by re-making a replacement sandwich from scratch, minus the egg.

Overall, price for portion plus ambiance (minus the off-putting signs, I guess) plus polite and friendly service adds up to high marks here. They'd score higher if they had a greater selection of cakes.
TIP: Wait at the counter for your order. If you fail to hear them call out your order, you may miss it, so pay attention!

If you like, you can grab a copy of KLIP Magazine from the desk near the front door and flip through it to see if they have a 10% off coupon advertised. (Yeah, a bit cheesy, I know).

It's order-at-the-counter service so after ordering I let myself take some photos this time. Below you can see a croissant sandwich, Berry Forest Cake (left; $5.95) and supposedly made in-house Strawberry Cake (right; $7.50), which had a light, refreshing taste plus fun crunchy chocolate beads.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en...

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin...

Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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