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Aroma Espresso Bar
500 Bloor Street West
(416) 536-7750

Located just east of Bathurst, Aroma is probably the most modern-looking coffee shop I’ve ever been in. Swap the mellow, indie-style music for Top 40 songs, stone or wood countertops for sleek, stainless steel ones, and blasé decor for a minimalistic, contemporary style. Enough about aesthetics though, people go to restaurants to eat (for the most part).

I find the drinks to be superb, and always served with a rectangle of milk chocolate. Lattes are always delicious and topped with an amazingly thick layer of foam; the chai ones are my favorite. The mochas are made with real pieces of chocolate, which are dropped in. I do find them to be a bit too sweet for my liking, but then again I find most fruit juices too sweet.

The first couple of times I ate at Aroma, I ordered the all-day Power Breakfast because it was so yummy and filling. It includes 2 eggs, made in almost any style you want, a salad, cream cheese, and two slices of incredibly soft bread. Speaking of their bread, I recently tried two of their sandwiches, Health and Mediterranean, and found them to be delicious. I especially enjoyed the fact that they were mostly vegetarian (because I am a vegetarian) although you can request them to add meat.

Other things that I tried and enjoyed were the muesli, filled with chunks of sweet, juicy fruit.

There is quite a selection of pastries, which were good but not the best I’ve had (that’s what she said… just kidding)

They have an efficient system of calling your name when your order is ready, making things much less confusing, and allowing you to look for a seat while you wait for your food. It makes me wonder why other coffee places don’t do this.

The only thing I can say that I don’t enjoy about Aroma is that it seems to be full all day, except in the evenings. It can be difficult to find a seat on weekend mornings especially. Once you are able to settle in, however, it is easy to want to stick around for a few hours and use their free Wi-Fi. I have often seen students studying and doing work there.

I would definitely not say that Aroma would be classified as a “cheap eat.” The drink prices are only slightly less expensive than at larger chain coffee shops, and the food prices are pretty average. I still thoroughly enjoy this cafe, though, and look forward to trying the other things on the menu.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Food & Drink, On Campus, Review, Spots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.