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Kensingtons
Category: Food Coffee & Tea Coffee & Tea [Edit]
181 Baldwin StToronto, ON M5T 1L9
Neighbourhood: Kensington Market
(416) 850-2863
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 9 am - 7 pm
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
About This Business:
One of Toronto's premier creperies. We offer both savory and dessert crepes. Stop in and indulge in our frosty flake, italian espressos, and french… read more »
10 reviews for Kensingtons
10 reviews in English
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Review from Nikki H.
Etobicoke, Toronto, ON
On a random urge to wander around the Kensington Market area, I saw this place and decided to try it because it had the word "espresso" in the name. I'm a coffee fanatic, and this place claims to have the best coffee in the city. Hmm, I'd have to say that's not true... It's good coffee, but far from the best...
Decor:
The outside is a little boring, but I like how simple it is. On the inside, it's cozy, but looks like it needs a little help from Restaurant Makeover. (EDIT: I've seen that this place actually has been on Restaurant Makeover... I had a good laugh at that! It actually looks a little run down now compared to how it looked right after the makeover...) This place is pretty big, and in a great location, so it really does have potential to be awesome. Maybe couches/chairs and coffee tables instead of diner-style seating would be an improvement for the owners to consider.
The menus are pretty cluttered, so unless you already know what you're going to order, it may take a while to figure things out... My suggestion is to stick to just a coffee, espresso, latte, cappuccino, or tea.
Service:
I only saw one woman working there, but it wasn't busy at all so I guess that's fine. For the size/capacity of the place, I hope that during busier times they have at least one other person working. The woman working there tonight was really friendly though, so no complaints there! :)
Food:
They have pastries from Dufflets, so again, no complaints there! Though in terms of originality, they should try having their own baked goods instead of getting them from another bakery. It's always a let down when I go into a cafe, and they're selling someone else's food. I didn't try any of their cooked foods, because I had a funny feeling that I would have been waiting for a while to be served...
So I ordered a lemon tart (mmmmmm!!!!!), and an espresso. The espresso was pretty good (but not the city's best), not sure what brand of coffee they use though. I also didn't know if they had any specialty drinks because as mentioned above, the menu at the front was too cluttered to actually read.
Price:
Wow. For an espresso and a lemon tart, I paid between $7-$8. That's pretty much what I'd spend at Starbucks for one of my usual orders (beverage and a treat). So after paying, my expectations were that the coffee and treat would be better than what I can get at Starbucks. Not so much...
In fact, for that price, I can go to the cafe down the road from where I live and order: 1 coffee, 1 espresso, and 2 fancy pastries. And the place down the road from me is pretty darn good... At the risk of sounding cheap, it was a bit expensive for what I got. I've read that they have that $3.99 breakfast, so there's obviously cheaper items there, but I haven't seen anything good about it on here, so I'd probably never order it.
This place really does have potential to be a great hang out spot, but to be honest I would probably go to a Starbucks instead. That way, if I'm paying $7 for my coffee and treat, at least I know it's going to be amazing. -
Review from Ian P.
11/2/2011
Oops, bad choice for lunch. Oh well, I'm from out of town and didn't read Yelp first, so that's my excuse.
The restaurant looks nice enough, and the staff were fairly friendly at first. Unfortunately, it went a bit downhill from there. They have a $3.99 all day breakfast special with eggs, bacon/sausage, potatoes, and vegetables. Ok, sounds good...breakfast for lunch.
The eggs were generally pretty tasty, although already a little bit tepid. The potatoes were one step below cardboard, no seasoning at all, and then the saddest bit were these veggies on the side. They had clearly been cooked some number of hours ago, if even cooked the same day and were flavorless, cold, and rubbery. The toast was appropriately done, but came with no jam. Aha, I'll just go ask for a bit of jam. The woman takes about 3 minutes to get me jam and then charges $0.35 for a tiny cup of crappy strawberry jam...ugh.
Anyway, the space is nice and airy, and they don't have wifi themselves, but I was able to get wifi from some neighboring business. Definitely won't be back. -
Review from Jeff M.
North York, ON
10/7/2011
Saw it on restaurant makeover and thought I would give it a try. MISTAKE. After waiting forever finally got the waitress, order the breakfast special and then waited and waited and waited. Finally got food. cold eggs, bacon, to slices of half raw fried potato and some cold fried veg. There is so much food and life in the market, but it just isn;t here. Great location, but dirty and substandard. Maybe they need another makeover.
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Review from Tammy Y.
Toronto, ON
11/24/2009
What is wrong with this place?
While I do appreciate the fact that this appears to be the owner's pride and joy, they would do well to at least maintain their facilities better, and above all, oh, I dunno, not lie to their customers?
The life lesson is always "watch out if you lie, because somehow, it'll come back and bite you in the you-know-where". I had been trekking through Kensington in search of a wi-fi place, and thought I'd give this place a try. There is an interesting selection of foods, a mix of Dufflet and also some very 'homemade' looking baked goods. The organic muffins looked intriguing, and I may have snagged one if it weren't for the mould creepin' up on the blueberries there. That's what you get for organic, folks.
I had specifically gone in there and asked the woman working (the owner, presumably), if they had free wi-fi. Confidently and enthusiastically, she said yes. So, I settle in for what she dubs as the best iced coffee in the city (re: Mike S.' previous review). I receive it and try and seek out a place to sit. Most of the tables are dirty, despite the fact that there is another girl working. I finally wipe down my own table, and settle in for a work session.
Unfortunately for me, when I ask the owner what the password is, she says she doesn't know anything about this technology stuff and laughs it off. What? So I ask the younger girl working and she confesses that they usually steal if from the residents above them, and hopefully it works, but that she also doesn't really know. After paying for my drink, the otherwise attentive owner shrugged off my attempts to find the password, saying "Oh... I don't know. You can try it, I think." Smartly, their residents upstairs had locked their internet. Good for them.
In the end, I left my full iced coffee (it wasn't that good, by the way, but maybe it was the sour taste in my mouth) and stormed out of the place. If you don't have something, folks, that's okay. But don't lie about it and leave your patrons furious - cause hell hath no fury like a Yelper. -
Review from Emily T.
Toronto, ON
1/27/2009 4 photos
I was channel surfing one lazy night and happened to come across that show Restaurant Makeover... I tuned in and was surprised to see an old favourite coffee shop of mine being made over! Kensington's, once a tiny, kinda run down little place was demolished, right before my very eyes!
This was a place I'd come to and sit with a coffee for hours on a warm fall day, people watch and take in the sun and music in the bubbly community. Many memories float through my mind every so often about this great little spot, and I felt a twang of hurt as I watched it being torn down. I actually turned the show off before I saw the makeover complete. Maybe a part of me thought that if I didn't see it, it wasn't true.
No such luck.
On a recent trip down to the market, I happened to see the newer and sleeker Kensington's sign as I turned the corner at Baldwin and Augusta. UGH, I thought, so it was true. I went inside and found it clean and much larger than before. The counter space had been cut by about half, but was replaced by a spacious dining room with a lot of comfy seating. The menu was larger and updated, but Kensington's still has their coffee, tea and hordes of delicious deserts...Ok, so it wasn't so bad.
The food I ordered was wonderful; a hearty pea and mixed veggie soup that was $4.99 and all kinds of good. I recommend it to anyone. As I ate, the place filled up with a number of people, some there for grub, some to grab a coffee on the go. I have to admit that I am nostalgic for the older Kensington's, but it seems that the makeover has done it some good, aesthetic and business wise.
I've heard people say that since its June 2008 makeover, it doesn't seem to belong in Kensington anymore. It's too sleek, too clean and too new, and I can see this point, especially when you start hearing rumours about Starbucks and Subway ventures trying to get in too. But, I also believe that Kensington is a place where the "one love" lifestyle rings true; it's truly a place for everyone... -
Review from Avitania B.
Toronto, ON
2/2/2011 1 Check-in Here
Kensingtons gets a solid MEH from me. We stopped in because the sign said that it had the city's best coffee. Yeah, not so much. It's serviceable, but not great. My husband and shared an order of sweet cinnamon crepes and an Americano. The crepes were kind of rubbery, but other than that they were fair. They have other pastries, including a selection of gluten-free treats. Yup. That's about it.
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Review from Alejandro A.
Toronto, ON
12/12/2008
A cute little café that takes it's name from the street and community that it's right in the middle of. They have good coffees and fresh sandwiches. They've got other good baked goods and light café fare.
I'd recommend this spot to anyone in the area looking to grab a quick lunch. The woman behind the counter was friendly and was ok with the idea of me sitting down and waiting while she assembled the sandwich. It was delicious. -
Review from Lauren T.
Toronto, ON
4/4/2010
If giving this place no stars was an option, I'd have gladly taken it.
This place stinks. A few weeks ago I walked by it and noticed their large sign in the window with a delicious breakfast picture saying $3.99 - All Day Breakfast. I made a mental note to try it out next time I was in Kensington Market to shop for groceries. That was this past weekend with my boyfriend. He too was into the picture of the delicious breakfast - it contained 2 bright sunny eggs, a bagel, lots of potatoes, a selection of grilled veggies, a large breakfast sausage, and lots of canadian bacon - and wanted to try it. I didn't get this breakfast special because of my dietary choices, and got the grilled vegetarian sandwich.
So the food took at least 25-30 minutes to arrive including the 10 minutes we stood at the cash waiting for them to take our order and it wasn't busy at all. My sandwich arrived in maybe 15 minutes which means I started eating well ahead of my boyfriend, which is kind of annoying. The sandwich was ok, but nothing special. It was substantial however... unlike that breakfast special. This thing that was delivered in front of my boyfriend did not resemble the tantalizing photo we saw on the way in. It had 1 piece of POTATO! WTF. All the grilled veggies were cooked to shit and soggy, the canadian bacon was NOT, but rather a grilled slice of deli ham - except not even a full slice, like half a slice - and Wonder Bread toast on the side with butter and no jam or peanut butter in sight. If i was running a restaurant I would be embarrassed to serve that to my patrons, under any circumstances, let alone actually having a picture of the supposed breakfast in more then once place around the establishment. I can tell you that it's definitely possible to make a breakfast that looks like what is in their photo, and I'm sure it wouldn't take half the time to bring it to the table to be eaten.
The weird thing is, they have all this signage saying Gluten Free bread and crepes. Which is great, but why bother doing gluten free in a restaurant and then not even have soy milk available for coffee? We are in Kensington?!
But the best part of getting through this awful breakfast at Kensingstons, is we were able to save 3 other people from making the same mistake. As we were leaving a group was admiring the breakfast photo! And right away we interrupted and told them not to bother. F you Kensingtons. -
Review from Mike S.
Toronto, ON
9/19/2008 1 photo
There is a sign on Kensington's that says that they have the best coffee in the city. I went in specifically because of this sign. It takes some serious cajones to say that you have the best coffee in a city with more coffee shops than people, and so I though that maybe this arrogance comes for the fact that they really do have the best coffee in the city. It's not hard to see where this is going, the coffee was not the best in the city, it wasn't even the best I'd had that day. It was muddy and bitter and while it was better than a double double at Timmy's it was close. I don't know who decided that Kensington's has the best coffee in the city but I suspect that there was some bribery in the judging. I don't recommend Kensington's because I think that if you are going to say that you have the best coffee you better either be the best or pretty darn close and this just isn't the case.
Like the review? Check out the link to my blog on my profile. -
Review from Matty K.
Toronto, ON
8/15/2008
A warm family-operated venture that serves excellent grilled sandwitches for about $7 and your favourite teas and coffees. Among other things they make on the spot are nutella crepes. They have a lower rating from me because they are a bit of an oddball in the area for being so clean and comfortable and well-run. It's just that the Market is what it is because of all the other places. Here you can use your laptop for free wireless internet and talk about your next motion picture, and thus it is more expensive than other places locally. Kensington's is ahead of its time in the Kensington Market and in doing so, is perhaps setting an example of what is due to arrive in the future: a cleaner yuppier settlement.
