The New Riva Cafe

This Café has closed.

I need my coffee! I don’t function without it! I was happy to see the Riva Café had re opened on the Boardwalk again this summer and decided during the heat wave to take my re usable iced coffee cup and my dog for the 3 minute walk to Riva Café. That day the experience almost made me not go back. Lets start with the positives 1) they had a dog bowl full of water and 2) they had what I wanted. That’s about all. When I handed over my re usable cup the server looked at me and told me that they couldn’t use it. I thought that was weird as it’s not like it’s an usual cup, it’s a standard one that you will see sold at many coffee shops and home stores around the lower mainland. At that point I assumed that they were unsure of the size so I told them but all I got was rude service from that point on. Let me add this cup has NO logos etc on it as it’s not from a Starbucks, Waves or Blenz or the like, so i know it shouldn’t have been because they assume I prefer their competition. Maybe it was the heat but I was trying to be nice and all I got was attitude. It was like they didn’t care if I was a customer or not. By the end of the interaction the server was friendly again. I assume that they were frustrated with the re usable cup because they still used their own to make the drink and then poured it into mine. Kind of defeated the purpose but I digress. I was going to put this on my no go list. I obviously changed my mind.
A week ago I was walking home from my Weight Watchers meeting and decided I wanted a hot chocolate and since I knew Riva was a couple of minutes from my house and reasonably priced I would take a chance on them. The server was not the same one as last time and I was treated MUCH, MUCH better this time. I was glad I stopped because it was tasty and she was friendly. I didn’t have my re usable cup this time as it was a spur of the moment decision but I don’t think it would have made a difference with this server.
The reason I only gave 3 stars is because I have had both a good and bad experience and put them in the middle of the road for stars. I will definitely be back but I will be looking to see who is serving before I decide if I will order or not.