Alexander’s Coffee

HIgh hopes, looked great, only fair. Can also get jammed up and crowded due to the dead end layout and order process.

after our experience at another café, we asked the locals where they would recommend for a good café. Most locals said for the best latte and baked good you have to try Alexander’s on Beacon. They were not wrong. Our group ordered a few items from their menu. They make the best latte by far anywhere and the food was fantastic. Service was friendly and a warm atmosphere to sit back and relax. The raspberry chocolate scone is out of this world and staff told us that baking is done on site. Great experience and no wonder, they have been in the same location for over 21 years !! wow. Great place and if I would give them ten starts If i could. We bought some cookies to take back to Calgary with us. One of the cookies is called «the best» and it really is the best cookie we all had ever had. Probably the best café we tried on the island or even in all of BC.

Coffee is really just so/​so, basically on par with a chain (this place really looks like a chain inside, actually). I was still looking for a good coffee place in Sidney, despite trying quite a few of them. And, after visiting here, I’m still looking.

I’m really on the fence about Alexander’s. On the one hand, I had a «Japanese inspired tuna wrap» that was actually really good but on the other hand, it was made with canned tuna. So… are they geniuses in making something excellent out of what is essentially cat food or do they deserve my derision for using tinned fish when there is a fish market on the pier literally a few hundred feet away stocked with things that were swimming in the ocean hours earlier? I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that I really enjoyed the wrap, with its fresh wheat tortilla, wasabi mayonnaise and fresh, crispy pea shoots. The curry potato soup was also outstanding, as was the baked confection — a caramel coconut macadamia brownie. I did appreciate the one free refill on the drip coffee.
I should probably give an extra star for the lack of pretense and the absence of hipsters, but I’m not going to because a person showed up just before we left that was either a hipster or just a regularly dressed Canadian. Impossible to distinguish one from the other sometimes.

These guys make a mean latte (also soy lattes are great here) and have a nice selection of quality baked goods. It’s a bit of a local hang out too as they have a few tables to sit at which as nearly always occupied by people enjoying a snack and chatting with the friendly staff.

A local favourite best coffee in Sidney if not all of Vancouver island. Always take some grounds or beans to brew at home.