Review: Forbidden Flavours

Forbidden Flavours is a local Brandon/Shilo chain and I love supporting them for that reason. The location on 18th is my favourite as the physical space is large enough to accommodate plenty of folks and there are some great comfortable chairs and couches. The staff never try to rush you out the door so you can really tuck into a book or work on some homework at this location - the free WiFi helps too! Coffee shops in a small town like Brandon are weird because it only takes a few loud/annoying folks to really ruin the experience and I find that a comfortable visit to Forbidden Flavours isn't guaranteed due to this. This is, of course, no fault of the establishment but it bothers me all the same. 

According to their out-of-date website the 18th Street location once held a used book store which would have been pretty cool! They have the standard coffee items and a few speciality drinks - I usually order the green tea frappé which is always great. They also specialize in ice-cream (which I've never had) and have a few cakes and cookies on offer. I would avoid the bakery section as everything I've had has been stale, mushy/dried out, and just icky. The bagels are good so order that if you are hungry! I've never been able to have have a sandwich/panini from Forbidden Flavours as they do not offer vegetarian options.  

Overall this is a nice, usually quiet, cafe that I love supporting because its locally owned! 

 

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Review: Brew'd Awakening

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A photo posted by Sarah (@wingedsnail99) on Apr 25, 2015 at 10:31am PDT

I finally managed to get out to this cafe. It has been on my 'to-try' list since I first moved to Brandon but the Internet Cafe part of this establishment scared me off. I am not interested in the type of cafe that an 'Internet Cafe' calls to mind - dark, dingy, with rows and rows of computers from the 90s. Thankfully I gave this place a shot because it is nothing like the Internet Cafe's of old.

This cafe is bright, clean and cheerful. The decor reminds of 1950 Rock-a-billy with bright teal vinyl bench seating and primary colours. The music playing fit the theme as well. The computers available are in a circular desk and there are only about five of them. The tables are clearly designed to accommodate laptop computer users as one is board room style and almost all the booths would fit 6-8 people. There is a comfy leather couch in the back and some bistro-style metal tables near the front.

The menu is pretty standard cafe fair with the full range of espresso machine drinks available. I've been trying to limit my caffeine intake lately so I noticed that there is not much choice with regard to non-coffee 'fancy' drinks. There wasn't very many vegetarian food choices either. However the iced tea and cheese cake I had were both very good.  

However, the staff was quiet but very polite. Good service is ridiculously hard to find in Brandon so I am very glad to have had a good service experience at Brew'd Awakening. I will return!   

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