La Forêt cafe is one of the newest addition to the Metrotown neighbourhood in Burnaby. From all the beautiful photos on Instagram, it looked like it has an extensive menu of sweet and savoury foods. So I recently visited twice to check out their space and offerings.
Renovated from an old auto body shop, La Forêt cafe has a large open space with plenty of natural light from the big glass (think garage) windows and ceiling. Staying true to their name (Forêt means forest in French), they have trees and plants as the main feature. They also offer a dog-friendly patio seating in the back. Because they use different tables/chairs, it might make you feel like you’re in a completely different space depending on where you’re sitting.
La Forêt cafe – 1st Visit – Breakfast
Pear & Prosciutto Sandwich
Mr. Chau and I decided stop by La Forêt for breakfast before our weekly grocery shopping trip. We got there around 9:30am and found their brunch platter was not available until 11:30. Since their breakfast menu didn’t appeal to us, we got the pear and prosciutto sandwich instead.
The house-made bun was spread with honey-ricotta, filled with slices of prosciutto and pear, then topped with radish sprouts and walnuts. I really liked the balsamic drizzle on top and felt this was what brought all the flavours together. The sandwich came with a small side salad. Personally, I thought the price was too high for the sandwich.
Cappucino & Affogato
We also got a cappucino and affogato. Their website mentions that they are trying to provide coffees from different roasters around Canada and the US. At the time of our visit, they were serving coffee from Timbertrain Coffee roasters from Vancouver and Phil+Sebastian from Calgary. I’m not sure which one we got.
For the affogato, it comes with 2 scoops of Mario Gelati’s ice cream and a double shot of espresso. You can choose from four different ice creams: vanilla, green tea, strawberry and cookies & cream. I picked strawberry ice cream because I’ve had green tea and vanilla affogato before. Mr. Chau thought it was weird to have espresso shots with strawberry ice cream. It was actually not bad. However, I will likely order vanilla next time. Their affogato portion is quite large, as the ones I’ve had usually have 1 scoop of ice cream only. Overall, I’ve had better affogato elsewhere and will likely not order this again.
Freshly Baked Breads
Just as we were leaving the cafe I was stopped short by the sight and smell of freshly baked bread! Check out these delicious look breakfast bread below. I wish I had room to eat one of them. Guess we’ll have to come back.
La Forêt cafe – 2nd Visit – Desserts
I visited La Forêt cafe a second time for drinks and dessert to meet up with a local blogger that I met on Instagram. We got there around 6:30 pm but found that almost all the cakes were sold out! There was one piece of cake and 2 blueberry tarts left. I was devastated! The only redeeming factor was the cute design on the drinks we got!
I could not remember what the desserts were called. The cake was raspberry with white chocolate (I think). The other dessert had mango jelly on the bottom with whipped cream and diced mangos on top. Both desserts looked great but honestly, I did not remember how they taste. The flavours were quite light and they were not very sweet. I’ll need to give their desserts another try to decide if I like them or not.
Final Thoughts on La Forêt Cafe
Overall, La Forêt cafe is a beautiful space, perfect for a casual date or study session. While the food is not bad, they don’t stand out for me. The prices were a bit on the higher end and for me, the food doesn’t quite justify the price. However, I’ll likely come back to try more dessert and their delicious looking freshly baked bread!
