Insomnia Coffee Company – Calgary, Alberta

Everytime I’m downtown at Olympic Plaza I always walk by Insomnia Coffee Company and has always wanted to just sit down by the window and watch the hussle of people going by! I finally did that, and this cafe is very modern, clean, and quite good! It is a really good coffee house in town, and the coffee is quite strong! The latte art wasn’t as nice as some, but something is definitely better than nothing!

Even though I didn’t try their baked good, they sure look really tasty and fresh! And, that’s amazing, considering I visited this cafe on a weekend! I just sat down and enjoyed a wonderful cup of latte and it was so relaxing – and watching the festivals outside their large windows.

Overall, this place is wonderful! They welcome you with warm smiles, and they don’t mind if you sit there and do nothing but stare out the window! 🙂 I’ll recommend this location if you’re in the area looking for a nice cup of coffee!

Insomnia Coffee Company

239 8 Ave SE
Calgary, AB T2G
(403) 767-9934

deVille Luxury Coffee & Pastries – Calgary, Alberta

I was wanting a nice cup of coffee, and I’ve always recalled seeing a sign for Krups Cup of Excellence, and when I looked it up, deVille Luxury Coffee & Pastries was the 2010 recipient of this award! Knowing just that information alone, I knew I would have to go and try their coffees, and enjoy my favourite – foam art!

Located right at the intersection of 7th Ave, SW and Centre Street on the second floor gave this location really quite spectacular of a view! Depending where you sit, you can get a great view of the new Bow Building and the Calgary Tower! The hours for deVille claims they open from 7am to 7pm on weekdays. We went there after work one evening, and got there around 6:15pm. It was all fine and dandy, until I looked over at around 6:30pm, and the gates were already pulled. The barista actually closed the door on over 8 guests early!! Some potential customers even tried to ask her where would be the next closest coffee shop – and she actually sent them away! I was really disappointed in that type of customer service. For poor customer service, it made me not enjoy myself, so I do not think I will be back – as I don’t know if I travel all the way there to see the “CLOSED” sign up early.

Regardless, we did order our lattes before this early closing. I enjoyed a cup of Nutella Latte, which actually was quite delicious! The coffee wasn’t burnt or anything, and it did have a subtle taste of nutella. I did put in a pack of sugar into my coffee, and to my excitement, they use Cane Sugar instead of the usual. I really enjoyed my cup of nutella latte!

We also had a cup of Chocolate Latte and my better half really enjoyed it! He loves his coffee dark, and his chocolate dark, and this was a perfect marriage of the 2 for him! It was thick, yet creamy – so the coffees from deVille did satisfy us!

The prices of the coffee from deVille was very reasonable as well. For a downtown location, I would expect it to be much higher, and it’s setting is such an ideal location, it’s very modern and comfortable. It is quite a spectacular location for sure! I do recommend trying, but go early!

deVille Luxury Coffee & Pastries

807 1 St SW
Calgary, AB T2P1N3
(403) 263-0884

Milestones – Stephen Avenue

We found ourselves at another Milestones, even though it’s not our favourite chain of restaurants. We arrived to Milestone to try the featured menu inspired from Top Chef Canada! As we watch this show on Food Network Canada, we want to try everything we can!!

Connie Desousa is a contestant on this show, as she works at Charcut – we went there and loved it! She won her appetizers of Pork Croquettes, and really wanted to try it! So, we did! The pork croquettes were really good, it was a pulled pork meatball, deep fried in crumbs — which made it really crispy on the outside, and tender & juicy inside! The plate of appetizers comes with 4 croquettes, and I must say, one of them were much smaller than the other 3 – but the taste was there! These croquettes also sat on top of an onion ring which was a smart way to hoist it up! The onion rings weren’t perfect, they weren’t crispy, but they are onion rings, and I like them!

Milestone’s is also known for their steaks, and with that said, we had to try that also! We ordered Certified Angus Beef – Top Sirloin with black peppercorn sauce. The steak was really good, however, the side of garlic mashed potatoes was terrible. It was a giant mountain of dry and hard potatoes, as though it has been sitting there all day… The steak was perfectly cooked, but the piece of meat wasn’t the best as it was rather tough. It was edible, and quite flavourful regardless!

I stuck to the Top chef inspired menu, so I ordered Roasted Sablefish with Seaweed Gnocchi which is white fish marinated in a sake, soy and honey glaze, and then grilled. It was paired with seaweed and Yukon gold potato gnocchi. In the pool of gnocchi, there were green beans, tamarind, lemon grass and ginger broth. The sablefish was perfectly cooked, and I enjoyed it greatly! The gnocci wasn’t soft and fluffy, but it was better than the garlic mashed potatoes! It was a nicely balanced dish.

Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla Whipped Cream is a shortcake in a muffin form, topped with a sweet lemon curd and piled with fresh strawberries. Finished off with a vanilla infused whipped cream! I love home made whipped cream, so that was immediately in the top running of my favourite course just reading! This was a really creative dessert as the shortcake muffin was split between top and bottom, and they placed the top on the bottom creating a base. The lemon curd was quite tart, but was wonderful with the vanilla whipped cream! It was a dessert that tasted quite light, even though the shortcake was over baked and dry.

  • Milestones - Stephen Avenue, Calgary
  • Milestones - Top Chef Inspired Menu
  • Milestones - Pork Croquettes
  • Milestones - Pork Croquettes
  • Milestones - Roasted Sablefish with Seaweed Gnocchi
  • Milestone - Top Sirloin with Peppercorn Sauce
  • Milestones - Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla Whipped Cream

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Milestones

107 8 Ave SE
Calgary, AB