Carmelito Café

Très très chiche comme lieu, décoration archaïque, tapisserie et mobilier vétuste, canapés et fauteuils sales, parquet délabré et calamiteux, il n'a du succès que grâce à la rareté et indisponibilité des cafés et lieux de détente

I took out a 7” Ferrero Rocher cake for my anniversary. I was told its at most one day old. The taste was pathetic and not at all worth the $38. It was also stale. After speaking over phone with Liora at the cafe she did confirm the 7” cakes can be a bit older and lying for a few days before they are sold. On asking for a refund or store credit I was simply denied. I have always ordered from their other branch at preston and never faced this issue. But I am not going there again and would never recommend this to anyone.

Wanted to try this place out and ordered the chicken breast panini, but sold out, so went with the chicken salad one. It tasted like cat food and rancid bacon. I have been sick since lunch yesterday. My wife tried the pancetta and brie but it had extremely bitter greens on it, so she left it. My Americano and her latte and mocha cake were fine. But my lemon tart also tasted off. The lemon curds were tan not yellow.

Very beautiful place, good food and service but the place can be very noisy by the amount of customers.

Great local cafe - lots of varieties of hot & cold beverages and tasty eats. Fair sized indoor & outdoor seating areas.

Gotta say, prompting a 20% tip is a bit rich when there is no wait service: you order at the counter, you go up to claim your order, and then they ask you to bring your own dishes up to a bus table. What is this assumption for 33% increases of the standard tipping rates with NO service? Also noticed the staff check the final invoice total before they prepare the order (more or less promptly depending on the amount?).

Stunning independent café that serves amazing sweets and drinks. Friendly service with a smile.

First time customer. Tried one of their cakes and chocolate drinks.
Food good. Sat in patio. Nice.

I go into gluten free cake with low expectations but the Opera Cake I had here today was actually the best thing I've ever eaten

The espresso in my latte was a huge miss, very bitter and unbalanced, likely due to over-extraction or dirty machine.

The fruit tart looked great, but everything from the glaze to the custard tasted overly sweet, especially as the fruits used were already on the sweeter side. Normally the fruits are supposed to counterbalance the sweet with tart. The shell itself was also over-baked, tasting dry and crumbling excessively when trying to break a piece off with a fork.

I didn't have "sitting on a picture of Nelson Mandela" on my bingo card for Ottawa-area dining experiences, but here we are. Weird decor choices.

Sorry, can't give this place more than two stars. Even after moving to another seat, it just wasn't that comfortable. We had tea and biscuits, but it's.just tea and biscuits? Hard to rate a place highly because of it. The problem is that the staff struggled a bit to understand how one of us wanted a lot of oat milk to make it more of a "milk tea" type of thing. I dunno, lack of training or something?

Anyways.yeah, won't be back.

Went there with a group of friends. Really nice ambience and good selection of pastries and breakfast/lunch options. I tried a few and was satisfied with every item we ordered. Would definitely recommend a visit.

OMG
THIS STORE HAD NOTHING GOOD AT ALL but has the following:
Bad service.
Bad location.
Bad food.
Not clean at all.
Not organized at all.
Noisy,
Cluttered.
Over priced
Staff has no experience at all.
It’s simply a disaster cafe shop, you will leave un-rested, stressed and not feeling good.
Stay away.

I have ordered custom cakes couple of times from Carmeletios at Barrhaven and was very happy with the delicious and fresh cakes. I would recommend the Raspberry Lemon for summer time. So melt in your mouth light, with fresh cream and perfect sweetness (not too sweet) A very delicate flavour of Lemon and Raspberry. Perfect for summer! I also ordered Grand Marnier cake for a special occassion and got it customized. Loved the chocolate ganache icing on it.

Food and coffee are good and the live music on the Friday night was an unexpected surprise! So nice to go to a local coffee house rather than the brands on every corner!

Love the decor of this place and the food. But service takes too long, orders take too long to be filled.
Have been 5 times. The last 4 times always an issue getting order.
Behind the counter is not coordinated. The person taking order sometimes is also getting the order and then becomes a lineup.
Have seen sometimes 3 or 4 women behind the counter but only 1 or 2 doing anything.
Last time coffee order screwed up for 2 people and then server forgot to give us our dessert order.

Delicious dessert, and the staff are very kind and welcoming! The café is very clean and has a great ambiance.

We only got coffee. It was very good. Interesting place. Design very unique but too much decor of different colours and many things hanging from the ceiling.

Fantastic little cafe with excellent selection and a fun vibe. We found out about this place when my husband was looking for a last minute birthday cake and this cafe went above and beyond. Barrhaven as a whole lacks character and Carmelito cafe is a breath of fresh air in a bland suburbia.

Went to the barrhaven store right at 9am on a Sunday just as they opened. Very cute jazzy little place, looks bigger on the inside than it does on the outside with a nice little 'quiet' section away from all the music but still within ear shot. Coffee and deserts were delicious and the service was impeccable. Everyone working kept working (cleaning) when there wasn't any customers and everything was presented with care. The absolute only downside I could find was that the signage on some of the food was either scuffed or completely nonexistent.

Really cute café. Great decor and ambiance. They offer pastries, sandwiches, and beautiful cakes and desserts. Prices are comparable to others. We got the frittata, almond croissant, opera cake, iced coffee, and an americano.

Nice place, variety of choices.
Staff, please don't ask for tip then ask customers to come and pick their orders.

Tables were not cleaned between customers.

Nice place but they need more experience to make their coffee, not so organized and pastry was not fresh at all!

Amazing desserts, friendly staff and owner!

The decor is beautiful!

The opera cake is delicious and is a must. I am always excited to try new desserts and paninis when I visit. There are a variety of options of food and drinks, and prices fit the portions and quality.

Everyone should check out this café.

Support local businesses!

Better off going to the one on Preston.

I tried this location for afternoon tea after enjoying their baked goods at their location on Preston Street… the food was overpriced and the staff didn’t seem to know what to do at times.

First our tea came, and the oat milk immediately curdled. When I went to ask if it would be possible to get new tea bags and more hot water, the worker was really confused and said she needed to speak to her supervisor first. She came back to explain that we might just not be used to their kind of oat milk as its not refrigerated. We understood and just wanted to drink tea with no milk at this point. She said that’s okay but it would be $3 extra for each… okay.

The afternoon tea special came out and looked nice, but was dry and looked better than it tasted. Stale and unappetizing.

Great cafe and nice addition to Barrhaven. Their iced lattes are among my favourite and I’ll go out of my way to stop there vs any coffee chain. Nutella cheesecake is awesome. Fun decor and lots of places to sit.

Best place I’ve been too. I had a great experience at this cafe. I was welcomed by the owners daughter and truly impressed by the hospitality. Despite the location being very busy I was still treating with patience. Wonderful place

Friendly staff and good food what more could you ask for! During my visit to the cafe I felt well taken care of and relaxed.

What an incredible place. I wish I could leave a 10 star review. Not only is this place beautifully decorated but the staff is so welcoming. And I had the privilege of meeting the owner and was delighted to see that such a friendly face is running this beautiful establishment. Furthermore I was told that all the food in made in house! What a lovely surprise

Cakes and pastry are garbage. Ita not worth any penny. Cakes are not fresh at all. Not recomended.

Great staff, nice and very helpful. Great coffee and good sweets. Nice atmosphere with colorful tables and chairs.

So it’s interesting how our afternoon turned to a complete and awkward disaster, I think the manager or owner were yelling at some employee so loud, that poor employee almost started balling her eyes out, I used to manage restaurants, this is not the way to treat employees at all…
Give respect to employees and see your productivity

The atmosphere was nice, but the desserts were not exactly worth the price. Staff was quite disorganized and facetiming friends while making our orders which was a little strange too.

Terrible service: 5min standing before they acknowledge you. Then, they forget about the order and you have to give them all the details again. No apologies. 20min to get a coffee! Does it even matter how it tastes at that point?

Pretty place, lots of indoor and outdoor seating, nice vibes, convenient location for those in the area. Actual food and service, not that great. Coffee wasn't hot, food didnt look appetizing. Glad I didn't order anything else.

Truly touched to hear this place considered its Muslim clientele and changed the recipes to be halal friendly. What a hidden gem

Freshly made Italian baked goods. This pretty cafe has lots of options for cakes, cookies, the coffee is also freshly brewed.

The Waiters were rude, tables were dirty and they forgot about our order (in both my visits to this place)! I would not recommend this location!

Friendly, fast service, the girls were great. They let us stay to finish our drinks even though it was past closing with no rush. THANK YOU! Will be back for more treats!

I didn’t have the opportunity to take any pictures but I must say that it was an amazing experience. From the iced coffee to the fresh pastries. Everything was amazing. We will definitely be back.

Such a cute cafe! This place is a gem and the staff is just as delightful. The decor is vintage and so unique and colorful, you won’t think you’re in barrhaven. Their drinks are delicious and the desserts are so yummy! The place is very spacious with seating outside and inside (the inside is soooo cute). They also offer high tea, which I’ll be looking forward to trying. Definitely worth the visit!

Cute decor on the inside and a lot of variety in drinks and food. However, today I was disappointed by the service. I had ordered an affogato and got a confused look from the barista (who was new so I don't blame her for not knowing). Then, while waiting for my drink I saw the two workers googling what the drink was and one of them went to the corner store to get one of the ingredients. After a while I got my drink and it was about a tablespoon of ice cream and a shot of espresso. I was disappointed as it was 4.99 and did not match the quality of the affogato my sister got a week ago. I am understanding of the fact that new workers may not know the whole menu, however I wish they would have been honest about that and had told me to order something different. The first image is the affogato I got and the second is my sisters from a week ago.

So delicious! Now that I have finished eating almost many of the individual variety dessert pieces I can provide a review. We went to Carmelito Café for the first time since we wanted a little something sweet. When we entered, the bakery was very clean and absolutely adorable, with sweet treats all around and beautiful decor. However we sat outside nice patio. We purchased a variety of individual cake pieces from Tiramisu, Cannoli, Eclair and others took some extras home for family also a dozen of biscotti's, one person in the group had a small meal with an iced refreshing lemon drink. I’m just going to say it was the best we have ever had. We enjoyed all the sweets. What a great experience! We can’t wait to go back.

Amazing selection of desserts! The best cakes in the city HANDS DOWN! Coffee and hot drinks also very very well done too. I've had the espresso shots and and americano's and it after having them it makes it difficult to go anywhere else! The vibe and character of the cafe is also very unique and upscale, while maintaining a chill & relaxed vibe. The staff at GREAT! They answered any questions I had about the menu and even came to my table to ensure I was enjoying my visit! A GEM in Barrhaven! 10/10 would recommend for a cute date or to go do some work!

On March 11th 2021 my friends and I walked into the carmelito cafe expecting to enjoy a nice lunch and coffee. We asked for a panini that does NOT include bacon but was given a panini that did in fact include bacon so we simply went up to the counter and reminded the employee that we asked for no bacon, what happened next was horrifying. The manager came up to us so defensive and started to question and blame us for not being clear when we actually asked for no bacon, we have videos of her arguing with us and being very passive aggressive while smirking the entire time, she did not handle the situation professionally at all. All we wanted was a chicken salad panini that did not include bacon. What the owner should have done was just a knowledge the mistake on their part and fixed it for us instead of making the situation uncomfortable for us and everyone else inside the cafe. I have never experienced service like this in any restaurant or cafe in ottawa. In fact, we ended up leaving that cafe because of how uncomfortable the owner made us and went to cafe cristal (also located in barrhaven) and have been going to for years where we were treated with 5 star service and the workers look like they are happy to work there. I will also mention before this incident the workers looked miserable taking orders and always on their phones not attentive at all. I am shocked, disappointed and will never recommend this establishment to any of my friends or family. It is as if simple customer service is not in the manager’s training. If I could give this cafe zero stars I would.

Great place for desserts and coffee. Nutella cheesecake, Creme brulee and cappucino were awesome. Most of the desserts they serve is HALAL (Except for only 2 or 3 things). Ambiance of the place is above and beyond!