There are a few more Tim Hortons within easy driving of Cloverdale. We have a lot of customers in the White Rock/South Surrey area and often stop at these restaurants.
There are 2 restaurants at Grandview Corners - 24th Avenue and 160th Street.
The first Tim Hortons is in the plaza close to 24th Avenue and 162 Street. Restaurant service only. They usually have 2 cashiers, sometimes 3 when its busy. This restaurant offers fast service and has a lot of tables for eat it customers.
The other Tim Hortons is on the other side of the street, inside Wal-Mart. Restaurant service only. There is usually one cashier and several other staff running back up getting the orders together quickly. Only a few tables for sit down customers. This is one of very few Tim Hortons that does not offer 24 hour service. They are only open when Wal-Mart is: 7am to 11pm.
There is a Tim Hortons in Southpoint shopping centre located on 152 Street and 32nd Avenue. It was built about 7 years ago, during the time when Wendy's and Tim Hortons still operated under the same parent company. The split happened shortly after that restaurant was built because with Tim Hortons selling chili and sandwiches they were competing too much with Wendy's menu. This restaurant is the only one in South Surrey with a drive thru. Generally both the drive thru and inside restaurant offer quick service. Line ups go down quickly no matter if you walk in or drive thru. Large table area to accomodate the customers for both restaurants, but may be hard to find a seat during lunch time.
The last Tim Hortons is almost in White Rock, located just outside Semiahmoo Mall on 152 Street and about 17th Avenue. Restaurant service only. There are only a few tables inside the restaurant, so coming during lunch or dinner rush may result in having to take out your food. Service is generally pretty quick here with 2 cashiers serving customers.
Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tim Hortons around Cloverdale
It wasn't all that long ago when Cloverdale residents had to drive 10 or 15 minutes to reach the nearest Tim Hortons. Through the nineties the closest Tim Hortons were located in Fleetwood on the Fraser Highway and about 156 Street (still open) and in Langley on the Fraser Highway, about a half block east of the Langley Bypass, next to the Husky gas station. That one closed down about 5 years ago.
In the past few years Tim Hortons are sprouting up everywhere. There are 2 in Cloverdale within a 5 minute drive of each other. And a third one could be in the running too if you count the one on Highway 10 near 152 Street.
I'm not a coffee drinker. Kerry loves Tim Hortons coffee so he stops in almost daily. Of course if I'm along, and often one will be near a job site, I may join him and have a Boston cream donut or sometimes a bottle of green tea citrus iced tea or a mocha if its a cold day. We often enjoy soup for lunch at Tim Hortons. I've been to the Tim Hortons around Cloverdale many times and consider myself to be a pretty good judge of the service, so here's a little run down.
The Tim Hortons on Highway 10 just east of 177B Street, next to Lordco, has a drive thru in addition to walking in the restaurant. The drive thru is usually faster. Overall fairly quick service inside the restaurant too.
Tim Hortons in Clover Crossing Mall on 64th Avenue just east of 176th Street can get busy both in the restaurant and the drive thru. The drive thru is usually faster even if there are lots of cars in the line up. Sometimes inside the restaurant one staff is handling a cash register and all the rest of the staff are rushing to serve the drive thru customers. Generally during busy times there are 2 cashiers helping walk in customers. I find the staff at this Tim Hortons usually more friendly and energetic than in any of the other restaurants.
Tim Hortons on Highway 10 and 152 Street is one of the slowest restaurants I've been to. Both in the drive through and inside the restaurant. I don't know what it is with the staff here because I've been here on different days and different times but they are so slow.
Tim Hortons on Fraser Highway and 166th Street, in front of the Super 8 Motel, across from Rona. Without a doubt this is the worst Tim Hortons in the area. The staff at Highway 10 and 152 Street move lickety split compared to these people. And yes, I've been here different times of the day and different days of the week. It is the worst, both drive through and walk in. If you walk in to this restaurant and see one person in line, you can expect a good 10 minutes wait to be served. Forget the drive thru if there are more than 3 cars. You'll be waiting 20 minutes. I was there about a year ago and the parking lot was in icy, trecherous condition. Inside the restaurant, during the 10 minutes or so I waited for the one cashier to finish the customer ahead of me, I watched several male staff chatting, including one who appeared to be a supervisor. Surely one of them could have gone outside with a bucket of ice melt or sand or whatever the restaurant uses to make the lot and sidewalks less slippy. This was really bad. I complained to Tim Hortons. They said the manager would be in contact with me. A year later and I'm still waiting. Definitely pass this one by. Go a little further up Fraser Highway for better service.
Tim Hortons on Fraser Highway and 156 Street. This oldie but goodie is still standing. No drive thru service, which possibly is the reason why the staff can serve customers quickly.
Tim Hortons on Fraser Highway near 188th Street. This is a newer Tim Hortons in the Clayton Heights area and has a drive thru. I find service quick and pleasant either inside or in the drive thru.
In the past few years Tim Hortons are sprouting up everywhere. There are 2 in Cloverdale within a 5 minute drive of each other. And a third one could be in the running too if you count the one on Highway 10 near 152 Street.
I'm not a coffee drinker. Kerry loves Tim Hortons coffee so he stops in almost daily. Of course if I'm along, and often one will be near a job site, I may join him and have a Boston cream donut or sometimes a bottle of green tea citrus iced tea or a mocha if its a cold day. We often enjoy soup for lunch at Tim Hortons. I've been to the Tim Hortons around Cloverdale many times and consider myself to be a pretty good judge of the service, so here's a little run down.
The Tim Hortons on Highway 10 just east of 177B Street, next to Lordco, has a drive thru in addition to walking in the restaurant. The drive thru is usually faster. Overall fairly quick service inside the restaurant too.
Tim Hortons in Clover Crossing Mall on 64th Avenue just east of 176th Street can get busy both in the restaurant and the drive thru. The drive thru is usually faster even if there are lots of cars in the line up. Sometimes inside the restaurant one staff is handling a cash register and all the rest of the staff are rushing to serve the drive thru customers. Generally during busy times there are 2 cashiers helping walk in customers. I find the staff at this Tim Hortons usually more friendly and energetic than in any of the other restaurants.
Tim Hortons on Highway 10 and 152 Street is one of the slowest restaurants I've been to. Both in the drive through and inside the restaurant. I don't know what it is with the staff here because I've been here on different days and different times but they are so slow.
Tim Hortons on Fraser Highway and 166th Street, in front of the Super 8 Motel, across from Rona. Without a doubt this is the worst Tim Hortons in the area. The staff at Highway 10 and 152 Street move lickety split compared to these people. And yes, I've been here different times of the day and different days of the week. It is the worst, both drive through and walk in. If you walk in to this restaurant and see one person in line, you can expect a good 10 minutes wait to be served. Forget the drive thru if there are more than 3 cars. You'll be waiting 20 minutes. I was there about a year ago and the parking lot was in icy, trecherous condition. Inside the restaurant, during the 10 minutes or so I waited for the one cashier to finish the customer ahead of me, I watched several male staff chatting, including one who appeared to be a supervisor. Surely one of them could have gone outside with a bucket of ice melt or sand or whatever the restaurant uses to make the lot and sidewalks less slippy. This was really bad. I complained to Tim Hortons. They said the manager would be in contact with me. A year later and I'm still waiting. Definitely pass this one by. Go a little further up Fraser Highway for better service.
Tim Hortons on Fraser Highway and 156 Street. This oldie but goodie is still standing. No drive thru service, which possibly is the reason why the staff can serve customers quickly.
Tim Hortons on Fraser Highway near 188th Street. This is a newer Tim Hortons in the Clayton Heights area and has a drive thru. I find service quick and pleasant either inside or in the drive thru.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Coffee Shop further up the Street
A few years ago we leased a farm in Pitt Meadows. As we put it whenever we gave directions to anyone: “last farm on the right on Harris Road right before the Fraser River”.
Further up Harris Road, in the business section of Pitt Meadows, we discovered a coffee shop called Bad Ass Coffee. Nice place that also served light lunches and suppers, sandwich type fare mostly. In addition to a wide range of coffee drinks, they also served ice cream and desserts. The fun thing about this place was Friday nights live entertainment, usually a singer or two and their guitars playing cover music. We also enjoyed Sunday afternoons songwriter café where local musicians could showcase their own music.
Bad Ass Coffee had a decidedly Hawaiian atmosphere, from the names of the drinks to the interior décor, an unusual theme for this part of Canada. But the owners filled us in that the Bad Ass Coffee Company was a Hawaiian chain of coffee shops with franchises in other locations across North America and they’d bought into the franchise.
The owners even hired us and two of our mini donkeys for the Pitt Meadows Days Parade to promote their coffee shop.
Further up Harris Road, in the business section of Pitt Meadows, we discovered a coffee shop called Bad Ass Coffee. Nice place that also served light lunches and suppers, sandwich type fare mostly. In addition to a wide range of coffee drinks, they also served ice cream and desserts. The fun thing about this place was Friday nights live entertainment, usually a singer or two and their guitars playing cover music. We also enjoyed Sunday afternoons songwriter café where local musicians could showcase their own music.
Bad Ass Coffee had a decidedly Hawaiian atmosphere, from the names of the drinks to the interior décor, an unusual theme for this part of Canada. But the owners filled us in that the Bad Ass Coffee Company was a Hawaiian chain of coffee shops with franchises in other locations across North America and they’d bought into the franchise.
The owners even hired us and two of our mini donkeys for the Pitt Meadows Days Parade to promote their coffee shop.
One day we showed up and the name had changed to Café O Lei. The owners said they’d had enough of dealing with the franchise and decided to let that part of the business go, thus a new name. The Lei part of their name allowed that they didn’t have to make any changes to the interior décor.
Friday night music changed a bit to acts that we didn’t care for too much, but they really packed in the coffee shop by inviting all their friends. Slowly we began to choose other establishments for our Friday date nights. We couldn’t really blame the owners, they have to do what’s best for their business and unfortunately the musicians we liked the best who sang hits from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s just didn’t pack the house. Sadly most of the time we stopped in there would only be one or two other patrons. The coffee shop was never what I’d call booming with business.
And then we moved back to Cloverdale, ending our frequent visits to Café O Lei. We stopped in about a year ago when we happened to be in the area only to discover that our friends had sold the restaurant. The new owners had changed the hours, closing a couple of hours earlier. The restaurant still wasn’t busy.
A month ago we were in Pitt Meadows and stopped at the sushi place next to Café O Lei for dinner. Kerry got in before me because I’d slowed down to look at a notice on the door of the coffee shop. It was a sheriff’s notice that the doors were locked due to arrears on something....And here I can’t remember the actual dollar amount, but it was over $10,000.00.
Sadly another small business fails.
Friday night music changed a bit to acts that we didn’t care for too much, but they really packed in the coffee shop by inviting all their friends. Slowly we began to choose other establishments for our Friday date nights. We couldn’t really blame the owners, they have to do what’s best for their business and unfortunately the musicians we liked the best who sang hits from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s just didn’t pack the house. Sadly most of the time we stopped in there would only be one or two other patrons. The coffee shop was never what I’d call booming with business.
And then we moved back to Cloverdale, ending our frequent visits to Café O Lei. We stopped in about a year ago when we happened to be in the area only to discover that our friends had sold the restaurant. The new owners had changed the hours, closing a couple of hours earlier. The restaurant still wasn’t busy.
A month ago we were in Pitt Meadows and stopped at the sushi place next to Café O Lei for dinner. Kerry got in before me because I’d slowed down to look at a notice on the door of the coffee shop. It was a sheriff’s notice that the doors were locked due to arrears on something....And here I can’t remember the actual dollar amount, but it was over $10,000.00.
Sadly another small business fails.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
An Expensive Cup of Coffee
A couple of mornings ago Kerry and I drove to our local Tim Horton's located inside a shopping mall. As we made our left hand turn and drove into the mall's entrance we noticed 2 police officers standing at the side of the driveway. They didn't appear too interested in us and we continued in and parked. We wondered what they were up to and Kerry figured they were doing a seat belt check. A good spot trying to catch the early morning commuters coming for their coffee. And once someone has turned into the Clover Crossing Mall entrance there is no turning around. Then we noticed the 3rd police officer in the parking lot writing out a ticket to the male driver. We went inside so Kerry could get his extra large coffee double double and his breakfast sandwich and my mocha and muffin. As we were leaving we saw the young man in the truck leave the police oficer and enter the Tim Horton's drive thru. Not buckling up is a $125 fine. Now that was one expensive cup of coffee!
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