A lot of people walk right past Café Mosaics if they’re hurrying down Whyte Avenue. The owners did a massive renovation over a year ago, elevating their space from a hole in the wall to a bright and cheerful vegetarian haven. Café Mosaics is one of my favourite restaurants in the city. It’s one of the few places I can take anyone I know and be sure that there’s something on the menu that they’ll enjoy and meets any dietary restrictions they may have. Mosaics recently created a new menu and I was curious to see what they would change, so I brought my (non vegan) friend with me for dinner.
At first glance, the menu seems to be a little bit smaller than the old one. It appears they’ve removed some of the items that were redundant or really similar to others on the menu. There’s still a lot of variety. They offer everything from allday breakfast to burgers and even Asian fusion dishes and pho! A nice formatting change to the menu was adding clear notes below each dish outlining the options available to make the dish gluten-free and vegetarian versus vegan. It’s great to see a restaurant that is conscious that many of their customers would want those options and the transparency about what is in each dish!
I was disappointed to see that my favourite, the breakfast burrito, had been removed in favour of Huevos Rancheros; however, since Jim and I were both feeling a breakfast-for-dinner vibe, I decided to give the Huevos a chance and Jim ordered their Pancake Experiment. The Huevos was good but definitely didn’t live up to my love of their breakfast burrito. I did order it with the gluten-free option so it was served on hash browns rather than in a tortilla. I might have liked it better in the wrap. Jim’s fancy chia seed pancakes were served with Mosaics’ vegan cream, maple syrup, fruits, sausage and natural peanut butter. I’m not usually one to covet my dining partner’s dish but they looked amazing and he happily finished the generous portions!
Jim and I got lucky with our 5:30 dinner plans – we beat the rush. We forgot to account for it being a Friday! For most of the time we were there, they were turning down diners and quoting 30-minute wait times. They proudly play their music loudly and when it’s busy, the restaurant can get a bit loud. I think they could support a larger space if they wanted to, it’s popular spot. While I’m disappointed with the departure of my beloved breakfast burrito and was less satisfied with the Huevos Rancheros, Café Mosaics remains one of my favourite local restaurants and I will be continuing to bring friends there.
Danielle S. Fuechtmann
