Coffee Garden Restaurant

Prince Gastronome. I suspect I may be in error here.
My mother convinced me to visit the Coast Inn of the North. I'd avoided it for some time because I felt that most hotel chains didn’t boast exclusive restaurants within them. Of course this was in error considering that one of my earlier reviews was for Karahi King, located under the local Day’s Inn.
Passing through the wormhole of shatterproof glass doors transports you to a miniature high-class mall located in another city that takes pride in its shopping establishments, over the normal practice in town of tile-like linoleum and semi-lucent sneeze guards over fountains. The micro-mall boasts a jeweler, a body shop, a hair salon, and three restaurants. Two of them are dining rooms only, open only for dinner service. These would be Shogun and Winston's. Since I decided to keep this initial phase of reviews to lunch services only, I can't call on these locations until I've sampled all the others. That would assume then that these two locations have gained automatic promotion to the second tier. Given their reputations in town, this is not hard to accept. All of this and I still haven’t mentioned where I am actually eating.
It’s called the Coffee Garden and initial impressions made it out to be a traditional mediocre hotel cafe. I mean it’s called Coffee Garden, and I don’t drink coffee. I like tea but I doubt they'd offer the orange rooibos or raspberry chocolate black I have at home, so I opted for water like I usually do. I should also point out that like Barb’s Place, I reduced the average age of the patrons to about 65 (average, I stress).
The tiles stopped about ten feet in, replaced with rather uninspired blue carpet. Christmas decorations still weathered the walls. Plastic flowers adorned every table. I felt like a pariah not ordering coffee. I read of Pisa, Napoli, and Montecantini Torrefazionne Italia coffee. With as many syllables as that, you know it has to be good. Beyond this, the menu didn't scream anything particularly unique, though the prices did smack me like an angry wookie.
A $15 burger should come with a complimentary reach-around.
Before looking at the menu, the delightful waitress (stressing female, otherwise I wouldn’t be so sexist be add the "ess") offered the chef special, beef quesadillas with a side offering of soup, salad, or fries. I break tradition and get the chicken soup. Good idea. The eventual plate was impressive, with large dollops of salsa and sour cream. I took a minute to overhear that same waitress dealing with difficult elderly individuals next to me, oblivious to the idea that a restaurant may at some point change its menu. The pancake sandwich was practically hemorrhaging cheese, covered in tempting, but ultimately avoided, jalapeno chillies. You know this thing was cooked to order; the cheese leaked onto the pan and burnt to that brilliant dark brown.
This was one of the better lunches I have had since England. I can see why my mom recommended this place. Shredded steak with cheese, grilled onions, and peppers, yes, thank you. Eating Mexican food, even Mexican-inspired, is never a pretty sight but the experience was pleasant. With the sour cream assuring it'll take care of me, I spoon generous portions of it over the mouthfuls of quesadilla and jalapeno. I sweat under non-spinning fans, but still enjoy my meal.
I can’t say much about the decor. It's every shade of brown, whether it's beige, umber, taupe, mahogany—basically every color on a L'eggs carouse. I can praise the service on average, though at noon, despite not being busy, the staff all but vanished from the floor, and it took quite a few minutes to clean my table and offer a cheque. In defense, she could have been avoiding the difficult people beside me. One asked for a milkshake, not offered on the menu. They still delivered, though in mango. I'd have had it.
Can I recommend the Coffee Garden? Well, sure, if you like coffee. It’s an above average generic restaurant, which automatically puts it in the top ten percent of all restaurants in the Prince George. I know, depressing isn’t it?

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5
Value: 3.5/5
Recommendation: 4/5

I’m still not sure if this is a chain or not. If so, then I’m sorry.

Coffee Garden
770 Brunswick St Prince George, BC V2L 2C2
(250) 563-0121

Food was great, service was outstanding. Tina catered to us and went above and beyond. I will definitely be back.

Tina is amazing! We’ll be back. Great service, and reasonably priced.

Good food and we always get great service from Tim. Thank you!