Modern Cafe in Nanaimo

Our waitress went beyond our expectations to make sure we had a great experience here. The food was excellent and we enjoyed the outdoor ambience looking out at Nanaimo as the sun set and the lights came on. Will be back!

We stopped for lunch today. Service was slow (despite it being quiet), my friends crab Benny came out with quite a lot of shell in it and after sending it back it took along time for it to come back out (by which time the rest of the table was long finishedand the the bread was burnt! Eggs Benny was one of my least favorite far too lemony - would work with smoked salmon maybe but strange with ham.

Disappointing experience. We sat inside as the patio was full. They unfortunately didn’t give us a heads up the inside was extremely warm, perhaps AC was broken. Server was very friendly. My order was incorrect so I had to send it back. Server was most apologetic. They made me an entire new plate which was great but by the time I received it my friend was done her lunch. Server came back to check it was okay and we literally never saw her again. I had to flag a server for a box and the bill, then had to to the bar and pay. No comp on the bill for the error on my order.

Average food, friendly service. But if you offer chicken with waffles and baked peaches and the peaches are missing/finished/...., you should make an apology and not tell the client that the peaches are not mentioned on the menu.

Nothing that special about it. The service was good the taste good. I have found that they put way to much croutons on the creaser salad which is my favourite.

Over priced terrible food. We had a charcuterie board if you could call it that (see image wow the saddest charcuterie board I have ever experienced, 3 rolled up salami , 2 strips of pickled beets , a cut in half carrot oil soaked bread and raincoats crackers ..oh and 3 strips of Costco cheese for our main we had the prawn boil ...ok it was cocktail shrimp a few old potatoes and 1 ear of corn cut up ...sooo disappointing, just have drinks at this place skip the food

Just had lunch at Modern Cafe. Took 40 minutes to get seafood chowder & caesar salad.I have previously enjoyed their chowder, today it was tasteless with more potatoes then an Idaho field. Instead of a nice slice of foccacia bread, it came with two pieces of toast smaller & harder then communion wafers. I was totally disappointed by my experience. Server was pleasant & just said she would tell the kitchen. Which is universal for "Ah, too bad"

the tables and music make for a good atmosphere, but the crashing of cutlery and clearing tables kinda takes away from it. servers are friendly, but a bit stressed - a bit too much multitasking to make it feel as decadent as the layout presumes. good prices and yummy food, though I can tell my meal was sitting there for a while before it was given to me. impressive holindaise! overall its good, but on the day we went, good not excellent

Service was great but I ordered the prawn broil and it was 3 baby potatoes 3 prawns and 3 small pieces of corn . Not near worth 24 dollars.

Very disappointing! Like to give at least 1 good thing but sadly this was a bad experience from the word go. Looked it up on best eggs Benny in Nanaimo. Wrong! If I watched my employees move at the pace they were I would have fired my crew. We were sat at our table and had to ask for coffee about 10 minutes after no one even asked if we would like some. Service was slow, food was small portions. While we were paying our bill the the owner or manager had to chase people down who just couldnt take it any more and walked away from the patio.After we headed back to our place we were staying at the home owner explained if I knew you were going there I would have stopped you! They had the same experience there a year ago and even refused to pay for their bill. I would highly not recommend this establishment to anyone, I actually told the people that were coming in the door to run!

Lots of indoor and outdoor seating. Only had the brunch menu available on a Sunday afternoon. Service is friendly but a little slow.Food was decent, the burger was undersized but the Mac and cheese was very creamy.

Lunch on the patio. It wasnt bad but it wasnt great either. The eggs benedict was bland and there was barely a handful of hash browns on the plate. They had their own homemade ketchup which just tasted like hot sauce. I had to go inside to ask for salt and pepper. None on the table (they said they dont have them on the tables because it rains sometimes). One, it was sunny that day and two, maybe ask the customers if they would like some brought out with your meal so I dont have to play waitress and run for all my condiments. Server never came over to check on us during the meal. I wont be back. :( Management: you can do better both with your food and service.

Found a hair from the Prawn linguini in my mouth while having only three bites. They took the dish off the bill but should have taken off the cup of soup I had too. Will never be back.

Food is really good here, we throughly enjoyed one breakfast. Sadly today, we mistakenly dined at the restaurant next to this one and had an awful meal. Won’t be making that mistake again.

Great fathers day brunch experience. Our server Morgan was friendly, attentive and quick. Food was phenomenal.

Delicious food and drinks! Great service and loved the vibe. Highly recommend beef tenderloin and shrimp along with a raspberry gin fizz

We waited a while to be seated, and a while to get out order taken, but the subsequent food more than made up for it.From the friendly and attentive service, to the incredible food, to the hip coffee house ambiance, this is definitely one of my new favourite hangouts in Nanaimo. 👍🏻👍🏻 Two thumbs way up.

Food was great as well the customer service provided by our server. Unfortunately, our whole experience by the rude and seemingly racist demeanour of another staff member when we asked her for some salt. I mean why are you even working at a restaurant if you dont like to see or serve all kind of people.

The newest incarnation of waffles waffles waffles is flavorful and yes, berry berry delicious. Thank-you Jane for a wonderful dining experience, youre a great addition to the Modern Cafe. Austin, Emma and Maya as always thank you for the kindness and professional you show my wife and me with every visit.

We visited this cafe expecting a wide selection of coffee. To our disappointment its more of a pub with barely any coffee. First time ever a vanilla latte has been served in a glass with no handle. Tasted like warm milk. Disgusting

Really enjoyed the vegetarians eggs benedict! The eggs were poached perfectly. Great service and friendly staff that recommended some cool stuff to check out around town too.

Ive only gone for Sunday brunch. However, the waffles and mimosa flights are both super delicious 😋.

I have to say the food itself was really good, BUT THE ACTUAL MENU only had FOUR choices on it. The acoustics in the Modern Cafe were unpleasant, we could hardly hear each other speak! Having a "drink special " with an unlisted price that ended up to be whopping $14 per 8 Oz drink was excessive.... I dont think you guys understand what "specials" are. I would eat here again, but its not a go to place for me.

Amazing food and service! The waffles are a must order. Ate here multiple times over the weekend and recommend to anyone looking for a great spot to eat close to your hotel.

Good food. Prompt and friendly service. Clean. I had the chicken and waffles. The chicken was moist on the inside, crispy on the outside. A little under seasoned but still good. The waffles were too sweet for my liking but in no way bad- just didn’t work for my palate. You’ll have to judge for yourself. My son had the burger and subbed Mac and cheese for the fries. I’ve never seen him inhale food quite that quickly. Would come again.

Favourite place for brunch in Nanaimo. Eggs Benny and the waffles are our top favourites! Servers are always bright and helpful. Never disappoints.

Service was quick and friendly, and everything looked very clean and had a nice ambience. We ordered the chicken and waffles and the menage a trois, and were disappointed by both dishes.The chicken seemed like a chicken tender from the freezer, and the baked peach was less than a tablespoons worth of canned peach smeared on top. The waffles were underwhelming. In the other dish, there were 3 shrimps, about 3 pieces of tough candied salmon, and a bland crab cake that seemed to be prepared from frozen (but the greens were fresh!). Didnt seem worth the $19 and $18 price tags. When paying we noticed the small carafe of oat milk for one drip coffee was $3.50 which also seemed a bit extreme.Overall kudos to the great team working there, but please reconsider some pricing / dishes!

Went here 2 years ago. The food was awesome. Family business and the server was the owners daughter. She was really at attentive and nice.We also got to buy some of their in house made ketchup because we liked it so much.

I ve been in the culinary industry for 8 years and this is the best hollandaise sauce Ive ever had. I have a sensitive palate. The flavors where so well balanced it was like my taste buds where exploding.They even did a medium poached egg perfectly. Which any culinary expert knows that is not easy.The homemade ketchup was an amazing addition. Everything was perfectly seasoned.The plating was exquisite.The mimosas going out looked amazing. The service was great for how busy they where.

Great lunch place with amazing daily specials. The prawns were so fresh. We were hosted by Emma, very friendly and humble. All in all; delicious food with first class hospitality, what else would you wish for!

As long time regulars my wife and I are never disappointed by iether the exceptional food or the personable service by the waitstaff. The several new additions to the dinner menu are all flavorful and excellently portioned and more than reasonably priced. The owners have even been so kind as to stock my favorite spirit, if that isnt quality, personable service I dont know what is. We both look forward to many more dining experiences at The Modern, Nanaimos best dining choice. See you Thursday.

Had lemon and pepper chicken wings here and there was so much lemon salt on them I couldnt really eat them and I love lemon and salty food and my friends always laugh at me cause I have salt packets in my purse all the time cause I need more salt but these wings were so overseasoned. Like almost inedible, I finished the plate cause I didnt want to waste them but it was pretty difficult idk maybe it was an accident but it was way to sour and salty and I love lemon and salt so I cant imagine what people who are sensitive to salt and sour would have done I dont think they could have eaten it.

Had a positive experience here. We went in for drinks and tapas, the brussel sprouts special were our favourite part. I would also recommend the raspberry martini! The charcuterie board was a bit too much garnish and not enough meats and cheese for our liking, but overall good all the same.

The terrace was enjoyable. The staff and nice and discreet. The food is good but not great. Generous portions. The french fries are crispy and tasty. Although the poutine cannot be compared to something you would find in Quebec. All in all, its a place we enjoyed.

Poor service, incorrect bill, brunch took 53 mins from order to table. Server did not check on us once. All requests had to be directed to other staff. Poor experience, maybe its an off day… wait was not worth it sadly. To kick it off the bacon was undercooked, i just pealed it out cause it was yuck.Normally i wouldnt complain about a restaurant in such detail but in this case an exception had to be made. If you dont want to work dont go to work.

so good!! the ingredients were fresh and the food was perfect. they have gluten free options for anyone with allergies. staff were friendly and accommodating 💘

We regularly go to this place for the charcuterie alone, and it hasnt disappointed us once. We prefer to order one board to share, as theres usually quite a bit and enough for us to both have a little of everything or to trade off things we dont like. We rarely find a pickled food on this menu item that we dont enjoy, and it is a wild array of options- a lot of it is best paired together. I think they havent been preparing larger/shared boards because of the current health concerns, so we did get individual identical boards in our last visit. Its always an adventure, always a twist, never disappointing, and we honestly love the variety.

Everything I ordered was very delicious 👌 The Nanaimo cocktail tasted like a exotic cacao drink, it remained me the jungle in my country 😉😌I definitely liked this restaurant 👌

This is not the place where I would ever return. The server was nice and in the end even time efficient, but food was mostly horrible and it took ages to sit us down at a free table. Then again another long while for them to take our order. From the food I liked the seafood chowder, it was really nice, thats it. Squid tapas was super small for the price of $16 and tasted like pure seasoning and no breading, just overpowering. Then I had Shrimp Linguine (indian stylebeware, I like indian very much, but this was again overpowering with curry and all the spices and the result did not play nice together. Presentation of all food was very nice, but that does not save the taste. P.S.: think twice about sitting on the patio as the sharp flashing lights could cause you an epileptic seizure.

Amazing food and service! Ended up going for Brunch two days straight to this lovely place. Highly recommend. Don’t forget to make reservations :)

Great food and service. After hiking Newcastle perimeter we were looking for a yummy meal and we werent disappointed. Attentive service to satisfy a 8 year old as well. Highly recommend.

Delicious food, great variety, fast and friendly service from the staff. Drove into Nanaimo for the day, from Victoria. A pleasant way to spend Sunday, if you dont mind that many shops are closed.

1:27h after the order our food was served, unfortunately some of us had their food cold, which made us even more frustaded. If you can wait for almost 1:30h, thats a good place to go.

The burger is really fantastic! Poutine is exactly what you need, and the service makes you feel like a million bucks!! :just sooo good all around!

My 1st time eating at Modern Cafe with a group of 22 and I was very impressed. Most of the others in our group had eaten here before. I had the Blackend Cod with vegetables that was so flavourful and fresh. Good selection of 🍺 on tap, nice selection of red and white wine on the list too. Staff were very efficient with all our groups needs. Well definitely return for a meal here.

For me the Modern has a vibe like no other. I have always loved the food there and even more since chef Daniel is the owner. Foodie heaven. My fave brunch is triple veggie benny no bread....Hollandaise youll never forget. Live music, jazzy, blues Fridays and Sundays. Sunday brunch with live jazz is a bit of a thing there so reservations are a good idea.

Giving this little cafe a 5/5 rating was a no brainer. We came for a late Sunday brunch and the food was fantastic. The service was also really on point, although the cafe was very busy. Last but not least, the ambience was amazing. Night only did we love the decor and lighting, but to elevate our experience further there was a young jazz trio playing some soft mellow music to accompany our breakfast. Well definitely be back!

Amazing food! Best breakfast menu Ive ever had. Was visiting Nanaimo just for a couple days as a break from the Vancouver-richmond life. Wanted to come back to this place everyday that I was at the island. Would definitely recommend to try!

Typically great Canadian service. Visited twice. Each time treated really well. Philips Pale Ale delicious. Lunchtime eats ok but nothing special. OK value for money. This place had empty tables whereas cafe 150metres away had a 15-20 minute wait. I can see why.

Nice place with good eats.Staff is very friendly and attentive.Dinner was good.Breakfast was where they lost the 1 ⭐️Was cold and forgot my coffee. But the waitress did the best she could with the size of the group that come at the same time.