Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters

David Chang’s Momofuku «crack-​pie» has nothing on Phil and Sebastian’s «banana chocolate chip» cake. Pure decadence but not overly sweet. Lots of chocolate flavour and delicious cream cheese. This is not your average coffee shop cake!
Why didn’t I know about this cake sooner. I’ve always loved Phil and Sebastian’s but, this cake is only available at THIS Marda Loop location.
Friends, if you see me hanging out here EVERYDAY, don’t be surprised.
On a side note, coffee here is solid. What else would you expect from this franchise?!

Why do people like this poor coffee? The espresso is akin to sour barley left in my grandmothers church shoes. I’ve read in articles that this is the new taste of espresso these days– sour tart and acidy.
How sad. This is probably either because they have never tasted the sweet delight of an original Italian espresso or they cannot make an authentic one.
:(

The coffee taste is excellent BUT the lattes and cappuccino’s are NEVER hot enough (and I’m one who usually has to cool her coffees) so are generally cold by the time one has finished.
AND, they really should take a page from some other coffee places and ditch the Wifi completely. The place is generally loaded with 30 somethings monopolizing seats with their laptops for hours on end so that if you DO actually want to meet someone for a visit, you can never find a place to sit.

Worst customer service ever experienced anywhere today at P & S 33^rd Ave location. Started with having no decaf beans available for purchase, then no coffee cream (only 1%) available for creamer. I may be wrong but isn’t the product they sell Coffee? But to top it all off I asked the barista that since they didn’t have creamer could I have a latte instead? You’d think I’d asked for a million dollars. The extremely rude barista told me that I couldn’t have the latte without paying extra and that it wasn’t his fault they didn’t have creamer. Huh? What? And so its my fault that no one has bothered to run next door to buy a bit of creamer to tie you over until the next shipment? And you can’t make me one stinking latte? So after I didn’t give in to this arrogant person he said he’d make me a small latte ‘only this one time’. We’ll you’re right, it’ll be only that one time cause they’ve now lost a dedicated customer from the U.S. who used to order their coffee online, buy gifts for family living in Calgary, and sing their praises. All it takes is one bad experience. There are too many others out there that would appreciate my business. Bye bye Phil & Sebastian.

The quality of the coffee is great, their lattes are definitely of a higher end than the regular Starbucks. I find their quality is comparable to Artiggiano — mind you, I really like Artiggiano so that’s a compliment.
The flipside of this chain is the price, their coffees are way overpriced for what they are. For example, a large latte comes to about $ 6 after tax. I understand that they have this fair trade, organic, yada yada concept but even for those standards I find it difficult to justify to myself paying that kind of price for a coffee, especially when I can get a similar quality at Artiggiano for a much better bang for the buck.
As for ambience, I find their stores to have a pretty standard coffee shop feel, and the same goes for the menu of pastries and food. I think it’s ok for a very occasional treat, but I would probably not consider becoming a regular here.

Perfect temperature cappuccino. Looking for coffee in this area, look no further. Hard to find a table but that’s a good sign, they’re getting lots of love from the hood. Staff really friendly too

I tried Phil & Sebastian’s for the first time at their new Simmons location and it was well worth the wait. The staff is really knowledgeable about their coffees/​drinks and take the time to carefully craft each and every order. Their latte art is on point, too!
I tried their classic latte and taste-​wise, it was excellent! The coffee wasn’t bitter at all and it was creamy and delicious. I also had a dark chocolate brownie to go with it, and for someone who isn’t crazy about dark chocolate, I was licking my fingers at the end of it.
The only disappointing thing is reaching the bottom of the cup.
Bravo!

I liked this shop the first few times I visited but I now find it quite unclean. Yesterday I visited 4 th St location. Brownies or something chocolate in a glass jar, not covered with a fly enjoying a Bite! It just never looks clean in there. They also are out of stuff all the time with the crummy stuff still there. Note for now I will stick with Starbucks and Analog which is fabulous. Way better value and coffee!

Great coffee, great location, great place. Careful it gets super busy! There’s hardly ever any seating so be prepared for that! But the coffee is worth the wait. The line was almost out the door but still service was fast!
As usual, the coffee was perfect. The espresso wasn’t bitter or sour, delicious. The milk texture was also great, micro foam on point. I’ll be back!

I come here about once a week for a freshly brewed coffee and a scone. Love the coffee, and even though they don’t have the Clover brewers anymore, the Aeropress technique they use seems to work really well, and the single-​origin coffee has almost always been really good. The scones and other baked goods I’ve had have also been pretty tasty, but I wouldn’t recommend their other food, as it’s always tasted a little bit boring to me, especially considering what you pay for it.
The only real knock I’d have is that it’s not really a place to spend a lot of time; it’s always busy and the seating situation is sparce.

Stopped in out of curiosity while I was working. I’m not sure what that contraption was they used to make my coffee, but it was easily the best cup I’ve ever had. I’ve never experienced such a depth of flavour in coffee, and the knowledgeable staff made understanding the different options on the menu manageable.

Excellent joint. My lady and I made a visit here seeing a friend in Calgary. We really liked the grilled cheese snack that we got. My girl got the Dulce, which is their sweetened latte since hey don’t have the typical flavored syrups and I got a regular coffee. It was good.

Phil’s and Sebastian’s opened in chinook mall a few years back much to my delight .P art of my daily routine is having a delicious single shot extra hot cappuccino every morning. It’s an expensive habit but oh so good. The cappuccino is perfect every time due to the fact the baristas are well trained, the coffee beans are of the highest quality and yes even the service is of 4 season hotel caliber.
In conclusion p&s is the best coffee shop in calgary

Preface: I love this business, live nearby to this location and come here at least weekly.
For cafes, I generally only give five stars to small local businesses that only have one location and are integral to their neighbourhoods. Because Phil and Sebastian is a chain, it loses a star. Chains are important and all, I know, but I’m a snob for place-​making and unique neighbourhood features.
But apart from this, P&S scores really, really well in my books.
As far as chains go, P&S is
–local
–owned and operated by some super cool people (Phil and Sebastian…). I saw them at the Calgary Folk Fest, and they were onboard for a lot of great initiatives, ex. compostable cups.
It’s on the more expensive end, but at least there’s a rewards card available.
For this location specifically, I love the furniture, the lofty ceiling, the art, the lighting fixtures, the cleanliness, the friendly baristas, and the baked goods.

The espresso tastes like tomato paste. I drink it anyway so that I look cool because its a very trendy place to be «seen».
Still I make better espresso when I am hung over. There is such a thing as trying too hard.

I’m not a fan of lattes or anything in my coffees for that matter. A friend suggested I try the dolce and I was hooked. I think I may be trading in my espresso card for a latte card from now on… but only at Phil & Sebastian.
I’m also a big fan of their business plan and how they support their growers. We need more ethical companies such as these. It’s not all about the money.

My wife and I absolutely LOVE Phil and Sebastians hot chocolate! The designs that they do with the cream is the finishing touch that makes this experience such a memorable one. The staff at the chinook mall location is awesome, super polite, and very talented in their craft. Highly recommend this place.
— SM

P&S is a cute spot for having a coffee with a friend. I’ve been there several times, but found it slightly awkward to get a seat since it is usually quite busy. The expresso is great, and I love the open concept/​organic décor. There isn’t a lot of privacy because of how the seating is set up, but that’s not something out of the blue.
Good energy, and lots of natural light, which i love. I will return.

Standard modern/​vintage style coffee shop. Has wifi obviously as there can be quite the issue getting a seat there.
Coffee and Tea are great.

This is my favourite coffee shop, and my local one. It’s part of the reason I moved to Marda Loop. I feel like kindred spirits with these guys since they are U of C Software Engineers who gave up their Office Space jobs to follow their coffee dreams.
The coffee beans are amazing. They’ve turned me into a full-​on coffee snob. I stopped using cream and sugar and just drink it black now. Even my wife has started to become converted. She says I’ve «ruined her». Timmy’s just tastes gross by comparison. Easily worth the $ 16-​$ 20 for a bag.
This Marda Loop location has 2 Clover machines, which can’t be purchased new anymore because Starbucks gobbled them up. It’s a $ 10k machine that makes the perfect cup of coffee. You can really taste the difference, it brings out all the flavour in the beans and makes it more acidic and bright. Note that the Chinook location doesn’t have a Clover. All of their normal coffee is served by the cup and made on a Clover.
They also have a lot of great merchandise for coffee lovers for reasonable prices. (Well, insanely expensive but at the going rate for these things). I bought my Frieling french press here. They sell the Aeropress, burr grinders, Hario kettles for the pourover method, etc.
They have classes here like Home Brewing, Intro to Espresso, and Latte Art. They also do roasterie tours and Thursday night tastings. I’ve never taken part in any of these but I really want to. I think it shows just how dedicated they are to coffee.
The reason I give it 4 stars is that the service can be super slow. They lose my order surprisingly often. Also, the coffee shop is insanely busy and it can be really tough to get a seat. If you do, it’s very loud and tough to carry out a conversation. This is a good problem to have for P&S, but not so great for the customers. I rarely actually stay in the shop but always buy my coffee here.
Tip: You can park underground in the back. Enter from 20^th St.
Tip: Use their loyalty cards to get every 10^th drink and every 10^th bag of beans free. I always save these up for the most expensive coffee or beans. :)