Discovery Coffee

I go here almost every day, they have the best cappuccinos, lattés, and cortados in the city, as well as the best and freshest in-​house homemade donuts!
Discovery in James Bay (on Menzies) always has a great vibe, even on rainy days. They have a record player that’s usually playing some great old album, not too loud.

I absolutely love this little coffee shop. It’s warm and inviting inside, the drinks are delicious and the doughnuts are amazing (and just a little bit different and weird). While in Victoria, I come here every morning and order a London Fog — they make the best London Fog I’ve ever had, complete with real specks of vanilla bean. The first time I came here I tried one of their salted caramel doughnuts, topped with pecans and a tad bit of rosemary. While it was wonderful, I have taken to their earl grey filled doughnuts as my pastry of choice. Mmm.

If you are in the local neighborhood and want a clean, friendly coffee shop to go to, this is your spot. You will pay a little premium for their items, but the coffee/​donuts are worth it for the atmosphere and quality. If we are back in Victoria in the marina area, we will go back there.

I’m originally from Portland where good coffee is meant to be sipped, enjoyed, and filled with many scented aromas and flavored. Moving to Victoria had a downside… no good coffee. Every time I come here, I’m reminded why I love coffee and why I’m so picky. These guys know how to pull shots and make great foam for art. If you’re used to bad flavored, burnt coffee like Starbucks, don’t come here. But if you really want a good, well-​bodied cup that will satisfy, this is your place.

This entire city is full of coffee places, Canada absolutely loves coffee. I don’t think I even walked one block without seeing somewhere that was serving coffee. I visited many coffee places on my trip to Victoria but Discovery was the only place that stood out. Open at 630 am every day (even on holidays) Discovery is a great café to sit and enjoy a warm drink. This place off Menzies was one of many of their locations that serve local Canadian roasted coffee. Not only did they serve great coffee here but they had some really delicious pastries. Here you could find bagels, muffins, fritters, scones and donuts. The Yonni’s brand donuts were almost sold exclusively at Discovery.
When I visited Discovery I ordered a pour over from their Ethiopian blend of coffee along with a donut. The salted caramel donut (
) was massive and topped with plenty of chopped nuts. The donut had a perfect balanced glaze of salty/​sweet caramel coating to it and the pastry was flaky soft. The sugary flavor along with the fresh brewed coffee made for a perfect way to start the morning. The donut was a bit too big to finish, so I took some to go. The café here isn’t the largest but has a quiet mellow atmosphere to it along with free WiFi to do some work. They even have their own small parking lot, because street parking on Menzies can be tough to find at times.

Came to this location just before leaving town. The downtown location was fabulous so we had hoped for the same experience. We were pleasantly surprised to see that this shop had nitro cold brew!!! We have been to so many upscale coffee shops on the west coast but never had the opportunity to try nitro. When I asked about the addition of cream, the sweet barista informed me that it is not usually added. She then offered a small swirl of vanilla syrup on top. Delish! All in all the coffee was Exceptional, the donuts delicious, and super friendly staff. Love this place!

My favorite coffee spot in city. The atmosphere is great, always playing great music, not to noisy if you’re doing work. Staff is super friendly, and will remember you if you come more than once. Oh and they make amazing coffee to! :)

Nice if slightly dark atmosphere. Live that an actual record was outputting great tune age right beside me. Classic touch. Beautiful wood furnishings. Helpful friendly staff. Excellent hot beverages. Find the donuts always look amazing but I been disappointed in my finding that they don’t taste as good as they look. I have made sure to taste a good sample of various donuts. Couldn’t taste the bacon on the bacon one in the summer. Sad. But nice coffee shop.

I’m in here quite regularly since do my laundry close by.
I’m not a coffer drinker but my wife/​friends say it’s good. I usually have a cup of tea. They have good selection and the service is always good. A cup of tea for $ 4 is pretty steep (sorry) in my opinion but it’s specialty tea and that’s unfortunately the norm these days.
There are plenty of cafes in this area but I come back to Discovery because of the space and the service. They play a good selection of classic records, which is great. No sirius satellite repeats of canned garbage. The décor is simple and they have a collection of funky old coffee making apparati (which I know is not a word). They have free wifi which is a terrible business model for them but let’s me get some work done while I hang around for two hours only buying one cup of tea…
Maybe that’s why it’s $ 4!

Great coffee here and fair amount of thoughtfully laid out seating, but I’m taking a star off for the abominable muzak they play too loud inside. It’s no name synth karaōke tracks from the 70s that you’d only be able to buy from mail order on cassette tape. It’s composed in Hell and is astonishingly lame!

This review is more for Yonni’s Doughnuts, which are made at this Discovery location. I feel like it would be redundant to pile on more comments about Discovery’s fantastic coffee.
I love the ideas behind the doughnuts from Yonni’s, but I’ve never had one that really blows my mind. There always seems to be one thing or another that’s a bit off. Their cruelers and old fashioned have great flavour, but they’re often undercooked and mushy on the inside. Their pastry cream fillings are sometimes an unpleasant texture, like they haven’t been strained after cooking. There are other small issues, but the ones I just mentioned seem the most important. My go-​to doughnut these days is the salted caramel, which always seems to be cooked perfectly.
Yonni’s doughnuts: creative flavours, execution needs a little more fine tuning.

Fresh delicious donuts. Excellent americanos but the dip coffee is a little on the weak side

This is located a block behind the legislative building.
I came in for the free wifi because I am touring the country and needed to do some work. I had a regular ice tea for here and it was served in glass cups. I saw the barista weighing out the drink so I guess it’s safe to say you won’t be cheated an ounce! It wasn’t as strong as I was expecting but not a bad tea. They had a spacious indoor seating area and a few outdoor ones.
No complaints here!

Seriously good coffee and great vinyl playing.
Beer on tap for later. Growler fills too.

Early morning stroll along the breakwater with an Americano from discovery coffee? Simply the best.

Excellent coffee. Horrible service. The young man at the cash register decided that we weren’t allowed to mix milk. Whole milk is too rich for my system and skim milk tastes awful. I wanted 2%. You can make a close match by mixing. The barista gave me a long suffering glare and the cashier proceeded to tell me that they wouldn’t do it, that I needed to make a choice. Also, I brought my own raw sugar since they were out and it was a huge hardship for me to put it in the cup before she added the shots. We won’t be back. So sad that they have no idea how to treat customers. Don’t waste your time!

Cozy, friendly, good food & drink, and great music! The staff is great and was cool with me setting up camp here for the morning while waiting for a ferry out of town.

What I think might be the best coffee in the city, awesome baked goods, friendly and fun service! Free wifi, a great place to hang out and get work done, and a tendency to play classic rock music. I’m such a huge fan! The best!

The espresso was really good, the drip coffee was a bit weak. Pastries were delicious (we had a spicy walnut caramel doughnut or something along those lines, delicious). Their sweetener options were limited if you are into that sort of thing, but the service and quality were awesome and so was the price. Definitely a good find.
Update: we went again a second day in a row and the barista remembered us and was super friendly. We had the breakfast sandwich which was the best I’ve ever had, so I bumped up the review to five stars.

Very lovely bright and bustling café that serves coffee, baked goods with a breakfast AND lunch menu served all day! Yum! I thoroughly enjoyed their veggie burger for $ 8 at 9am! The veggie pattie was made in-​house and simply delicious. It was a little crumbly and fell apart but it was filled with wholesome ingredients like lentils and still so tasty. No round puck like, generic patties here! The bun was nothing special but toasted and warmed to perfection.
The coffee was mild with the most beautiful coffee art I’ve seen!
Seating is a little limited but the atmosphere is wonderful with the sunshine shining throuigh the floor to ceiling windows. Staff is super friendly and the music gives the place a nice, relaxing vibe.