Williams Fresh Cafe

Waterloo, Canada

3.3

Open now

20 reviews

Free Wi-Fi

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 519-888-7254
Website:
www.williamsfreshcafe.com
Address:
170 University Avenue W, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3E9
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
700 ftUW - Davis Centre
780 ftUniversity / Phillip
820 ftUniversity of Waterloo
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
No
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Apple Pay
No
Accepted Cards
Credit, Debit
Good For
Breakfast
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
No
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
Yes
Dogs Allowed
No
Waiter Service
No
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Open now
Local time (Waterloo) 2:29 PM Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Business hours

Monday 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Tuesday 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Wednesday 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Thursday 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Friday 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Saturday 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Sunday 7:30 am – 12:00 am

Description

Specialties

Williams is a great place to grab something on the go or sit and enjoy a well-​earned break, whether for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert.

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20 reviews of Williams Fresh Cafe

No registration required
Place rating: 3
Los Angeles, CA
Good price point and many options, but I didn’t have a great experience. I ordered a salad togo and asked for dressing on the side. I was told that all togo salads have dressings on the side. Great!
I get my order and of course, the dressing has already been tossed in. I don’t really want to be that girl and bug them about it since they looked pretty busy. So instead I’m complaining about it in a review lol. Perhaps there should be better communication between restaurant staff.
Coffee was fine.
Place rating: 4
Waterloo, Canada
It is definately one of the best place in Uw plaza for have meals.
The service is good. Although sometimes it will be a little slow.
The place is clean and spacious, which makes me feel very comfortable when sitting there.
The food is good. And it is a little expensive. Especially the waffle and cakes. Drinks are good as well. I always order the London fog. But If you are a big fan of coffee, you would be disappointed with the coffee there.
Place rating: 3
Waterloo, Canada
If you order anything from the kitchen be prepared to wait at least 10 minutes.
Place rating: 4
Mountain View, CA
Williams is a great alternative once you are tired of Tim Hortons’ coffee on school campus. It’s a huge coffee shop where you will find all sorts of people (just hanging out, studying, trying to finish an essay etc). I like to think of Williams as another Starbucks. Except they serve a larger variety of foods and beverages. For example, Williams has an amazing selection of cakes. Although a bit on the pricy side, but definitely worth sharing one with a friend. They also serve rice boxes which I was told were also very good.
In terms of grab and go, I really enjoy their wide selection of pastries. I persoanlly am a huge fan of their chocolatine and the banana chip muffin. The chocolatine is comparable to Tim Horton’s chocolate danish but more buttery flavour. In terms of coffee their normal double double is actually sweeter than usual. So if you usually get double double at other coffee shops I would suggest trying 1 milk 1 sugar first!
Place rating: 5
York University Heights, Canada
I had such a lovely experience here! I love the cozy atmosphere, the staff were so friendly, and the coffee was delicious!
Place rating: 1
Kitchener, Canada
Hard to sit down and actually find a table when it’s full of university students, 1 per table, working on their computers or assignments!
Just took my meal back and cancelled my order because I couldn’t find a table or counter to sit at to eat!
WTF. Can’t the students study at the university library???
I usually go Monday nights but I think I’m going to start patronizing other establishments. Every usable tonight has only 1 person at it, even booths for 4 or 6 have one person!
Wake up Williams! They aren’t your only customers!
Place rating: 3
Waterloo, Canada
I really don’t like how much they abhor outside food. like they will kick u out even if you’ve bought something from them. good, but way too expensive for what you’re getting. the day I’m satisfied with paying 10 $ for a cold sandwich is the day pigs fly
Place rating: 1
Toronto, Canada
Apparently when you order a large latte «for here» they actually give you nothing more than a medium. I got the ceramic mug, but when I asked if I could get it «to go» then they gave me a medium cup to go. Don’t make that mistake. Get what you paid for.
Place rating: 4
Toronto, Canada
Lots of choices here. I had a crème cheese cake and iced cappuccino. Love the plating of the cheese cake, and it turned out surprisingly good: very strong sense of cheese and not overwhelmingly sweet. Iced cappuccino was good overall as well. Lots of seats but it’s noisy like a club. Don’t study here.
Place rating: 3
Waterloo, Canada
bruh lets be real here
ur paying for the ambiance and atmosphere of this ‘upscale’ starbucks type place where everythings super expensive and the portions are tiny and you see people with macbooks workin and shit.
the ‘rice boxes’ are kinda expensive for the amount you get ($ 10) but tasty.
honestly im still cheesed cause one time i tried to go in with some friends and they wouldn’t let me eat my mr paninos eggplant w/​rice take out box in there smh
Place rating: 2
Waterloo, Canada
Great panini — I recommend it —, burnt espresso (and burnt latte). I hear the pizza is good too, and the strawberry milkshake a friend had was apparently mediocre.
You can’t expect great food from a chain store but at least don’t overextract & burn the coffee please.
Place rating: 1
Toronto, Canada
WARNING: NOT VEGETARIAN/​KOSHER/​HALAL FRIENDLY
This is a warning to all people who refrain from eating pork. I ate at williams a number of times and usually ordered the salads (many of which come with garlic toast). Sometimes I ordered the cobb salad «vegetarian» which to me means no bacon in the salad (as listed on the menu). At a recent visit to Williams, I was informed the garlic toast has crushed bacon on it… and this wasn’t a new recipe, it has always been like that. What restaurant puts bacon on garlic toast without informing the customer?!? Furthermore, Williams customer service did not respond after 3 attempts to contact them.
To say the least, I am not going back.
Place rating: 4
Toronto, Canada
Located in the middle of the University Plaza, it is a great place to catch up with friends. Food and drinks are a bit over-​priced but I think of it as paying for seating — I find it nearly impossible to grab a two-​seater table at the Starbucks down the street. I can enjoy a calm conversation without getting pushed from knapsacks and feeling like I am hogging seats. Same reason why I would have breakfast here over Mel’s. The food may be less homey, but at least I can eat it in peace.
Their Big Breakfast comes with toast, sausages, bacon, eggs, potato wedges, waffles, and coffee. Yum!
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
Love the ambiance of this place :) Perfect for sitting down with your friend and just having a nice chat. It’s lovely sitting out on the patio in the breeze during the summer and cozy to be sitting in one of the booths during the winter.
The menu is kind of over-​priced but I guess you also kind of pay for the service of the nice place & the food is brought to you.
Place rating: 5
London, Canada
Favorite place to study and chill out.
Place rating: 4
Waterloo, Canada
With no outlets in sight and wifi more unreliable than Spring in Waterloo, it’s pretty clear Williams doesn’t want you to spend all day in their cozy booths.
Williams is a great place to have lunch (highly recommend the BLT & A) or a coffee with friends. Yet it’s not a coffee shop like Starbucks where you feel comfortable studying or reading all day in.
Overall, I’m a fan, but think great lunch spot rather than cozy coffee shop.
Place rating: 3
Richmond, Canada
Pretty hilarious. Nothing says welcome to Waterloo like a stop at Williams. For those new to Ontario, Williams is like an upscale Tim Horton’s with a selection of cakes, sandwiches, and drinks in a diner style atmosphere. Service is almost comically inept. It’s almost worth it to come just to experience how bad it is. The manager and trainers should be fired, or at least sent to Tim Horton’s for remedial training.
The coffee and food is surprisingly good, if your point of reference is, like I said, Tim Horton’s. They also have a couple of big screen TV’s for watching sports or whatever. It is a popular hangout place for UW students being literally the nearest possible café off campus.
The raspberry, white chocolate cheesecake was pretty good, and priced reasonably well at about $ 5 incl tax. Richy, creamy, lots of raspberry flavor.
Place rating: 4
Brampton, Canada
Went here for lunch this past Friday and got to sit outside on the patio which was lovely. I haven’t been back to Waterloo in years but was back interviewing students from the university and had a 1 hour break.
I was able to walk from the campus, order and have my goat cheese and beet salad (7.99) served with salmon (4.99) and get back in time with 10 minutes to spare.
My coworker had a chipotle turkey club panini (7.49) that also looked quite good.
I was impressed that the salmon that was added was only 4.99 because it was a substantial piece. You also have a choice of tuna, chicken, and roast beef too. The salad also had some candied pecans and sliced apple and a yummy Acari berry dressing on the side. Good service and good food. Their muffins and other treats looked yummy as did other items on the menu.
Worth checking out!
Place rating: 3
Markham, Canada
Speaking purely on the clam chowder soup…
It’s okay. Not very good, not very bad. It’s saltier than I would’ve liked though, as I ended up being quite thirsty at the end.
Service is decent, though I had to yell over the employees for them to clear off my table, since all the other tables were occupied.
Their coffee is good though.
Place rating: 4
Toronto, Canada
Recently renovated, lovely atmosphere for catching up with a group of friends, your significant other, or sitting by yourself to study if you’re good at working in loud environments. If you want to do a group project, expect to project your voice.
The only problem with this place is that the items are a little overpriced, but I seem to come here over and over again. They have a great selection of cakes, sandwiches, cookies, salads that are of decent quality. I love their paninis, and their waffles are fairly filling. I’ve also come for their breakfast specials which are usually pretty decent. Their fruit smoothies and London fogs are great as well.
Free wifi is always great, but it can be spotty at times.
They will come by to take away plates and drinks from time to time, the staff are usually really friendly and service is quick.