Aroma Espresso Bar

By Annabelle Goodman –

I first experienced this restaurant at their home base in Israel. The first café in Toronto is situated on Bloor St near Bathurst. This location in Forest Hill is more elegant and well designed. It obviously is the hot spot in the area. This is a high class coffee house with great food. Several other locations have recently opened throughout the city

Order your food at the counter. Your name is called when it is ready. The food is fresh and delicious. The pastries would make anyone forget their diet. You can dine heartily or have a cup of cappuccino. It is a great people watching spot and nobody is rushed even though the place is busy.

I set out to visit a friend’s new condominium (also very elegant) Aroma is a few blocks away. It was such fun to walk to the coffee house and enjoy a lengthy visit.

We both chose the Double Up Combo.($8.85) You have the option of choosing two items from the Soup of the Day/ Half Sandwich/ Chopped, Mixed Greens or Quinoa Salad. We opted for the Mediterranean Soup. It reminded me of the famous Ribolitta soup in Italy. It was a large bowl filled with vegetables in a tomato base. The orzo was tasty and very filling. This soup was a winner. We each ordered the Egg Sandwich. The half sandwich was a joke. It was enormous. I had multi grain bread that was fresh and of high quality. The sandwich was full of flavor and also with a large portion of the egg mixture. It was incredible.

We might have ordered from a long list of sandwiches. The Mediterranean offers grilled eggplant, tahini, tomatoes, pickles and hard boiled eggs.

Italian Goat Cheese is prepared with goat cheese, pesto and tomatoes.

Full size sandwiches are prepared on white, whole wheat or multi grain bread.

Many of the diners were enjoying Salads. The Aroma Special ($7.30) is prepared with mixed greens, tomato, cucumber, red onion, hard boiled egg, olives and your choice of albacore tuna or feta cheese, all topped with a balsamic vinaigrette

A Warm Chick Pea Salad  combines chick peas, tomato, cucumber, red onion, garlic croutons, parsley, hard boiled egg, served with lemon and olive oil dressing and tahini.($6.80) All salads are served with your choice of bread and butter.

All Day Breakfasts are a specialty. A Classic Breakfast offers 2 eggs any style with bread butter and jam.($5.30)

This is a coffee house so you expect the coffees to be excellent. We loved our hot cappuccinos. A variety of hot drinks is available The Marshmallow Hot Chocolate is prepared with premium chocolate, hot milk, steamed milk, cocoa and marshmallow. Our coffee was presented with a wrapped chocolate on the spoon

The Pastries were more than inviting but we were just too full. Muffins, brownies, biscotti and Danish pastries are a few of the tempting goodies.

What a great treat in more ways than one. I didn’t realize time had fled and I missed my yoga class. I prize good food. This may be a coffee house but it offers so much more.