Day Dream Coffee

Updated Sept 10:

Appreciated the owner's quick response, explanation & offer after my previous review. Visited Sat Sept 9, updating said review based on the owner's responsiveness to my concerns and my experience at the cafe.

Atmosphere:
Agree with other reviewers wrt the cute atmosphere - it's giving Rumiko Takahashi via Wes Anderson. From the pastel colour scheme to the stuffed toys, logo & packaging, no detail was overlooked in creating a whimsical, vintage-inspired, kawaii-kitsch aesthetic. It's "homey", in a sense (if "home" is somewhere in the 80's Sanrio universe or heavily inspired by it) without being cluttered or chaotic. Thoughtfully designed without looking algorithmic, it's a refreshing change of pace from the bland minimalism most cafes and bubble tea shops offer these days.

It was pretty quiet when we visited on a Saturday afternoon. There's at least one outlet between the tables on the east-facing wall, maybe more. Will come back for a quiet study/work session.

Drinks:
We ordered the puer latte and a pomegranate drink. The pomegranate drink was refreshingly sour but a bit too sweet (would ask for less sugar next time).

Glad the puer latte lacked added sugar and was strong enough to hold its own against the rich milk (a lot of tea lattes elsewhere taste too sweet and/or too diluted for my liking).

Overall I'd say the drinks were average, but this is a tentative evaluation based on our small sample size of 2 (first time visitors). B/c I'm a sucker for cute things and the quality was good enough (relative to the competition), I'm willing to try these again + other options (rose, haw latte) b/f rendering a final verdict.

Misc:
Drink packaging was cute & functional. Lids were good quality, fit securely & were taped down to boot. Latte had an additional seal to prevent leakage/absorb spashes. The iridescent bag each drink comes in secures with velcro. Tho drinks would likely survive takeout/Doordash, Day Dream is about the experience as much as the drinks. Best to come here when you have time to hang out. Drinks came with heart-shaped paper clips I'll definitely reuse.

Owner comped a drink based on past thwarted attempts to visit. Glad we visited, would recommend. Suggest giving advance warning (via social media posts) and posting a sign if smth comes up that could foreseeably impact operating hrs for more than a couple days.

Original review (posted Fri, Sept 8):
Been looking forward to checking this place out but probably going to give up at this point. Posted/claimed operating hours are unreliable, which makes it a pain to plan a visit here. We've arrived here three times during posted business hours only to find out the shop was closed. Every time we want to visit this place we end up wasting our time and going to a competitor instead.

On Thursday, Sept 7 posted hours indicated it would open at 2:30 pm. We drove all the way from the SW, ate at DL Eats (right beside Day Dream) hoping we could visit the cafe right when it opened. We finished our meal, walked next door (this was sometime around 2:30) only to find out Day Dream was closed. By that time Google Maps hours had changed to show it was closed on Thursdays. Checked the hours again just now, Thursday's hours have changed from 12-7 pm.

On a prior attempt I called to confirm the hours only to find the place was closed by the time we showed up (we showed up before the claimed closing time).

There aren't set operating hours for this place as far as I can tell. Really disappointing because the cute theme is different for Calgary and I'd otherwise like to support this business.

My sister and I went today. It was so cute and really enjoyed the food. The lady working was really nice too.