221 Commercial Street
Nanaimo, BC

twitter @moderncanada

There is no better time to give Modern Cafe Gift Cards to your special someone! You can now purchase our famous gift cards online and we will ship them to you or directly to your happy reciever!

Modern Cafe Gift Card

$25 Gift Card $25.00 CAD $50 Gift Card $50.00 CAD

It is the ongoing mission of the Modern Cafe to be well… Modern.  So when it came time to update we decided to go to an Ipad POS system to get the most effecient, effective, and easy way to get the most improvement.  With an Ipad POS system many dramatic changes occur at once.

• Immediate improvement in customer orders less mistakes!
• Immediate improvement in customer wait times without compromising quality!
• Improved cost control so we can pass those savings back to you!
• Improved overall customer service on reservations, customer attentiveness, and explaining menu food and beverage features!
• Improved inventory tracking so that we run out of items less often.
• Improved loyalty tracking and marketing incentives.
• Improved twitter and facebook responses, and yes you can make reservations via twitter!
• and on and on.

We are very excited to showcase our new POS system and show you how it helps us on a daily.  Have an Ipad question, maybe we can help.

#nanaimobarmartini

Don Power Review

http://donpower.me/localbusiness/review-modern-cafe-nanaimo/

February 4th, 2011 Blog HummingBird604

http://hummingbird604.com/2011/02/04/the-modern-cafe-nanaimo-bc/

December 1, 2010 Keira-anne.com

http://www.keira-anne.com/2010/12/01/eating-my-way-through-nanaimo/

November 24th, 2010 Blog Miss 604

http://www.miss604.com/2010/11/the-nanaimo-bar-trail.html

November 8th, 2010 Eat Magazine

http://www.eatmagazine.ca/article/2010-11-08/nanaimobar

October 12th ,2010 A-Channel news story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXOhgpfO-pI

October, 2010 Tourism Nanaimo

http://www.tourismnanaimo.com/content/nanaimo-bar

September 18, 2010

I’ve been going to the Modern Cafe for several years. I first went when my dad took my sister and I when we were little kids (back then it was still in its diner stage!).

Now, it’s chic and a fantastic place to eat. I usually get the same server when I go there (blonde guy with longer curly hair) and he’s hilarious!! All of the servers are super fun and down to earth. They’ve all got great style, but this doesn’t prevent them from providing good service (unlike some chain restaurants, like Moxie’s, etc.)

The service is great, and I looove the food. There’s really something on the menu for everyone (salads for the healthy eater, fish & chips for the bland unimaginative eater [that was once me ], the “big-a$$ plate of nachos” for those craving some comfort food, etc). My favourite dish is the “Bengal prawn linguine”, which is a curry noodle dish that is to die for.

The atmosphere is awesome, especially for the under 19 crowd. Going here in high school made me and my friends feel older & super posh (as opposed to eating out at Kelsey’s or somewhere else like that)

Gabrielle B, Nanaimo, Canada

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August 31, 2010

I have eaten at this restaurant twice in 3 weeks and it has been delightful both times.

The inside decor has been redecorated to add a new level of class and colour. The owner is now on-site daily so he makes excellent improvements as and when he sees the need. And one of those improvements was to bring in a” Champion Chef” who is a true master in the kitchen.

Trust me – you won’t believe the positive changes. Give it a shot – you’ll love it!

JMR8, Vancouver Island

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August 12, 2010

Visited this restaurant while in from Toronto and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was a recommendation from a co worker and I am very happy we checked it out. The atmosphere was a great way to start our evening and the menu was large enough to make a selection with ease. The Food and drinks were also very reasonably priced with good sized portions for the money.

Great service from the front end. Over all, we will be back next time we’re in Nanaimo!

Shawn L., Toronto, Ontario

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Had dinner with a group of 17 (several young ones). I had a delicious Ceasar salad and chicken seti on the side. The restauanty was crowded as it was a saturday night. Service was good, friendly, especially considering there were 17 of us. When over the next morning for breakfast.

Ohtony, Ojai, California

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July 13, 2010

I went to the Modern Cafe a couple of weeks ago after learning it was under new ownership. I must say the food was incredible and the pricing to be very reasonable . The atmosphere was warm and inviting and you could feel a positive energy in the air.

I would highly recommend this restaurant.

Abe B., Nanaimo, BC

July 19, 2010

I had a business lunch meeting at the Modern recently and was extremely impressed by the service, the food (Chef Paul was working with the crew that day, I asked because I was so impressed) and the funky atmosphere. I had a Grilled Chicken Quesidilla with peppers, spinach and 4 cheeseblend with the in house made pesto sauce on a multigrain tortilla. Sooooo good! When I asked the server about the food she also told me all the sauces are in house made and most everything that can be mad in house is made in house. Wow it shows. alwasy nice to have knowledgable servers. The dish was nicely displayed and they certainly lived upt to and beyond the mission stagement I read “To Provide fine dining at Cafe prices”. this is a definate must experience, fun, funky, urban restaurant with great food.

VOSS isn’t your everyday water. It’s pure artesian water from Norway that’s bottled at its source. Though Norway is a small country, its pristine environment produces some of the best spring and artesian water sources on Earth.

VOSS comes from an aquifer in Southern Norway, protected from air and other pollutants for centuries by impermeable layers of rock and sand. The water is generated in an artesian spring within deep bedrock. When tapped into, the aquifer is pressurized enough to allow the water to rise up naturally towards the surface, then bottled at the source without undergoing filtration.

 We carry both the still and sparkling selection in both 375ml and 800ml sizes.

I think the matter is the same as it has been since a restaurant began some 1000 plus years ago, it will always be a matter of interactivity.  Customers expect their favorite cafe, diner, and coffee shop to interact with them – it is not enough anymore for a waiter to know your favorite item on their menu – Do they know your name?  But is that really enough anymore either? I think as we move more and more into a digital age with information streaming by us at the the speed of light, and more options available with a few clicks on the smart phone, restaurants need to open more channels to create contact points and interactions with customers.
Think about that for a minute, how many restaurants do you know on twitter or facebook, okay so you know a few… Are they having meaningful dialogue with their customers? Probably not… How can they?

The wow factor for most eateries come when you sit down and get great service, food, and atmosphere… top that with a killer dessert or awesome wine selection and you might have found your new favorite place. Interactivity at all these levels and you are telling to all your friends on how great things were and voila “successful restaurant” here we come.

Sorry folks that isn’t good enough anymore, is it? I have personally been to lots of places that hit 9 out of 10 in all of these areas and I may not be back for a time… Why not its good enough right?  No, just no real reason to.  What would get me to come back when I can go to 10 other places and then compare my experiences.  I know too that after checking out 4 other places I’ve forgotten half the reasons why I liked that place in the very beginning anyway, sad really.  It’s like channel surfing restaurant style.

God forbid you are have an off night at your place because by the time you close your doors for the evening and 4 people were not happy with their steaks, well 400 could know about it.  Think about it, how many friends you got on facebook? The average is 300 friends, so 1 unhappy customer could mean 300 people who will be reluctant to check you out… ouch.  4 separate folks not happy 1200 people know… that’s a lot more than the rule that I learned when I first started in retail, 1 person mad and they will tell 10 friends.  By the way, that still applies but in a digital age where you can post “that so-so place really sucks” now as a person that may see that friend once a week I now have a starting point to have a conversation with that person.  Great, that is what any owner wants to hear, your place is now the conversation starter for two acquaintances as to how your place sucks.  Compound that with someone who had a poor time, then goes on face-book or twitter to find out someone they know had a poor time and poor restaurant owner doesn’t even know what hit them.

I think that in this new world of social interactivity, a restaurant needs to find a new way to connect with its customers.  I am currently looking at creating an avenue for my customers to vote each quarter on what items that they like best, poor items get dumped and popular items stay on.  A system where  you can see what others have commented and add your own to the mix, and get real time interaction with the kitchen as to what they are doing to fix issues or accept praises.  I would personally find it interesting to make a comment about a meal which posts to my face-book and get a reply from the chef stating what they have done about my experience.  I’d feel special, and I would feel like my new favorite place cared about me.  I would also go back to make sure my winning selection stayed on the menu…