Morala Specialty Coffee

Excellent coffee, excellent service. A wide variety of speciality drinks and foods. Will be returning!

The people are very friendly and the café is so cosy. The lattes are amazing and I would really recommend their delicious sandwiches.

I love this little hidden gem not much sparkle but a little splash of local art drapes the walls. The treasure chest of desserts and array of paninis will keep you coming back. Waffles are served 1 by 1 so *although politeness dictates waiting for your partner (s) to eat you may want to dig in or it’ll get cold. Service is great.

Morala Specialty Coffee is a good neighbourhood coffee shop to drop by for a coffee and baked good when you are in the area.
The interior is cozy and homey. The staff is friendly and efficient.
This is the first time I tried Happy Goat Coffee and ended up picking up a bag or 2 to go with me.
Cappuccino was a little weak but it is nice to support local business.

Excellent coffee, bakery and sandwiches. Makes me want to come back when I’m in Ottawa again! «Empanaditas con dulce de leche» were just next level.

I had a list of places that I wanted to go to while on Vacation in Ottawa. Since coffee is a huge part of my life, I picked two cafés that I wanted to visit. The first place was Raw Sugar Café and the second was Morala Café. I never made it to Raw Sugar, but I was pleased with Morala Café. I had a Macchiato which was made in a superb manner. My wife had a latte and it was perfect, not too strong. We shared an almond coffee which was really good. I love the tiles and it gives a vibe of being a Portuguese style Coffee shop.

Stoked that they use Happy Goat Coffee! 1^st visit, I had a lemon meringue tart and a key lime square. Fresh from scratch. Foodgasm!
So many yummy things to go back and try. Quinoa salad, paninis, cornbread, cookies, brownies, chocolate peanut butter balls and so much more!
The space is eclectic, cozy and friendly. I felt like I was in a charming European café!
I prefer smaller local establishments to the sterile cold feeling of chains. This place is a must visit whether you’re a townie or tourist!

This is hands down my favourite coffee shop. The staff are very quick, friendly, and accommodating. The atmosphere is cozy, the noise level is perfect, peaceful but with a good ambiance. They offer gluten free options, and a pretty wide variety of drinks. Their prices are fair– larges are usually around $ 4.50.
My favourite thing about Morala is it’s lack of pretentiousness, something hard to find in a coffee shop.
It’s fairly small, and usually pretty busy. Fine if you’re going with 1 – 3 people, but big groups are hard to squeeze in.
I would recommend the white hot chocolate. Delicious.

I am admittedly a Starbucks person (don’t judge!) — I just know that I’m going to get what I want, pretty consistently, every morning (when I’m not alert enough to make conscious decisions). Yesterday, though, I was running late and thought I’d run into Café Morala for my usual americano misto instead of going further down the street to Starbucks. It was quiet and calm (a nice change from the frenetic Sbucks) and just one person behind the counter.
I was just going in for coffee, but they had incredible looking wraps and pastries, and I ended up getting a bean/​veggie wrap to eat for lunch. It was fantastic — super fresh and flavourful — beans, avocado, cheese, tomato, lettuce… great.
The coffee unfortunately did not hit the spot. As other reviewers have mentioned, it was just too weak. I know I’m cutting the caffeine hit with steamed milk but I prefer to really taste the espresso. Not sure if they use less than other places, or if it’s the beans they use. Next time will try it black, just to see if it’s truly a trend.
A very pleasant little spot to sit down and visit, read the paper, have a pastry. I probably will not go back for morning coffee but would definitely return for a bite to eat and a cup of tea.

Oh glib glebe…
What a weird area. After a 2+ hour photo safari into the neighborhoods of decaying victorians next to 5 million dollar contemporary mansions, it was time for a hit of something.
Coffee it couldn’t be (it’s a long story replete with some withdrawal and my breakfast coming up when it should have stayed down). I opted for some lemon ginger tea and pastries (I don’t care how sick I am, I will put down pastries if it kills me).
Pastries were stupid good (baked in-​house). I shared some sort of mini-​hand-​pie dulce de leche thing, a poached pear tart, and lemon cookies. After consuming I wanted to lick the display case in appreciation.
Because of its location and storefront I thought this place was going to be a bourgie nightmare, or a yuppie-​hippy-​dippy café. But low and behold, the atmosphere was actually really pleasant. Intimate. Servers were nice, though not quirky (and I’m pretty sure found me absurd and confusing at times in my remarks).
So. The table next to us sat three men, all aged at least in their 50s (if not 60s), talking about post-​rock. That’s right, not the construction material but actual, bona fide, musical genre realness. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised being in the country that gloriously birthed Constellation Records. But seriously? I thought I was getting too old for this but dude! YOU’RE old!
And so I began to fall for this place. I will come back and visit in 20 years when we’ll have our geriatric music listening group talking about all the hooligan kids these days and how music died in the early 2000s and nothing else good has come out since.
I’ll have one of each of your finest pastries and a prune juice with that coffee. Thank you.

Before walking into any café, I take note of its atmosphere. With that said, Café Morala offers a warm respite in the midst of a winter day. Its sunny walls, colorful menu and delectable goods are more than inviting (I just wish the man behind the counter could have smiled at least once!). I fought back the urge to order the same old cappucino and went with the Mayan hot chocolate as I was inspired by the café’s Latin overtones. I did not regret this choice! Warm in temperature and flavour, and not too sweet with shavings of dark chocolate; it was just the way I like it. The matcha cookie was a tad dry and nothing special, but I certainly appreciated the café’s selection of diverse treats.

I’m giving them a three star rating (A-​OK!) based on one visit — but for full disclosure, you need to know I *love* really strong coffee — in other words I have a bias that works against this place, so likely it’s affecting my rating. Keep that in mind. :-)
First — the location is cute cute cute — very nice feel sitting inside the room, with the colorful interior, the church-​pew style bench on one wall with colorful cusions. It’s a room you feel happy to enter from outside on a dreary winter day.
Second — their pastry display has a small but nice choice of tasty treats. The Nanaimo bars were good, but not fantasitc, and perhaps were a bit on the old side. The Peanutbutter Ball was fantastic with a crunchy filling. Loved it.
Third — their drinks: Hot Chocolate didn’t get a good review from my son — said it was too watery. Hubby had a Capucinno — described it as too weak. (Yup, another strong coffee lover.) I had the speciality coffee Dulce de Leche, which I did enjoy trying, but probably wouldn’t order again. (The coconut was disturbingly chuncky as I drank my coffee.) It was also a weaker coffee, but due to all the sugar and other elements, it wasn’t so noticeable.
Lastly — their menu — didn’t manage to try anything, but they had a nice little lunch menu (think wraps!) going on. Might be worth a try.
Bottom line — because I like strong coffee, I’ll go someplace else for beverages. I may stop back in to try lunch, if I’m in the area. If you like weaker coffee, check this place out!
Would I return: Yes, for lunch, not coffee.
Would I recommend: Yes, if I knew the person liked weaker coffee, or just wanted a sweet treat or lunch.

I’m not much of a café person, so I don’t have an extensive knowledge of the coffee haunts in the city. I do know I don’t like coffee chains because it makes me uncomfortable that they try too hard to look like a small business. Plus the prices are insane. Morala doesn’t go out of its way to look trendy, but it’s still a popular cozy café in the Glebe. Their design is dreamy and bright with yellow walls, colourful paintings by local artists, a skyscape painted on the ceiling and a wonderfully warm owner. Their prices are reasonable for the quality of coffee and tea that they carry. They also have a display of dozens of desserts, most of which are put in cookie jars with colourful name tags. They have very delicious sandwiches, salad, Italian soda, fresh lemonade and soups of the day. They’re all reasonably priced too.
In an area of Ottawa with a tiring amount of coffee chains (except Tim Hortons?), Morala is a much needed break from all the usual overpriced suspects.