Aroma Cafe

Food is good but the service is terrible. Very disorganized staff and no cohesion. If it’s busy, stay away unless you have a few hours to kill.

I have been to this breakfast spot countless times, simply because they make a good breakfast sandwich. Unfortunately the owner is the biggest ass I have ever encountered. Even though they make the best breakfast sandwich there have been a few times where I vowed to never go back. There is a $ 10 minimum to use credit cards and when I get a breakfast sandwich and coke in the morning it comes to about $ 9 and he won’t let me pay with a card. He suggests that I buy something else. There is an awfully witchy waitress who works every weekend that yells out orders at the young staff members, forcing them to pick up the phone and ring people up even when it’s her time to do so. Another time someone ordered a fruit cup and asked to replace one of the fruits with extra strawberries. First the waitress said she’d ask her boss. She came out and said no. She searched for an excuse and claimed they were out of strawberries. We then asked how they would make ours if they had run out. She ran off and got her boss who proceeded to explain that no, they weren’t out, they just wouldn’t switch one of the fruits. I could go on for hours about the horrible service and miserable owner. I would never actually eat inside there again, and take out is difficult most times. Overall the food Is good so it’s too bad the owner and service are miserable.

Love this place! Inexpensive, great casual environment. Delicious, light breakfast and lunch. Just had a 3 egg omelet (comes with 5 meat or veggie fillings), potatoes and toast for $ 7.50.

Excellent. Small quaint shop with European café feel. I was pleasantly surprised by the menu they have unique options aside from your basic eggs and bacon… the honey cinnamon, on latte was excellent. Look forward to going back and taking family and friends…

Their specialty lattes are usually very good but recently an employee/​owner (not sure which) was a bit rude to us, so that was surprising and rather disappointing.
We ended up walking out and going to the Dunkin Donuts down the street.

My wife, Mother-​in-​Law, and I went here on a Saturday morning. There was a waitress and kid working out front. When we walked in, no one said, «Hi» to us, instead the unkempt waitress said, «wait there». I am happy to oblige but this is not the kind of atmosphere to wait to be seated in. I expect to walk in and seat myself especially since it was slow. We waited while the waitress kept rudely bustling past us and decided to seat ourselves.
We were yelled at for this because the table «wasn’t clean» and she proceeded to yell at the kid that was working to clean (He was already running around clearing things from other tables). When he wiped off the table for us, we were yelled at again by a guy that came from nowhere to not sit there because the kid has to sweep. The entire place looked and felt dirty!
We knew it when we walked in that we should have just left but we decided to give a local business a try. The waitress, who was not even close to being dressed appropriately for food service, came over and proceeded to take our order. We got coffee, water (which she explained the «floating chunks» in it way too much. We get it, you put lemon in there! Don’t go into a 15 minute story of why there are chunks. Just simply say we put lemon in our water, end of story.
The food was mediocre at best, coffee was not good at all, and was expensive for what it was! A plate of fruit cost over $ 5 and had very little fruit and it was not fresh, it was store bought from a container of precut fruit!
I would not recommend this place. In fact, it should shutdown so a real coffee shop can open there with better service, food, and atmosphere. The counter space takes up way too much footprint of the store and leaves very little seating (which should be a seat yourself situation)

Brunch was good, coffee was ok but espresso was good. Lunch sandwiches are EXCELLENT.

Not sure why Aroma has gotten such mixed reviews. Moved to Reading 2 years ago from much closer to Boston and have been sadly disappointed by a bunch of really bland suburban restaurants that seem to get great reviews on Unilocal.
Aroma has been a pleasant exception. Been there multiple times and the food has always been very good. Best I’ve found so far for breakfast in this area. No problems with the service. Can’t say that I was blown away but wasn’t disappointed either. Most of my experience with them has been take-​out. Only sat in the dining area a handful of times.
Have tried the pancakes, eggs benedict, omelettes, along with some lunch items. Ingredients are always fresh and taste is good. Nice little family owned/​neighborhood place

Sweet little neighborhood coffee house and café. I’m guessing it is family owned and run. Had a bit to eat on our way to REI from Andover. I liked the crunch of the chicken salad from lots of diced celery, although the chicken could have been a bit more seasoned and prominent. The husband had a grilled veggie and chicken sandwich. Nice to be at an independent where everybody seemingly knows your name (if your from the ‘hood).

Great food, a bit of a wait for the food this time. Still great ingredients and great service.

I frequent this café once a week. Love the eggs in the hearts and eggs benedict.
Last week I brought a friend who said she never had a better eggs benedict.
I like the wait staff, lots of personality and good humor. Décor is cool and I love the colors. Plenty of street parking.
Give it a try, I am sure you will like it.
Please don’t remove this review, I previously wrote a review about Aroma Café and it was removed. It was a glowing review and not the least bit offensive or abusive. Not sure who removed it or why.

Not quite sure if this place is trying to be a coffee house or a breakfast lunch place. Because it does not have the feel of Starbucks or the crowd of Christrophers. It is either empty or closed. The atmosphere and service is rather dull.
More like a secret coffee shop not know in town knows about.

This is, hands down, one of the worst places to go in Wakefield.
For one, they have no idea how to make a cappuccino.
For another, microwave bacon is not an acceptable product to sell in a restaurant.
And the service? The man behind the counter was annoyed that we walked in and expected service. He was busy chatting on his phone, via earpiece, and took a very long time to take care of us.
We were the only patrons in the café.
I would rather go to Christopher’s. The staff is friendly and the food is better. They don’t serve cappuccino, but their coffee is drinkable.

I live in Reading and I have been going to Aroma Café for breakfast and lunch for five years. I hesitated to write this review because this café is already very busy on weekends for breakfast and brunch and I don’t want to wait, LOL! But I have to bring their score up because I am sad that some people have not had a good experience here. I have had a very consistent experience at Aroma, the food is always delicious. I have had every panini, breakfast sandwhich, fresh muffins, pancakes, and my favorite breakfast is the eggs in a heart. They make everything with love and the staff is so warm and friendly.
When they are slammed and have a line out the door, does it take a few minutes to get a coffee refill? Yes… and guess what? It does everywhere. The food and service is 200% better than Christophers. They have healthy, non greasy, wholesome, made from scratch food and you cannot compare the two places. They have a modern, updated vibe, with soft jazz music playing on most days. You will see how beloved the staff is when you witness all the return customers like me sitting around you chatting away with them. Perfect for small children and all ages and taste levels. Just a great little breakfast spot with reasonable prices.

I normally swing by Christopher’s if I’m in the area on the weekends, but one particular day the wait at Christopher’s looked really long and I was in a hurry, so my girlfriend and I decided to try Aroma Café.
We walked in the door, and it took 5 minutes for anyone to even acknowledge us. That annoyed me a bit.
Eventually the waitress came over, told us it would be a few minutes before we could be seated (it is a relatively small seating area, granted). We eventually sat down and had our meal. Here’s where the redemption started.
My girlfriend had the heart-​shaped toast (pretty clever, and tasty too). I had the omelet. I enjoyed my omelet (didn’t taste fake or like it had lots of wheat added into it like some places do) and the potatoes were great. I had some coffee too, and it was good (but the refills were a little less frequent than I would like).
Customer service slightly worse than Christopher’s, but my gf and I agreed that the food itself was slightly better.

Not a fan of the coffee or the food. It is just functional and fairly overpriced. Omelets are often overcooked and sometimes have tasted a bit chemically. I have avoided this problem by ordering preparations that require eggs to be cracked and cooked individually. The sandwiches can be good, though the quality of the chicken will be a crap shoot.
I love the sassy waitress they have for brunch. She makes it worth it.

I have tried this place for breakfast twice. The first time it was ok but by no means great. The service was really slow and the food was overpriced and overcooked.
The second time i went the coffee was awful… and i got pancakes. There was hair between the two pancakes. I was disgusted. There was no way it was my hair… it was definitely the cooks hair as it was wedged into the middle of the two pancakes.
The waitress was nice enough to not charge for the pancakes… but i have to admit i will never go there again.

Coffee is excellent, but something was missing.
Service was OK, I was told it would be a few minutes and all I wanted was a coffee to go. So I sat, ended up waiting about five minutes, during that time I decided to order a salad.
Well, call me crazy, but when I see café + salad, I envision a bowl of creative tastiness. I was pretty excited. To my surprise and dismay, my salad was just OK. It consisted of…. bagged mixed greens, a couple tomatoes, cold dry chicken, and dressing. Where’s the flair?!?
So, here you go, Aroma Café, you get four stars — because you look like a coffee shop and maybe it was an oops on my part to order a salad.
I will be back, to try your breakfast.

Aroma Café offers a relaxed atmosphere in a trendy setting, and serves wonderful breakfast. Service was quick and attentive. The food was great. I wish it had a little more variety and it was a bit more expensive than the big breakfast chains, but it was indeed worth it.

Upon walking in, I had to double check where I was because it looked exactly like the inside of a Starbucks! I only had a coffee so I can’t review the food, but the vanilla latte was just as good as Starbucks and a few dollars cheaper! The service was fast and friendly and the price was definitely right!