Air Canada launched it’s newest lounge concept as the Air Canada Café Toronto. The Air Canada Café Toronto was designed to allow business travellers a space to collect some take away food, pickup a quick coffee, or send off a few emails. It also had a secondary objective of alleviating a little bit of pressure on the larger Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto Domestic upstairs. The Air Canada Café has been wildly popular and it is reported that Air Canada plans on expanding this concept at other airports.. Let’s see whether the Air Canada Café measures up.

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This post is one chapter on a spring trip to Ottawa, Canada. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Air Canada Aeroplan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Air Canada Café Business Lounge, Toronto Pearson International Airport, Ontario, Canada

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I arrived into Toronto Pearson International Airport on Air Canada Business Class Ottawa – Toronto. I had a two hour connection at Toronto International Airport before getting onto an Air Canada Signature Business Class Toronto – Vancouver flight.

It’s also worth mentioning that as I passed through Toronto Pearson International airport today there was a Gate Gourmet catering strike that had stopped all on board airline catering services. This meant that there was no food that was going to be available on board my departing flight. This situation made examination of the “take away options” at the Air Canada Café Toronto, ever more critical.

While I would typically kill off this layover at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge Toronto Pearson Domestic, I was interested in trying out Air Canada Café Toronto lounge. As a result of more restrictive access rules to the Air Canada Café, a visit to the Air Canada café had eluded me, up to this point.

If you’re visiting the Toronto Pearson International Airport, you may also have access to the newly refreshed Plaza Premium Lounge Toronto Pearson, accessible through premium credit cards such as the American Express Platinum Business Charge Card.

Locating the Air Canada Café Toronto Pearson:

My arrival into Toronto Pearson was on a connecting flight.

Unlike the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge Toronto Domestic and the Plaza premium lounge Toronto, the Air Canada Café Toronto is very conveniently located on the main concourse. Air Canada specifically obtained space with traveller convenience in mind.

I was approached the lounge from an outer gate near gate D40, I walked down the main concourse of Toronto Pearson. The lounge is located immediately next to the Starbucks coffee outlet, adjacent to gate D20.

Aside from the gold coloured entrance, the lounge is not very well marked on airport signage. Fortunately, it’s central location allows all travellers to access it without taking an escalator or elevator up a level. Given these circumstances, the lounge gets top marks for convenience in terms of traveller access.

The best part about accessing the Air Canada Café Toronto was the fact that it was on the main concourse level. This meant you could easily roll in and out of the lounge without having to wait for a cramped elevator.

Accessing the Air Canada Café:

The Air Canada Café has a more restrictive access policy than it’s other Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges. Access is pretty much limited to those departing on Air Canada “metal” on domestic flights.

Air Canada limits access to the Air Canada Café for those departing on a domestic confirmed Air Canada flight in Business Class or Premium Rouge, or for Aeroplan Super Elite, 75K, 50K, and Star Alliance^® Gold members.

This means that travellers connecting through Toronto Domestic on a departing transborder or international flight on Air Canada or a Star Alliance partner, will have to use the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto International, or the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto Transborder in their respective departure terminals.

It’s worth mentioning that although access is provided to this lounge for Star Alliance Gold members, it’s not listed as a Star Alliance Gold lounge on the Star Alliance website. As a result, you may have mixed results in gaining access as an economy class traveller and being able to bring in guests as a Star Alliance Lounge.

Access is also provided for select co-branded credit card holders. At the time of my visit, the credit cards that offered access included:

• TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
• CIBC Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
• American Express^®* Aeroplan^® Reserve Card
• American Express^®* Aeroplan^® Business Reserve Card
• American Express^®* Aeroplan^® Corporate Reserve Card

During my visit, the lounge listed it’s operating hours as the following:

• Mon – Sunday 05:00 AM – 9:30 PM

I gained access today courtesy of an Air Canada Signature Business Class Toronto – Vancouver flight.

Inside the Air Canada Café Toronto:

The Air Canada Café Toronto occupies a medium sized lounge space that would otherwise not have been used. The Air Canada Café space has been cleverly crafted out of areas behind the retail store front area, towards the back of the airport.

Upon presenting my boarding card, and confirming access on the turnstiles, I entered the Air Canada Café. The lounge entry places travellers right in the middle of the lounge environment.

Immediately upon entering the Air Canada Café, there is a small half wall separating a tiny seating area for about 15 travellers. Towards the back of the wall you’ll find a bar counter that contains a coffee barista area in addition to bar service during the designated service hours.

The enclosed seating area is pretty compact and dense. I couldn’t help feel that Air Canada lost a bit of real estate by enclosing the seating area with an upright counter.

The coffee and bar service area offered upright bar seats. These type of hard shell high top seats are typically the last ones that I gravitate towards when I’m looking for a comfortable space to relax.

However, typical for what this space is designed for, the bar seats make it easy to quickly drop and use a countertop when you only have fifteen to twenty minutes in the lounge.

Moving towards the back of the lounge, there are a number of communal long tables that offer 3 to 4 seats per side. While they are not as stylish and a large as an American Express Centurion Lounge long table, they do offer communal seating space.

The lounge does offer some daylight windows. Since the Air Canada Café looks towards the main terminal building, there are no tarmac or aircraft apron views.

Instead travellers will have sights towards the Toronto Union Pearson Express train, and the glass side of the Toronto Pearson Terminal One departure’s building.

Overall, the Air Canada Café offers compact and dense seating. Without any large puffy lounge chairs, most of your seating at the Air Canada Café Toronto will be on counter top or communal styled seating.

Food and Beverage:

The Air Canada Café is marketed as a space where you can enjoy:

• Complimentary beverages and specialty coffees
• Plated hot and cold food, as well as a selection of wine and beer
• Grab ‘n’ Go snacks for when you’re in a rush
• TVs broadcasting live news and sports
• Complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi and charging stations

Based on Air Canada’s description, the Air Canada Café offers a substantial amount of take away food. As you might expect from an airline, there is an emphasis on cost containment. As a result, the take away portions tend to be quite small in size.

Towards the back of the lounge there is a giant wall sized cooler. It’s frankly the largest take-away cooler that I’ve ever seen in an airport lounge anywhere in the world.

The cooler offered tinned drinks, single portion take – away sandwich wraps, and other portioned fruit and “to go” items. There was quite a lot of selection available with many modern themed items; including Greek Quinoa Salad, Hummus Vegetable Wraps, Creamy Cucumber Salad, and Chai Spiced Quinoa Cups.

I will note that the portion sizes were quite small. If you were looking for a meal replacement, you’ll end up taking four or five of these individual containers. It would be appropriate to describe one of these containers as a “snack”.

In a subtle limitation, Air Canada offered take away bags for their “to go” food items. On the theme of cost containment, the bags were only large enough to hold one item and one soft drink. This meant that you were likely consuming many items in the lounge, as opposed to conveniently taking them with you for your flight.

I ended up taking some Mexican chicken salad along with a Watermelon A-HA sparkling water. This pretty much filled up the bag to capacity.

At the time of my visit, the gate gourmet strike was occurring at Toronto Pearson International Airport. I knew that there would be a little available food on board my net flight. Despite this, the bags are really too small to conveniently accomodate a reasonable number of food items that would substitute as a meal replacement.

Like many business travellers, I tend to travel with a rolling suitcase and a laptop bag. If you add a small take away Air Canada Café lunch bag, you’ll find yourself balancing many of these carry bags, along with your other items. This wasn’t as convenient as you might expect. I ended up limiting myself to one take away bag and opting for some other take away Bento Sushi on the concourse.

After picking up some concourse food, I would end up departing on an Air Canada Signature Business Class Toronto – Vancouver flight.

The Bottom Line: The Air Canada Café Toronto

The Air Canada Café Toronto is a convenient alternative to the larger Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto Domestic. The Air Canada Café’s convenient concourse location allows for travellers to quickly access the space and access some take away food and drink.

Despite this, I did find that the take away portions were smaller than I would have liked. Carrying a number of take away bags wasn’t super convenient, given that the bags were quite small in nature.

The Air Canada Café is the space to visit if you only have twenty to thirty minutes on your connection and just need a quick and convenient space to gain access to Air Canada’s lounge services.

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If you visited the Air Canada Café Toronto, do you agree with the quick and easy Café Lounge concept ?

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