Brooklyn Museum Cafe

One would expect a much better café from a major museum.
This small narrow place, instead, has all the charm of eating inside a 711.
The offerings are limited to sandwiches and bowls of uninteresting-​looking combinations. The coffee is not that good and they don’t even have a cappuccino/​espresso maker.

The café is convenient and the waiting time is minimal. I ordered the half soup
(Minastrone, very good) and half sandwich. They took the sandwich out of the
refridgerator and I believe it was sitting there for a week. The lettuce on it was
wilted and the break crushed. They kept the other half of the egg sandwich in
the plastic container, giving me a whole sandwich.
My g.f. wanted a full meal. She got the pork… two slices of pork. She said I
should have the second slice. I put it on my plate: it was ALL fat… I mean it,
no meat, just one big slab of fat. Not a happy experience.
I noticed they had another place to eat (I should say dine) with white tablecloths
but I knew this would be a lot more money. Guess you get what you pay for.
but this wasn’t exactly cheap either. Just under $ 10

A great, easy little spot to grab some good food or drink. My friend had a one year old with her and it was fun to watch all the kids with nannies/​caregivers hanging out here. A nice little spot to replenish between exhibits.

This place has a C rating from the NYC Department of Health which is basically disgusting. It is incomprehensible to me that an institution of this caliber would tolerate a C rating in their dining area. It’s just a blemish on the face of the museum and a huge ‘screw you’ to members. They need to improve because no one wants food poisoning.

Was ravenous after spending a chunk of time exploring the Museum and came away very disappointed. Very poor selection and non-​existent service. With one cafeteria line to get food and pay, the line was so slow! The dining area needed major bussing. Prices were high for what was being offered. Better to step out of the Museum and get a bite in the neighborhood.

After running around the Brooklyn Museum for several hours, my girlfriend and I needed a snack so we decided to check out the Brooklyn Museum Café. This isn’t the one I remembered from my childhood. It was much more modern in design and reminded me of something you’d see at a Manhattan institution like MoMA (which is the point, I’m sure). It’s bright, lined with windows and bright chairs with a lot of silver and white. It definitely draws your eyes in.
What about your stomach? In many ways, it’s a very average place. You’ll find items like those in any Manhattan deli including yogurts, premade sandwiches, fruit cups and drinks. I decided to go for something a bit different and get the «pretzel covered chicken fingers» instead, served with fresh made chips.
Service was okay, not overly friendly but not surly either — right at the baseline. It was also towards the end of the day so I’m guessing these kids were tired. Our food came quick and we settled down to try it out, somewhat apprehensively I confess.
Imagine our surprise when we found the outside crisp, the meat tender and most of all well seasoned! The chicken strips were also substantial, easily an entire breast. When dipped into the BBQ sauce included with the dish they were super tasty (definitely better than any McNugget or Applebee’s chicken dish — which is about the level I expected). The chips were not super fresh, but they were tasty and crispy. Overall we were pleasantly surprised!
I’m not going to rave about the Brooklyn Museum Café, but I will give it’s due as a good place to grab a snack if you’re in a hurry or don’t want to go outside of the museum itself.

I’m a long time member of the Brooklyn Museum. The photo of the café on this page is the old café. It was efficiently organized with separate stations for sandwiches, soup, hot food, sodas, coffee and dessert. It had plenty of seating and conveniently located trash receptacles.
The new Café has none of the above. It has long, slow lines, because all of the food is now placed at one station. It has insufficient seating and inconveniently placed trash receptacles or better an insufficient number of them.
The food is lunch if you’re hungry and have no where else to go. But it’s OK! What’s not OK is the new Café.

Since the beginning of 2012, the Brooklyn Museum Café seems to have greatly improved. The food is now exquisite but the prices remain low to moderate. Sometimes I go to the museum just to have lunch there. It’s that good.

Surprisingly good food at (mostly) reasonable prices for a museum café. Just beware of the drinks — I picked up a bottle of Honest Tea and when the cashier rang it up, my eyes popped out of my head. Seriously, the price was $ 3.49 or something completely insane like that!

This was the best deal I have ever found at a museum. Granted… it is not gourmet, but for what you get… it is worth your $$$… of course… we are talking Museum food…

For a museum café, this place was VERY reasonably priced.
$ 7 for a large wrap and $ 4 for a nice sized container of soup.
Easily split it and was still stuffed.

Granted they were near closing time. The food selection was poor, cold, and of course over priced. I realize it’s just a café in a museum, but I’ve been to plenty that had better food.