Au Bon Pain

My first time ever eating at this place. So was unsure. But I’m glad I did.
They have Great soups. Even for Vegans.
Had two different ones today!

Was looking for something simple and convenient for lunch, and that it was, but the sandwich size and quality is pretty poor for the price. I got a tuna salad, it was puny and pretty bland. At least they had iced tea and «home style» lemonade, so I could make myself a decent Arnie Palmer. I’d say skip this place for the many other better options downtown– lesson learned.

How is this place still in business? It may have good, cheap coffee but the rest of it is awful. For $ 8.00 I can get a horrible Caesar salad with tough, «fowl-​tasting» chicken. Inedible. Or I can get blah soup, no bread, no crackers. They don’t even SELL crackers! And they have only unsalted butter. What’s that about? Do they insist everyone be on a low sodium diet? Oh, and the bananas are always overripe…
Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere.

Easy, convenient, affordably priced, and they give you the caloric/​dietary breakdown of their menu items in an easy to digest format via the menu itself. Boom!
Easy, convenient, pedestrian, sort of bland. Bah.
Au Bön Pain hasn’t any MKE locations, as best I know. That said, it wouldn’t be the worst addition to the area; healthy-​ish to-​go breakfast/​lunch options always seem lacking around here.
Need a food? Want said food to be relatively good for you? Need a food quick-​like? ABP has got yr back!

I buy a cup of coffee every morning before heading up to work, and my discovery this morning of how inexpensive the coffee at Au Bön Pain is was a great way to start my morning (and probably many to come).
Before today I was getting small coffees at Caribou for $ 2.40. Well a large at Au Bön Pain is $ 2.20. Yes, the quality is less than that of Caribou, but it’s still good — for the price, I’d say it’s fantastic! I consider myself somewhat of a coffee snob, and this coffee is totally up to par. And like others have said, if you bring your own travel mug of any size, the coffee is $ 1.10!
And the staff is friendly to boot!

Cheapest large coffee in the skyway, clocks in at around $ 2.10 (well below the $ 2.50 plus prices at starbucks, the bou and Dunn Bros).
An added bonus for those who are need of a meal, but dont want to kill their diet, au bon pain lists the calories of each item. The obvious downside is that you cannot pretend that the things that look most amazing and tasty are somehow good for you.
Also if you bring your own mug/​tumbler/​thermos no matter the size your coffee is only $ 1.10. So be green and enjoy delicious coffee, that makes for a good morning.
I have also found the employees to be super-​helpful (reminding me to get my au bon pain punch card out, buy 7 and the 8^th is free!).

I eat lunch here all the time. The breakfast fare is available at anytime. For their breakfast sandwiches just grab a bagel from the bin and take it up and they will make up the sandwich for you. They have good fresh fruit and their yogurt & fruit (they give you the granola at the cash register) is decent.

The thing about Au Bön Pain that so many people seem to forget is it is not supposed to resemble a «fancy» restaurant.
It is a quick stop in for fresh pastries and baked goods, that also offers salads, soups, sandwiches/​wraps, and service with a smile!
I stop in here on a regular basis in the morning to get a cup of their fantastic coffee, and a bagel with cream cheese. I could go to Starbucks like everyone else, but I love my everything bagel, with lite garden veggie cream cheese, and a 16 oz. coffee. It only costs me $ 4.50… The price of getting ONLY coffee elsewhere.
When you start adding food into it, yeah it gets more pricey, but it is in my opinion that the food is well worth it! I love getting a cup of soup, half a sandwich, or a salad. It’s all fresh, and it’s one of the few places that offers a vegetarian/​gluten free menu if that is something that you require.

EXTREMELY overpriced and the food is just not anything special.

If you like things served out of a kettle (i.e. soups and oatmeal) this is a pretty reliable place.
Otherwise, it’s overpriced to seem fancier than it is. Six grapes, three crackers and a mini-​wedge of cheap cheese and people pay near $ 4. To-​go salads are near $ 7; they’re ok. I’d rather go down the block to D’Amico or Panera.
The place is laid out conveniently and the staff is considerate and helpful. However, you can get much better food for about the same price at a variety of other places in the skyway system.

My love for Au Bön Pain stems from the summer after my senior year of college when I lived in NY for a month. So I was more than pleasantly surprised to find an Au Bön Pain in Minneapolis, too bad this location is only convenient for those who work in downtown. But that aside, it’s a great lunch or breakfast place with plenty of seats and tons of delicious choices that will make your fat cells cry with joy. They do have plenty of healthy soups and sandwiches too if your willpower is stronger than mine.

It’s official. Au Bön Pain pastries are a confirmed guilty pleasure in my book. I’ve tried a variety of breakfast and lunch items from this grab and go restaurant and enjoyed them all, but it’s the pastries that keep me coming back when I feel the urge to max out my calorie intake for the day. If I’m having a bad morning (and I’m not going to lie, I’ve been having a lot of those lately because I’m at the end of my rope with the wintry Minnesota weather and negative temperatures), stopping at Au Bön Pain for a sweet pick-​me-​up is just the thing I need to walk into work with some semblance of a smile on my face.
One of my favorites is the sweet cheese croissant. It’s delicious and flaky and it’s a little less sticky than some of the other pastries so the guilt-​o-​meter has an easier time at forgetting what I ate since I don’t have to spend the rest of the morning feeling sticky.
P. S. Please don’t tell my gym how many calories are in one of these things. I’m still in yummy denial.

Good lunch spot if you’re in the area, especially if you are not taking your lunch back to your desk.
–Good selection of soups (7 total, when I was there).
–Lots of bread choices to go with the soups
–Pre-​made or fresh made sandwich options
–Lots of small items for snacks or to combine for a meal (small packages of nuts, yogurt, muesli, side salads, etc.).
–Most of the lunch spots in this part of the Skyway don’t have much seating (if at all), but this Au Bön Pain had quite a bit of seating.

This is a great place to grab some lunch while working downtown. The sandwiches are super yummy. But then again french bread is like crack to some folks and this place is the street dealer of carbs and goodness.