The Purple Onion Cafe

I love the purple onion. The turkey club is so good I crave it all the time. Great place to meet with groups, affordable, comfy, and great coffee! Nice family owned business.

They don’t have consistent hours. Their website is totally inaccurate. It says their kitchen closes at 7:00 M-​Th, it actually closes at 2:00. Came in on a Sunday at 1:30, apparently they decided to close the kitchen at 1:00 that day (the website says lunch ends at 2:00). The few times I have eaten here the food has been good, but I agree with others that it does take a while.

Fun breakfast joint on campus in Dinkytown. Nice vibe. Friendly staff. Decent food. Free wifi. Fast. Plenty of parking.

I realky wanted to live this place.
My miel was expertly prepared, so thanks for that. But, my sandwich was a bit of a disappointment. I specifically asked for my bread to be grilled/​toasted, but they forgot. It took so long, that I didn’t have the time to send it back (and I hate sending back food).
I never could get the WiFi to work and no one seemed especially willing to help me.
I probably won’t be back.

Went here to meet with a business mentor. Classy enough place for such a meeting. I ordered the turkey club and it was a very good sandwich. Good portion of chips and the order came out in a timely manner. Pretty fair price too! Will definitely come back!

Great food with reasonable prices. This is a go to place for students from the U of M to grab a bite, coffee and a table to study, for me these is a cozy place to have lunch. Their food is always made to order and very tasty. My favorite is the Turkey BLT with Fries which usually comes in at right around 8 or 9 dollars. Even though this is primarily a coffee shop I prefer their food over the coffee.
Whether you are looking to sit down to eat or to take-​out they are quick and always accurate with your order. They are also great for catering too. Our office hosts a lot of very large events and they come through every time. They are budget friendly and very flexible.

I usually go to this place to study, since its sofas are comfortable and it’s never full. Last time I went there I hated the place because of 3 things:
1– A mouse ran from under my sofa and hid under another sofa! That was disgusting.
2– The baristas were rude! Especially when I wanted to order something from the kitchen and it was closed. Apparently, they were upset only because I disturbed their long conversation! And when I didn’t tip the guy, he was rude, and he served me a hot chocolate less than half of the cup!
3– The wifi was bad, and it went off every few minutes.

One of my favorite places to grab lunch on campus. Their menu is pretty basic but the quality is on point. Their pick two menu let’s you choose any sandwich and salad for around $ 7. They slice ciabatta bread and grill it with butter… so good. Order the Italian blt and maple Dijon salad with feta cheese. Their ranch breakfast is awesome too – ask for the potatoes to be grilled extra crispy.
Surprisingly, for a coffee shop, their drinks are just OK-​nothing special. They do a really good job with the food aspect so you forget you are supposed to be there to grab a drink.
They also have breakfast and lunch catering – I would just recommend lunch though because their breakfast consists of juice and pastries or donuts. You can negotiate lunch prices down to about 5 or 6 bucks for a sandwich, chips, dessert, and beverage for each person.

Love the purple onion. Their food is delicious, and it’s a great atmosphere to study, work or catch up with a friend.
The décor is awesome, and the customer service is great! The employees there are friendly and so welcoming.
Highly recommend the quesadilla, soups and salads. Their breakfasts are also a really great deal!

It’s an ok place to study. Haven’t been too impressed with the food. Coffee is decent. There’s plenty of table space and outlets to plug in electronics/​laptops. Parking is kind of a pain but maybe the wi-​fi makes it worth it.

This is one of my favorite places to stop by. Be it for an early morning dinner or a late afternoon coffee or tea it is the perfect place. The prices are pretty good. Perfect for college students.
My favorite item on the menu is the Tea! They have great choices. Definitely stop by!

I stopped into Purple Onion to do a few hours of homework a couple weeks after Valentine’s Day. I had a matcha green tea latte with soy and an italian BLT with a side salad. I was chomping away when I realized I needed their new wi-​fi password. Turns out it was «iloveyou.»
That password pretty much sums up my feelings about this place. The staff is friendly. You can snag a table for hours without feeling pressed to leave. The drinks and the food are yummy. I would argue that the prices are bit high for a college joint but the quality is there.

Coffee and lattes are good, food is good. But why I love this play is the fact that I can literally sit here all day — order a couple of things and know that I can kick back and study. I love it. The staff is also really great and always friendly.

The Purple Onion is a decent college coffee shop. I’ve tried a few things there: white mocha (average), vanilla latte (too sweet for my tastes), and their basic roasted coffee (nice), as well as their eggs benedict (yum) and some kind of scramble with potatoes (way too cheesy and under seasoned. The addition of salt and pepper worked wonders… also stingy on the meat). The food is definitely cheap, and the coffee will run you the usual $ 4-​$ 5, but the people who work here are interesting and add a little local color (i.e. the guy making the drinks who advocates for actionist vs activists).
Also there are not enough outlets in this joint, IMO… bring your longer macbook cord if you plan to stay a while.

You know, I really like the Purple Onion. It’s a pretty café, with a lot of natural light, which is awesome. I’ve been using it as a study spot for a while now; the ambience is usually quite noisy/​crowded, but I find that I prefer it to a super quiet library-​type setting.
The (breakfast) sandwiches are pretty darn tasty, and the coffee is decent. The wraps are pretty good too (and huge!). It’s definitely not cheap though.

Currently writing this on their crappy wi-​fi during a snowstorm, ugh.
Decided to try their oatmeal for breakfast for $ 2.95 and it was good, not great. The oatmeal itself is a little bland and very starchy (even for oatmeal), but the dried cherries and brown sugar on the top make it a lot more delectable. I wish I would have asked for extra brown sugar though to cut down on the starchiness. Either way, it’s a very generous portion for $ 2.95 that was going to serve as my lunch (college budget, heeeey). Would order again for a healthy option here. Then…
Four hours later, as I kept on writing this lousy paper (I do not care about Hong Kong Disneyland’s operations strategy, especially as a senior) I got hungry again and decided to order some lunch. I went for the You Pick 2 (my café kryptonite…) with the tomato bisque soup and the turkey club sandwich. The tomato bisque was really good– tasted a lot like Kafe 421’s, but not quite as good. Would still definitely order it again. The sandwich was good as well, served on some crispy ciabatta bread with a good honey mustard «aioli», or a fancy word used by every restaurant for mayonnaise. For around $ 7, I would definitely do this again. It was filling and served fast.
So, I just had two meals here. Here’s hoping that I crank out these next three pages and do not have to do dinner here, too. Wouldn’t be the worst thing, though…

The latest price hike has made them the most expensive shop in the area.
The staff is always mellow and friendly and the kitchen is efficient and fast. The breakfast sandwiches are great with homemade style bread. For coffee I only drink the house blend dark roast which is one best brews in town

This review is mainly for the food. Others have noted that the atmosphere can be crowded and hard to study in, but it’s not a library– it’s a café. I’ve never had a bad experience here.
The food is fantastic. I don’t know what’s in the spread they put on their sandwiches, but I fantasize about the turkey club sandwich. Try it. It’s phenomenal. Fresh ciabatta bread, a delicious roasted garlic aioli, bacon, fresh veggies… I would argue that this may be the best turkey club in the Twin Cities.
Anyway, I come to the Purple Onion at least once a week just to buy that sandwich. The other food I’ve tried has always been good too — and it’s a very nice place to meet a friend on campus for a cheap, low-​key lunch or coffee.

The food is just «fine»; the coffee is «a-​ok». For some reason, the Purple Onion is always strangely warmer than it ever needs to be in the fall/​winter months. I like to grab a quick coffee and head out! When I order anything beyond a light or dark roast, I am never impressed (however, it’s not awful). The Purple Onion is great for groups, not so much for studying due to the weird high heat settings and the noise level! Street/​meter parking is typically hard to find — you may have to walk about three blocks or so, in order to find free parking.

Purple Onion sure has amazing location. It’s totally perfect for U of M students, and it’s huge! However, I kinda feel bad for the place though cos during the time I was there drinking my tad-​bit-​too-​sweet Chai and nibbling on the pretty good carrot cake, I saw a lot of people coming in with heaps of books, laptops, stacks of papers and works and order like the cheapest drinks that they offer and make themselves at home there. I saw a lot of ppl walking in and mostly none walking out. I even saw a couple of ppl walk straight to their friends’ tables without even order anything.
Well, maybe the goal for the Purple Onion is to be the place for students to study.