Keys Café & Bakery

Classic downtown diner. Reminds me of something out of the 60s. Very impressed. The cinnamon French toast is wonderful, and I haven’t seen wait staff hustle like this in years. Minneapolis is lucky to have this spot!

Had a very unsavory phone conversation with an employee. No customer service.
I was looking for help in fundraising for an event, asking if they ever give donations or things like that. And the woman I talked, after being rude about «not understanding me» told me, «well just come in and buy a gift card then.»
Won’t be coming back to this location after that conversation.

OMG! The absolutely best breakfast place around! ALL of the food is fabulous! Love the Old School approach to dining! Service with a smile! The wait staff has been around a LONG time! A tribute to the work place! My son goes to school at the Twin Cities and I often wonder if we go visit him just to stop at Key’s! :)

Enormous portions and delicious! My husband was thinking, $ 5 for one pancake? I’ll get the 2 for $ 6 and the everything omelet. The pancakes were huge and the omelet was more like a gigantic egg burrito. I got the grilled tuna melt. The bread was toasted perfectly and the cheese was melted, yet the tuna mix was still cold and refreshing. It was served with lettuce and tomato. By far the best tuna sandwich I have ever had!
The staff was also fast and friendly.

Where do I start? Breakfast is the best! Period! You want a good breakfast at a reasonable price with hometown service in a BIG town like St. Paul, this is the place. I always worry about parking but have always found a place about two car lengths from the front door. The counter is my favorite spot to sit but then you have to stare at all the wonderful food items all over the place. Did I mention the cinnamon rolls are as big as a small child’s head! Everyone is friendly and it is a good wholesome place to eat. I always wanted to try a lunch or dinner but I can never get past the omelets! Keys is an icon.

This is the best restaurant for bf I can recall every eating in. Excellent service, large proportions, and fantastic taste!!!

Large menu with gluten free options.
A bit pricy for breakfast, but not a wallet killer.
Don’t be fooled by the modest exterior, the food is great.
(Note to the owner: Even your good reviews comment on how pricy your food is. Food for thought.)

Over the years I have heard many people say how much they love to go to keys for the staple it was in the Twin Cities community. I was really excited to go there with my family this past weekend as you and in the restaurant to find restaurant I would say an average sort of diner feel the foods OK also but nothing great. I got the veggie sandwich I was hoping for more fresh veggies than cheese — it seemed to have few healthy options — if you want a standard breakfast joint this is the place for you–

Ok. If you want an omelette in an old school diner, then this is your place. Everything is about $ 12 here, which is ok, but there are better places to get food for the same price. I like it though.

If you’re looking for a small, rustic feeling, busy atmosphere, this is your place. Seat yourself and prepare for large portions and of course all day breakfasts. Need a menu item adjusted? Don’t be shy! Ask one of the super friendly, multi tasking staff to hook you up and you won’t be disappointed.
Take in the sounds of the kitchen, creakng wood floors, dishes and conversations. Food is delish. Cinnamon French toast (with peanut butter) is recommended. The size of the blueberry pancakes will make your head spin. Prices felt a tad high… but I’ll be back for sure.

Great «old school» breakfast location. Tons of history with great service. Breakfast options were very good and the quality of the dishes is outstanding. Nice option for a quiet casual meal. Service is excellent with very experienced staff.

Great food and a fun atmosphere. Just wish they had more hours they were open. Worth the trip to go here.

Great prices, fantastic staff, and a great place for brunch. I have gone several times over this summer and I have not ever been disappointed.
I see that some of the other reviews offer remarks concerning the décor and old appearance of the resultant. What do I have to say? Get over it. It’s a classics dinner style restaurant with warm staff, homestyle food, and great prices.

Had breakfast with my daughter at the original key’s café. As long as you are expecting an old fashioned restaurant you can’t do better. We had two omelettes and shared one colossal pancake. I had the loon omelette, and it was delicious. The omelettes are very large. We had no chance of eating it all. Thanks to Lisa for all the coffee refills and great service. Best breakfast in a long time. Highly recommended. :)

Right when we walked in on a Sunday morning we were met by a rude server telling us to get out of her way. After we sat down it took her a very long time to come back and take our order when she walked by our table multiple times. When she finally came and took our order she was very cold and short and when she brought our food back she couldn’t remember who ordered what then accused us of forgetting what we ordered. The food was okay, but the rude service ruined my Sunday

We were passing through St. Paul, which we hadn’t visited for several years, and decided to have breakfast at Keys on Raymond. Was it as legendary as we remembered? It was! The vegetables in the 3 egg veggie omelet had real vegetable flavor, the American fries were excellent, and the five (5) strips of bacon were tasty and not overly salty. We ordered a «cup» of fruit and got a bowl! It was fresh and tasty fruit. My wife ordered the bran cake with apples and walnuts. It was a hearty cake and chock full of apples and walnuts. Very impressive, Keys! The quality of ingredients was excellent. Service was skillful and friendly. And Keys on Raymond is the ultimate non-​pretentious restaurant. All-​in-​all, a great breakfast place, surpassed only by Victoria’s Kitchen in Hancock, Michigan.

I don’t know why I go to Keys. Service is not the greatest (never asked if I wanted anything to drink besides water), food is mediocre (why not chop those omelette veggies small enough for real people) and it’s overpriced ($ 12 for a 2-​egg omelette and toast… really?). It’s not just one location either. When asked how everything was at the cash register, they never followed up on my long hesitation and completely lackluster answer. I do have to give them VERY slight credit for taking something off my friend’s bill. Too bad it was only because they forgot to bring it until we were almost done eating.

Yummy breakfast and thanks Joseph for recommending we split the biscuit and gravy! Best waiter!

The turkey wild rice was simply delicious. The pancake was awesome too… don’t forget to try these two when you are here…

This is typically my «go-​to» breakfast joint. I’ve visited a few locations and this one in particular lacks decent service. The food is always on point, but maybe time to revisit the staff and staffing levels at a peak time like 9:30 on a Sunday morning.

Gluten free pancakes!

Food/​Drink: Good golly miss molly, I really love the food at this joint. Caramel rolls so coated with perfect sugared caramel and a lop of butter on the side of the plate, my heart goes straight to the hospital… happy. Then grab some omlettes; the loon (wild rice, turkey, tomato), farmers (green onions, cheese, hashrowns, ham). These will cover your plate and will take you time to get through, but I promise you’ll regret every minute of it (nope, that’s not a typo; all pre «I’ve got to workout» guilt included). The coffee matches well and they even have tomato juice (serve at room temperature please). Don’t even get me started on the lunch menu, because I haven’t made it there yet. Go Team Breakfast!
Ambiance: This location feels better to me then the others. Awesome wooden boothes and old school diner bar on one side. Close quarters for the aisles so suck in the abs and feel free to get through there. And as ageism is a positive, there’s a bunch of old people working here that have been around the block a few times which adds to the charm.
Service: Kind of goes with the ambiance. They’re busy busy and the wait staff are running around multiple different tables doing their best. You would say, «hire some more people», but then you’d lose the ambiance of it being a greasy spoon without the grease. You get the rush, you get the food, you get your bill, you pay at the counter.
Overall: I’m not really a diner person (though sometimes «Tom’s Diner» plays in my inner sound system), but this place hits it right for me. Diner enough and with good food. No late hours, just good breakfast food, good lunch food (still yet to be tried, damn that breakfast) and a good old school vibe. This place matches up to most and you won’t regret coming here any day of the week. Just double check the hours, be on your toes for the service and be aware of the ala carte type menu which adds up quickly (or you just want too much).

Terrible service and mediocre food is what you can expect from the Keys on Raymond. We hadn’t been to this keys in over a year and were extremely disappointed… pancakes undercooked, omelet with canned mushrooms, undercooked green peppers, Italian sausage which is basically crumbled sausage with a heavy sprinkling of black pepper, very milky lukewarm“double” cappuccino. bacon grilled cheese that was underdone and terrible service! The very snarky waitperson actually argued that my omelet couldn’t have been that bad, and that he knows my cappuccino couldn’t have been too milky. If only the food or only the service was bad, it would be easier to forgive and forget. No more Keys for us, unless it’s the Foshay Tower location.

The service can be a little slow but that’s only because there is generally one person in a fairly big restaurant working their butt off.
The food is absolutely amazing and the quantities are outrageously wonderful. Highly recommend to everyone!

What can I say? Keys is a St. Paul icon.
I hadn’t hadn’t been there in a l-​o-​n-​g time. I stopped by with my wife for breakfast yesterday.
Keys was everything I remember and everything I expected… good food and large portions… with tons of local memorabilia tacked up all over the place. The service was also excellent.
I was initially taken aback by the prices. After eating and thinking about it, I decided it was worth it.
This is in STARK CONTRAST to the CRAPPY experience I had at the Keys in Spring Lake Park. But I’ll leave that one for another, separate review. Suffice it to say, not all Keys are the same. Beware.
–Daddy Maxx Retro

Wooooo Key’s! You ARE expensive! But… there are also a lot of good things about you too… so how should I rate you? Let’s weigh the pros and cons.
(con) $ 3.15 for a cup of coffee. Mind you, it’s bottomless and pretty decent… but it’s also a bit steep.
(pro) my ham steak was quality. My eggs were perfectly cooked, bread well toasted, and I loved the homemade strawberry jam.
(con) one egg with two slices of toast and a side of ham cost over $ 8. your omelets are between $ 11 — $ 13. two eggs with hash browns and sausage was over $ 10. I understand that food prices have gone up, but what exactly am I paying for? Are the eggs local? Organic? Perhaps I’m getting too caught up in the whole nostalgia vibe going on inside the restaurant, but you’re still a greasy spoon… why so expensive? I’d rather have smaller (average size for most restaurants) portions if it means costing less.
(pro) service is very friendly and you receive your food promptly. And, like I said, our food came out really well — nothing burnt or overdone.
In the end, Key’s, we’re at tied 50 – 50. A solid 3-​stars is fair.

I love this place. This is the place to go when you want your moms cooking. Their servings are huge and the staff is so friendly! Their tomato bisque is so yummy! Salads are so gigantic that it could feed two people. Had their chicken parm sandwich and the marinara was sooooo fabulous! Haven’t had anything I wouldn’t order again. Father in law meets all his friends there every Saturday morning for breakfast… a lot of regulars! We go quite often to all their locations with the family.