Paradise Bakery Cafe

This place’s prices are so outrageous for what you get. A cup (not the bowl, the cup) of plain tomato soup is over $ 5. They don’t even put the stuff on it that they used to (sour cream, chips, etc.). And it just tastes like campbell’s soup from a can. Their salads are quite sparse (mostly just lettuce and dressing, if you get them without meat like me.) And they are also too expensive for what you get. I appreciate having a place like this near campus, but I don’t get why it can’t be better. They could make the lunch and dinner and breakfast menus so much better (or at least make the prices match the value). I guess there’s no need to because enough people will come anyway.

Mocha is tasty! They offer a variety of different coffees/​teas!
I ordered their breakfast burrito. I thought it was OK. Whole wheat wrap with an egg and a lot of corn/​salsa. I’ll probably try something else when I return. My friends ordered bagels and really enjoyed it! Try their cinnamon bagel!
Great customer service, plenty of seating, Wi-​Fi is available, and a large variety on their menu to choose from.
Tip: Bring lots of quarters! Many of the meters in this area don’t take cards and accept ONLY QUARTERS.
Get your defensive driving skill ready because if you park close by you are REQUIRED to park backwards!

They have a great location but the music
is far too loud. One cannot have any
decent conversations without shouting.

Came in before my appoinment at the Aveda institute and loved this bakery! the smells were incredable and there were pasteries EVERYWHERE. I was in carbavore heaven!!! Literally, there were harps playing in my head when I eyed all the bread. I decided to go the healthy route and get a berry smoothie (and a cookie, but im pretending the fruit cancels the cookie out because made up math makes me feel good about myself). The smoothie was bomb diggity and tasted so fresh and sweet. It seperated really quickly so you have to stir it a few times with your massive straw but still delish. The workers were really upbeat and positive even though it was to early for anyone to actually be awake! If I die and arrive there in heaven, i hope to see you all there!

Located by the U of A campus, making parking a little complicated. Otherwise who can fuss with having a Paradise Bakery in the neighborhood!
We had the Tuns on the dark molasses bread, it was good, but the bread seemed a little tired, we discounted that, since we were dining between lunch and dinner. The Ice Tea was limited to Peach, would have preferred Mango or Passion Fruit; but good news; the cookies were awesome as ever, to complete the dining experience

They seemed really weirded out when I wanted to use Apple Pay to pay for $ 9 turkey wrap like it was a pathogen from another planet. It made me uncomfortable. You guys are a next to a college campus, c’mon.

Had one of the worst sandwiches ever today. Their turkey cranberry on pumpernickel is insipid. Disgusting. Why is this place frequented?

I come here often for lunch. It is fast and they possess some of my favorite things. Favorite thing one being the Fuji Apple Salad. I get it without chicken so at the cashier I ask them to charge for a Mixed Green salad because I don’t want to be charged the chicken. They will usually do this for me. Favorite thing 2: Ginger Molasses Cookies. BEST COOKIE ON THE PLANET. Now Paradise, you would have gotten 5 stars if you carried this cookie all year long. Seasonal cookie fail!
More good: the clam chowder is delicious and one time they gave me a discount on my meal because I’m a regular here. That rocked.
One bad: the paninis are pre-​made so you can’t custom order those.
Final tip to Paradise: cut the tomatoes a little bit smaller por favor.

This Paradise Bakery was visible from our hotel room at the Marriott next door, so we knew exactly where we could go to breakfast in the morning. It opened up at 8am on a Sunday. Considering that the Festival of Books was going on nearby, it was quite dead in there – which suited us just fine.
My husband chose a cinnamon roll. I ordered a cinnamon chip scone for us to share, and also asked about their yogurt parfaits. I was told they didn’t carry them on Sundays. I was disappointed, but asked if they had any fruit. It wasn’t on the menu, but they did carry fruit bowls and cups, and I happily ordered a fruit cup. I would have much preferred that to the parfait from the start!
It was quiet and pleasant to eat in there. The pastries were good, and my husband enjoyed his coffee.

Great place to study and grab a bite. Horrible place if you want hot coffee.
Grab a cup of coffee and fill it up. 99% of the time it will be lukewarm.
Let’s just put it this way… if I were in hell, I wouldn’t ask for a cup of ice water, instead I would ask for a cup of their «hot coffee».
They’ll nuke your coffee if you want, but something is odd about needing to microwave my coffee in order for it to be hot.
Also their bathrooms are very very very public. They include a portable shower/​sink for the homeless.

I think this Paradise does a fantastic job for how busy the location is. I work on campus, so we eat here a lot and also get quite a bit of catering from this location. They have free wifi and outlets under the booths, so it is a comfortable work location.
The catering service here is really great. I have had experience carrying out and having it delivered: both experiences have been easy and stress free. When planning an event, those are the two qualities I am looking for. They provide tons of extra creamer, sweeteners, lemons and all the other fixings for iced tea/​tea/​coffee. They provide more cups/​plates/​silverware than you need which is always handy. They are timely (early, in fact) and always helpful during setup. I would highly recommend them as a campus caterer!

My favorite place to study! Great location and always great customer service.

I wrote a well thought out review, but the internet in the restaurant was so slow it gave me an error and I lost it. Here’s the short version of my review: decent food depending on what you order, fair price, but awful seating, and even worse internet. If you want to get work done, go somewhere else. If you want really good food, go somewhere else.

I love their quiche — it’s a great place to go, especially as a hungry student. The only downside, I would say, is that if you’re not a student, you might have a hard time finding a place to park, especially because it gets pretty crowded around University.

went to paradise for lunch for the first time ever today because a friend got to pick the location.
ORDERING
it was super confusing — there were no instructions on how to order or where so we just jumped in line. my friend and i ordered sandwich combos so they put us on the same ticket. our other friend who got a salad/​soup combo was on a separate ticket. apparently you order sandwiches in one place, salads in another, soup in another and then you pay at the end. but when i tried to ask, the guy was too busy to tell me where to go after i finished ordering my sandwich.
i know this might make me sound stupid but it was really confusing and staff was no help at all!
WAITING
anyway, finally made my way down to the cash register. paid and waited for my sandwich. and waited. and waited. while my soup got cold, i waited for my sandwich. people behind me got their orders but i still waited and realized that my friend was waiting also. people who had ordered after us were getting their food and we still didn’t get anything. finally broke down and asked the cashier where our food was. turns out our ticket got lost and they never made our sandwiches. so, another wait for them to even make them.
COST
once we sat down, our friend mentioned that he paid a lot for a little amount of food. he had ordered a soup/​salad combo, a cookie and a cup of water. cost him just over $ 9. and the salad was so tiny that he was done within just a few minutes. once he mentioned the cost, i realized that i had ordered a combo with a drink and my cost was over $ 13. i haven’t paid that much for lunch in a very long time. my friend who got a very similar combo to me paid only $ 8. we didn’t get any receipts so we had no idea how this all worked out. it seemed super sketchy and we couldn’t figure out the math.
OVERALL
the food was fine. not great but okay. not a great experience so probably not going to go back, especially when they’re so many great locally-​owned places within a block or two.

This place is always busy, so it must be good!
We have occasional committee meetings at this location and can usually snag a big table. The service is quick and the food is always great.
I hosted a small group and moved some tables. A worker said that he would put them back for me which was super sweet that I didn’t have to move them back.
I’ve never had a problem finding vegetarian food here. They are good about offering different dietary options.
Prices do add up quickly if we get more than one item.

I probably eat paradise more times a week than I should admit. I work very close and I really love soup so I guess it works out. Overall everything from this place is on par for what you would expect from this sort of place. Good, not great, soups, salads, sandwiches, etc. I don’t know if I am lucky or what but I never really wait for my food. The service is almost always friendly. It is almost always clean inside as there is constantly someone clearing and wiping down tables. It is a solid lunch option if you are in the area but definitely not a destination.
On a side note: They just changed the french onion soup recipe. The original was better. If you like sweet french onion, you will like it. Otherwise, try something else.

I have one question for anyone that doesn’t give any Paradise Bakery 5-​stars — what is your problem?
Everything I’ve tried here is down right delicious. I’ve had multiple salads, coffee, muffins, cookies, breakfast wraps… all amazing.
They have great choices for the health conscious and everything is so fresh. The muffins are my favorite guilty pleasure — if you haven’t tried the pumpkin nut or banana chocolate chip, go do yourself a solid and get one.

Ordered the Club on wheat instead of a croissant on Friday night. Wish they would have asked me if I wanted mustard… the sandwich was dry and hard to swallow. The ingredients seemed fresh, but somehow, something got messed up.
The upside is that the sandwich comes with a chocolate chip cookie. Mmm… haven’t had a good cookie since Uncle Biff’s in San Diego!

Sloooooooooow. A University thing? A holiday thing (it’s Labor Day)? A Paradise thing? I’m not certain. But I do know that time sort of stops when you step inside this location. There wasn’t a long line and the place looked pretty darn staffed, but for some reason it took nearly 20 minutes for them to heat some lame veggies and roll em up in a burrito. As far as the taste? Not worth twenty minutes waiting. Chewy almost gummy tortilla, flavorless insides and a portion size that made me think, seven bucks? For real?!
Know Before You Go: They have cookies down, I wish their culinary expertise extended to savory and service.