Keys Cafe & Bakery

glorious breakfast! super busy, but great service. good coffee. cinnamon/​carmel rolls looked incredible, but after the everything omelet, we had to opt out, as we were just visiting the area. good prices for the quantity/​quality.

Pretty darn good. I had the deluxe fish sandwich. But also hear great things about the breakfast and the meatloaf or turkey dinners.
#satisfied

I absolutely love Keys Café! I think their food is amazing, and now that they also offer a wine/​beer list, it makes it even better! I enjoyed that this Keys had TV and a full bar! It will make it a go-​to spot for dinner.
However, we were one of the only ones in there around 6 pm, and it took over 10 minutes to get our final check. We were both done with our food, and needed refills on our drinks. It wasn’t busy enough for that to be an excuse, but rather; the bartender, server, and hostess were all sitting around talking. So eventually we just got up, walked up to the register, and asked for our bill and paid for it up there seeing as we had somewhere to be.
However, the pancakes were EXCELLENT, in addition to the chicken tenders being good.
I would return because I understand that sometimes when things are so slow, there is no rush to get things to the table, but next time I hope that we don’t have to wait so long for our final bill, or refills on drinks.

First time back since the remodel. Looks great. Bar is an awesome addition — good selection of tap beers. Food is still good basic diner fare. Fast service except paying the check took forever — seems to be confusion on the old system of paying at the register and the new system of paying the server. Bathroom needs a remodel. Otherwise still one of my faves in downtown St. Paul even among all the new places opening up.

I had the chance to try this place while I worked on a project in downtown St. Paul. This place is one of the go-​to spots during lunch time and beats the alternatives of greasy cafeteria /​skyway food.
You are immediately treated as family and greeted by all. The staff is friendly and does its best to meet your needs. We were able to request a specific area to sit and they were able to accommodate despite the queue of people waiting.
Once seated, the fun begins of reviewing the menu and ordering. The menu consists of a variety of hearty offerings that range from hot cereal, side sandwiches, waffles, to their most famous omelets. As always, I was indecisive and had to leverage the subject matter expert — the server — for her recommendations. She said if I was looking to be in a good mood, she would go for one of the omelets — specifically the «Keys Everything Omelet.» This was created 30 years ago and basically has everything (three eggs w/​ham, bacon, pork sausage, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, hash browns, & cheese, etc…)
Immediate reactions to this dish was «oh my gosh» as it was generous in portions and delicious and hot. Two pieces of toasted bread also were given, with delicious jam on the side. All of this led to a supposed business meeting to 30-​minutes of food heaven. I am not really a breakfast person, but really enjoyed it. Prices are also fair.
Keys is great and I will totally revisit. It is one of the original establishments in downtown St. Paul and is a favorite by many including myself. Make a visit if breakfast food is on your list!

Beer and pancakes! How can you not rate a place five stars for that?! Noticed recently that they were remodeling and now added a full bar! So awesome. All local beers on tap and happy hour specials. Sounds like they will be extending hours soon so you can drink beer and eat a pancake like I did tonight!

Yummy, comfort breakfast food with local ownership and reasonable prices. We went here recently for breakfast and were pleasantly surprised. The service was good, atmosphere was comfortable (albeit a bit cold), and the food was tasty and plentiful!

Best breakfast in St. Paul!!!

Key’s café is a very busy place to eat, went around 11 and had breakfast. It is a seat yourself restaurant which isn’t the greatest if you have large parties. You kind of look around for a spot to sit. Someone will come over and clean the table for you. Service is efficient and friendly. The food was good and reasonable priced.

Lived in St. Paul my whole life and for as long as I can remember people rant and rave about keys café for breakfast. It’s average breakfast and way over priced. I can think of many better places.

This is pretty much your typical diner food — breakfast, fried food and meats, not much fresh produce. That said, it’s always packed on work days for lunch and on the weekends — more proof that St Paul has a lot of older folks? :)
I haven’t found anything too interesting on their menu, but I do stop in to pick up their delicious cookies or scones sometimes.
Their back room can be reserved for large groups, which is the reason I have been there several times now.

As always One of the best breakfast is in town. Had the loon omelette, wild rice turkey onions delicious.

Insane amount of food for the price. I got the combo which was ⁴⁄₅ quality of food but wow was it a lot. See pic below. And super fast. Will go again if im in the area.

Yuk! I was just at keys café, and I watched the cook and his runner drop French toast on the floor, pick it up and put it on the plate to be served! They looked at me to see if I saw this take place, sure enough I did!
So no, they don’t even deserve a star I had to give a star just to write a review! I’ll never go there ever again! I feel sorry for the people who were eating there food already, they don’t even know what the cooks are up to! If you’re at keys and are reading this, leave because they’ll do the same to your food! Yuk!

I’ve been here twice now, and this is a really nice spot for breakfast or brunch. The Eggs Benedict are really great, as is their Minnesotan-​themed «Loon Omelette). Both visits I also got a mocha latte which was really spectacular on both occasions.
I have to say though, the hash browns I got on both occasions were REALLY BAD, probably the worst I’ve ever had. I live hash browns, it’s my favorite form of potatoes, but these tasted just terrible.
In short, great place for brunch, amazing food, great coffee, terrible hash browns.

Gluten free pancakes here. I like to order GF pancakes when restaurants offer them because I find them very hard to make at home. Mine always turn out flat and doughy. Over the past weekend, I went to this café twice and ordered the GF pancakes (with blueberries) both times. First time, they were amazing. Fluffy and delicious. Second time, they were flat and doughy, just like the ones I make at home (yuk). On the second day, I asked the waitress why the GF pancakes looked so flat and she said they always look that way. Makes me wonder if the first day, I got non-​gf pancakes???
If a restaurant glutinizes me, that rates a 1 star review. The only reason I am giving this place 3 stars instead of 1 is because I did not have a gluten reaction after having the first (suspicious) pancake breakfast. So maybe they just had a better cook on the first day? Still, there is the matter of the waitress testimony.
Restaurants can avoid confusion like this by serving special meals on differently colored plates. That way, wait staff and customers are assured they are getting their dietary needs met. I hope other Unilocalers can weigh in on the quality of the GF pancakes at this café.

A group of 10 of us made reservations for brunch on Saturday morning. They were super busy when we arrived and they pointed to this empty side room with a long table. We sat down and waited. And waited. I was really dark and cold in the room. I saw a light switch, went over and turned on the lights in the room and suddenly the place went from cold, dark and creepy to a charming place for brunch.
They were really busy and once a server finally arrived, she was fairly friendly and cheerful. I think she was really busy and the size of our group through her off her game.
I ordered the eggs Florentine with the hollandaise on the side and one piece of french toast to split with a friend. Food came out quickly. My eggs florentine was really fantastic! I loved my meal and would totally go back for it again. The cinnamon french toast was delicious. Everything was full of flavor.
One of the girls got the 85^th Street omelet and holy balls. It was as big as her face! It had hashbrowns in the omelet. She enjoyed it and said it would be a great hangover meal.

Came in from Out of Town for the 24hrs! We found this little café on Google. Customer service was on point! Food was delicious!!! Incredible LARGE portions!!! We left there feeling like it was a home cooked meal. Was Soooooooooooo Stuffed. DeFinitely recommend the cinnamon french toast.
B. Robinson

Solid breakfast joint. Nothing spectacular but really convenient and filling. Huge and generous portions. Really nice wait staff. The Danish and pastries are really good. Eggs Benedict was good but nothing to write home about. Good, solid breakfast.

I didn’t eat meat yesterday, so I was hoping to satisfy my palate by making up for it today. I looked at the ingredients online and wanted the everything omelet.
The thing was a monster and will double for dinner.
Sadly there wasn’t much meat in this omelet. There were two strips of bacon on top, some ham cubes here and there and a few pieces of italian sausage which is what I was looking forward to the most.
The vegetables were not fresh, and the broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms all tasted like frozen vegetables.
I was really looking forward to this, but it fell kind of flat for me.
Their jam however, is pretty good stuff.