Kneaders Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Layton

One of the places I always recommend tourists, visitors or people who just moved here. We are a military family so we move a lot, this time we came from the south so I had never even heard of this place until we got here and decided to try it on a whim. If you are a fan of panera bread, or similar deli-type restaurants like McAllister’s you should absolutely try this place out. It has homemade soup and bread which make even the simplest of sandwiches taste incredible, however their sandwiches are far from simple - they are usually a 4-5 inches thick with all the toppings that are all fresh vegetables, hand carved meats and specialty sauces and cheeses. But to me the most impressive item they have are their salads. This place easily has the best and most well put together and loaded salads of any other restaurant- bar none. Even just holding the box and feeling how heavy it is shows that you are getting your moneys worth, the only place that actually puts a giant chicken breast is grilled chicken salads, homemade salad dressings, any topping imaginable and creative specialty salads. Getting a half size is a must for me personally, I got a full size one time and it had to be a pound of food. So my advice is to either get a side salad with soup or a sandwich or try a half before a full, you won’t even believe it’s not a full meal because it’s so huge.

They are a tad bit pricey if you don’t order using combo deals or get smaller portions - which are already huge. But they have a lot of deals where you have a lot of half options for almost everything (half sandwiches, soup cup instead of a full bowl, side and half salads) but once you learn how to order and remember less is more the price is a lot more reasonable and either way you certainly get your money’s worth.

The atmosphere is what drew me here and keeps me here for the most part. There is a dessert and bakery in store where you can purchase loaves of bread, or any dessert imaginable. This makes the place always smell like nutmeg and vanilla. All the furniture, artwork, and general design or aesthetic is cozy and beautiful - even the desserts on display are gorgeous and so pretty you don’t want to eat them for fear of messing them up! They have a giant fireplace in the middle of the store which makes you feel right at home.

There are cute boutique type items for like Christmas ornaments and little home decor trinkets for sale as well as the baked goods so there is always something super cute there to buy outside of food alone. They also have a drive thru which is incredible given the fact that this place falls far from the category one would typically associate drive thrus with and they certainly aren’t fast food. They also take orders for specialty items like birthday cakes and cater as well.

All in all this place is excellent and in this instance you SHOULD believe the hype, they deserve all the recognition in the world and aren’t overhyped like some deli chains or bakery’s. Anytime a new family moves in here on hill Air Force base and ask for food recommendations I always tell them about Kneaders. When my parents and sister come and visit me from NC I always take them here and...

UPDATE: After not visiting Kneaders since I had an unfortunate experience a month ago, tonight (8/25) I decided to use a $10 reward and take advantage of the free delivery offer. When the food arrived, I found that my focacia bread to accompany my TBA salad had been subbed with cheddar broccoli soup. And the three avocado slices in my salad weren't edible (see photo)... at least I didn't want to chance any possible repercussions of eating them ha. At this point, I'm beginning to think I am destined for bad luck at the Layton Kneaders! 😭

Giving 2 stars with this review only because I love Kneaders' food when prepared properly... the service at the Layton location has been pretty lackluster every time I've gone in the past year, unfortunately.

Tonight I told my daughter we could go where she wanted, and she chose Kneaders. I ordered via the drive thru instead of curbside (which has now been discontinued at Layton; but I had been perpetually frustrated by the long wait times or needing to go through the drive thru anyway). We ordered a kid's ham and cheese sandwich (on wheat) meal and TBA sandwich and was told they'd run out of red onion for the sandwich. I still ordered it anyway.

We waited in the drive thru line with only two cars ahead of us for 10-15 minutes. When we arrived at the window, the employee waited another 5 minutes or so before opening the window. He then told me they'd run out of the focacia bread for my sandwich.

At that point, a restless and screaming toddler plus pregnancy hormones put me on the verge of tears... over a sandwich. 😄 I opted to get the kid's meal and forego my sandwich. That landed me in another drive thru, where I had a much better experience.

When we arrived home, we found they'd put my daughter's sandwich on white instead of wheat bread. But that's better than the time we waited 25 minutes for our food and got home to realize her sandwich had no meat on it all ha.

I hesitated sharing this candid review, but my efforts to give feedback in the past haven't yielded change. Perhaps a Google review will get to the right people? I'm happy to provide other specific past examples. I REALLY want to like Kneaders Layton but am tired of being...

If you’re going to say that your dining room is open, it should really be open! We had a party of seven. There were only two other parties in the restaurant and they were on the other side of the restaurant.

The only seats they have available are for parties of four. We figured since there were four booths back to back and only the end booths were where they wanted you to sit, we (as a party of seven) could sit at two booths next to each other and there would still be 6’ between us and the next available table.

We sat down and were told that we either had to split up and sit on the opposite sides of the restaurant from each other, or go outside in the heat. This did not feel welcoming at all or that they cared about us as a customer. I get that they are trying to be cautious but when it comes to them choosing who can sit where feels a lot like segregation and like they are trying to control us -their customers.

On top of that, my foccia sandwich (which is supposed to be a soft like a sponge) was so hard on the edges that it hurt to chew and my husbands soup was cold. Everyone in the party also noticed that they are skimping out on their meat in their sandwiches. Not as full as they used to be. But don’t worry, we didn’t go back inside to complain, because if we did, we would have to exit another door and circle half the building to get back to where we forced to sit outside in the heat.

I used to love Kneaders but this experience was pretty terrible. When we go out to eat we look for a care free time that is easier than making a meal at home but this felt like a chore and was not fun at all. Like I said above, if you’re going to say your dining room is open, make it OPEN. To EVERYONE. Regardless of their party size. Otherwise it feels extremely...