Hope Breakfast Bar - St. Paul — Restaurant in Saint Paul

I patronized Hope Breakfast Bar for the 1st time on 4/16/2025 after hearing many great reviews from friends and colleagues. The food was good and their Spring Refresher was delicious. But what surprised me and made me feel away was the customer service. I was greeted by a shorter dark hair woman who seemed friendly...at first. She walked me to a corner window spot in the restaurant, but I was going to do a video call while I tried out the restaurant.

I asked if I could have a table in the back where it was slightly more quiet, the woman's facial expression changed and walked away to check. While she checked, I was reading over the menu. She returned and said I may sit in the back but she'll need the table in about an hr, which I responded was fine. While I was still holding the menu and looking down at it, she PULLED the menu out of my hand without saying, "I'll take that or anything." She did NOT snatch the menu but she definitely pulled it from and although I wanted to correct her actions immediately, I decided to see how the rest of my experience played out.

I watched the blonde woman who was tending the bar go and take the order of a couple that arrived after me and took the original table I was offered, while I awaited to be greeted by someone (I was not advised what waitress was serving my table). I was later greeted by Nicole after waiting about 10 mins (whom made eye contact several times but never stated she'll be with me in a moment).

Nicole was pleasant...took my order. There was a slight mix-up/understanding about the 2 women sitting next to me about their bill, which they had already paid and Nicole forgot. The 2 women proceeded to discuss the interaction and Nicole's behavior after she left. As, time went on...I understood and the 2 women's reactions. While visibly on a video call, Nicole interrupted...without giving me a moment to pause my mic...without a hand-gesture...without an excuse me. While I was talking she interrupted...3xs exactly without courtesy.

I asked for my check as I monitored the time and wanted to respect the restaurants wishes to provide the table back timely...I asked for my check 15 mins prior to the time the hostess stated she needed the table back. I also asked for another refresher beverage as it was delicious. This is when I became direct...Nicole returned stating they need the table back after I was already packed and ready to go, I was just going to finish my call at their outdoor seating. I explained to Nicole, I was already aware as the hostess informed me, which is why I asked to close out my check 15 mins early and I was moving outside (also the hostess is looking directly at me from a distance by the bar watching and waiting to speak to Nicole at this point while watching me).

I spoke to the blonde hair woman at the part who was very pleasant...smiling...and checking to see if I needed anything else when I advised I was taking the beverage to the outdoor seating and will return it once I am done. Which I returned maybe 15 min or less later and the dark hair hostess took the glass and seem more genuinely friendly/welcoming at that point that anytime previous.

I share all of that to say...this was my exact experience and I did not feel good dining there. But I believe in giving places more than one chance...so I will try again some other time and my hope is that my experience is far better to leave a 5...

Pros: Really cute, fun space! It's probably especially neat in the summer if they open the glass garage door. Friendly staff Great breakfast menu

Cons: —Insane prices for coffee drinks. I’m a barista and also frequent a dozen coffee shops around the TC, and I’ve never seen prices like this: $6 for Grey Duck chai (coffee shops typically serve this around $4.50), $7-8 for a latte with some flavored syrup (no notes on the menu about the syrups being special in some way to justify this). I ordered an orange juice, it was $3, and I’ve attached a photo of how much I received (minus one small sip). $4 for a teabag in hot water. If prices are this high because the owner is paying their staff a living wage, that’s fantastic! But there should be a sign saying so if that’s the case, so customers know they don’t need to tip unless they want to.

—There was also a specific problem we had: I’d asked our waitress how many pancakes comes in the “baby cakes” plate. She said 3. I asked if it’s possible to order different flavors in one order (since there are 4-6 interesting pancakes on the menu— side note they were all delicious), and she said absolutely. So we look at the menu for a few minutes and place our order with a different waitress: I said “can we share one order of baby cakes, one cake German chocolate, one carrot cake, and one peanut butter chocolate?” She said yep and skipped off to put the order in (at the time I’m that surprised me because we’d all planned on sharing that one order and eating other food besides, thinking that splitting the flavors was something they could do). So when the pancakes come, delivered by the first waitress it’s... 3 orders of pancakes. It does make sense that the restaurant may not be willing to split a single order into three flavors— if the waitresses had said that in the first place, that would have been just fine, no problem. However, that’s not the info that was given to us. When our first waitress brought the order, we were confused and said this wasn’t what we’d ordered, and explained the order. Here’s the kicker for me: she didn’t apologize, she said “oh, it was misunderstood.” Not even “I misunderstood.” I repeated back to her my initial question and what her first answer had been, and she just said, “oh no, that’s not how it works, we can’t do that.” She didn’t offer to take them back to the kitchen or let us order something new, she just left them with us. So we didn’t order anything else, we just ate the pancakes— again, they were delicious (the German chocolate was especially good), but we’d been looking forward to trying the other things we had in mind from the menu, and for it being the day after Thanksgiving, I personally hadn’t wanted to load up on that much sugar for breakfast. The whole experience left a kind of negative impression, I know that restaurants often have to eat costs that aren’t always fair to them, but this was a case in which it wasn’t fair to the customer, and I think it should have been handled differently. Plus side is the baby cakes are the cheapest thing on the food menu, so we got out of there with a much smaller bill than it would have been if it’d worked out the way we’d intended, but we would have preferred to spend more money and get what we ordered.

We might adjust our expectations and give it another try at some point, but it’s got some kinks to...

I have been to other Hope locations and have always enjoyed it. My group of 5 was staying in downtown St. Paul for the Yacht Club Festival and stopped in for brunch. We arrived at about 11 am, without a reservation, and were told it would be a 20-30 minute wait. After 30 minutes, we checked with the hostess and were informed we'd accidentally been skipped over for our outside table, so our group of 5 was instead seated at a 4 person table inside.

After being seated, it was nearly 10 minutes before a server came to our table. She took our drink order and we did not hear from her again until those drinks arrived about 15 minutes later. In the meantime, we were never served water and had to ask for it after our drink order came.

We then put in our food order, which took nearly 40 minutes to come. During that 40 minutes, our group finished our drinks and waters. At no point did our server stop by our table to check in or offer refills.

We finally asked for our check before the food arrived because we had been at the restaurant for nearly two hours. When the server brought our check, we explained the situation and asked if they would be willing to give a discount.

After speaking with her manager, the server returned to our table and told us there was nothing they could do about it because the kitchen was backed up and everyone had to wait. Setting aside the fact that restaurant management should have been prepared for increased traffic due to the festival, I tried to explain to the waitress that we had experienced additional wait time after being skipped over while waiting for a table.

The server had no interest in my explanation, becoming argumentative with us and letting us know that the delay was our fault for not making a reservation. She also mentioned that she "doesn't run the business." When I said we would pay the bill as is, she dropped the payment terminal off at our table without comment and picked it back up after we had paid. She never said another word to us after her comment about not running the business.

Frankly, the response from service staff was unacceptable. All restaurants run behind at some point but bringing water to a table, ensuring drinks are refilled, and checking in with customers during longer than expected wait times is all within the server's ability to control regardless of a slow bar or kitchen.

The food was good, but not great. But the wait times and service were so awful that I will never return to this location. Incredibly...