St. Martin's Table
Restaurant, Coffee/Tea/Juice, Organization
Hours
Profile
$ - inexpensive
American
A progressive bookstore and cafe
St. Martin's Table is a bookstore and cafe that serves baked goods and lunch foods. They mostly serve soup, sandwiches and salads. All their bread has honey in it.
All the servers are volunteers, and tips are all donated to charities. The hours to the right are for the bookstore. Lunch is served from 11:00 - 2:30 Monday through Saturday.
- Quiet
Added by Dave Rolsky on Mar 7 03 (updated Sep 8)
Reviews
It's a cozy place, very cute. Somehow, It makes me want to be more quiet than I otherwise would be. The food is good, if a bit boring.
I finally made it out to St. Martin's table. It was World Food Day, so they only had soup and bread. Bread's not vegan (honey) so I didn't care about that. Instead, I gave it to one of my lunch companions. The soup I had was awesome: curried potato kale. Filled me up, along with some lemon-ginger tea. Cheap, too.
As part of World Food Day, they had TONS of handmade bowls for sale, each $10. I picked one up and had an overall good time. I wish their bread didn't have honey in it, or at least that they had a vegan option for it. However, for a bowl of soup on a cold day, I'll return for the price and location near the West Bank campus. I think my score is a great rather than just good because I'm a huge fan of hearty soup, and it's really hard to find vegan soup (aka meat-broth free) anywhere.
i love st. martin's table. i almost always get the spread sampler with a garden salad with cucumber dressing. the food is simple and fresh. the perfect place for lunch.
I just discovered that all the bread they serve, including the bread in the "vegan" sandwiches, has honey in it! Furthermore, the vegan soup (which is not very filling without the bread) comes with bread that has butter not on the side, but on top!
Even before I knew that their bread has honey in it, I was not crazy about their food. They primarily serve soups, salads, and sandwiches and their sandwiches consist of only bread, spread and sprouts. Their salads are ok but they're nothing special. Their soups are more interesting and tend to be tastier too and their apricot and cherry nectars are great! But they almost never have vegan desserts which is really bad because I love sweets!
I should note that a lot of my vegetarian and non-vegetarian friends like this place a lot more than I do. I guess if you are not vegan and you study at University of Minnesota, St. Martin's is an ok, quiet place that's convenient to get to. And they support a lot of good causes. But there is almost nothing I would like to eat there.
Yeah, it's all vegetarian, but there aren't nearly enough vegan options. If you want, you can get rice crackers substituted for bread if you order soup, but they only serve about 5 and it really isn't worth it. The soup I had was pretty bland, and a small portion for as much as they charged for it. I do support the idea, I think it's awesome that they have friendly volunteers and everything, but there weren't enough vegan options and I think that's a huge absence.
Great food and service, and very relaxing. I had wanted to eat there for a couple years and finally made the trek today. I was impressed with the simplicity and taste of the food, the sincerity of the volunteer staff, and the causes they support. I will definitely return.
I am not a vegetarian, so I cannot speak as to the adherence of St Martin's Table to vegetarian or vegan orthodoxy. What I can say is that this bookstore and cafe is a Minneapolis treasure, and an oasis of calm and sincere good nature adjacent to the University's West Bank.
They match their beliefs with their deeds, showing (IMHO anyway) what is best in religion while sparing their customers any proselytizing or vegetarian lectures.
Props to St Martins Table!
The food is always very good. And it just feels good eating here. You are supporting a good cause and eating healthy. The menu isn't too extensive, just sandwiches and salads but it's very tastey. Its priced right too. St. Martin's table is a nice, yummy, casual luch spot. You'll leave happy.
The food is always simple but good, and the atmosphere is always pleasant. Even better, when you eat there, you're supporting a good community establishment, and worthwhile charities around the world.
I like the quaint, cozy atmosphere in St. Martin's Table. The staff is always friendly and helpful. I also love how much of the proceeds go to charity and that the place is non-profit.
The food is simple, tasty, fresh and cheap. I usually get a cup of soup and a whole sandwich combo for $7.50. The soup is often times heartier than the sandwich; I particularly like their chili, or their curry soups, while the sandwich is just basically sprouts and a tofu or bean spread on top of fluffy bread. That said, it hits the spot, and it's usually hard for me to decide between the flavors for their spreads and soups (they usually have two vegan soup options and two vegan spread options).
Sometimes they have a vegan dessert option as well. I wasn't expecting much, but the mocha chocolate cake ($3.75) I had was spectacular---it was unusually moist, fluffy, soft and rich. The mocha flavor was oh-so-subtle. It was easily superior to anything at Hard Times, Seward Cafe or The Wedge. In some respects, I think it was better than even the turtle cake at French Meadow.
If St. Martin's had one or two killer vegan desserts daily, and also a mockmeat sandwich, I'd be there all the time, as the atmosphere is great, the prices are good, the food is fresh and light, and the mission of the cafe is pleasant and inspiring.