Cafe Zentral

Looked like a pretty cool restaurant, long lines, pleasant guy taking my order. Purchased a «build your own sandwich» for $ 8 only to get back to my desk and find 2 slices of wheat bread and two, count them TWO thin slices of deli meat. To be fair, I only requested meat, and giardinera on wheat bread. The guy making my sandwich either didn’t know what giardinera was or they ran out. Either way, he didn’t bother even asking if I wanted a replacement. Will never go back!

I live in the building its adjacent to and love this place. It’s simple and consistent with friendly staff and a small menu which is part of its charm. The lattes are great if you are specific in telling them what you like ie not too sweet, light cream etc. the Nutella crêpe is… Well it’s a Nutella crêpe it’s never gonna be bad. Baked goods are awesome, this place rocks for a quick brunch pick up!

Finally had a chance to come by. First trip a few weeks ago was in the morning to try the coffee (very strong and dark) and the nutella and fruit crêpe. Crêpe was very good, just was odd that menu said Nutella & banana but I got mixed berries instead. It was still good, but no one mentioned that the fruit was going to be different. I really wanted bananas in it!
Second time was on Monday for lunch. Ended up getting the smoked salmon salad. it was good, fresh and big portion. Salmon was good and the dressing was light.
Lunch was okay, I bumped it up to 4 stars for the crepes and coffee. For sure would come back for breakfast.

OMG. Yum. This is truly a hidden gem. This is a skyway café without the skyway taste and quality. Everything I ordered so far has been very good like it came from a quality sit down restaurant. I’ve tried their Smoked Slovakian sausage, Mediterranean Chop salad and Smoked Salmon salad. All yum with a high quality taste that can’t be compared to the other skyway convenience shops. My only complaint about the salads is that I didn’t get enough of everything else besides the greens. I’m now looking forward to trying their breakfast items as I am a big breakfast person. This is one of my new favorite places to eat at and I can’t believe it took me so long to try it when it’s practically next door to me.

This is officially my new hidey hole in the Skyway. I love their fresh food/​European deli style set up. Not only do you have a choice or chips or a salad, but you can have a fruit cup, a small soup, or even a fresh cucumber salad (that one will be a little more, but if they run out of the fruit cup or side salad they’ll happily substitute).
I highly recommend the tomato lemongrass soup with one of their different takes on grilled cheese. I had mine with the brie, apples and honey mustard.
Their Munchen dogs are pretty good, you have your choice of several fillings and they all come in a pretzel roll.
Finally, I also recommend the fruity tea they have set out (though they do have some locally made soda in their soda fountain)! Tis tasty!

I eat way too many of their amazing scones in the morning.
Then I thoroughly enjoy their München dogs (get the Slovockian!) for lunch. But ask if there’s a special — they often cook up venison sausage.
The paninis rock. Duck confit. That is all.
This is a fantastic, quick, we’ll run joint.
Enjoy!

Every day I would walk by café zentral and be charmed by French look and menu. And finally with my coworker we decided to try it out for lunch. With many options in a skyway this one is the most disappointing one. The salad includes sauce, sauce, sauce and lettuce, lettuce, lettuce. If you see the listed ingredient like ham or salmon it means one tiny slice of meat or fish chopped in many many pieces that you won’t even feel it. You are going to be hungry after meal for sure. If you still decide to go there don’t order salads.

As a very large fan of all things breakfast related, Café Zentral was on my list as they had been called out for having «the best blueberry muffin.». I needed to try this.
I tried it. Yeah… I think it just might be the best. Loaded with real blueberries. Little bit of crunch on the outside, very soft and moist on the inside. Great flavor.
So I came back for lunch a few weeks later. The Muchen dog sounded too interesting to not try. You choose your sausage and sauce, it comes stuffed in a pretzel bun. It looks… interesting. It tastes… great! Nice change up for the skyway scene.
They have a some other very appetizing baked goods in the case as well as a nice sandwich and salad selection.
Service & atmosphere have been good in my experiences. It’s a quick skyway lunch spot, let’s not get carried away with expectations.

Having limited time for lunch, I opted to duck into this building I’d walked past in the Skyway for the past few days, and which had grabbed by attention with the offering of Nutella crepes. Now — tempting as Nutella crepes might be, I was there for lunch so something a little more savory was in order, and Café Zentral didn’t disappoint.
I’d walked in with a mind set to soup, and their soup of the day was a smoked trout. Nicely straddling the line between creamy and not overly rich, the fish and potatoes were a fine way to warm up on an overcast Minneapolis day. An entire blackboard of sausage beckoned for a main, and the currywurst was the choice that satisfied. Warmed up on the grill, and served with your choice of topping (curry ketchup for me, please) inside of a delicious pretzel bun, Café Zentral’s lunch didn’t disappoint.

Café Zentral is a small, charmless space with undistinguished food and, in my case, an unfriendly counter person taking my order. Even dine-​in food is served in plastic to-​go containers, and must be eaten with plastic cutlery dispensed from a machine. The sandwiches are pre-​made, rather than being made to order. The overall ambiance is about as warm and personal as a Starbuck’s in an airport (this comparison is if anything probably unfair to Starbuck’s and/​or airports).
I attempted to order a prosciutto and cheese panini but was told they were out of prosciutto. I ended up with a paprika chicken salad. It was reasonably priced but fairly bland, and in one instance I bit into a large piece of cartilage due to their poor quality control. I spat it out and abandoned the rest of the salad. I left hungry and annoyed.
Overall my experience with Café Zentral was entirely negative, but I am giving it two stars because a friend said he enjoyed his panini. I was completely disappointed with my visit to CZ.
Given that Russell Klein’s Meritage made its reputation in no small part because of its excellent service, I find the entire concept of Café Zentral just mystifying. I find it bizarre that Klein would have launched what amounts to a below-​average lunch counter in tandem with the fairly ritzy Brasserie Zentral, which is downstairs. My experience with Café Zentral not only turned me off of returning, it made me wary of Brasserie Zentral as well (though I will still probably try it).

This review is for their espresso. I was so excited when I saw the wonderful website, complete with latte art. Alas, could it be a third wave coffee shop in downtown finally??? Unfortunately not. The quality didn’t match up to the ambiance of the restaurant. My latte was average at best, and my wife’s so sweet it almost wasn’t palatable. Major bumski, we had high hopes!

Recently opened in the skyway level of the Soo Line Building, this little brother of Brasserie Zentral sports an interesting menu for skyway eating. Was forced to ignore the Munchen dogs and killer grilled cheese menu (for instance, duck confit, red cabbage and bleu cheese) in lieu of an italian salad due to a voluntary gluten-​free diet that the menu made me regret. Salad was good and reasonably priced ($ 8). Colleague had the Munchen dog and declared it the best he’d had since last in Munich. A bit off skyway beaten path but worth the trip. Line wasn’t long… yet. All of the seating is bar-​style against the glass so don’t bring a group expecting to sit conveniently to socialize — it’s true European style café seating.