Kneaders Bakery and Cafe – Tempe

If I could give this place a zero I would! Went there and ordered turkey bacon on focaccia and two salads thru the drive thru the sandwhich wasn’t what I ordered and I told the girl and she argued with me! So I just took in fear of her «fixing» it and then spitting in my food. When I got home the salads were all lettuce and a tiny about of chicken and croutons. If I wanted a full head of lettuce I would have just ate the one I had in the fridge but I wanted some sustenance with my meal. Ugh never again will I visit this kneaders! They need to fire a lot of them at this location

I have been here twice and both times have been delicious. The first time I went here I got the BBQ chicken salad and the chipotle ranch dressing that comes with it is very tasty! The second time I went here I got half of a veggie avocado sandwich and although it was simple (avocado, onions, lettuce, cheese, & Kneader’s sauce), it was really good. I will be coming back for a whole sandwich! I just wish they had a couple of vegetarian soups, then this place would be perfect. Love that they have a drive thru too.

Q: What did one slice of bread say to the other slice of bread when he saw some butter and jam on the table?
A: We’re toast!
Ah, Kneaders. I do love the smell of freshly baked bread upon entering the establishment. While I don’t normally go out to get a sandwich and soup fix, I had been feeling an on-​coming cold and needed me some comfort food last week. So off to Kneaders we went!
I got a delicious Turkey Cranberry Croissant with a bowl of their Cream of Broccoli soup. I really enjoyed my sandwich. The meat was moist, it had just enough cranberry sauce, and the croissant was buttery and flaky. It’s was reminiscent of the day after Thanksgiving when you make a leftover abomination sandwich! The soup though was a slight disappointment. The Cream of Broccoli was watery and overcooked to the point of no return. I get that the soup has to be left on burners but I think this one was set at a temperature much to high. Eeks!
Anyways, they have a wide array of sandwiches, soups, salads, desserts, breads, and even kitschy home décor and aprons for you to purchase. Stop in for a quick bite.

The food is pretty good but the service is without a doubt some of the worst I have experienced. I have tried on several occasions to use Kneaders for business lunches as my office is close by. I place the order ahead of time and each time I have arrived they seem surprised by my request and have to find my order to start preparing it. This last time today it affected an important meeting for me. I waited for a half hour while they made 4 sandwiches and I watched the guy packing it up stop 4 times to text on his phone. He then took it somewhere and set it down. They had no idea anyone was waiting so I had to ask 2 different people to please get me my order. I have given this place several chances to redeem themselves but this is obviously a chronic problem. Not going back.

I ate here 3 meals in a row food has always been great and service is awesome. Salads are really fresh and soups are amazing!

The chicken noodle soup is something you should avoid. It is more like a stew with bad ingredients, overcooked noodles, fatty pieces of cubed chicken and an off deep yellow color. The strawberry smoothie was drinkable and props to the cashier who spotted me an extra cookie after forgetting to bring the original cookie to my table. Based on this visit, I will stick to brownie and salads at this chain. The cookie was not impressive either as all it tasted like was butter.

Great new place right off the 101. I enjoy the convenience of a drive thru with the quality of a bakery.

I’m surprised by all the low reviews. I really love this place. The only negative is that the service is soooooooo slow.
I always get soup in a bread bowl and a smoothie. My favorite soup is the white cheddar poblano. They didn’t have any this week so I got artichoke portabello and that was pretty good also. My girls like the cream of broccoli.
The smoothie I get is the pink piña colada made with peach juice instead of guava juice.
This time we bought the triple chocolate bread and brought it home for breakfast the next morning. Was super yummy.

The baguette is too soft, not crispy enough.
I don’t know why but they have a tendency to undercook their bread.
I’ve tried the french dip but after seeing the picture on Unilocal,i asked them to add extra veggies because it looked pretty simple for a $ 6.59 sandwich! Even with that extra, it was not great. There is no sauce. Just ham and swiss cheese in a baguette.
I think the Ciabatta is my favorite bread.
The salads were pretty good too. Potato salad as a side was nice. I don’t like their soup.

I am writing this review purely on the employees attitudes/​behavior (although the food was delicious too). All of the employees were so nice and welcoming and I just want to hug all of them!

Tagged along with family as they dropped by here to get gingerbread cookies. My sister apparently likes this place.
The interior of the store is quite nice (I remember the lighting being very soft and flattering). There is quite a bit of food merchandise (pancake mix, candy, gift baskets) and, weirdly, a display nook of costume jewelry and a handbag. They also have very large pastry case displays filled with goodies. I do think the baked goods look «too perfect» and mass produced though (this was a red flag). The cashier was pleasant.
While family members seemed to enjoy the treats, I found them lacking. The gingerbread man (with chocolate pants, a detail family enjoyed) had a very dry texture and was somewhat «dog biscuit-​like» (very bland and crumbly). The peppermint brownie was HALF frosting (chocolate frosting over peppermint frosting/​crème over a chocolate chip brownie), which attempted to distract from the fact that the brownie itself was on the dry side, but it didn’t make up for the loss of brownie «gooey-​ness.»
I won’t seek this place out again, but I would veto it for lunch either. We really need a high-​quality bakery café to replace the Panera-​fied and bastardized Paradise Bakery.

Don’t waste your money, this place is ridiculously over priced for what you actually get. There were three of us, two got a drink, and it was $ 33.
We ordered a Reuben sandwich, there were only three small slices of corned beef on the entire sandwich! A Reuben is supposed to feature mainly the beef! Luckily it tasted pretty good, but you can’t recover from a $ 10 sandwich (with no drink and stale potato chips) that has no meat! They also put onions on their Reuben, which feels like a sin. That’s just not a Reuben, which is I guess why it’s with the paninis, but still.
The French Dip had the exact same problem, absolutely no meat, except it was worse because it had no flavor either. I love au jus more than anything, I’ve actually never met an au jus I didn’t like, but this one lacked any sort of flavor.
Then the chips, I’m not sure if they were house chips or what. I can’t describe them adequately because they were a mixture of soggy but stale. It was weird.
TLDR: Over priced. Not enough meat. Soggy/​stale house chips. Okay taste.

I came here with my family for a quick dinner. We ordered a salad and a sandwich for the adults and a grilled cheese for the kid. We were all satisfied with the food. We didn’t order any desert but everything they had looked delicious (in the bakery area). The establishment was clean and not too noisy. They had other options I’d like to try and we will be checking it out again.

OMG. I may gain an additional 50 pounds thanks to Kneaders.
My weakness is bread. Always has been… and kneaders is baking up a TON of fresh bread on the regular, nearly every type you can imagine, PLUS the dessert case is brimming with the best brownies, bread pudding, cake and pie that you have ever had.
Their sandwiches are huge, so if you order one, plan on sharing or having half of it to take home. And believe me, you will want to save room for pineapple cake, a cinnamon roll or brownies. BELIEVE ME.
They also server all you can eat french toast on the weekends. You are speaking my love language Kneaders!!! And why is is the best, melt in your mouth, gooey, cinnamony french toast ever?
Watch. 50 pounds are coming at me. UGH.

This was a good bakery and café. The food was very fresh and bread tasted heavenly. We went there at lunch time and the line was very long. We had the Chicken citrus salad and the turkey, bacon and avocado salad. Both were delicious but we had to wait about 35 minutes to get our order (we dined in the restaurant). After we placed our order, one of my friends was told that they were out of the soup that she ordered; at least we were stopped at the cashier when we tried to order bottled water… they were completely OUT at noon on a Monday! To their credit, they did give her another soup of her choice as well as a free loaf of pumpkin bread. That made up also for continuing to forget our free birthday dessert. Something was definitely off with their service today but we will try them again. .not soon though.

Wow!!! I am very impressed with how the employees interact with customers. I truly felt like I was a person versus feeling like just a regular customer. Employees are true professionals and Marvin (the manager) really emulated top notch customer service! Marvin helped, answered questions, walked the floor, greeted & talked to customers and was very knowledgeable about the product. He is a true ambassador for Kneaders & I would clone him to have managers like him all over Arizona! I will continue to come to this location and will let all my military friends know about my great experiences here! Thank you Marvin!

This place is wonderful. I’ve have quite a few different sandwiches, salads, and pastries and they don’t disappoint. I used the drive thru recently and it was super busy, taking a while for my order. The drive thru attendant thanked me for my patience, apologized, and he gave me a whole loaf of their seasonal orange cranberry bread as service recovery. I thought that was quite nice!

Ehhhh… I don’t like to give one star. This is nothing more than a step down from a Paradise Bakery. I ordered a scramble for breakfast and when they brought it to my table it looked like it been dropped on the floor then scooped up on a plate.
When what I assumed was the manager walks by he asks me how my breakfast was, I didn’t say anything, I just gave him the most dis-​satisfied look I could possibly give and pointed at my eggs… and walks away. WTH?
Next time I come in and dis-​satisfied with my meal, I’ll be sure to stand on my chair and announce that my breakfast looks like a 5 year cooked for the first time and it tastes like COMPLETE CRAP. As he continued to make his rounds, he refused to make eye contact with me and avoided my table within 10 feet… good customer service buddy.
Plenty of other options in that parking lot. There’s a pile of dirt to the right that might taste just as good.

This is my second visit to this location and I was impressed with the service and the food on my first visit I decided to stop in again. On this visit I came in the late afternoon only to stand around longer than I should have by the cash register for someone to take my order. I finally ordered my cinnamon roll to-​go and perused the odds and ins of the place plus I checked out the other baked goodies in the case. Just when I walked out I realized that I need a fork and napkin and to my surprise they put it in the bag.
My cinnamon roll was dry on the edges and wasn’t very good at all.
I’ll stick with the salad like on my first visit –probably a healthier option anyways. I will probably come back but this visit was just a meh to me.

Second trip to this place, and decided to order online 45 minutes prior, so that I could just pop in, pick it up and leave. Sadly, that wasn’t the result. I didn’t even order anything hard — a half salad and cup of soup. I waited almost 15 minutes. It seemed like they were totally unprepared for the lunchtime rush. Then they forgot part of my order.
The salad was pretty good — BBQ chicken — but there were only maybe 5 little slivers of chicken. The soup was ok — loaded baked potato — it had good flavor but was not thick like a good potato soup would be.
Finally, the peach tart that was forgotten. My second (and last) dessert experience was not good. Something in the tart and the pumpkin cake I had previously has a weird flavor and smell to it — like what I imagine dog shampoo smelling and tasting like.
Sadly, despite it’s close proximity to my job, I will not be returning. I’d rather go to Jimmy John’s.

I just love their pastries! Delicious breakfast sandwiches too! I recommend the croissant egg and bacon sandwich there!
The inside of the store is kind of like Cracker Barrel, relax feminine atmosphere in my opinion they have things to decorate your home or do crafts with.

It was very good, it tasted like food from a farmers market, fresh. I bought the chicken sandwich with avocado, loaf of sourdough which was delicious, and a razzle berry smoothie which was finished before getting to the house! FYI: Bakery sandwich drive through! Awesome

Decent sandwiches and friendly service. Kneaders offers sandwiches, soups, and salads, with an impressive array of baked sweets. I stepped in here for lunch and browsed at the menu before deciding on the portabella grille sandwich, and a mint chocolate brownie.
The portabella grille, strangely enough, did not have much portabella in it. Instead it consisted mainly of roasted zucchini and red bell pepper. While the bread was very good, the actual ciabatta bread was so thick compared to the vegetable mixture that with each bite, I could taste mostly bread and little filling.
The mint chocolate brownie was decent, albeit super sweet.
Sodas are Coke based and there is a nice selection of iced teas to the side as well.
Although I wasn’t too impressed with the portabella sandwich, I’d definitely like to try other items to see if they are any better!

It was 230 p.m. and there was a wait.
Of course I understand this. Their menu is kinda complicated if you’ve never been here before. Shouldn’t they have a place on the menu board that says exactly what comes on a sandwich? And you may order soup with your sandwich and they give you a salad too? It doesn’t say that on the menu board.
So like I said, it can be complicated.
So anyway, there’s a wait.
We order soup, water, and a dessert to share. Why does it take as long for soup as it does a sandwich?
Soup was nothing close to homemade. In fact, it was very similar to soup from a can. The Chicken Noodle was viscous like Campbell’s soup. Even Progresso has a better broth. The noodles were kinda pasty. The Tomato Basil Ravioli had my kid telling me Chef Boyardee.
Normally we have sandwich and soup so I’ve never focused on the soup. This time I only had soup to focus on.
I do like that they have soda water on the fountain.
We shared a slice of the Berry Cheesecake. Super dense, creamy, and tasted like a marketed cheesecake complete with the flavor of the cardboard still on the graham cracker bottom.
Hmmm.
Must’ve been today’s cook, huh?

Meh is all I can say about Kneaders. My aunt loves this place and thus so my mom and I decided to try it out. It wasn’t busy at this location when we dined, so we took our time trying to figure out what to order. I got the aura of a wannabe Bob Evans [selling things] + smallish Panera [selling food].
The cashier tried to be helpful but he’d not eaten much off the menu so couldn’t really tell us outside of the tuna sandwich what was good. I ended up getting the turkey artichoke panini. The flavors were good, but the turkey appeared to be overdone in spots — a couple of bites were a little more difficult to chew than others. My mom got the chicken salad [very uneventful, her words]. She really liked the croissant though! I got the combo since it came with 2 things of parmesan chips and a dessert [not sure why they have that odd of a combo]. We loved the chips! The key lime tart was decent. My mom was excited to get a dessert when we arrived, but after the disappointing meal, she just didn’t feel like it. I think we’ll just stick to other bakery-​cafes.

Not horrible. No sandwich descriptions on the overhead menu. Staff couldn’t tell me what was on the sandwiches or in the smoothies. No familiarity with the product they were selling.
Ordered safe: a BLT. Not so safe. Red onions, mustard, and cheese. Not outrageous, but not part of a standard BLT. If your product deviates significantly from the norm, say something.
Ordered safe: a French Dip. Again with the red onions — and this time an au jus with balsamic vinegar? Ok…
White chocolate macadamia nut cookie? Stale, but tasted ok. Éclair? Hard, hard Pâte à Choux filled with cheap whipped cream (possibly artificial).
Quick adds to original review:
The bread itself was tasty :-)
My smoothie was chunky with unknowns :-(
Save your money, time, and taste buds.
Walk across the parking lot to Jimmy John’s.
They have a menu that tells you what is on their sandwiches.