Corner Bakery Cafe

Loved this place!!! The staff was friendly and the Coffee shop vibe was great. We really enjoyed the desserts. The best was the chocolate bunt cake. If we are in this area again we will definitely stop by.

Bad experience. The girl at the register had a bad attitude and the food was awful. Worst Pretzel sandwich ever! The pretzel was wet, cold and soggy. Really bad. Couldn’t eat it. Won’t be back.

Pretty good overall. I don’t think I’d ever crave it but I would probably eat here again

Horrible. Showed up at 730 and they said they had to serve it to go because they were closing but we could eat outside. They were out of everything. I ended up getting a chicken Caesar salad and got a completely different salad. Couldn’t get what I actually ordered because they locked the doors as we sat outside. Also very dirty bathrooms.

It seems a lot of reviewers are not familiar with the histories of Corner Bakery Café (CBC) and Panera. If anything, Panera is a knock-​off of CBC since CBC was established in the early 90s, and Panera (in its most current and familiar iteration) did not arise until the late 90s. As someone from Chicago, I fondly remember the pre-​Panera world where the well-​known, relatively cheap café-​bakery was (Chicago-​based) CBC. When I saw CBC was coming to Florida, I was very excited, and where the experience at this Brandon, FL CBC has been okay, it’s been a disappointment to witness the gradual decline in standards at both CBC AND Panera, which is also nothing like it was in its late-​90s, early 00s heyday. I can’t speak to the Midwestern branches, but the Florida versions are in dire need of professionalizing across the board.

Woah… Sad sad sad experience! ICE cold BBQ flatbread, isn’t this suppose to be hot? It’s pork and a BBQ flatbread… And my kale salad was iceberg lettuce with a little kale ummm so poor… Manager didn’t even care. Sad sad sad

This is a cute place for a quick lunch or breakfast! They have good food and decent coffee, prices could be a little better but overall it’s a nice place!

Great place if you’re looking for a quick bite. This place makes everything fresh and is a great value for what you receive. I’m a huge fan of the Chopped Salad and I highly recommend it! The sandwiches are awesome too. The sweets look decadent, though I must admit that I have not experienced any… Yet.

I just had a latte. The menu was vast. My latte was good. I was there for a few hours. It’s very much like a Panera, and the food looked delicious.
I’ll update after I try some food there.

I guess I was hoping for more.
Here’s another big chain, not quite living up to its potential if you ask me. I’ve been here twice now, and will be back to try more, here’s how its gone so far.
First time in I had a turkey sandwich, that I barely remember, so it couldn’t have been great. You prefer at the counter, take a number card, and find a seat. When your food is ready they come find you. From what I’ve seen the «runners» do a pretty good job, haven’t seen any slackers walking around like zombies — they seem to be on a mission.
The second time in I ordered the Cuban press. I placed my order at 11:17am on a Thursday, and at 11:37 I still had no food. When I went back to the counter to see what the deal was sometime stopped by my seat, took my napkins and drink and my number 7 card. So the cleanup they do fast.
At 11:47 I started making my way back to say forget it when I ran into the manager who happened to have my sandwich in her hand. Her words as she handed it to me: ‘here ya go’. I really thought she’d be apologizing or offering an explanation, but no dice.
The young man who rang me up did stop over after and said he was sorry, I was impressed with that (he looked 16 to me).
Anyway, I will return at some point and hope my last order was an anomaly. Still need to try the breakfast and coffee.

Wish I had a chance to taste their food, but no one bothered to acknowledge my presence as a customer. I felt alienated.
Better service at Steak & Stake?
This establishment won’t be seeing me again.
Panera it is for today’s brunch.

I gave it four stars because I was surprised, the place it was clean and well set up but I was expecting it to be just average or below but to my surprise people were very friendly and the food that we ordered was very good.
We went there to have breakfast but it was really lunchtime, I ordered pancakes and I will say they are the best pancakes I have had in a very very long time, my wife had a omelette that although wasn’t quite warm enough for her it was very very good.
The latte and coffee we ordered was very good, they have a wide variety of items that look very good but I cannot comment on them.
If in the area we will definitely go back again.

The first time I went to a Corner Bakery Café was a few years ago in the Chicago area. I really liked it and was excited when they opened up in Brandon early 2014. Unfortunately, it has never lived up to the first time I went and seems to be getting slightly worse each time I go.
I’ve tried their sandwiches, breakfast items (such as pancakes and French toast) and pasta. Everything is just average to me (although I did like my sandwich I got but don’t remember the name).
I like their menu more than Panera, especially being able to order breakfast all day (ask to see the breakfast menu if not on the board). I also like their drink selection, which includes hibiscus lemonade. There is a longer wait for some items. It’s a place where you order, they give you a number and you put the number on the table and they’ll bring you the food when ready.
I’m sure I’ll go back just not too often. They also send you deals by email when you sign up. They sent me an offer to get a free flatbread sandwich the other day but I forgot to go (new product they wanted to test). Sending me offers for free food is always a good way to get me to return.

This place reminds me a lot like Panera– you order up front and they’ll bring up your food. They have a selection of pastries, sandwiches, salads, and soups like Panera, but they have more variety and healthier options. I ordered the trio with quinoa salad, tuna salad, and tomato soup. It was pretty good but the quinoa salad needed a little more flavor. Also, the bread that came with the meal was super salty.
As for a study place, don’t come here during lunch hours because it gets pretty busy and noisy but towards the middle of the afternoon, it gets quieter. You can find a few outlets, but at my particular table, the outlet was completely blocked by the metal part of the table– poor planning.

I tried the new Southwest Chicken Grilled Flat tonight and it was awful. Maybe I can update this one day to a more positive review. This is the 2^nd time now that I’ve had to look for something else to eat because what I paid for was not what I got. These came with an abundance of green onions I didn’t ask for. They don’t even come in them by default. :/

I would love to up this rating to 4 stars but alas, I think not.
Wife and I finally made it for breakfast, in fact we just made it as we were eating the menu changed out of breakfast.
Wife and I both ordered the Farmers Scramble. Scrambled eggs, green onion, red pepper, mushrooms all mixed together. I personally love this kind of dish and I make things like this for myself. I wanted some meat in it though. The girl at the counter was awesome. When I asked for the chicken sausage she told me it was $ 2.50 extra, so was the bacon. Ham came in at $ 2.00 so I went with it. She apologized for the upcharges and seemed genuinely embarrassed by them. It was greatly appreciated. I personally think the charges exorbitant, a lot of money for a little bit. Adding the ham brought my bfast alone to $ 9.00. I added a small coffee. With the scramble you get potatoes and toast.
— the scramble was very good, fair amount of goodies and was hot and tasty.
— the potatoes were barely warm and looked like they had been sitting around for a while
which they probably were because bfast was almost over. No excuse, I still paid early bfast
bucks.
— the toast wasn’t. It was wheat bread, very good wheat bread, but barely toasted and cold,
not buttered. Not good.
— the coffee was good and hot. Nice selection too.
The free cookie is good but I’m not going there just for that.
I really wish our meals were better. I want to like this place more but the food just doesn’t warrant more than 3 stars.

And here we go again… another Panera, Crispers type place.
When we first decided to go here, we thought it was going to be more a bakery type place for a late breakfast. When we got there, the menu seemed more geared toward lunch, so an early lunch it was.
As at Panera and Crispers, you order at the counter, got a number to place on your table and they brought the food to you. I ordered the combo lunch, half a tuna sandwich and a small bowl of baked potato soup. The plate arrived and there was a pickle slice and a bag of chips with it. My sandwich was great, not overwhelmed by mayo on a multigrain bread with lettuce, tomato and cucumber. The soup was rich and creamy with plenty of potato, bacon bits and fresh green onion… and HOT!!! I was very happy with how everything tasted.
This is a new place so the décor is very nice and comfortable. Not much contact with staff so really no comment on that. When we checked into Unilocal a coupon came up for a free cookie! Woot woot!
I really liked Corner Bakery Café and will definitely return.

Located in the Brandon shopping center across from the mall, this little gem is nestled to the right side of the the complex, separate from most of the stores. There is parking directly in front of the stores.
This place is great for fresh and fast dining selections. Everything I have sampled here has been great. I like their combo meals and their portions are just right and the menu is ever evolving. Most recently they have added Mac and cheese to the menu and my friend who I was dining with on my last visit said it was the real deal, not processed looking or artificial. I like that you order at the counter, take your order number, sit down at a table and display your number and your food is brought to you. Drinks are self serve. I wish there were more Corner Cafes in the Tampa Bay Area and I hope they will expand. My personal favorite sweet treat from here is the oatmeal date cookie, excellent! Insider tip: if you check in with Unilocal you can receive a free cookie!

I knew I’d be going through Brandon for lunch so I checked with Unilocal friends Nick S. and Alejandra A. for a recommendation ahead of time. Their recommendations didn’t pan out but lucky for me I noticed Corner Bakery Café before getting on the highway. What a treasure!!!
It’s always an odd feeling when you step in an establishment for the first time and you don’t know where to order, what to do, what they have, etc. Not to fear because rock star employee Amber put me right at ease familiarizing me with everything! I ordered up the Anaheim Scrambler w/​substitution of chix apple sausage. This delight should be renamed the Traveler’s Scramble because it was light yet filling enough for someone who is traveling on the road ;-) It couldn’t of been more perfect unless of course they hadn’t run out of potatoes and oatmeal… but it happens. At $ 7.50 the price point was spot on!
The pastries and breads are scratch made daily and you can even take some home with you which is easy peasy compared to picking up a loaf of bread at the grocer. I recommend the Harvest bread. So yummy.
This store is large with a lot of room to spread out and have some extra joe while surfing the web with their free Wi Fi. It’s really nice to chill on their extra large patio when the weather is nice.
Current health inspection: 0-​high priority, 1-​intermediate, 4-​basic violations

Didn’t love it. Service to place was order was really slow. Cashier would fiddle around in the sweets case between every customer so it took forever to place an order.
I ordered ½ & ½. Ham sandwich on pretzel roll with chicken noodle soup. Ham was incredibly salty and soup was just ok. I also had a mini cupcake that was ok, it only cost 1.29 so I thought that was a deal.
I think Panera is a better option.