Modern Times Café

Everything about this café is so bold. From the colors to the coffee it inspired modernism! The breakfast menu is amazing with clearly explained options to choose from. The stuff is good and the portion size is pretty good. Loved the ambience the most.

Long story short: waited too long in the heat for this type of place and was seated out of order. Group of 5 who came well after me and my friend was squeezed into a booth that barely fit four before us. I questioned the waitress and she just replied «youre next» knowing that they messed up. I eventually left and took my business elsewhere (Gigi’s café to be specific which I recommend btw) but before I left, they were waiting on a couple in the same sized booth to leave to seat me and my friend. It didnt make sense and they werent apologetic or encouraging me to stay in any way. Plus… they were the «too cool for you» type of hipsters which ruins the atmosphere of the welcoming quirky-​in-​a-​cute-​way place.

Here’s how my visit went:
Fiancé and I go inside to get on the list. Waitress asks if we want coffee while we wait. I say yes. She brings me two small PIPING HOT cups of black coffee and doesn’t ask if I want cream or sugar… I chalk it up to her being busy, but it IS a hot day and now I’ve got two boiling hot cups (fiancé didn’t say yes to coffee but she brought two). NBD, I’ll drink two. We get seated. Order food. Food comes fast! Both are delicious!
Then I pull a huge black hair out of Fiancé’s tacos!
We tell the waitress. She snatched the hair and throws it on the ground quickly. Looks kinda dumbstruck. We tell her to just take it off the bill.
Bill comes and it’s $ 17 for what we thought was my breakfast alone??? The receipt isn’t itemized so who knows?!
When we inquire about it they bring an itemized receipt showing that those TINY little cups of «coffee while you wait» are $ 3ea!!!
Nobody seems sympathetic to the fact that there was fucking hair in our food. We get a LOT of attitude when we don’t want to pay $ 6 for the coffee that I drank by myself… They give me $ 3 cash.
No apology… They act like we’re a couple of snobby bitches for being grossed out by hair and not being cool about being tricked into expensive coffee.
We will definitely not be coming back…
And it’s a shame bc up until the hairy food we were remarking how cute the spot was and how we should eat there more.
After all was done Fiancé was STILL HUNGRY so we had to spend more money elsewhere…

I’ve eaten here numerous times over the years and always enjoyed the food, portions and friendly service.
My last visit will truly be my last.
Not everyone understands gluten allergy but my waitress truly did. She was very upfront and honest about their lack of a prep/​cook area for separate gluten free food items. No separate frier for gluten free items. Cross contamination makes me very sick.
Avoid if you have a gluten allergy or celiac. Their menu does contain gf items for those that have minimal sensitivity or are making an non allergic lifestyle change.
But it’s very misleading to claim your establishment is gluten free friendly when actually it is not. Take that false advertising off your menu and website. Or at least put info out there that is honest.

I’ve been to Modern Times many times for breakfast and the food is always good, the service excelllent, and the atmosphere cozy. It’s an odd place with a good feel and strong coffee. I love the Jonathan Richman breakfast sandwich, Southside Hash, vegan pancake and special vegetarian burrito. Great vegetarian/​vegan options!

Excellent food, poor service. We got the «good morning healing earth» and a special, bread pudding French toast. Both were superb — light but filling! Bottomless coffee is $ 3 and it is fair trade, which is fantastic, but the cups are tiny and the staff didn’t seem too excited to give refills. The waitresses who helped us weren’t very friendly at all and didn’t ask which sides we wanted. Not terrible by any means, but definitely not great service. The vibe is very earthy and laid back — perfect for a Sunday brunch! The strangest part, though, was that on the receipt they allow you to check a box for a 20, 25, or 30% tip… there is a space for a custom tip, but those seemed like high suggestions for mediocre service. Not a big fan of that. Overall, I would definitely go again for the food!

I’m from Cali & the tuna melt was honestly the best I ever had the tuna is so delicious, the fries are so good got a basket couldn’t stop eating them, I also ordered a vanilla latte way better then Starbucks so yummy, our waitress Mary was so nice

Sad grey meat of inedible toughness.
I was pretty excited to try this place, boasting in their selection of offering plant-​based options, vegan, vegetarian, Gluten free & carnivorous options. Their selection of dietary options and decent staff gets the 2 stars, but my food was severely disappointing.
My ham in the brioche sandwich was grey, hard and unable to bite through with my teeth. immediately turned me off, but we were on a friend date and I didn’t want to look like a picky a-​hole, so I tried to pick around it and mouth breathe while only eating the one slice of bread with a smidge of cheese on it. Not worth the almost $ 10 for this meal.
I ordered this meal, as they advertise it with a side salad, and I ordered it with an additional side of fries, wanting to share it with my husband… my salad never came and the fries were drenched in garlic chunks and sauce.
More mouth breathing.
I feel bad for wasting money on this incredibly disappointing meal… the taste was stuck in my mouth forever and recollecting the smell was nausea inducing.
I’m so bummed because I was so excited for this adorably quaint lil place… and then had this wasteful experience.
If it would have been just my husband and I, I would have brought it up, because seriously I am expecting to be sick from this sad grey meat of inedible toughness.

Great experience here with co-​workers: vegan hash, various traditional egg dishes, oatmeal and fruit, and great coffee. A small venue but interesting dining area. Highly recommended.

Wow this place is so good! My sister should have taken me here long, long ago. The restaurant is teeny tiny but they are putting out huge flavors no matter how you eat. I had the south side hash prepared vegan and my sister had to keep me from licking my plate clean. I have a couple places I have to go to every time I am in Minnesota and I think Modern Time Café was just added to this list. The only draw back is with a small size comes long waits, but for two we got sat in about ²⁰⁄₃₀ minutes (Saturday morning at 10 am) but we had coffee and conversation to keep us happy. So worth the wait, can’t wait to go back!

My favorite greasy-​spoon vegan spot in the twin cities. A nice greasy vegan breakfast, and SUPER delicious. Awesome garlic fries to go with your seitan based sandwich at lunch. Be aware, unless its a late lunch on a weekday, you WILL have to wait quite a while to be seated.

Delicious!!! I came here for lunch and honestly wasn’t fully into the options based upon reading them at the time (I think I was looking for more of a breakfast but just missed the cut off) But I’m glad I stayed because that’s one of the best sandwiches I ever had. I went vegan, I hate mayo, but the vegan mayo was to die for. Almost like an amazing pesto on the bread. My company went vegetarian and carnivore and they were both jus as pleased so it’s a win in all 3 of those categories

Love this place! The food is really inexpensive for the amazing quality. They also have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options which I super great. I will definitely be going back soon with more people.

Perfect in every way possible. Organic, gf, v, this place is a healthy little gem and affordable. Breakfast ranges between $ 6 – 10 per entrée.
I had the good morning healthy earth which was kale, beets, zucchini and mushrooms topped with 2 organic eggs cooked your way. I had over easy because I love runny yolks:)
I also added a half side of hashbrowns because if I’m going out for breakfast… I am def getting hashbrowns :) it’s $ 2 for hashbrowns! What?!! That’s like Black Friday hashbrowns everyday! Yum!
We will be def be back! Note: it’s small so you may get caught in a rush and have a little wait. About 20 mins but manageable and well worth it!

I’ve passed this place a thousand times wondering what it was all about. I found myself with some extra time between errands and work this past Monday and decided to give it a go.
Ambience is pretty standard non-​corporate coffee shop ala Twin Cities. Looks like a place that’s been a café for 100 years, but with a fresh coat of paint.
Coffee was good flavor wise, but I could tell it was sitting in the insulated carafe for a little bit because it wasn’t steamy. Some people like their coffee to not scald them, some like it to be piping hot. I’m in the latter camp, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I could have ordered an Americano if it was that crucial.
So the food. Well, perhaps you’ve heard the legend of the SouthSide Hash. I had not. I ended up going with it because it had a ½ order available, and I wasn’t too hungry.
I had mine carnivore style (pork chorizo) with an egg fried over medium on top. There was a little heat and a lot of flavor. Very comfort foody. My only mistake was getting the ½ order. I really wanted more.
I’ll be back. Promise.

Typical hipster vibe veg friendly eating establishment. We sat at the counter/​bar to avoid waiting on a table. Service was decent, lots of coffee and water refills. Food was good. Opted for the Beet Up which consists of three scrambled eggs, bacon, beets (love beets!), and goat cheese with toast to the side. I love goat cheese but it started getting to me after a few bites in this particular dish and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it as to why. They have some pretty bomb pancakes I must admit. In a lot of other reviews I saw cleanliness was mentioned. I guess I didn’t really pay that much attention or must have not noticed since I was so hungry.

Went here on our family’s no-​gadget day so couldn’t check Unilocal.
This place was listed in City Pages best breakfasts so we gave it a try.
The art here is darkly bizarre. Creepy portrait paintings with real hair sprouting from them…
The colorful geometric countertop and table tops are cool. Retro feeling.
We sat at the counter and got to watch all the action. This place is small and loud. Just so ya know…
The menu had so much we were dying to try it was hard to decide.
We LOVE breakfast food! I could eat it at every meal…
Two of us tried the croque dishes. The benedict and the John Paul.
(One is veggie, the other is ham.) Both were good like a bennie, just on a very buttery grilled bread instead of English muffin. Softer texture that we weren’t sure we liked as much.
Husbo got the special. A steamed rice dish with beats, kale… scrambled eggs and bacon strips on top. CRAZY flavors! I will be getting this next time. Mouth fireworks!!! I think it was called Orgasma something… Aptly named.

Great food, excellent service, friendly staff, menu items are reasonably priced.
The place has a very homely retro feel to it and cool art décor. It is small but you do not feel crammed inside. I like the fact that you can start drinking your «bottomless coffee» while you wait outside for a table to become available and the host/​hostess comes and gets you when one is available. Their regular coffee blend is great and you also get a selection of so many other drinks.
My favorite breakfast meal there is the Chakra Khan: Eggs with veggies and brown rice, it is so full of flavor… which includes garlic.
Second favorite is Southside Hash (I have mine with pork). Not as flavorful but delicious none the less and you get a huge portion with the ‘full plate’. One of my favorite Weekend breakfast places.
A very cool crowd comes here — down to earth folks, not pretentious looking and a nice mix.

Great breakfast place! Excellent hash browns, eggs, side salad etc. the choices are mind boggling. Coffee was nice and strong too. The staff is courteous and work well together and help each other out. We arrived early and didn’t have to wait. By 9:45 the wait list started. Cute place with really good food!

I rarely give 5 stars, in fact I don’t know if I’ve ever given 5 stars, but this breakfast and everything and everyone involved deserves it. The Croque St Paul (I think) was the name of the 2 perfectly poached eggs on homemade Brioche with the tastiest… not too salty. ham and the best Hollandaise I’ve ever had. I needed a squeegee to get up the very last bit of sauce. Almost licked the plate. Paired with a fresh organic green salad and homemade vinagrette it was the perfect bright element to accompany the wonderful Croque.
First time to Minneapolis and as an occasional personal «chef» and foodie I’m a little hard to please. From the moment I walked in the door I felt special and cared for like it was normal! I’ll come back again before I travel on and then again and again when, if ever, I return to Minneapolis.

The best California burger I’ve ever had in my life and the best gluten free /​fresh organic place to eat in MN By far and trust me I’ve looked

This place is awesome, especially if you’re a non-​meat-​eater.
Generous potions, unique combinations, and great-​tasting food.
First time I went there I ordered one of their breakfast plates w/​«TVP» (I forget what it stands for, but it’s some kind of non-​meat protein). When the food arrived it looked like mess, but a guy sitting next to me said «that looks delicious,» and he was right: It looked like one of the best sloppy meals you made yourself. And the taste was fantastic: Bold, zingy, lively, awesome.

This is exactly what I was in the mood for. I had the Good Morning Healing Earth with the curried tofu. And then added a poached egg and avocado, with sourdough toast.
It was perfection. Sometimes I’m just in the mood for this kind of thing, and this one hit the spot. Veggies well cooked and flavorful, tahini sauce drizzled all over it, and just a big mish-​mash of yummy flavors.
The only 2 things keeping it from being a 5-​star experience are (1) the service was a bit haphazard. I was never 100% sure which server I was supposed to bother, and things didn’t always happen super smoothly. I do want to say that everyone was super friendly, though. (2) This may seem so superficial, but I was seated at the bar and on both sides of me were people who had not only declined to wear deodorant (your business, do your thing) but were pretty darn fragrant. It just undermines the enjoyment of food at that point.
Still, I’ll be back. This place hits the spot. And you can adjust the ingredients to meet your dietary needs, should you have them.

Very tasty brunch. The amount was very big. The decoration is kind of bohemian, very interesting and cozy café.

I was very underwhelmed by my whole experience. The restaurant is kinda hippie-​ish and run down, which I would have LOVED 10 years ago, and still find charming now. I sat by the door, and there are these flaps that people walk through when they come in, so it was very cold.
I ordered the Good Morning Healing Earth (love my veggies!) and asked for egg whites scrambled. She told me they couldn’t seperate the eggs to make egg whites for me. (Huh? Why not??) OK. So I ordered them poached. wheat toast, and side of peanut butter.
The food was good. I loved the variety of the veggies. The peanut butter was awful and runny and watered down. The tahihi sauce was bland.
I put my car don the table and she ran it, so I never got a bill. I think I was overcharged by $ 2 but I don’t know why. Maybe for the side of terrible pb? I don’t know.

After reading lots of reviews here, I went to Modern Times not really knowing what to expect. My summary of it is basically, unique, relaxed, very good food but probably not likely to top my list of personal favorite brunch spots. But it might just be me – I can definitely see why some people are huge fans of this place. It’s just not my particular cup of tea.
So, when we arrived, it was busy but not too bad. I talked with a girl who put our name up on the whiteboard. Since we were a party of five, I could see that we were going to be crammed into one of the booths but that was OK. It’s just that kind of place where you deal with the space accommodations being a little cramped. We waited around for awhile in the doorway with another party, and then a woman came and basically yelled at us for standing there and asked us to move into the back hallway, encouraging us to move because it would be warmer there. We went back into the hallway, where we were instructed to line up against the wall because that was also the pathway to and from the kitchen. Again, kind of oddly strict and odd but OK I guess. We waited for about 20 minutes and were seated at a booth with a chair pulled up to the end. I really appreciated that there were hooks on the end of the booths for purses and coats.
We all ordered. Coffee was made with a press and was strong and delightfully delicious. Vegetarian/​vegan options were plentiful but there was plenty to eat for the carnivores, too. Refills were generally pretty prompt. I ordered the Croque Benedict, which was basically an Eggs Benedict on a piece of bread rather than an English muffin. It was excellent, with two well-​poached eggs and a nice Hollandaise sauce. The side of hashbrowns was crispy and seasoned well. No complaints there at all. Others at the table enjoyed their items as well. My friend’s breakfast sandwich looked absolutely killer. So food-​wise very good in terms of taste, presentation, etc. But out of the five of us, TWO of us had hair in our food! I am admittedly a clean freak, but even for non clean freaks, I would think a 40% hair rate is really not acceptable.
On top of that, it was just the type of place where I want to take a bucket of Clorox and a scrub brush and go to town. I am sure there are people who will say that the layer of dirt is kind of just part of the atmosphere and people who are less bothered by this. But when it comes to places where I am eating food, I want to feel like things are clean. Unfortunately, the edges of our table were lined with dirt and grease, which leads me to believe that they are often wiped down but not frequently rigorously cleaned.
On the plus side, service was generally pretty decent. I was nervous after reading reviews about bad service here, but our experience on that front was good. People circulated with coffee and water for refills and our service was fine. Our server was very kind at the end of our stay when we had to divide up the bill.
So in all, on food alone, pretty decent rating. Service was fine. Atmosphere was not my favorite personally. I will be happy to try again and see if I can improve my rating.

Truth be told, I wasn’t planning on trying this place. My yoga instructor told me about it and mentioned bacon pancakes. Well, read my last review for Hot Plate if you need a refresher on magic words. A while back I remember reading they were apart of City Pages top places for breakfast, so why not?
So, first things first, get here before they open on the weekend, it’s a wait. I arrived at 9.15 and waited for nearly 15 – 20 minutes for a spot at the counter. Parking is entirely street, so plan ahead if you’re going to venture here during the winter time.
Get seated at the counter, throw down my order for the southside hash with my now standard two cakes to accompany it… this go one blueberry and one bacon. I’d say 10 minutes or so and my food hits the deck.
Breakdown:
The southside hash was pretty solid. A mix of crispy hash browns, tons of veggies, sausage, couple of eggs and the hidden gem — poblano sour cream. Why is that a hidden gem? Without it, it’s nothing. With it, it adds a creamy texture and some spice to tie this pig all together. Hash was on the very cirspy side (even a bit on the burnt side), which made the texture a bit off, but, still the flavor was there. The rye toast was meh. But, the overall mix was solid.
Onto the cakes. And, I wish, I could say this is where the meal took off… but it was more of the nose dive.
Bacon– the batter was utterly tasteless. A bit of saltiness from the bacon, but, no flavor at all. Just… dough. Maple syrup helped, but, still an utter disappointment in terms of flavor. Texture? Again, more on the doughy side than cakey side. Plus the bacon was just falling out of it, so the batter wasn’t up to the job of holding it all together. A solid disappointment.
Blueberry– again, tasteless batter. But, what pissed me off to no end, where the hell are my blueberries?! I took 3 bites into my cake without a single blueberry. As I dug into this more, I found a swath of them ALL in the middle (see picture, you can see the sink in the middle where the berries are). I don’t want even disbursal, or anything, but, I’d like to have berries here or there. Shouldn’t be too much to expect when you order this menu item. Regardless, I mow it down and reflect in disappointment at two failed pancake offerings.
Clearly pancakes aren’t a specialty here. Service wasn’t bad, but, it wasn’t anything to write home about either.
All in all, if you’re needing a vegan/​vegetarian friendly establishment, this place is great for you. If you’re looking for pancakes, don’t bother.

Dang it, I love this place. its grungy vibes, mixed with super high quality food. Well, I don’t love its dark smelly bathroom.
Moving on… I love anything on their breakfast menu. Maybe they only have breakfast, I’m not sure. I tend to go for the Mexican flavored items– get anything with their crema sauce or the cabbage slaw stuff. Ugh, so good. Get the Migas if you want to eat chips for breakfast (Who doesn’t?!)
Good coffee, good OJ. Wait times totally vary. Weekdays are chill, weekends I often see a line– but then I went last weekend at 9:30am and got a seat outside on a perfect day right away.
Also, they make their own jam. Get on it.