Muffin Man Cafe

This great café is on the first floor of Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital. I used to work here, and ate at Muffin Man nearly every day. (The cafeteria is fine, too, and there’s another café near the main hospital entrance.) I miss the Muffin Man!
My favorite items are the taco salad with beef chili in place of taco meat and the herb roasted chicken panini. The taco salad comes with a side of tortilla chips. The sandwiches aren’t cheap (around $ 6 for a whole panini) but they’re pretty big. Chips cost extra, though, and I always thought the Muffin Man would benefit from having a combo meal with a half sandwich/​soup, half sandwich/​half salad, or half sandwich/​chips.
The soups are delicious — I love the aforementioned beef chili and the beer cheese veggie. The «famous» chicken chili is good, too. Chilis are available every day, with other soups rotating throughout the week.
The Muffin Man lives up to its name as well. The muffins are huge and baked perfectly, light and fluffy. The scones and rolls are great. And try resisting any of the cookies. Everything, including bread, is baked fresh, in-​house. Not exactly what you’d expect from a café in a hospital!

Great little café on the first floor of Park Nicollet Hospital– just around the corner from the gift shop.
The only con is the price. It’s $ 5.50 for a «bowl» of soup, which is more like a cup. Sadwiches are aroudn $ 7 (or $ for half); salads are $ 7.
Their taco salad is what I usually get. Shredded lettuce, tomato slices and black olives over a bed of tortilla chips topped with seasoned ground beef, salsa, and sour cream. You can get bread on the side, but i usually get extra tortilla chips (so I can eat it like nachos almost). The salsa isn’t fresh salsa– more like what comes out of a jar. But the combination and the portion is quite fulfilling. You can also get chicken instead of beef, but I wouldn’t recommend it (chicken was a bit dry). It’s pretty salty so have water nearby and ask for the salsa /​sourcream on the side.
I have also tried their vegetable soup. It was bland, but it definitely had a home-​made taste to it! The vegetable chunks were HUGE and it was very hearty.

I’m surprised this hasn’t been reviewed yet, but I suppose it’s a lot easier to pop into a (meh) Bruegers than find this café at Park Nicollet Hospital. I didn’t see any visibly «sick» people, but there were a lot of cute doctors.
They bake their own bread! For reals, not the Subway faux-​fresh baked. The sandwiches there are so good, and they have a huge selection (like roasted red pepper, two kinds of mustard, sprouts, etc etc). They also make really good espresso drinks and I hear their chili is delicious, but haven’t tried it yet. The pharmacy across the hall is really chill, takes all insurance, and gives you a beeper! So you can sit outside Muffin Man, eat a delicious sandwich, and get beeped when your meds are ready. Way to go, Park Nicollet.
Parking is cheap, so stop in here the next time you’re looking for a quick, healthy, delicious lunch or breakfast. Muffin Man rules!

When I worked at the hospital back in ’00, I was here daily. The muffins are ok. The soups are good, tend to be boiling hot, I added some cold water. Actually pissing away five bucks a day really adds up, so it forced me to do my soy drink and never leave the OR where I worked. I did lose a lot of weight fast that year. Good if you are a visitor, not if you work there.