The Buttered Tin

Excellent experience here. Amazing food and even more amazing service :)

So, I’ve been wanting to try The Buttered Tin ever since their Kickstarter campaign (
). Alas, living some distance away made it difficult to get here. I recently took care of that.
Located in St. Paul’s Lowertown area, The Buttered Tin is a delightful place to meet friends, family, or co-​workers for coffee, a bakery item, or brunch. The décor is bright and welcoming. The lemon-​cushioned seating on the wall in both eating areas adds a luxurious air that is especially inviting.
The bakery and dessert items (cupcakes, cookies) are decadent. They’re known for their hand pies, which are everything you like about pie (filling and a buttery, flaky crust) wrapped up into one so that you can walk out of the store eating a slice of pie in your hand. I had the apple, and it was filled with large, thick slices of apple. It had a perfect flaky crust and was absolutely mouth-​watering.
Their other bakery items, such as cinnamon and caramel rolls, look great as well. The cinnamon roll was a heavy, dense, yeasty roll with a cream-​cheese based frosting that was superb.
Whether you’re on your own, or with a friend, The Buttered Tin is a quaint little spot where you can have some good eats/​treats, as well as some great conversation. Give it a try.

We arrived right at 7:00 to avoid lines. The staff was very friendly. I ordered the Biscuits and Gravy. It comes with a poached egg. It was very yummy and filling. The gravy does have a slight sweet taste to it. My friend ordered the loaded hash browns with an over medium egg which was delicious.

Finally I can say that I’ve eaten here. I’ve made other attempts, but the wait was either too long or they don’t offer take out. I could be wrong, but each time we tried to place an order they haven’t answered the phone.
Met my friend for an early breakfast and still; it was pretty busy.
I went back and forth between a few items. Glad I chose what I chose. I ordered the Buttered Tin Hash. I was on the fence about the carrots, but even those were good. Nice big chunks of corned beef, parsnips, carrots and brussels sprouts which was the best part. Those and the corned beef topped with an over easy egg swirling in a subtle horseradish sauce. It was excellent, flavorful and satisfying. I wanted something that came with their homemade sunflower toast. The toast was a bit too crunchy for me. The jam was good.
My friend ordered the Pigs Eye Breakfast with the bacon which also came with potatoes and toast.
Their baked goods looked pretty good in the display case and the sweet roll my friend ordered had a nice layer of frosting on it.
Our server was sweet and just the right amount of attentive.
The only thing I didn’t care for was the stare/​glare downs from some of the staff eagerly waiting to turn the table over that I was sitting at with my friend. I can appreciate not lingering forever especially when it’s busy, but when it feels like it about 20 minutes into being seated, that’s not cool. You chose to seat my party at longer table and then you get a larger party, sorry, I would like to finish my meal and conversation without feeling the glare down every 15 min. It felt really apparent towards the end. They have an area highlighted asking for suggestions about how to approach in a «kind/​creative way» that they may need to politely ask people to press on/​scram when they’re busy.
I would return to try some of the other items, perhaps on an off peak period.

Yum, is all I have to say. Everything on this menu looks appetizing, and every time I have eaten here it has been delicious. There is often a wait on the weekends, but it is WELL worth it. The service and atmosphere can’t be beat!

A lot of unique takes on your typical brunch menu! My boyfriend had the Crab Cakes Benedict and I had the Biscuits and Gravy. The CCB was perfection in taste and presentation but I wish the crab cakes were done a little bit crispier just so it could better withstand its texture and taste with the poached egg on top. The BG dish was super savory and paired along well with my coffee + Irish Cream. Any restaurant that offers Irish Cream as a top off for my coffee has already won my heart over. Down to earth customer service!

It’s true, they butter everything perfectly! Went here once and loved it, have always wanted to go back and give it another try. I went for a quick stop while walking by and had a cupcake with a friend. It was so good. You can just taste the BUTTER and it’s just the right amount. go here and get any pastry, you will be pleased for sure! Cute interior & staff as well. Nice and small so you get personal attention as a customer.

OMG! I am here in Saint Paul for a business trip and wanted to leave my hotel for breakfast so we walked over to the TBT based on Unilocal reviews and concierge recommendation.
Everything was amazing! We started with the cinnamon roll with icing and the banana bread with chocolate — both were amazing.
I had the pancakes and bacon. Delicious. My counterparts had the huevos rancheros and pigs eye. They enjoyed as well.
The baked goods all looked phenomenal! So sad I didn’t buy something to eat later.
I’m anxiously awaiting the opening of TBT near me in Green Brook.

I have been here so many times and each and every time I have to say it is delicious! You can never go wrong with anything on the simple menu!
Parking can be tricky with metered street as well paid lots. The wait can be long sometimes but since there is so many things around the area, I usually get a coffee at black dog café or pick up some items at the farmers market.
My default has always and will always be the Benedict! It is delicious and I can’t seem to not order it. It has just the right combination of sauce and the egg yolk as I cut it!
The friendly and nice staff just makes the place even better!

Where to start? My husband and I drove over from Minneapolis on a Saturday to check this place out because its on EVERY breakfast list around! Walked up — it was packed, and lots of people were waiting for tables. I walked out… I Unilocaled more places… then we decided to stick it out.
There really isn’t a lot of waiting space, which is a bummer because we all kept shuffling around BUT they do let you buy coffee or treats at the counter to munch and sip on while you wait!
Anyway, we really didn’t wait too long before getting a table. Now, here’s where it gets good. We shared a cinnamon roll and it was delightful! Big, warm, soft enough to pull apart with a fork and great for sharing. A whole one would be too much for me.
I scoured the reviews before coming here and saw a lot of hesitation on the biscuits and gravy. Its a love it or leave it thing here, I guess. But, I was craving it so I gave it a whirl. What?! They were awesome! Not too herb-​y like I thought they might be. Decent amount of gravy on the plate, loved the arugula and pickled onion touch which gave nice tang. I had ½ the order left to take home!
All that to say, I would say this place is worth the wait to check out. It was really good. Though, I probably wouldn’t go out of my Minneapolis way to eat here, if that makes sense.

Nice selection of baked goods, but I’ve had better. The apple pie isn’t bad!

delish!!!
Beautiful, small spot with excellent brunch options. We had the tbt hash and huevos rancheros– both were absolutely scrumptious! The huevos rancheros had cornbread that was buttery goodness and cilantro lime cream plus a dark Mexican sauce that paired so well together. The hash had butternut Brussels sprouts carrots and more with a horseradish cream that was fantastic as well.
Definitely will come back!
Only downside is the wait time-there’s only about 15 or so tables, so prepare to wait 30 minutes on the weekends.

I have been here twice; once for breakfast and once for lunch. I live less than a block away and I see diners waiting outside in all kinds of weather waiting for a spot on the weekends and frankly, I am perplexed as to why.
The only reason I am giving four stars is because of the service. The people at the counter are crazy nice and helpful and the owner is a delight! I just do not like the food as much as others.
For breakfast, I ordered Biscuits and Gravy and I know I should not do this because I make wonderful B and G. These B and G were odd… Too much thyme, I didn’t like how heavy the biscuits were, and I don’t want lettuce on my plate for breakfast… I just don’t…I would not order this again. I did try a cupcake and it was delicious. Maybe I should have just eaten cupcakes and drank coffee.
For lunch, I ordered the short rib reuben and I have NO Idea why! I don’t even like short ribs and I hate reubens… I tried the posole soup and it was good. I liked that. I am not a fan of traditional posole but the person taking our order was kind enough to let us taste the soup so I knew I liked this. The bread on the sandwich was way too thick and big… I ate my soup and choked down half the sandwich. I brought the other half home but Teddi would not even eat the meat out of it. I was eyeing my lunch companion’s BLT. I wish I had opted for that.
We did sit and talk past the closing time and they did not kick us out which is star worthy as well. I really wish I would find something I like to eat here because its so conveniently close but I am not sure I will try it again.

I like that this place is on a corner in downtown — its windows let in a lot of natural light and allow you to pick up on the activity/​life on the surrounding sidewalks/​streets. I disembarked the light rail at Union Depot and walked a few blocks up Wacouta St. to get here. I was meeting a friend here for lunch and arrived before she did, and I was greeted in a prompt and friendly manner. Given that I did arrive early, I got to peruse their menu leisurely. Once my friend arrived, we ordered at the counter right away and grabbed an open table to wait for our food to arrive.
When I asked about their «soup of the day», I was offered a sample of their posole. It was good, although not in line with my taste preference for a more traditional posole.
For my meal, I ordered their BLT sandwich with the addition of a cup of soup (I asked to substitute their soup of the day for their tomato basil). I enjoyed my toasted BLT alright and I thought the tomato basil soup was very tasty — kind of tangy in flavor.
The staff were very polite about our being there beyond their 3pm closing time — they offered us more water before they were going to dump it out — that was our cue it was closing time.

We stopped in on a Saturday morning after the farmer’s market in St Paul it has been raining earlier in the morning so the outside tables were put away unfortunately.
We waited an hour which is normal for brunch on a Saturday without a call ahead or reservation but let me tell you it was well worth the wait. If your also a patient person after waiting an hour to be seated you will wait another 20 minutes to get your food but it will all be spectacular!!! I got a classic Eggs Benedict, all the food was hot especially the coffee.
I recommend going in there just to buy some of the bakery items they had everything looked and smelled amazing.
The server was sweet and efficient for being busy definitely a great place to try for brunch in the st. Paul area if you are extremely patient.

Ughhhh, I feel awful writing this review! My husband has been really wanting to try this place out for awhile now, so we finally made it in. I love that it’s local farm to table, I really appreciate that, and will pay the extra knowing that it’s going to help a farmer.
I ordered the stuffed hash browns… I just pictured it totally different. They weren’t seasoned at all. The ingredients on the inside (asparagus, red pepper and cream cheese) were cold. It just really was not at all what I thought it would be, and it wasn’t very palatable. I thought maybe I was being picky, but my husband who will eat anything wasn’t impressed at all.
My husband ordered the Cuban, which was a 3 out of 5. I thought it was way better than my hash browns. We ordered a side of toast for our little one (6 months) because we didn’t really see any child friendly options. When the toast arrived it wasn’t really something he could have either. Just a heads up for people with littles.
For the price and what we received we were totally not impressed. Again, I don’t mind paying extra, I just feel like it was all poorly executed.

Sis and I ventured over here on July 7^th for an early «lunch» on her day off. We are determined to explore more of St. Paul’s offerings since we tend to stay on the Minneapolis side. She got the Damn Good Egg Sandwich, eggs over hard. They came out perfectly, even a bit soft. I had a few bites of what she didn’t want, and I’ll admit, it was damn good. The side salad for breakfast was interesting because one doesn’t typically associate salad for breakfast, but she liked it.
I got the Biscuits and Gravy, ordered my eggs over medium and the yolks were still very runny which I like. Good thing I didn’t order them poached and good thing the front counter order lady suggested over medium because the whites could still be runny. If I see runny whites I’d probably freak out a little since runny whites are gross and I just can’t do it. Biscuits were good, could have been a little softer, they were almost crunchy (tasted like a few days old, but probably not. This may just be how they come, not sure) The gravy sauce was great! The veggies on top were good too. Bottle of Sriracha and I’m all set.
Coffee. This was absolutely delicious. Hot and strong, required a lot of cream but damn. We sat and had about three cups each. There was a slight confusion over where to actually require refills, but I went up to the counter and they happily took our cups and poured us more.
Cinnamon Roll — this was great. Sweet, thick and covered in cream cheese frosting. I didn’t see an alarming selection of cakes and bars. What we saw was minimal, unless they were still going to put more things out? Not sure. I saw a bunch of cupcakes, a few bars and that’s it. I was thinking it would be more Café Latte but it was not. I wish we got more bakery treats, but if I lived or worked close by I’d definitely be here more often, for the coffee and the baked goods.
Overall, the place reminds me of the Colossal Café, which is neither good nor bad, just an observation. The set up, ordering process, and seating arrangements are all very similar to Colossal. Parking was street if you can find a spot. This was ok for us since we got in early. I’d recommend this place if you are in the area, but I would order something different for myself next time.

Ah, The Buttered Tin. A place that took way too much of my time and gave way too much of their thyme…
The elements of the equation seemed to set The Buttered Tin up for success: great company + brunch + a perfect summer’s day + the patio + supposedly great food… but it somehow equated to a bland brunch after a lengthy wait. Our party of 4 got here at about 9:25am. We were told that there was an hour wait, but we were hoping that it was an overestimated tease.
An hour later, almost on the dot, we were seated. At this point we were of course starving, irritable, and paranoid about our parking meters. This actually could have worked in TBT’s favor because now my sandals were starting to look delicious, so the actual food had a great fighting chance to be satisfying. When the food finally hit the table, I snapped photos quickly and disregarded Dita’s pleas to do the same as I dug right into my biscuits and gravy. I was really craving savory, thick, white country gravy, but all I tasted was thyme and sage and thyme with thyme. The pungent herbs were in the gravy, the sausage, and the biscuits; I was having one hell of a thyme. The herbs just totally overwhelmed the whole dish and my palate. Here I was, hasty to eat my breakfast, when turns out I had all the thyme in the world! (Ok, I’ll stop).
The buttermilk pancakes were overcooked and dry (the two underneath the top one in the photo were almost burnt). I tried a bite of the crab cake benedict and I found that to be pretty good, but it was almost cold. I did enjoy my side of hash browns — a decision I am so glad I made. Service was overall great; our server was so kind through the whole meal and she split our bill perfectly per person. Their baked treats looked gorgeous in the case, and it’s in a nice location. I would debate giving this place another chance… but I don’t think it will be any thyme soon.

Food here is great, if I didn’t know any better I’d think being a vegetarian is easy! I’m not a vegetarian but a lot of the entrees offered on the menu doesn’t include meat and it tastes pretty darn good. Definately makes you think twice about that.
First things first, you order before you sit down and get a card from the deck that you put at the table so that they’ll be able to find you. The menu is displayed on top, now if you’re not at the front of the line, it could get tricky to read. Water is in the back in a glass dispenser filed with ice where you can help yourself. The tables have buckets with silverware and napkins for you. They have a little glass display of baked goods you can also order from.
Food came out pretty fast. I got the buttered tin hash and it came out super cute! They put toast on both sides of the dish so that it looked like a bear! The jam on the toast was really the best jam I’ve ever had. Toast alone was thick and crunchy. The hash comes with a sunny side up egg on top of it. Underneath, there’s artichoke, tomatoes, potatoes, olives, and onions from what I remembered. The taste was great alone. Usually I drench my hash in ketchup but I didn’t even touch the ketchup because it was already good on it’s own. I took a bite of the crab cake and it just melted in my mouth. Holy galore, i would’ve took another bite if they weren’t personal sized.
We also got the whoopie pies. Apparently they’re a big deal! Everyone wanted them! They were still moist when we ate them. Came in chocolate and red velvet. Too bad I’m not that into whoopie pies, chocolate, and red velvet or I’d go on about them.
Everything we got here was really good &super healthy.

I love the concept of The Buttered Tin. It’s like fast casual — but with really excellent food. You order and pay at the counter and then they bring your food out to you. It is SO handy when you’re on a limited time crunch for your lunch hour. I wish more places were like this. I made it there, ate, returned to the office and wrote this review all in less than an hour. This might not sound like a huge deal — but trust me, it is!
I ordered the Huevos Rancheros with the sauce on the side. It’s poached eggs on cornbread, with avocado and other yummy things. It also came with a side salad. I loved it! I felt like it was sorta small — but I found it the perfect size for today’s lunch. Often lunch portions can be so huge, so this was nice. I ate all of it except for a couple pieces of spring mix.
My only issue, and it’s a small almost non-​exist issue, is that the tin on the table that holds silverware and napkins only had two forks in it. When I needed a knife, I just used the other fork. No big deal.