Bean Sprouts Café and Cooking School

The Bay Area Discovery museum only food option. As a member I have eaten here often. The food is good, I like all of the salads and the sandwiches but they are a bit steep $ 8– $ 10 for average to small portion.
The kids options are fun and simple, $ 5.
If you order a hot drink like a latte or a chai the large comes in a small cup filled ¾ for a whopping $ 5.
If you tip the staff will hoot.

It’s a café in a children’s museum… can’t expect too much. The food is tasty; kid and allergy friendly. I like their salads and the pizzas are fine. Overall, it’s really good for a museum café, but it is just a museum café.

Overpriced. Tiny portions that only in the Bay Area would keep you in business. I mean people with kids don’t have extra $s to drop. Nuts on the prices. Did I mention you need like 3 items to fill up which will set you back. $ 30 for enough PBJ? Wait, for $ 30 I can get real food. What? Go somewhere else! Fine on quality but price value is horrible horrible horrible. We pack our food from whole foods which is a great value vs here.

I am going to upgrade a star for sheer customer service alone. Since my original review I have been contacted by two members of the upper management team at Bean Sprouts Café and Cooking School regarding my experience. They show concern and have a «we can make this right» attitude that is very impressive. My family and I will be visiting the Bean Sprouts Café at the Discovery Cube near our home in the near future to give them a second chance and I hope to update with more stars.

Simply the worst. Consistently terrible all three times. Pack your lunch to the museum.

We had lunch here during our visit at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.
They had a simple menu, which catered more to the kids than the parents. My toddlers were attracted to the themed sandwiches (i.e. Butterfly sandwich, Alligator sandwich, etc.)
We ordered a Turkey Sandwich, Soup, Artichoke Chicken Pizza, and beverages. I appreciate that they are offering healthy options. But I was hoping for a richer flavor. The menu items were a little pricey. This is expected when you’re in a museum or themed park. It’s k ce to have a place to have quality food within the museum. I just hope the flavor is richer next time.

Great service and foods. These Café’s are a blessing with options for kids with allergies!!!
Thank you.
Not only that, the locations (this was at Discovery Bay museum) but also at Chabot Space center!!!
Fast service, great foods to choose from. And from my experience, happy staff.

Within the bay area museum campus. Great pizza and the chicken pesto chango sandwich was great.

I loved this cute clean friendly café located inside the Discovery Museum. Very yummy creative options for lunch, snacks, treats
Gluten and dairy free options as well
Try it

This was so much better than you’d expect from an onsite café to a family museum. From looking at the other review I think they’ve clearly had a change in management.
We didn’t have time to pack lunch today for the kids so we thought we would just eat somewhere in Sausalito, but they were having too much fun to leave by 12, so it was what was available. (There are many open picnic tables for those that bring their own — no shaming or pressure to eat there, it was just so convenient).
Anyway, it was really really flavorful food. Great. Eat there again in a heartbeat. Nice people, quick food delivery, absolutely no complaints.
The best thing is since they are trying to change their image, until the end of July you can say the magic words «give peas a chance» to get a free pizza or salad with you order. So for us it was buy one get one free! You can too!

The food here was actually really good considering and the employees are really nice.
Cheese Pizza: Pretty basic pizza, how can you go wrong with pizza for the kiddos right.
Chicken Pesto Chango: Chicken, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, pesto sauce and balsamic vinaigrette on a ciabatta roll. With a side of greens with yummy vinaigrette. This was my 8 year old’s favorite.
Pepper Jack Stack: Turkey, pepperjack, roasted red peppers and olives on a ciabatta roll. With a side of greens with yummy vinaigrette. My 2 year old absolutely loved this sandwich.
The food is a bit pricey, but it was yummy and healthy.

We usually bring our own lunch to the discovery museum, but every now and then we come to the café. And while I do think it’s a bit over-​priced, we’ve always had great service and nutritious food. And I actually quite like the pizza and the sunflower butter and jelly sandwich… And I’m an adult! I wish the prices were a bit lower but I appreciate the philosophy of using organic and real ingredients. This isn’t some fine dining experience, but for a kids museum café I think it’s great! Definitely deserves a bit more credit :)

I’m on my third child, so I’ve seen a lot of cafes come and go at BADM (which is a God-​send for ANY parent!) I’ve read the reviews here and I’ve got to say, I think some of them are a little over-​dramatic and harsh. Personally, I’m holding out hope for Bean Sprouts. Such an awesome, awesome concept. I’ve only been there once, so I may not have the most well-​curated review here, but …
When I did go, all three of my children were completely psyched by the menu. They couldn’t wait to eat there because they were fascinated by the pictures on the menu. We had the Whoopsie Daisy, Do-​Re-​for-​Me and the pepperoni pizza. I had a tomato soup (I think.) All 3 kids ate ALL of their food, which is … well, it just never happens. There’s always at least one complainer. My soup was good, not the best thing I’ve ever had, but perfectly fine for the day. I just wanted the kids to eat.
Yes, the prices are a little steep for what you’re getting. I’m not sure why is. I will say that I was pleased to see there wasn’t a long, inexplicable wait at the counter, and our food came quicker than I’d thought. The tables were reasonably clean, but we tend to eat outside anyway. I would suggest just giving people a number or calling out their name when they’re waiting to pick up an order. Waiting to hear «3−2 – 1-​blast off» is a cute concept, but just doesn’t quite work in reality.
Bottom line, I’m a little surprised that the reviews are so low here. This is probably the best restaurant that’s ever been at BADM, so give them a break! Any restaurant that caters solely to little kids is going to run into situations where you just can’t please every one. Believe me, I know. I’ve heard complaints at my own dinner table every… single night for almost eight years (and yes, I’m a decent cook). I think the key to Bean Sprouts’ success will be to take into account what reviewers have said and be flexible enough to make changes to their business plan when something’s not working.
You’re almost there, Bean Sprouts! Don’t give up. I applaud what you’re trying to do!!!

Bring your own food. The BADM is awesome. This restaurant is not.
Look, the food isn’t great but that isn’t the reason. The reason is that the service is just atrocious. You’ll spend absolutely ages in line even if you try outside normal lunch hours. They’re completely disorganized inside. And with an impatient youngster at your side, who has other things on their mind (like all the great things outside the door you came here for), you’ll really really regret giving them your money.
Read the other reviews. We’re all saying the same thing. And I’ve been here several times. Its always the same.

The soups were not great and so where the sandwiches. The bread was dry mostly and not very flavorful. The Mediterranean salad was one of the better dishes. The pizza on a waffle dough was an absolute disaster.

Ive returned since my last visit. They have stepped up their game. It was a much shorter wait in line, service was much better. Prices are high, but its Marin. The food *is* organic and healthy, so its going to cost more. Theyve addressed they overly chewy waffles and the long wait times for food. When I went this last time, the parking lot of the museum was PACKED and the wait at noon sharp was only 10 min in line, another 10 min wait for food. Not that bad considering the crowd.
I really like the chic choc. They playdate sandwich and the purple gurple smoothie are also great.

The worst ever, ruins a great day at the discovery museum. Bring a packed lunch. The kids who work there seem to have huge attitudes like they aren’t getting paid or something. Place was DIRTY said they were busy duh it’s the discovery museum on a Sunday pay someone to clean the mess.
Anyways won’t be returning until change of ownership. COME ON BADM you owe you members better than this.

The food is terrible. My chicken sandwich was awful and my 4 year old’s flower sandwich could not have been more lackluster and came with a side of wilted veggies — he refused to eat it and instead ended up getting a chocolate milk and eating the cheddar bunnies I brought. Oh, and he had a cake lollipop too because they encourage kids to order for themselves and have the cake lollipops right in front to taunt little children and my son was having a major meltdown after the flower sandwich disaster.
The lines take way too long and it took forever to get our food. The staff is not helpful and in fact is rather irriating. If you give a tip, they do an annoying cheer. So don’t tip! They removed most of the indoor seating so now you have to sit outside and fight with the birds over the cardboard sandwiches. This place is really awful.
Please, BADM, bring back the old café. I’m sure Bean Sprouts sounded great on paper, but the reality is that it doesn’t work. After our last visit, my son said to me, «Mommy can we NEVER go to that café again?» So now I have to pack lunches if we want to go to the BADM. Guess I’ll be taking my business to the Academy of Sciences or the Exploratorium until BADM deals with this issue. Too bad as it is such a great place!

absolutely, 100% bring your own food when you visit the Bay Area Discovery Museum. We are HUGE fans of the museum (really — go there — it’s awesome) and the last café was actually reasonably good as far as café/​museum food goes. But from now on we are packing our own lunch.
The Bean Sprouts menu is cute in theory — waffle sandwiches, stuff shaped like butterflies, salads for grownups, etc. The food is even «ok» in practice (I did not find it as inedible as some of the other reviewers). But the service is horrific. Truly. Our first experience was about a month ago, when it took 52 minutes (I timed it) to stand in line and return with two sandwiches and a salad. There were maybe 10 people in front of me in line, so I can only imagine how bad it would be with the line far out the door.
Yesterday we returned to the museum (with our own packed lunch) and I watched people as they emerged from the café frustrated and angry about the wait. I ducked in myself to get some napkins and nothing had changed since our last visit as far as process or efficiency.
When you provide food for kids there are really only a few things you need to get right — and SPEED is in the top three. I wish the Museum could break this contract now and find a different provider. If not, Bean Sprouts needs some serious help.

I have received a heart-​felt apology from the business owner about the situation and I feel that they truly, honestly, just made a mistake the day that we visited. I do sincerely hope that they can fix all of the glitches that sometimes happen with new businesses and that they are thriving in the upcoming months. Bean Sprouts Café has potential. They have so many things going for them. Important to remember that.