Hard Times Cafe

It’s been awhile since I visited Hard Times (City Pages was still around when I last went), and I realized I forgot to write a review, so here we are…

Hard Times has a great vibe. Feels rooted in community and is unpretentious and radical. The food was pretty good, but the quality isn’t on par with Modern Times or Seward Cafe in my opinion. I appreciate the vegetarian/vegan options.

As a first-time customer who ordered takeout, I tried the vegan helter skelter, biscuits & gravy, kimchi tofu sandwich, brownie, cinnamon roll, and scone. My favorite was the biscuits and gravy. I had high expectations for the helter skelter, but it arrived cold, and the portion size seemed smaller than what other customers have described. Additionally, the bread for the kimchi tofu sandwich tasted like it had just come out of the freezer. While the brownie and cinnamon roll were good, the scone was nearly as hard as a rock, and it felt like I was eating sand. Overall, it wasn’t bad for the price, but I expected better. Perhaps it was just an off day.

I was very confused when I got there, I didn’t know you had to write your order in a piece of paper and hand it to the barista. I saw someone else do it, then I got the memo. It’s CASH only as well so the atm fee was annoying. I love they have plenty of vegan breakfast items, I tried the helter skelter vegan dish. In my opinion they could have used a lot more of tofu and spices. I wasn’t super impressed with the rice and beans either. I will definitely be coming back to try other items to hopefully give it a better review.

Enjoyed a very delicious vegan breakfast this morning, ordering was simple just wrote down my order on a ticket, nice vibe to the place. The Vegan Helter Skelter was shockingly delicious. Great way to open up to vegan/vegetarian food if you don’t have it often.

I am not even a vegetarian but their gyro (with seitan) was delicious. The vibe is authentic, expressive, no nonsense which I loved. I also love that they feature arts created by local children. This is a place I would take my old friend from out of town to get a taste of Minneapolis.