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Paradise Bakery & Cafe
Rating Details »
Categories: Bakeries, Coffee & Tea [Edit]
8777 N Scottsdale RdSte 302
Scottsdale, AZ 85253
(480) 951-2500
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- Free
13 reviews for Paradise Bakery & Cafe
I love Paradise Cafe. I live in St. Louis, where we have Panera Bread Company. Paradise is like Bread Co but better.
Great salads, coffee, sandwiches and baked goods. Very affordable.
I seem to find myself at Paradise Bakery an awful lot!
And not just this one...while not as ubiquitous as the dreaded MickieD empire, PB's are everywhere!
I know this because I have the PB Frequent Flyer Card and about every 4th time I go...to any of the PB's...I get free coffee and a free muffin:)
Yay...
I met my erstwhile business partners there for meeting last week and realized that of all the hundreds of thousands of times that I have been here, I have yet to Yelp about it...it's that much a part of the background noise:)
So let's raise PB above the background clutter and give them a once over:)
There are certainly things to like about PB:
- Free Muffins, now and then
- Free Coffee, now and then
- The places are all pretty clean
- I always know where to find the spoons, napkins, etc. (PB's are injection molded from the same pattern, all of them are reasonably attractive and look almost identical...much like the line up in any Miss America Pageant:)
- Free wifi and plug-in's for my computer
- Prices are decent, esp. when you factor in the free stuff from the Frequent Flyer Program
There are also a couple of things that I don't like, so very much:
- If I am in the mood for a buffet or a deli, I don't mind doing the line thing, but here it feels like the lunch line in junior high...don't know why...the food is generally better than junior high was, but still:) Perhaps it's the snood's they make all the food prep workers wear...don't need hairs in my soup:)
- A few more booths for quiet conversation wouldn't hurt...the sound level at a table in the middle of the room can reach "roadwork" levels pretty quickly.
- The food...OK, yes...it's all reasonably fresh but that should be a given...a minimum standard, even at this level:) The preparation is generally haphazard at best and is often stupidly flawed...even simple changes give them fits ("no onions on my salad please"..."here you go sir, an all onion salad":) "have a nice day":)
All in all, the various PB's are an average dining experience...there are better bakeries, better sandwich shops and better coffee houses...maybe that's their service...combining all of the above into one big old average, comfortable spot to sit and drink free coffee, eat free muffins and read and write my electromail:)
I like the salads here and the soup is pretty good. Sandwiches are consistenty good EXCEPT for the BLAND Thai Wrap, just don't get it, not tasty.
The location is always clean and the General Manager, female, can't remember her name is beyond accomodating for whatever you need, which is really nice. She was able to show me nutritional value of what I ordered as i'm counting my calories.
Service here is always very fast too, which is nice, regardless of how long the line is it goes fast!
***I did not eat the food , just had a business meeting here. So, this review is on what I saw around me, experienced from an oversized table in a very busy Paradise Bakery at 11am on a random Thursday morning in Scottsdale.
I have no idea how long this place has been open, but it seems pretty new and it is massive in size. It seems Paradise Bakery's operations staff and architects focused on servicing the following segments - the soccer mom and kids, the business meeting, the "I'll do some work while I have a coffee/sandwich" and take out. By the looks of the operation and clientele, they have done a good job satisfying the service processes of these segments. Furthermore, the way the floor plan was devised, the various type of tables, high-top tables, the comfy single chair with smallish table attached for either food and/or laptop. Really well done, smartly designed.
So, I knew going in to this meeting knowing the likelihood of securing financing would be slim-to-none, but even still, perhaps partnerships can be forged or even more to the point, perhaps one or more of their contacts might need the service I am providing. The latter seems to be the most viable option and thankfully the guys I met with are solid and they do believe in the service I have put together. So, they have opened up the Rolodex and will be able to network with some of their clients and business associates. Forward progress is all one can ask, especially with these guys.
Now in terms of Paradise Bakery and their food. From what I saw around me, the sandwiches seemed pretty large, especially the bread element of it. From a coffee perspective, the guys I met with seemed to enjoy their beverages.
All in all, atleast this location seems to be a nice place for a sandwich, coffee and/or associated food items.
Had lunch here a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. I had the Chicken Walnut Sandwich and a Vegetable Soup both were very good. The Chocolate Chip cookies that come with the sandwiches are.... according to my husband amazingly good.....I was trying to be healthy that day....but wish I could have my cookie back now! lol
Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Chippers
Black and White Chocolate Chippers
That's all I want and LOVE from this place.
I've had their sandwiches before but I wasn't too impressed. Something that I can make at home. Their baked goods are to die for though. Definitely drop by a Paradise somewhere in the Phoenix area and get their chippers.
This is my pick for "best cup of coffee in the valley". I am not a huge coffee drinker, so take that with a grain of salt, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Usually I only drink coffee out of necessity. Also, I went here for lunch, and had the Californian Turkey sandwich. I though it was good, but nothing I couldn't pull together myself for half the price at home. A bag of jalapeno chips, eh....whatever. Great breakfast spot though, if you have some time to kill.
Fantastic food. I had the quiche with fresh fruit and my boyfriend had the scrambled eggs. Both were freshly prepared and had good portion sizes. They offered free wi-fi. A few days later we went back for breakfast again and had the cinnamon rolls.
The Paradise also serves lunch, but we only had breakfast.
We went for breakfast, I had coffee (mocha latte I believe they called it) scrambled eggs, bacon and a fruit cup (which was about 6 pieces of mostly melon). It was good, nothing great but not bad. Reminded me of a Panera or Corner bakery, maybe with a bit more options. I got the chippers, and sadly I can't say I was a fan :( I'm just not a fan of small, super crunchy cookies (I like mine soft).
for a bakery at mostly mall locations this was a pretty darn good place to get a bite to eat. i used to always love going to the one at stoneridge mall in pleasanton, california but just as i like something they always have to close it! heck they closed all of the locations close to where i live. these days when i visit friends and family in arizona i have to make a stop here to check out this great paradise location.
they have 3 great things i love. great salads, sandwiches and awesome baked goods. as for the salads i really love the chopped bbq chicken, oriental chicken salad and the southwest chicken caesar salad.
as for the sandwiches i have to pretty much get every sandwich on the paradise molasses squaw bread. it's soooo damn good, dark and sweet and became one of my all time favorite breads. if you find you like this bread ask to buy a loaf or two or three. stock up and freeze it.
the turkey cranberry,paradise club, chefs egg salad and albacore tuna sandwich are all very good but i go soooo crazy for the southwest chicken. its a grilled ancho chili marinated chicken breast, green hatch chile, avocado, salsa con queso, pepper-jack cheese, jicama, lettuce, tomato on the multi grain bread. trust me you gotta go with the paradise molasses bread. with the bread the marinated chicken and the texture of the jicama this sandwich has alot going on and i love it.
as for the baked good all bout the chippers, which were little small chocolate chip cookies. the 24 carrot cake, ham and cheese croissants and spinach and cheese quiche's are very good as well.
paradise bakery can be a dangerous place if your watching your figure but if you want to watch it tomorrow you gotta stop in and try it.
Why oh why is this joint always out of ham and cheese crossaints...prepare people!!! I really don't think theres anything special about their sandwiches, I've tried a couple of them. The soup is usually good, the salads are o.k but the cookies are pretty good. Service is null, I actually caught a couple of the young guys who were making the sandwiches joking about one of the guests (rude). I never order coffee here anymore because they always find a way of screwing it up. So why do I keep stopping in here....it must be the cookies.
f*ck this place. every time i go here i eat like 5 chocolate chip cookies. no joke. coffee, iced tea, soup, and sandwiches are really good too.
There is this unique stretch of scottsdale road that runs form Indian Bend (just north of fashion square) all the way to shea blvd. and there isn't a single spot to stop and get a quick bite to eat. thats about 5 miles. and in phoenix that is amazing. there are however, plenty of 5 star resturants that one could take a couple of hours and couple of hundered dollars and enjoy fine dining. In a desparate attempt to find some sustanance before i collapsed on my way to a job, i saw this bakery on the side of the road and recognized the name. (my wife had brought me a sandwich once from these guys, and it was pretty good). I cut through three lanes and made a quick right. yes! that was me that almost ran you off the road. I had never been to the store and it was packed. i wasn't quite sure how the store operated, so i jumped in line and tried to make sense of things while i waited my turn. All in all the food is good and it saved me from almost death, and i got to my job on time. The price was a sacrafice i had to make due to desparate times, but i will probably not return for a small, mediocre $9 sandwich that anyone else could make and taste better. I seem to do a lot of work in PV and you would think i would have learned by now to pack a lunch. If you catch me at Paradise Bakery in scottsdale in the future, check my pulse, i might be almost dead, from starvation.
