Peoples Organic Coffee & Wine Cafe

Based on other Yelp reviews, this place totally exceeded my expectations! After my experience last night, I am shocked to see ratings this low!

Food:

There were plenty of good-for-you (vegetarian/vegan and supposedly organic) options to choose from. But, even my meat-loving boyfriend had rave reviews about this place.

-Soup of the day (Moroccan lentil): Very flavorful (the right balance of curry), with a nice texture (lentils were still fully intact) and ingredients. Served a bunch of tasty flatbread crackers.

-Fish tacos: Excellent!!! Your choice of flour or corn tortilla, we opted for flour. The fish was moist and well-seasoned, as were the accompanying veggies. Some of the best fish tacos I've ever had.

-Veggie hash (special of the night): Hash is misleading. This was more like a stir-fry/saute (is there a difference between these two?) that featured swiss chard but included lots of good, colorful veggies. While I can't say this was exploding with flavor, it was still pretty good and very healthy! It was served with brown rice. Tofu, chicken, or salmon were additional options, but I kept things simple and light.

-Chocolate mousse: Shooter-style. Good, but not sure you can mess up chocolate mousse (especially when dolloped with whipped cream).

-Vegan raspberry chocolate bar: Like a crumble bar. The raspberry filling tastes good, but isn't real whole raspberries. I like the addition of the chocolate chips. It wasn't too sweet, but enough to satisfy my sweet tooth and not feel terribly guilty.

Wine:

Don't know anything about wine other than I enjoy drinking it. Seemed to have a decent selection (after all they do consider themselves a "wine cafe"). I tried 2 red wines, which were both nice and smooth.

Service:

The entire staff was friendly. Our waitress was great. I wanted wine, but I am on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from a sommelier and can hardly articulate what I like to drink aside from red versus white. She described some of the more popular red wines to me and even brought me samples of a couple, both of which I liked very much with good price points ($7/8).

Atmosphere:

During prime dinner hour on a Saturday, there were plenty of seats available. In our late 20s, we were quite obviously below the average age of the diners this evening. No surprise considering it's location in the Galleria rather than, let's say, Uptown.

Don't expect a super trendy atmosphere. It's no where close to as cute and cozy as French Meadows. It looks like a hybrid between an order-at-the-counter cafe and a full-blown restaurant. It lacks flair and is someone stark, but at the same there was some warmth to it (maybe the candles gave this effect).

Price:

Very fair!

My girlfriend and I have been here twice now and both experiences were under par. First trip was coffee to go witch tasted like burnt coffee it was supposed to be a salted Carmel latte but the salted Carmel taste was no where to be found. Trip 2 we went for coffee and desert after being seated at the worst table in the establishment we waited for about 10 min for our server. All the while four employees were standing around as we waited. We got up and made an exit. I guess you have to order all courses to get service here. Thanks for the warm welcome galleria we will not be returning.

I think this place is pretty good....so I'm a fan. It's an extremely lively place during the weekend morning hours and well into the afternoon. In the morning/afternoon you order at the counter, take a number, and go find a seat to wait for them to bring your meal out. At night, it switches to table service which seems like a nice touch.

I'm a huge fan of the People's Breakfast Croissant. It comes with eggs, bacon, tomatoes, guacamole and gruyere cheese on a buttery delicious croissant that's baked in house. Sounds pretty good, huh? The combination of them all made for a slightly tangy, smooth, and creamy sandwich once you have a bite. The side potatoes that it come with are also very good, but the star of the show is the breakfast sandwich. I would eat it everyday if I could.

I also got the iced salted caramel latte with hemp milk and it was a great pick me up that tasted delicious with the alternative dairy choice. I'd recommend getting it with hemp milk. That is if you like it. The server behind the counter said that his mom likes it, so I went with it and it turns out his mother and I have similar tastes.

Overall it's a great place to grab a fresh bite to eat if your in the galleria or looking for another option in Edina. They also have a decent variety of local tap beer for being a smaller restaurant so if you need a brew, you're in luck.

I'd recommend it to people and will be returning.