Au Bon Pain

You may not be sitting at a French café just a few feet from the Eiffel Tower, but you’ll be enjoying some delightful pastries and sandwhich creations. This eatery, inspired by the French cafes, is quintessentially a pick-​up-​and –go type of restaurant, but at the same time there are booths and tables for you to sit down and enjoy some quiet time away from the bustling halls of Merchandise Mart. It seems that whether you’re here, in an airport or on a college campus (all places that are hustling and bustling) there’s always an Au Bön Pain nearby… maybe that’s purposeful because it does provide a quick getaway.
Here at Au Bön Pain they have a multitude of options for breakfast, brunch and lunch, but just be mindful that the food is somewhat overpriced if you’re comparing what you could get here as opposed to a similar joint. However, their croissants (both regular and chocolate) are some of the best around, especially if you have the employees warm up the croissants for you… I didn’t do that at this location, but I’m sure they can do it as I’ve had it done at other locations.
If you don’t want pastries, they have coffee, juice (the Nantucket ones which are the best), soup and freshly made sandwiches and salads — all of which are good. The salads are a fairly descent size, though the sandwiches can be a little smaller than what would fill you up.
Although there’s other choices calling your name there at Merchandise Mart, you should go for Au Bön Pain because you you’ll enjoy the fresh food, whatever you end up ordering!

Huge selection of soups and sandwiches. 5+ kinds of coffee options. Very friendly staff.
I had the smoked salmon bagel with cukes. It was excellent. Booth seating inside. Very comfortable.

I see this chain all over the city so I finally tried it in the Merc Mart. The wrap I had was boring. Just not good. no taste. Romaine lettuce? Boring. Arugula would add flavor. Their soups sound and smell nice though. Maybe I’ll try that next time. Definitely won’t be getting a wrap though which is sad because I love wraps and really, how do you mess those up?

Best chocolate croissants you can find outside of France. I get one every Friday for breakfast. Fresh, flakey, buttery perfection, everything you hope a croissant will be. Haven’t tried anything else on the menu.

Great place for lunch! Amazing soups (with vegan options!) And build your own salads

I should start by saying that I like Au Bön Pain but every time I go to this location I end up getting very disappointed. Terrible service! One time they messed/​misplaced my order and after 20 min wait I had to place my order again and waited for 10 more minutes! At least they didn’t charge me for it…
Today I got their new Chipotle Turkey Avocado, but the guy didn’t put avocado in it! Since I didn’t eat there, I had no time to go back and point the mistake as my lunch time is limited. The sandwich was made terribly: he put all the ingredients in the middle of the bread in one big lump, instead of distributing it evenly on the bread.
My lunch hour should be pleasing, not spoiled by some lowlife who doesn’t know how to make a sandwich! I am not coming back. EVER.

I frequent the Merchandise Mart location at least once or twice a week. My guilty pleasure are the delicious palmiers. Recently they haven’t been putting them out which makes me sad, but they are seriously worth the 300+ calories you’ll gain by eating them.
The staff is really friendly and the food is delicious and made prompt. I wish the prices were a bit cheaper, thus I don’t go here all the time… but I haven’t had a bad experience.

I would give no star if Unilocal allows me. I’ve never feel more disappointed at their customer services of today. I work right across from the merchandise mart and I stop by this shop all the time. I love their pastries as also as their salad, which I order a couple times a week. Earlier today I stop by to order a salad and saw that they were making some group orders so I stand in line and wait. There were actually no one but me in line. They did not greet me at all even after I’ve stood there for a while. They were all talking to each other about some people killing someone else which I assume the perterson’s case. I stood in line like a crazy person didn’t know when to be served or even asked. I know they were busy but at least tell me to wait a little or just say hi. I couldn’t wait anymore cause I had to get to work and they didn’t ask me then either. They let me walk away. So I guess they either didn’t value individual customer because they always get group orders, or because I’m Asian and they didn’t think I understood English so they didn’t care. Way to ruin my Friday morning Au Bön Pain!

Service with a smile? I think not. The whole grumpy staff seems like the have been dragged in to serve you against their will. No one greets you you or smiles. They actually make you feel like you are inconveniencing them ordering.
They use the same knife to cut EVERYTHING! I once got a bagel with cream cheese and it tasted like fish!
People could be allergic to fish! They need to practice proper food safety. Plus they are frequently running out or things.

Anything from the bakery is soo good! Free WIFI, huge place. Fast, friendly service. Can’t go wrong with a coffee either.

I work in the Willis Tower so I’m exploring lunch options around. Everything looks good on their website, so I decided to come here for a quick lunch.
My fiancé ordered the Mediterranean chicken salad and I had their 12 veggie soup. The soup was okay, nothing special, Corner Bakery has way better tasting soups. Now the focus is the salad. What says online as «field greens» and «all natural grilled chicken» are actually soggy/​non-​fresh looking greens plus frozen chicken. No, you didn’t read it wrong, the chicken were rock hard, and FROZEN in the middle.
SO in summary, if you are looking for a yummy and relatively healthy lunch spot around Willis Tower, avoid this place.

I like that ABP labels each and every food with the calorie content. It’s a big help to calorie watchers, and a great reminder when I’m out for lunch that I don’t need to hog out to have a good time.
There pastries here are wonderful, and I’m a big fan of their ready-​made sandwiches, including the Steakhouse. The spicy tuna sandwich isn’t quite what I was looking for, but it was hearty and tasty nonetheless.
With a bottled drink and sandwich ringing in at about $ 9, it’s not the most cost-​effective lunch option. But for something fast near the Mart, it’s certainly not a bad one.

First of all, shouldn’t a wrap sandwich with «chicken» in the name contain chicken. Yes, it should. Mine didn’t.
Second, shouldn’t a wrap sandwich actually provide a «wrap»? Yes, it should. Mine cracked because the bread was not quite as fresh as it should have been — meaning I had to negotiate continuing spills.
Third, easy on the sauce.
Fourth, $ 2.20 for a 20-​ounce soda? Is Diet Pepsi hard to come by in downtown — an area where other merchants charge $ 1.50.
The one star is for the oatmeal cookie, which was way overpriced at $ 1.29 but tasted good.
$ 11 for a vegetarian sandwich, soda and cookie.

I really like the Merchandise Mart location because the seating has such great views. The only food I like at any Au Bön Pain is the pastries, breakfast items, soup, and bread items. I think their sandwiches and salads are very poor in taste and quality. So I just stick to the aforementioned items and am happy.

I used to not like Au Bön Pain because I had no idea what was going on or where to order or what to order. But now that I’ve been there a few more times and have realized that you can order your sandwich or get a pre-​made salad. The chicken caesar wrap is really good and it’s huge. The sandwiches are really small though– so get a wrap and you’ll be good to go for the rest of the afternoon– after I eat one of their smaller sandwiches I’m hungry like an hour later.

Great lunch place. They have great sandwiches. YUM.

When I worked in the loop I would often stop here for lunch! They have awesome breads to make sandwiches on! They are big and fresh! The soups are also really good! The resturant is really large inside which is nice to accomodate the lunch crowd!

I just love the sandwiches from here. They are to die for, I always get the chicken Mozarella, it has this awesome pesto sauce on it. Most of them are located in the loop so this is a great place to go for lunch if you work in the loop.