What's there not to love about this place. Locally owned by a wonderful family. To whom I love to support. The food is always so fresh, vibrant, and aromatic! It really satisfies all the senses. The service is custom and fast. The staff is friendly. The restaurant is super clean. I highly recommend them. Get a punch card and you earn free bowls. My favorite bowl is the Brown Rice Chicken Bowl with Ginger Lemongrass Sauce. Oh my goodness! Yum! "Alexa, where is the best restaurant in Saint Cloud?" ... "Quarks!"
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Super relaxing atmosphere and inside is very aesthetic. The food always leaves me full yet refreshed. It has a Chipolte-like serving style yet is one of the more healthier places to eat in St. Cloud
My go-to lunch spot in St Cloud to get a quick meal that is always 100% fresh, nutrious and consistly awesome. I love that they make all their sauces in-house and clearly list the ingredients of them at the register. There is no secret about what is in their food. Thank you for being a pioneer of this super fresh concept in this area. I hope more aspiring restaurant owners are inspired and follow suit.
I had never tried or even heard of the concept of American bento. I didn't know where to start in creating my dish, but the staff was very informative, helpful, and encouraged me to sample ingredients. Had an awesome steak and curry bowl, an iced tea (invigorate) that paired well with the curry, and some killer chocolate from Minneapolis. Prices were straight forward and really reasonable! Left full but feeling healthy and excited to try a new combination next time. 5 star experience, Rawk On!
Locally owned and they have a Mission to have better health for you and your family! Great healthy food options for dining, take out or catering your next event. We had them cater one for us and it went over great...highly recommend!
Awesome place....food of the future! Fresh from the garden veg covered with tangy delicious sauce and meat of your choice....it's like Subway upgraded to be actually healthy! And I love the name "an elementary particle of matter" because the food is elementary, life-giving nutrition for the body. My favorite is the toasted sesame sushi.
Finally- a fast food restaurant in St. Cloud that is very good and very healthy!! If you live and work around down town you MUST eat here. You will not be disappointed!! The food is fresh, high quality, delicious, and oh by the way- really healthy!! College students? You all should be going here!
Was visiting St cloud and decided to try this local new place out. The food was good and pretty tasty. The veggies looked fresh cut and we got the chicken. The sauce were good but we weren't sure what go well together but the staff some suggestions. I think the price was fair for the freshness. My only crititicism is that they don't have cups of water and I would have had to buy a bottle of water. They also don't have traditional soda and I could have gone for a diet coke with the spicy bowl. Overall would go again
So ... Arriving St Cloud MN. Anything but road food or a chain restaurant, please, after a 600 mile day driving. Let s start with the headline - eat here before you die. The best seared wild-caught ahi tuna ever, yes. Wrapped in cool lettuce with toasted sesame sauce. The greatest grilled steak + cucumber dressing + rice + freshest local veggies in a Bento bowl, yes again. Two words rarely if ever used in same sentence - healthiest, most delicious ... yep. With emphasis on the latter. Dinner was so freaking good! So much is happening in America in places you don t expect. This is one of those places.
I facilitate a training program in the St. Cloud area and was looking for something that was delicious, nutritious and reasonably priced for a group of about 30. So I did a little research and came accross the Quarks website. I m glad I did! I called and talked to Lisa who is extremely professional and very organized with her business. She knew exactly what I was after and I put my trust in her to come up with the extras. Quarks delivered! My class raved about the quality of the meal and how delicious it was! I was very happy with choosing Quarks and look forward to building a relationship with this company. I dropped off a couple of wire trays that were used at the class to the store and had a great conversation with Adam. Great people, great food and a true small business that I can support and enjoy in our community! Adam, Lisa and the Quarks Team....nailed it!
Great place to go if in a hurry or just dont have Time to make lunch at home. One of my favorite plcaes to go since being on my diet. The teas are also amazing
In St. Cloud for the day from out of state. Was looking for something quick and healthy. This place was perfect. The owner took the time to explain the menu and made my bowl himself. It was ridiculously fresh and delicious. Highly recommend
This is a great place to go! They have excellent fresh vegetables and the most delicious sauces to offer. I definitely recommend this place for someone looking to eat real, healthy food.
This is a fantastic, fresh option for fast eating that doesn't leave guilt (or bloat) bothering your stomach! The bento bowls are more than enough to fill up one person. My husband and I have eaten here often, and at this point, we usually split a bento bowl. The challenge for us is just trying to agree on which of their amazing, hand-crafted sauces we should put on our bowl! While we each have our preferences, we fortunately both agree that the Spicy Peanut sauce is the best. And if you do find a sauce you love, Quarks now even sells their sauces bottled at a great price!
I would recommend eating here several times to be able to craft a taste for what you prefer your bento bowl or cabbage wraps to contain. Since there is quite a large selection of fresh veggies, meats, sauces, and rice or quinoa, it takes a few return visits to find "your thing."
For a quick snack or great lunch option, their rice balls are filling and presented in a very visually appealing way.
The price is a little higher than traditional, large-chain fast food places; however, the quality, quantity, and the nutritional value of the make it well worth it.
Quarks American Bento has been in downtown St. Cloud for over a year. They're part of the revitalization that continues in downtown St. Cloud, with many new businesses renovating older properties.
Quarks is a great concept in truly fresh ingredients. Their produce isn't pre-packaged. It isn't frozen. It's a refreshing idea amid all the burger joints downtown - a place where you can find truly healthy, flavorful food that's good for you.
My two initial hesitations were: is the food warm, and how do you order?Thankfully, it's all spelled out for you.
You have various options (think Chipotle or Pieology). The easiest way to begin is with a bowl, but there are other options as well (soup, etc). You choose your protein. The chicken, in my case - was excellent. You then choose your grain (brown rice, in my case), and then the fresh ingredients (carrots, red cabbage, green onion, pea pods, yellow zucchini, cucumber, etc.). Then you choose your sauce/topping. I chose the spicy peanut sauce which was combined with a toasted sesame seed sauce to cut down on the spiciness. You can taste the sauces ahead of time, so you get what you like. It was awesome.
With that, you're given a delightful bowl of incredibly healthy ingredients that tastes wonderful, is filling, and doesn't leave you feeling sick or lethargic, but rather provides energy and nutrients.
Adam and Lisa have created a one-of-a-kind place with a fun downtown vibe. Located where it is, it should draw some of the theater crowd, students from St. Cloud State, travelers/visitors, and the downtown business lunch crowd. I'd highly recommend it, and will be back to try some of the other offerings.
Yum yum yum! Tried Quarks today and was very impressed! Awesome service and delicious food. We will definitely be going back. I love that I know the food is fresh and clean! A great alternative to crummy fast food. If you care about feeding your body well, i recommend giving Quarks a try! I bet you won't be disappointed!
Our family LOVES Quarks! GREAT place for people with food sensitivities or on special diets! We don't, but the hubs and I come to enjoy the delicious, clean, and satisfying bentos and always leave so glad we filled up on such good food. I take my friends there and we all love the flavorful options, not to mention the nourishing drinks and sides. Truly the healthiest restaurant in the area. We have 2 preschoolers that we took tonight and they not only finished their bowls but asked if we could come every week! New fam fave.
I love this place and eat in, pick up or order delivery (to my downtown office) 3-4 times a week. The ingredient quality and portion size never disappoint. This is one of the few restaurants in St. Cloud where I can eat without worrying about whether I'm going to feel icky afterwards. And the staff are super friendly and helpful. Quarks makes being healthy while dining out both easy and darn enjoyable.
My go to for food when I havent had time to cook. Very delicious, and nutritious. Prices are reasonable, about the price of a burrito or bowl from chipotle. Also, very knowledgeable staff.
I love this place! The sauces are amazing and I always feel excellent after eating here! The rice balls are so good and I like to get half tuna, half steak with spicy Thai on one half, and sesame or cucumber on the other half. Definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a quality, healthy place to eat in the area.
This is my favorite "fast-food" restaurant in St. Cloud! It's healthy and it leaves you full, but not a heavy-gut full. You feel energetic afterwards and like you made a good choice. I always get a bento bowl with ahi-tuna and steak (both are very high quality). For sauces, I mix sweet-chili and sesame. Delicious. Would recommend.
Wonderful healthy options. Great atmosphere. Very clean. And a very friendly helpful staff. They answered all our questions and helped us create a delicious dish.
We were visiting a friend in St. Cloud from Kalamazoo, MI. We absolutely loved the food here and wish we had something like it at home - we'd eat there all the time!
We also met one of the owners who was helpful and generally awesome. If you're looking for really good food that's fast. This is a must visit!
This is such a great place to grab a quick healthy bite, meet a friend or business associate, or just enjoy a quiet casual meal. I am totally hooked on the Seared Ahi Tuna bento bowl with quinoa, brown rice, red and white cabbage, carrot, and minced ginger. They have a variety of light and delicious sauces to try... But the sweet chilli and lemon ginger together are the very best!
Amazing food. Great selection of choices and very fresh. Their sauces are unique and I love to pair a few together. The place is kept very clean and the staff is always welcoming and friendly. Will continue to go back and suggest to others in the area.
This restaurant should be recommendable to everyone, it's a very relaxing environment to eat and hangout in peace at. You wouldn't be dissapointed at all, unless you're very picky and choosy.
Outstanding. Want to eat clean, this is the place. It's clean, good and reasonably priced. Staff are always very nice and are a reflection of good ownership. Good Work, keep it up!! Should add wheat grass shots...that would be awesome and not something you can get anywhere in St. Cloud.
This out of the box, non-cookie cutter restaurant is what St. Cloud needed. I also can eat here, and not feel bad about cheating on my diet. The stamp card is great, because I love that places have incentives to keep you going back! Fresh, natural and healthy options that also provide a multitude of variety.
The food here is good and affordable. You don't feel like garbage after you eat it, and you're full for a while. The bowls are deceptively large. I was quite surprised with the quality, considering it's supposed to be all healthy food. Good food is one thing, and not that hard to find if you look around. But what separates Quark's is the service. The staff are friendly and take the time to explain the foods, many of which I had never had, without hesitation or pandering at all.. I also lost my wallet and the owner replaced my punch card without so much as a second look, inviting me back in when I had that situation dealt with. Have not had a bad experience here yet, and recommended it to my work friends as well.
Best place to eat in downtown St. Cloud. It is more expensive than other places, but it is definitely worth it! Food is very good, healthy and fast. It is setup similar to Subway or Panda Express, where you pick out your options. The restaurant is very clean and staff is nice. It feels very different from the other places in downtown. They also offer catering. That was the first time I tried their food when my brother's company had him take home some leftovers. Tastes just as good warmed up! Overall, only can say good things about this excellent place!
Absolutely delicious, fresh and healthy food! I suggest mixing the specialty sauces. Always friendly staff and quick service. Happy to find a healthy option in St. Cloud!
I really wanted to like this place. There was hype with fancy fliers, their social media progress in starting this small business, and their community outreach to local programs. But, for a number of reasons, I just didn't fall in love with Quarks.
Minus 2 stars, the food: American Bento sounds great on paper. I even think that some people are very successful in pulling it off with their practice of meal prepping. Quarks isn't quite there yet. Serving small portions of chilled food is kind of redundant when they could just box up the lunches in advance which would save time. Even if the food was piping hot, the flavors aren't all that tasty. It also doesn't help that the finished product looks like a slightly mixed rice bowl and doesn't come close in presentation when compared to iconic imagery of Japanese bento.
I am quoting someone else as they described how they felt about the food, "I serve my rabbits better food than this". While this is unfairly harsh, Quarks does struggle to get the basics of quality, quantity and presentation.
Minus 1 star, price: With the points above, the final product doesn't justify the price tag. They also sell overpriced tea.
Minus 1 star service and management: With how complex each individual meal can be, it doesn't help with first impressions when the service is slow, and the employees are kind of socially awkward which is not a good mix. I feel uncomfortable when I dine in because it seems like there is tension in the air.
People are great and food is fantastic, but the price is just too high for what you get. I brought my mom here one time and we both got a soup and a drink and it was over $20. If your niche is completely fresh and healthy, this might be a good place for you.
An interesting and delicious take on made-to-order, but you don't have to be a particle physicists to understand the value. Quarks offers a wide variety of options, able to meet all dietary needs/restrictions, sourced from local suppliers for maximum freshness. Great in house teas, and sauces too.
If you are looking for 100% nutritional food that is ALSO 100% delicious, your search has ended at Quarks American Bento! Fantastic concept in healthy eating with a staff of truly caring and fun people who are knowledgeable and passionate about the amazing food they serve! I have had delicious cabbage wraps, rice bowls and soups in my many visits here! Fabulous protein and healthy carb meals which provide all the essential vitamins and nutrients you need to tackle this busy thing we call "life"! Love the summer patio seating too!..Try Quarks out and see what nutritious eating CAN be!
My absolute FAVORITE place to have lunch or dinner! There are so few places to eat in St. Cloud that are actually HEALTHY for you, and this is good food that makes you feel good, and FULL without feeling like you need a nap. Great service and extras too!
This was one of the best quinoa salmon bowls I have ever had! Their food is freshly made and their sauces combinations are extremely tasteful. Everything is gluten-free too. It was a very delicious and healthy meal and their customer service was top notch. I wish there was a location in Minneapolis, MN. This is my new favorite location in St. Cloud, MN.
Fresh healthy offerings with great flavor and choices. Conveniently located and easy to find. The lemongrass dressing is fresh and aromatic, not to mention tasty. The ambiance is nice, and everything is clean and well presented. If you find yourself in St. Cloud, it's worth a quick stop if you're looking for healthy refueling. Just know that the staff is less than amiable (in fact, downright rude and condescending), but they do offer healthy food options that are sometimes hard to find.
You feel like a better, more wholesome person after eating Quarks. The peanut sauce is amazing and the tuna is delicious. My favorite lunch in St. Cloud.
By far my favorite restaurant in St. Cloud! The house-made teas are delicious (and good for you too!), and the food is tasty(and also good for you!). I bring all my friends from school here. It s like a healthy Mediterranean Chipotle.
