Duluth Grill

Linda’s Take

Duluth Grill, so nice we went there twice!

This place was great to take a family too, or just a great place for two, or even a large group. We stopped in for late lunch / early dinner. There is so much verity on this menu that our entire family found someone each of us would like. Everything is super fresh, they also pick all of their herbs from a garden in the parking lot.

I love the look of this place, they have a little bit of everything from around Duluth. Plus local arts from students that they put up. Portions are hearty at this dinner and prices are fair. The staff is super smiley and treat you well!

We enjoyed this place so much and also liked a lot of the menu items for breakfast, we came back on our way out of town to fill up the family before heading on the two hour ride home. Hey, maybe if the kids are stuffed, they will pass out and sleep most of the way!

Love this place, next time we come up to Duluth, we are bringing the family here again!

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

This was another stop on the Triple D tour. It was better than I expected. Between our two trips, we had pancakes, burgers, eggs benedict, omelettes, caramel rolls, and locally bottled soda. It was all good.

I’m not generally a fan of bleu cheese, but the bacon-bleu cheese cole saw was fricking awesome. The portions are good. The price is a bit high, but still really damn reasonable. Totally worth the money. I’ll be going again.

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score: 5 out of 5 pants off.

Cowboy Jack’s, Bloomington

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Jason had idea to try this place, he had been to one before out in Woodbury, MN and thought I would like it. We invited 2 friends and got there about 8pm.

If you go during dinner time you’re going to be waiting for a while.

I really liked the place, they have free popcorn to snack on while you’re waiting for your table. I thought that was kinda nice. I love the country atmosphere and decor, I’m just a country girl that grew up in the city. The tables are nice and roomie too. That’s always a good thing since Jason is a tall guy. (ed. Big and tall!)

The food is good, it’s wholesome and very tasty. I also like that they have a light area on the menu as well. I like good American food, but I don’t want everything to be a grease bomb.
You have to get the corn bread here! It is the best I have ever had! I ordered a salad and sirloin tips and they were cooked perfect!

Only thing is that I wish is that it would be awesome if they had a dance floor and live music in the late evening! I almost wish I could combine Toby Keith’s and Cowboy Jacks together and this would rock!

I would definitely come back!

4 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

Cowboy Jack’s is a country bar, but the waitresses are less scantily-clad than some other country bars, relatively speaking. Since I don’t go to restaurants look to ogle T&A, that’s not really a disappointment for me.

The biggest disappointment for me is that they have live music almost every night, but no dance floor. That makes me sad, since Toby Keith’s fills up quickly after 10pm.

For an appetizer, we got the jalepeno cheese curds. You can taste the pepper, but there’s really no burn. Cheese curds are good, though. We also got the corn bread skillet, which was yummy, but I went home and figured out how to make it better. I’m not entirely sure why Linda is so in love with their’s.

I got the mushroom and swiss burger, which is kind of my default burger when I go out. It was good, and reasonably priced. The tater tots that came with it were also worth the price of admission.

Good food, good prices. I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score

4 out of 5 Pants Off

The Loop, St. Louis Park

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

One of the new restaurants at the West End Shops in St. Louis Park is The Loop. I’ve driven past it a few time; the outside of the place didn’t look too appealing to me, but Jason really wanted to try the place so we had lunch there.

When I walked in, the staff was really inviting and kind. The place looks really different on the inside. Warm wood tones and big booths along the wall. Kinda country and kinda new age. Different, but nice.

They have a separate & smaller lunch menu from the dinner menu, I like that. Less time searching for what you want.

We ordered a meat platter with toasted flat bread and sauces. High quality meats, pretty tasty. I also ordered a hummus platter, which I’ve never seen on a menu before. This I really liked! It was served with cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, and artichokes all mixed with a Mediterranean style sauce and warm pita bread. Only bummer about this dish was wanting more bread.

I had an apple and cherry salad for the main course. This was really fresh and crisp. I loved all of the different greens in the salad. You can add meat for an additional cost, but I loved it just the way it was.

Jason had a Juicy Loopy, their version of the Juicy Lucy. He said it was good but he liked the Juicy Lucy better.

Oh, my hummus platter came out a little late so the manager came over and gave it to us for free. I thought that was really nice. We never even complained about it at all.
I did like this place, a little pricey, but not by much.

I give it 3 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

There’s one restaurant slot at the West End that just doesn’t have any luck. Every year or two, there’s a new restaurant in there. The current restaurant is The Loop.

We’re on a quest to review all of the restaurants at the West End, so this one had to go on the list, though honestly, judging a book by its cover and being absolutely non-politically correct, I thought it was a gay bar at first glance. If you can ignorantly stereotype what the outside of a gay bar in a nice neighborhood looks like.

Inside, it’s a nice place. The woods are nice, and the bar has phone charging stations every 6 feet, which is pretty sweet.

The staff was nice, but I’m pretty sure our waiter was either new, or will be a former waiter soon. He wasn’t great and the manager knew he wasn’t. She came over to check and make sure that he’d been over to help us.

So, food:

No booze. This was lunch on a work day, so we didn’t drink.

For appetizers, we got the charcuterie board and the hummus plate. The pile of olives and marinated vegetables made the hummus plate totally worth the $11. Good olives. Good hummus. The charcuterie board had some sweet choices, like liver, some fancy bologna-like stuff, and bacon jam. It works well.

Linda has rabbit-food for the main course. I was going to get the Pork Banh Mi sandwich, but they were out of both the chicken liver and the pork pate, so I got the Juicy Loopy instead. That’s a juicy lucy stuffed with bacon, onions, and cheddar. It was good, but the 5-8 Club does juicy lucy’s better. The fries were awesome. More accurately, the garlic and parsley aioli that is served with the fries was phenomenal.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score

3.5 out of 5 Pants Off

Pittsburgh Blue

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Pittsburgh Blue is by far one of the best restaurants you can ever go to.

I love eating here!!!!

Now you are going to drop a pretty penny when you go here, but it is sooooo worth it.

First of all, save a few bucks if you want and bypass the drinks, they do a great job with anyone you choose, but you can drop close to $10.00 a drink. DO order any of the steaks! My favorite is the horseradish crusted filet minion. Also the scalloped appetizers are melt in your mouth wonderful!

The best part about this restaurant is the staff. I have never had anything bad to say about the service here. They treat you like you are royalty! I even dropped one of my appetizers and they fixed me one more so I would get exactly what we paid for.

I wouldn’t mind eating here once a month, but of course the budget won’t let us do that. However I think at least 2 or 3 times a year is perfect!

I give this restaurant 5 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

Pittsburgh Blue has phenomenal food. I’ve been there more times than I can count. It’s pricey, unless you go at happy hour and stick to the happy hour menu, then it’s priced like any regular restaurant.

If you go for dinner and order appetizers, and steaks, and drinks, you’re going to drop a couple of hundred dollars, easy.

But it’s so worth it.

The bacon wrapped scallops are so good, words fail me. I feel like I need to do the walk of shame the morning after I eat them, it is so good.

The french onion soup is also great. It’s served with half an inch of cheese melted over the top. So bad for you. Yum.

You can’t go wrong with any of their steaks. Don’t bother with fish. This is a steak house.

Sides are served family style. I recommend the onion & cheese hashbrowns, the asparagus, the mushrooms, and the mashed potatoes, but not all in the same meal.

For dessert, get the crème brûlée. Trust me. If you’re going to have that anywhere, have it here.

This is the easiest 5 out of 5 pants off I’ve ever given.

Total Score: 5 out of 5 Pants Off

Granite City

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

So one night I wanted to go someplace local but with a menu that we haven’t eaten for awhile.

Don’t get me wrong, you’re going to see more sushi restaurant reviews posted later on, but it’s nice to switch it up once in a while.

So we picked Granite City; they are a chain restaurant, but there are not so many around. That’s because they also brew their own beer right at the restaurant! I thought that was inspiring because they also cook with the beer they brew.

The drinks we had were good, I really liked the one I ordered, I don’t remember the name of it other than it had the word “Monkey” in the name, but it was sweet and fruity, and it gave me a good buzz! That works for me!

I also tried French Onion Soup for the first time, I really liked how they made it, flavorful but not to rich. The appetizer we had really filled me up and it was full of flavor!

For my main dish I ordered the London Broiled steak, it was really tender and good, but not much seasoning with it. However I was so full already I wasn’t sure how many bites I could even take.

All and all this was a place that fit the budget to go out to eat, with better quality food an other chain restaurants.
I would go here again.

I give it 3 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

Granite City is a restaurant and micro-brewery. It is a chain, but not a large chain, and it’s a
local chain.

Given the fact that it’s a microbrewery, they have a biased sense of how great their beer is, and
charge accordingly. It’s not outragious, but the beer isn’t cheap.

We started with the shrimp appetizer, which came with a slaw and was really good.

Next, we had the French Onion soup, because linda had never tried it before and onions are a sharedexperience on a date. You should never let just one person on a date have onions. It was good,but not good enough to knock my pants off.

I had burger X for my main course, which was also good-but-not-great.

For dessert, we had the apple tort-thing. It was an insanely dry puff pastry filled with applefilling that just wasn’t great. Pass on this.

I give it 3 pants off.

Total Score

3 out of 5 Pants Off

Mainstreet Bar & Grill

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Mainstreet Bar & Grill

So my best friend’s husband was going to celebrate his birthday at Mainstreet’s. I had been to Mainstreet’s many times before but this time, since both Jason and I were going to go, why not write a review!

I like this bar, it is one of the few bars that is great at keeping your drink glass full and just looks like a regular bar, plus they have live music every weekend.

There are some drawbacks to the place.

The food is okay; it’s your typical bar food and nothing I would brag about.
There is a dance floor, however it is on the smaller size so it can fill up quickly. Most of the time the bands are good, they do have some popular regular bands, however the night we both went there the guy sucked!
I guess the biggest drawback is when the band plays you can’t hear anyone that is trying to talk to you. So to wrap it up, great place to go and drink and have fun! Not so good if you want to catch up and talk with friends.

I give it 3 out of 5 pants off.

Jason’s Take

We went to Mainstreet’s Bar in downtown Hopkins for a friend’s birthday party.

We’ve been there before, but have never taken the time to review it.

The place is a dive bar, pure and simple. The food is totally on par with what you’d expect from a dive bar. It’s greasy and really only good when you’ve been drinking. The drinks are cheap and the staff is friendly.

They’ve got live music nearly every night and a decent-but-not-large dance floor.

It doesn’t feel like a meat market, but judging by the number of people I know who’ve gotten lucky by going to Mainstreet’s, it’s not a bad place to go if you’re feeling lonely.

I give it 3 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score:

3 Out of 5 Pants Off