The Yardhouse

Jason’s Take

The Yardhouse came to St. Louis Park a few months back, and we wanted to try it. The last time we went there, they had a 60-90 minute wait, so we went elsewhere. This time, we took advantage of their call-ahead seating option and called as soon as we left our dancing lesson. When we got there, we only had a 10 minute wait to get seated. Yay, us!

The Yardhouse has an impressive beer selection; over 150 beers on tap. Our waitress had a pretty good handle on the beers, so we told what kind of beer we like and she came back with good choices. The pear cider and apricot ale are good if you like things sweet. The double chocolote thing tastes like a milkshake, but without a hint of sweetness. The Delirium Tremens clocks in at 10% alcohol and tastes good. It’s a great way to catch a quick buzz without having to buy a bunch of beer.

I’ve read reviews that say the place is too noisy, but I disagree. They keep the music loud enough to drown out surrounding conversations, but not so loud you can’t easily hear the people at your table. The music provides privacy, which is great in a joint with an open floor plan.

Now, the food:

When we first looked into the place, I saw a giant menu that didn’t hit any particular niche. You can get tacos, sushi, steak, or pizza. How can a restaurant make good food when there’s a thousand* items on the menu and no theme?

I don’t know the answer to that, but they managed.

We started with the spicy deviled eggs and mu shu egg rolls. Both were great. I can eat a pile of deviled eggs, so I’m happy there were only 3 on the plate. Appetizers were excellent.

For the second course, we got the chicken tortilla soup, which comes with an avocado slice on top. I could have gotten a bowl of that and gone home happy. Holy crap, that was good.

My entree was the taco plate with garlic fries. The fries were phenomenal. Easily ranking in the top 5 french fries I’ve had in my life. The tacos were okay, but not mind-blowing. I had a baja taco and a carnitas taco. Good, not great.

For dessert, I really wanted to get the salted caramel butterscotch pudding, but did you read the list of food we did get? There was no room for more.

Totally worth going. We got some great beer and food, and spent $93 including the tip. I will be going back.

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off.

Linda’s Take

We finally got a chance to go to this place over at the West End Shops. If you even want to get in, you can call ahead and have your name added to the wait list, they will tell you how long the wait it is for a table and you can head there closer to the wait time.

They don’t take reservations.

OMG, the list of beers on tap, if you want it, they will have it! And the neat thing you can do is sample up to 2 different beers at a time to find out what you like.

I think one thing I didn’t like about this place is that there is so much on the menu that it takes a while for you to figure out what you want to eat. I do like that for everything on the menu, they have at the end of description they will indicate if it’s a vegetarian and/or under 600 calorie dish. That way I don’t have to pick the waitress’s brain.

They have an awesome list of appetizers to choose from, not your regular listing of appetizers. I liked what Jason chose, both were yummy. I ordered a chipotle lime grilled shrimp; the shrimp tasted awesome, however I didn’t like the sides that came with it. We both tried the chicken tortilla soup and that was awesome!

I would just go back for beer and soup!
Overall, 4 out of 5 pants off

Total Score

4.5 Pants Off!

*Slight exaggeration

The Golden Nugget

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Linda’s Take

So we decided to try this little dinner off of Excelsior Blvd called The Golden Nugget after seeing them one weekend on Fox9 news. We brought our girls with us thinking that it would be fun for all. I have to admit that the parking wasn’t the best, but it’s really easy to find this place.

They have an awesome beer selection, and some of the yummiest burgers I have ever see on the menu. However there isn’t much at all on the menu if you are looking to watch your calorie intake.

I had some shrimp tacos and come chicken wild rice soup. The tacos were really yummy, and the soup was made a little different then what I’m used to but really tasty.

Jason had a great looking burger and this thing was huge! Our girls ordered shrimp and a walleye filet and the kids size meals could feed an adult!

Overall the food was great and I saw a flyer that said $5.00 burgers on Sundays! This is a great place to go for a date night for burgers, and I would say an awesome place to go on Sundays with the family!

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

We saw this place on the news and decided we had to try it. The Chimichurri Burger they made on TV looked fricking awesome. It’s a burger with mortadella ham, chimichurri, Gruyere cheese, arugula, and bone marrow mayo. I love bone marrow mayo.

The burger was ok. It’s supposed to be an award-winning burger–and it was good–but it didn’t knock my pants off.

The kids portions were enormous and cooked really well. I liked the portion sizes for the girls, because that meant I got to try their shrimp and fried walleye too. The walleye was cooked perfectly and the shrimp was great.

I just realized I’m writing this review backwards, but I’m not going to change it up.

For an appetizer, we had cheeseburger wontons, which were phenomenal. If you get it, save the spicy Asian sauce to dip whatever else you get later. Holy Yum, Batman!

Parking sucks. If you’re coming down Excelsior from the west, the only entrance to the lot is well before you can see the restaurant, so you drive past swearing. When you get in, it feels weird. It looks like it should be a dive bar, but it’s way nicer than that, and they have a crap-ton of beer on tap.

Good place, good food, and cheap burgers on Sundays. Totally worth going.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score:

Granite City

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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