Each time I've come here, the service on food have gotten worse. This morning was the last straw. The service was terrible and the food took forever to come out even though there was only 3 table with people at them in the place. The has browns were only slightly warm and my buffalo chicken sandwich was nothing special. It was supposed to have "blue cheese crumbles" on it but had sliced blue cheese on in instead. The person I went with ordered chicken and waffles which were horrible. I would't have served the plate to my dog. The waffle was soggy and limp, the chicken was extremely overcooked, and don't even get me started on the red eye gravy... It's the cheapest thing that they probably just make out of their leftovers. It's made out of syrup, orange juice, coffee, and spices the woman said. Who would want to put that on their food? It was repulsing. NEVER AGAIN! I'm not psychic but I don't think this place is going to be around much longer. I would never go back again nor will we be eating our leftovers.
(1)
Lynne L.
4 words: Red Eye Country Gravy. Best I've ever had - and I'm from the south!! Their food really is incredible. I had their breakfast burrito (with sausage) 2 meals in a row. I will say that the staff is kind of grouchy and "blah" on the weekdays. HOWEVER, Timothy is the best server around! He's super honest and tends to his tables pretty attentively. My brother and I came back every day we were in Minneapolis just because of Tim!!
(5)
Titi P.
Lolllll I came here at like 6 am after binge drinking and it was ok I think. Fries: Came in a ball. Like they were all stuck together to form a literal ball. Biscuits and Gravy: I remember saying they were actually "not bad" Maybe there were pancakes? Anyway, I woke up feeling like garbage. But it was not garbage at the time.
(2)
Sike C.
I stopped in here for some post-bar grub last night. I'll admit I wasn't expecting much because of the mixed reviews, but I wanted to see for myself. To start, it took a bit longer than it should have to be seated. There were several guys rushing about waiting tables and another working the register. One of the wait people did acknowledge that I was waiting, but still, for how not busy it was, it seemed a little long. Once I took my seat though, I was promptly served in every way. I got water and a menu quickly. Darren (that's a guess on spelling) was very friendly and kinda funny and very quick to take my order. The food arrived FAST, which surprised me in light of the many reviews complaining of meals taking too long. The food was kinda meh (I had the All-American). It wasn't terrible; on par with what you'd get at Perkins or Embers. Overall, I wasn't wow'ed by the place, but I also didn't hate it. I would def go to this place again for some late night eats.
(3)
Dillon J.
Great hash browns (order em crispy ;) and you can order espresso drinks from the place next door while your seated.
(4)
Suzanne P.
With a diner I expect huge portions, cheap food or both. At The Nicollet Diner we got neither. I guess I also expect service to be quick, especially when we're there at an off hour (2:30 pm on a Sunday) and there weren't many people there at all, but maybe that's a lot to ask.... My toast was soggy with fake butter spread, the chocolate malt we ordered wasn't blended enough and the hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict appeared to be from a mix. We arrived hangry and left angry. I'm starting to think that the 2 stars I'm giving this review are quite generous. But... they're open 24 hours and in a city where there isn't a ton open late-night, that's worth one additional star. Big ups to the silver and blue sparkley booths. It was my favorite part about dining here.
(2)
Jerice A.
Decent option- open 24,7! Street parking. Wings, chicken fried chicken, and grilled cheese options-great!
(3)
Jonathan H.
I've been here a few times mostly for their late-night dinner. I've had breakfast there too. I had high expectations for this place, considering what was in that location before it became Nicollet Diner combined with the much-improved decor. Before it became Nicollet Diner, there were two run-down and poorly run coffee shops there. Now, the overall place and the appearance look much better. Despite this much needed improvement having been done, the experience inside is a hit and miss. Nothing there is consistent. Some waiters there are better than others. Some are friendly, some aren't. Some are on top of their game, some aren't. Sometimes, the food is good and speedy, sometimes it isn't. While the food quality is between satisfactory and outstanding, I am disappointed in the size of the plate portions compared to how much I pay. Late-night is the best time. If a waiter can be requested, I recommend requesting Zac. He is the best. He typically works nights. I do NOT recommend going anywhere near Erik. He is extremely rude (more than one occasion). He is the worst employee there by far! To their benefit, the place has always been clean, spotless, and well-organized when I have visited. I have felt comfortable there based on those good details. I love that this place is open 24 hours everyday. This is great for those who are in the area late at night and are hungry. Before this place, I always had to drive to St. Louis Park to their Perkins. That Perkins is still a good option, but it's nice that I don't have to drive that distance as an only choice. This location is especially good for those who live in Loring Park because they don't have to walk that far for a good late-night meal. Overall, when I go there, I don't expect the best of the best, judging on my past experiences. This place is best for late-night dinner, compared to the other times.
(3)
Carl F.
The food was simply terrible. How do you mess up a BLT? This, I can now tell you: you lightly toast some bread that's going stale and don't put any butter or mayonnaise on it. And fries? You leave a bit of them out of the fryer and serve them with the ends still frozen. And you use a meager portion. Sysco probably charges $3 for a 5 pound bag, you should really be giving a good portion away as an included side and not charging customers extra to get fries at a diner. They got the yuppie decor, got a few yuppie menu ideas, didn't get the yuppie recipes though, but they got the yuppie prices. Service was good though, so there's that. And they were open.
(2)
Sissorelle F.
I love this place. It's typical diner food so you know what you are getting, plus a few extra surprises on the menu that I wouldn't expect on the menu at a diner, so that's cool! Their cream soda is totally badass, def recommend. Besides the good tasting food the employees and management are all very nice. It is one of the most LGBT friendly places I have ever dined at and it made my girlfriend and I very comfortable. I'm not sure what most people's issues are with rating this diner so low, but I did witness a particular incident when I was eating there most recently. A woman ordered a Reuben sandwich. Now if you know what kind of meat Reubens have on them; they tend to be a pretty fatty meat compared other meats. This lady demanded that she have a LEAN Reuben. I was thinking to myself, then why not order a Rachel? But NOPE, she had to have the Diet Reuben. Well, when the food came out she got in a hissy fit with the waitress saying, "I told you I wanted lean meat!" As the waitress attempt to resolve the situation by asking her if she can bring her another one/something else the lady got hysterical and said her appetite was ruined and not to bring another piece of food in front of her ever again. The Reuben lady sat there in silence as her friend finished her burger and eventually left. I can only assume crazy people are having bad service, because you would have to be crazy not to love it here. :)
(5)
Melissa L.
Reading all the Yelp reviews I was wary of coming, especially with the comments about slow/bad service. Still, my boyfriend wanted to go so we went. It's seat yourself, so that might explain being overlooked if it's busy. There were about a dozen tables occupied that night. Our server was really nice. I ordered an omelette with hash browns and Sam ordered the burger and a vanilla malt. The omelette and the malt were great. The hash browns were rubbery and bland, like they'd been cooked an hour ago and left under a light. Blech. Overall, not terrible as I imagine! They do provide a great service - 24 diner - in the middle of a neighborhood that could really use such a space. I hope they continue to improve in order to win more people over. And straighten out their hash brown game.
(3)
Zachary K.
Given, we went to Nicollet Diner on New Year's day. Everyone was hungover- we were, the waiters were, probably the guys in the kitchen too. That's how New Year's day goes, and honestly I was happy to be eating breakfast with friends after being out all the night before. That said, the whole thing was a logistical nightmare. We had about 8 people. I ordered the breakfast burrito with hashbrowns outside the tortilla. Another friend and myself were served first: the hashbrowns were tucked inside of the burrito. Little detail, no big whoop. Then we waited an hour for the rest of our party to get food! Honestly, I think they gave me someone else's order. They even charged me 2.25 extra for "vegetables and cheese" which I had no recollection of ordering. Another member of our group ordered the breakfast burrito as well. When it finally came, though, it looked much different than mine. First off, they ran out of fresh salsa, so they clearly switched to something that looked straight out of a jar of Pace. He didn't even get guac or sour cream. He did get hashbrowns on the side though. Look, it was passable breakfast burrito. Not great but not bad for the price. I heard that the chicken and waffles was quite tasty, if you like those two items with nothing else accompanying them. But it just wasn't worth it for the wait and all of the mix ups. But then again, everyone was probably just hungover. At least no one got any shells in their scrambled eggs.
(2)
Chris B.
Each time I've come here, the service on food have gotten worse. This morning was the last straw. The service was terrible and the food took forever to come out even though there was only 3 table with people at them in the place. The has browns were only slightly warm and my buffalo chicken sandwich was nothing special. It was supposed to have "blue cheese crumbles" on it but had sliced blue cheese on in instead. The person I went with ordered chicken and waffles which were horrible. I would't have served the plate to my dog. The waffle was soggy and limp, the chicken was extremely overcooked, and don't even get me started on the red eye gravy... It's the cheapest thing that they probably just make out of their leftovers. It's made out of syrup, orange juice, coffee, and spices the woman said. Who would want to put that on their food? It was repulsing. NEVER AGAIN! I'm not psychic but I don't think this place is going to be around much longer. I would never go back again nor will we be eating our leftovers.
(1)
Erik A.
I went for brunch on new years day and they weren't staffed to handle the crowd. It took over an hour to get our food and almost half the dishes came out differently than we ordered. My omelette was fine but nothing special.
(2)
Brianna K.
I came here based on the recommendation from a kindly eavesdropping stranger on the bus. Absolutely delightful and perfect for an evening dessert. Plus the onion rings were divine.
(4)
Carolyn B.
I tried this place for the first time last weekend. Other than roasting in the sun at my booth (a problem I will likely long for in a couple of months), we had an enjoyable experience. The service was prompt and helpful. The menu had a number of tasty-sounding options to choose from at affordable prices. I ended up building my own omelette, while my companion built his own skillet. We threw in a pancake to satisfy our sweet tooth. Both of us were happy with our food and vowed we would be back. The one thing that was a little off for me was the atmosphere. There was good music playing, but the place itself could use some color and personalized touches. In this regard, it doesn't feel much like a real diner. Hopefully they will get more creative with the decorating as they get more established. Note that I do not mean adding TV's! I would like to see this place survive and think it has the food and service quality to make it. It just needs a little more personality to make it come alive. Oh, and adding some veggie meat options to the menu would help bring in the vegetarian crowd. Even just some Morningstar veggie sausages! Look to Modern Times or Seward Cafe for inspiration.
(4)
Ali M.
Lol. Yelp removed my review for a fucking joke - so I removed the joke to appease all of the sensitive little snowflakes. Here you go. Happy reporting, Nicollet Diner employees or Yelp haters. =D Take two: I'll start this off with my biggest pet peeve of all about this place...their bacon is complete shit. It's a blight upon humanity. It is cheap, thin, and I wouldn't even use it to try and lure stray cats into my crazy cat lady clutches because it's an insult to cats who hunt and dig through garbage to survive. Fuck this bacon and the anorexic, welfare pig that made it. This is another bullshit place that can't temp meat to save their lives. The neckbeard ordered a medium rare bacon cheeseburger and received a medium well hockey puck that tasted like dried out, withered snatch. He was so mad he could barely choke down his mushy, overly salted fries. We're talking about a man who'd eat a plate of french fries off a hobo's naked corpse. But these fries offended him. I ordered the biscuits and gravy and didn't get any gravy. How does that even happen? I want what ever drugs the kitchen staff are doing. My eggs were supposed to be scrambled but ended up being spongy and tasted staler than a 3 star review of Spoon & Stable written by an entitled Elite Yelper who just "doesn't get all the hype". As a final kick in my metaphorical nutsack, the hashbrowns were so burnt and bland that I couldn't even pawn them off on the neckbeard or my neighbor's bipolar dog. Asdfghjkl. Fuck. You. If I was the owner, I'd burn this place down and try my hand at disappointing people some other way. I'm pretty sure everyone who works here hates breakfast food and burgers and the people who enjoy eating these things.
(1)
Jonna N.
Went here because I love diner food and wanted to grab some food before I went to a conference. The service was horrible. I noticed constantly that the table behind us kept getting their every command fulfilled (countless refills, multiple hot meal choices and desserts orders taken down and brought to the kitchen, even hot sauce) while my friend and I sat waiting for a waiter to even come by to give us a refill of soda and coffee. We weren't even brought waters while we waited for our drinks in the first place before even placing an order. No one came to see if the food was okay or if we needed anything else. Our waiter changed 3 times during our meal. There were two waiters when we walked in and then we looked up after 20 minutes and there were 7 people all serving and bringing played out. We had to wave and raise our hand like we were in grammar school to get their attention. It wasn't even a busy hour at all. The food wasn't bad. I had Eggs Benedict but you could notice the grease on the hollandaise sauce. I didn't mind that so much since diner food is known to be greasy and also I didn't notice it because of the terrible service. I wouldn't come back here again and specifically ignored this place since there are many other dining choices near by.
(1)
Jenny S.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner four times. Today was awful. First our soup arrived cold. Like, not even room temperature, but cold. It was returned and clearly microwaves. Gross. We didn't eat it. Next our entrees arrive (open faced fried chicken with mashed potatoes and the chicken-fried chicken breakfast.). Mediocre at best - we'll never order either again. To go, we order a peanut butter/banana malt. We waited 30 minutes to receive a malt. 30 minutes! Once received, it was not smoothly blended and has chunks of peanut butter throughout. Spending nearly $45 for lunch and a snack, and leaving wholly unsatisfied is a huge bummer. I will be calling management. It saddens me because I really wanted to love this place!
(1)
Aeliza R.
I watched construction continue on this place for a year and very eagerly awaited it's opening. The food is cheap and the quality is about on par with the price. Ordered Bitesquad and I got everything cold. My chicken quesadilla was replaced with a breakfast quesadilla (gross) and the hashbrowns were so greasy that they gave me a headache. The owners of this place ought to hire a worth while kitchen manager soon or this place is gonna close. I won't go back again unless I'm drunk and even then, there are 3 restaurants on that block that are open late.
(2)
Mike B.
Food pretty good - we had reuben, ham sandwich and french dip so typical diner fare - but the wait was WAY too long. Long time to even take our order, even longer to get actually served. Not worth the wait - only real reason to go back will be if I need food at 3 am.
(1)
Sharon R.
Always looking to support local businesses, unfortunately Nicollet Diner may not be one of them again. I went on Christmas Eve and the food we ordered was fantastic I gave a 4 star rating on the Facebook page, was very happy food wise. We ordered biscuits and gravy(they were okay,did like it was homemade) side of bacon(was nice and crispy) hashbrowns cooked perfect ,home made onion rings(not greasy- best I've had) and the Chicken and Waffles with the spicy sauce was delsih! Chicken was lightly breaded, deep fried, not overly greasy tasting. We went back to dine two weeks ago, and this visit is the reason I will not spend my money again. Biscuits and Gravy-gravy was not the same, had a strange, sour taste. I'm assuming the cooks are not consistent? Side of bacon- was semi cooked. Hasbrowns not cooked well. I decided to order the Chicken and Waffles again, since the first time they were the best tasting food. This time around, the waffle was burnt ,the chicken over fried -burnt, even the spicy gravy tasted horrid. I ordered the Frickles.$7.00 for paper thin slices of pickles that had about 3 inches of deep fried overly greasing coating on them. Only item that was tasty (not burnt, cooked the proper way)was the giant pecan pancake with fruit.I truly hope they can get better, as they are open 24/7 and the staff is very nice.
(2)
Kayla S.
I was walking by the diner yesterday and decided to stop and get some chicken strips. I received these beautiful Panko coated coconuty chicken fingers. They were delicious! Imagine my dissapointment when I order them again tonight and recieve basic sysco chicken tenders. So sad. Whoever was in the kitchen around 4 o'clock on Sunday, kudos to you. If I received food like I received on Sunday, this review would have 5 stars and probally a regular customer.
(2)
Katie L.
Let me just say- I created a yelp Account because of the awful experience I had this morning. We came in at 11:30 with a group of five, there were about 10 people waiting for tables and when we looked around the restaurant there were empty tables ready to be seated. We waited for about 15 minutes to be sat at a table that had been open the entire time. We order and our food came about AN HOUR later. The server poured water into my coffee and my food was cold after we had just waited so long. The whole process took so long I felt like I was being held captive! It took another 10 minutes to pay our ticket. The whole ordeal took about and hour and 45 minutes. I was hoping this would be a secret gem in Minneapolis but needless to say I will not be going back!
(1)
Jonathan H.
After coming here for breakfast a few times all I can say is that it is very hit and miss with everything from the service you receive to the quality of the food. sometimes the service is quick and friendly other times you may be waiting 20 minutes for an incorrect order. The food is great most of the time so long as they don't run out of what you want. They will substitute if that happens without informing you or just leave out spices, like they did with my hash browns, leaving the flavor behind. I will say that the place is new and the price is reasonable so they may improve with time.
(3)
Michael M.
After waiting for over a year for thsi business to open I was happy to see they finally had an opening date in early September 2014. Having a diner in my neighborhood would be a great thing - especialy since they have applied to the city to be open 24 hours. I had breakfast at The Nicollet Diner this morning - my first experience there. Arriving at 6:30 a.m. the restaurant was pretty quiet - one other person seated and a couple people waiting for take out orders. I sat at the counter and ordered the French Toast, one egg, side of sausage. I went with water as their orange juice was not fresh squeezed. Overall, the restaurant is a nice space, clean, well lit. It would be nice to have some wall mounted TV's in the space with a CNN on. The juke box was a cute idea - but someone did play a song while I was there and while I was on the other side of the resaturant from the juke box I could hear it clearly - however if I was sitting right by the juke box it would be way too loud - I don't want to hear loud music that early in the morning or be subject to someone elses musical selection - I think they should limit the hours the juke box can be used to mid-day to evening only and play some basic music over the speaker system. The waiter was OK - he could have been a little more upbeat, pleasant and welcoming- was very even keeled personality - must not be a morning person. For a new restaurant you should make me feel like coming back! The Food - I'm gonna have to say this was just OK and there was room for improvement for sure. Nothing I ate made me say to myself that it was satisfying or I'd want to order it again. The Syrup - was served in the dispenser cold - I really hate putting cold syrup on my hot food! The dispenser also had fingerprints on the top of it - those should have been wiped off. Please pay a visit to Perkins or Original Pancake house and see how they serve the syrup hot. The whipped butter - which I had to ask for - was also served cold and hard. It's impossible to spread cold whipped butter on your frensh toast - this should not be served like this. It should be room temperature spreadable. The Utensiles - Fork and knife wrapped in a napking were clean - however it seemed like I was using a small salad fork instead of a regular fork. My hands aren't big at all but if you have larger hands you'd struggle using this to eat your food. The French Toast - was just ok - nothing exicting about it - maybe sprinkle a little powdered sugar on it or somthing to jazz it up. It was actually a little tough to cut the french toast with my fork if you can believe that. The Sausage - two pieces, weren't that great - it was very difficult to cut a piece off with my fork along - had to use my knife, was tough meat. The counter area has electircal outlets along the edge which is great if you want to charge your phone or use a laptop. The floor appears to be the original floor and it is OK but look a little dated and at some point new flooring would really make this place look amazing. I realize this place is brand new and they may be working out the kinks at this point - hoping they do as it would be great to see great quaility food served well. I'll give it another shot at some point in the future and reevalute this new spot in Loring Park. I realize it was 6:30 in the morning when I was there but it never seemed like there was a manager on duty - if there was I couldn't determine who it was - seems like they need a manager to over see all the operation and keep things in control.
(2)
Emily C.
FOOD POISONING. iiiiick! I ordered a BLT, caesar salad, and breakfast burrito on Bite Squad, as you have to spend a minimum amount of money for delivery. I was hoping to have extra food for tomorrow, but I ended up throwing everything away. The bacon was BAD, the tomatoes smelled rancid, and the lettuce was brownish. There were basically no vegetables in the breakfast burrito - which is advertised as having onions, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Thank God Bite Squad refunded me, but it's too bad they had to take the blow for it. BARF. This is an edit the next day: barf is right. I've been in bed all day with what must be food poisoning. Won't go into details, but it's awful. I contacted them about it, and they said it could not possibly have been them. This is interesting, because I researched food poisoning online, and what they've said is absolutely untrue. Furthermore, they were unwilling to stand behind their product, which tasted disgusting. 0% customer service.
(1)
Mel R.
Have been a few times for breakfast and as long as you order bacon & hash browns to be burnt (so that they arrive cooked not raw) you'll be fine. Tried for dinner & ordered one of the burgers with a side of onion rings. Food had sat long enough before being brought to me that the burger grease had made the bun so soggy it was disintegrating and the onion rings, actually burnt, were cold. The portion was so small it fit in a fry basket. Burger sans bun wasn't too shabby and the non burnt onion rings were fine...but for a diner, teeny portions, and nothing I'd write home about? Price at $15 is pretty steep.
(3)
Megan C.
I work across the street and love stopping by for lunch or my a.m. caffeine fix. The staff are super friendly and nice and the food is wonderful. Crispy shoestring fries at lunch and fresh-roasted, delicious coffee in the morning (or afternoon, or evening)... how could you go wrong? Also, I'm into the modernized retro feel of the ambiance and decor. They even have a TouchTunes jukebox. An excellent addition to the Loring Park neighborhood!
(4)
Gina C.
The staff was attentive and fun. Great place for a lazy day lunch. The hot sandwiches were superb. Fresh mashed potatoes! The turkey was moist and tender. The meatloaf was tasty and not dry. You should give this diner a try.
(5)
Kevin S.
Went with a group of friends last night for some late night diner food. Only two waiters who happened to be the most unorganized individuals I'd ever seen. No sense of urgency. Looked like they'd never waited a table in their lives. The cook was snacking on food as he cooked but definitely needed help. We waited over an hour and still didn't get hour food. We got up to leave and tracked down the waiter who said I rang in your food but it still isn't up. We told him we had to leave and although he felt bad about it he was obviously over his head. Everyone in the restaurant was sitting and waiting on their food and it was comical to all. Why is this place even open? Is there a way to give negative stars on Yelp? I'd give it a negative eight. What a crappy experience. If you ever go here bring your own food.
(1)
Reilly H.
I had a very unpleasant experience at Nicolett Diner. First, I put two dollars in the jukebox to play some music, but they immediately turned the volume down once they saw me playing music ): I was playing top 40 hits so I don't understand why they did that. I immediately felt uncomfortable. When I sat down with me group I asked if they could turn the volume up and my server, Jerry, didn't even acknowledge my request. I ordered hashbrowns since I wasn't very hungry. When they came they were hard and not cooked all the way and didn't taste good at all ); I only ate a few bites, so Jerry asked me if they were okay. while I was telling him that they were heard he turned his back and walked away and didn't even say sorry ); why did he even ask?? It was clear our group didn't like any of the food since we left a whole cheeseburger, a basket of frickles, and hashbrowns. The waitstaff didn't seem surprised at all. I didn't appreciate the attitude I got from servers while I was just trying to be nice. The food was also not good. I think the waitstaff was treating me differently because I am gay ); or at least that's how I felt.
(1)
Autumn S.
Both my partner and I live just two blocks away from the diner and are frequent late-night goers so we're no strangers to the service or quality of the food. It's true, the service is painfully slow and even at times awkward. I never really seemed to care since the food is decent, the prices are reasonable and of course...they're open 24 hours! But last night was just plain ridiculous, we showed up around 10pm, ordered ONE vanilla malt to split and it literally took half an hour to get to our table. It wasn't even busy and none of the staff seemed to care that the service was slow. Granted we should have asked where our order was after 10 minutes, but I don't think it would have helped. Over all I like the diner and I will continue to eat and hang out there but I literally can not comprehend how they're so slow. Someone explain it to me??
(3)
Tarik H.
I end up eating here far to often because they are open 24/7. I keep hoping for better service but it keeps going from bad to terrible. I can't put into words how terrible the service is at this place, if they give you water it comes when you are half way done with your food. And the food is at best sub par. If you are hoping for anything other than an overcooked burger go elsewhere.
(1)
kendall M.
I live in the Loring Park neighborhood and really wish I could give this diner a positive review because I believe it could be a great addition to "Eat Street." And, I refrained from giving reviews early on to give them time to fix all that wasn't going well when the restaurant first opened. But, after my most recent visit, it became clear that the "grace" period for this place is up. From the conistent mediocre food and horrible service (do they do any sort of training for wait staff??), I can only hope the Nicollet Diner will someday be taken over by people who know how to run a restaurant.
(1)
Carl F.
The food was simply terrible. How do you mess up a BLT? This, I can now tell you: you lightly toast some bread that's going stale and don't put any butter or mayonnaise on it. And fries? You leave a bit of them out of the fryer and serve them with the ends still frozen. And you use a meager portion. Sysco probably charges $3 for a 5 pound bag, you should really be giving a good portion away as an included side and not charging customers extra to get fries at a diner. They got the yuppie decor, got a few yuppie menu ideas, didn't get the yuppie recipes though, but they got the yuppie prices. Service was good though, so there's that. And they were open.
(2)
Jonathan H.
I've been here a few times mostly for their late-night dinner. I've had breakfast there too. I had high expectations for this place, considering what was in that location before it became Nicollet Diner combined with the much-improved decor. Before it became Nicollet Diner, there were two run-down and poorly run coffee shops there. Now, the overall place and the appearance look much better. Despite this much needed improvement having been done, the experience inside is a hit and miss. Nothing there is consistent. Some waiters there are better than others. Some are friendly, some aren't. Some are on top of their game, some aren't. Sometimes, the food is good and speedy, sometimes it isn't. While the food quality is between satisfactory and outstanding, I am disappointed in the size of the plate portions compared to how much I pay. Late-night is the best time. If a waiter can be requested, I recommend requesting Zac. He is the best. He typically works nights. I do NOT recommend going anywhere near Erik. He is extremely rude (more than one occasion). He is the worst employee there by far! To their benefit, the place has always been clean, spotless, and well-organized when I have visited. I have felt comfortable there based on those good details. I love that this place is open 24 hours everyday. This is great for those who are in the area late at night and are hungry. Before this place, I always had to drive to St. Louis Park to their Perkins. That Perkins is still a good option, but it's nice that I don't have to drive that distance as an only choice. This location is especially good for those who live in Loring Park because they don't have to walk that far for a good late-night meal. Overall, when I go there, I don't expect the best of the best, judging on my past experiences. This place is best for late-night dinner, compared to the other times.
(3)
Melissa L.
Reading all the Yelp reviews I was wary of coming, especially with the comments about slow/bad service. Still, my boyfriend wanted to go so we went. It's seat yourself, so that might explain being overlooked if it's busy. There were about a dozen tables occupied that night. Our server was really nice. I ordered an omelette with hash browns and Sam ordered the burger and a vanilla malt. The omelette and the malt were great. The hash browns were rubbery and bland, like they'd been cooked an hour ago and left under a light. Blech. Overall, not terrible as I imagine! They do provide a great service - 24 diner - in the middle of a neighborhood that could really use such a space. I hope they continue to improve in order to win more people over. And straighten out their hash brown game.
(3)
Zachary K.
Given, we went to Nicollet Diner on New Year's day. Everyone was hungover- we were, the waiters were, probably the guys in the kitchen too. That's how New Year's day goes, and honestly I was happy to be eating breakfast with friends after being out all the night before. That said, the whole thing was a logistical nightmare. We had about 8 people. I ordered the breakfast burrito with hashbrowns outside the tortilla. Another friend and myself were served first: the hashbrowns were tucked inside of the burrito. Little detail, no big whoop. Then we waited an hour for the rest of our party to get food! Honestly, I think they gave me someone else's order. They even charged me 2.25 extra for "vegetables and cheese" which I had no recollection of ordering. Another member of our group ordered the breakfast burrito as well. When it finally came, though, it looked much different than mine. First off, they ran out of fresh salsa, so they clearly switched to something that looked straight out of a jar of Pace. He didn't even get guac or sour cream. He did get hashbrowns on the side though. Look, it was passable breakfast burrito. Not great but not bad for the price. I heard that the chicken and waffles was quite tasty, if you like those two items with nothing else accompanying them. But it just wasn't worth it for the wait and all of the mix ups. But then again, everyone was probably just hungover. At least no one got any shells in their scrambled eggs.
(2)
Richard M.
Worse breakfast i ever had too many other better diners to go to so ill never go here again and with a menu that doesnt really set it apart from anything else in town eggs were burnt on edges so half the egg is gone except for the yolk,then bacon was way undercooked and overly greasy i couldve drank it as a side but used every napkin to sop it up instead.the prices werent bad for what u think u can get but what i had it wasnt worth ten bucks and i tipped 2bucks for the waitress cause i felt bad i had to tell her about it.thank god the meters werent working cause of the federal holiday or i wouldve felt like it was more of a waste of money.do yourself a favor and go to the grocery ull save money and you will have a better meal and your stomach wont hurt afterwards like it did mine.
(1)
Sarah B.
The bf and I went here for breakfast, since we both had Friday off for once. It was delicious. The coffee and orange juice are both yummy. The breakfast burrito looked amazing, but we both ended up with a make your own skillet. They come with hash browns or home fries, two eggs, and a bread, then you pick your toppings. I got chili, avocado, tomato, cheddar and green pepper. It was awesome, I can't wait to finish it for lunch. The bf got ham, mushroom, jack cheese, and avocado, he too can't wait to finish his for lunch. It was a ton of food. It was a little greasy, but it is breakfast at a diner, so that's normal. It's also not super duper fast, so be prepared to enjoy the company of whomever you're with, which is actually really nice. They space itself is really cool, looks like a diner straight out of a movie. Everyone is very nice and the prices are totally reasonable. Plus, the whole menu looks amazing, I can't wait to try some of their sandwiches.
(4)
Nic J.
Server was annoyingly up selling, french toast was not good, the omelet was alright, hash browns were different..
(3)
Jay O.
Had dinner for the first time there tonight. Very clean and great colors. Would be nice to see more wall decor or art. Staff that I encountered err really friendly. The temperature inside the diner was a bit chilly. I noticed most people kept their coats on while dining. In order to have a comfortable and pleasurable experience, temperatures need to comfortable. The food was great and my server knew what was on the sandwich I ordered when I inquired about it. I look forward to having breakfast here on another future visit. I was surprised to hear that they are open 24 hours. What a perfect stop to get something to eat after the bars close on the weekend. I will definitely return. Prices seem appropriate to the competition.
(4)
Taylor S.
Longest breakfast wait ever! An hour is not cool! Avoid until they get their stuff together or wait forever.
(1)
Lynne L.
4 words: Red Eye Country Gravy. Best I've ever had - and I'm from the south!! Their food really is incredible. I had their breakfast burrito (with sausage) 2 meals in a row. I will say that the staff is kind of grouchy and "blah" on the weekdays. HOWEVER, Timothy is the best server around! He's super honest and tends to his tables pretty attentively. My brother and I came back every day we were in Minneapolis just because of Tim!!
(5)
Titi P.
Lolllll I came here at like 6 am after binge drinking and it was ok I think. Fries: Came in a ball. Like they were all stuck together to form a literal ball. Biscuits and Gravy: I remember saying they were actually "not bad" Maybe there were pancakes? Anyway, I woke up feeling like garbage. But it was not garbage at the time.
(2)
Sike C.
I stopped in here for some post-bar grub last night. I'll admit I wasn't expecting much because of the mixed reviews, but I wanted to see for myself. To start, it took a bit longer than it should have to be seated. There were several guys rushing about waiting tables and another working the register. One of the wait people did acknowledge that I was waiting, but still, for how not busy it was, it seemed a little long. Once I took my seat though, I was promptly served in every way. I got water and a menu quickly. Darren (that's a guess on spelling) was very friendly and kinda funny and very quick to take my order. The food arrived FAST, which surprised me in light of the many reviews complaining of meals taking too long. The food was kinda meh (I had the All-American). It wasn't terrible; on par with what you'd get at Perkins or Embers. Overall, I wasn't wow'ed by the place, but I also didn't hate it. I would def go to this place again for some late night eats.
(3)
Dillon J.
Great hash browns (order em crispy ;) and you can order espresso drinks from the place next door while your seated.
(4)
Suzanne P.
With a diner I expect huge portions, cheap food or both. At The Nicollet Diner we got neither. I guess I also expect service to be quick, especially when we're there at an off hour (2:30 pm on a Sunday) and there weren't many people there at all, but maybe that's a lot to ask.... My toast was soggy with fake butter spread, the chocolate malt we ordered wasn't blended enough and the hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict appeared to be from a mix. We arrived hangry and left angry. I'm starting to think that the 2 stars I'm giving this review are quite generous. But... they're open 24 hours and in a city where there isn't a ton open late-night, that's worth one additional star. Big ups to the silver and blue sparkley booths. It was my favorite part about dining here.
(2)
Jerice A.
Decent option- open 24,7! Street parking. Wings, chicken fried chicken, and grilled cheese options-great!
(3)
Sissorelle F.
I love this place. It's typical diner food so you know what you are getting, plus a few extra surprises on the menu that I wouldn't expect on the menu at a diner, so that's cool! Their cream soda is totally badass, def recommend. Besides the good tasting food the employees and management are all very nice. It is one of the most LGBT friendly places I have ever dined at and it made my girlfriend and I very comfortable. I'm not sure what most people's issues are with rating this diner so low, but I did witness a particular incident when I was eating there most recently. A woman ordered a Reuben sandwich. Now if you know what kind of meat Reubens have on them; they tend to be a pretty fatty meat compared other meats. This lady demanded that she have a LEAN Reuben. I was thinking to myself, then why not order a Rachel? But NOPE, she had to have the Diet Reuben. Well, when the food came out she got in a hissy fit with the waitress saying, "I told you I wanted lean meat!" As the waitress attempt to resolve the situation by asking her if she can bring her another one/something else the lady got hysterical and said her appetite was ruined and not to bring another piece of food in front of her ever again. The Reuben lady sat there in silence as her friend finished her burger and eventually left. I can only assume crazy people are having bad service, because you would have to be crazy not to love it here. :)
(5)
Carolyn B.
I tried this place for the first time last weekend. Other than roasting in the sun at my booth (a problem I will likely long for in a couple of months), we had an enjoyable experience. The service was prompt and helpful. The menu had a number of tasty-sounding options to choose from at affordable prices. I ended up building my own omelette, while my companion built his own skillet. We threw in a pancake to satisfy our sweet tooth. Both of us were happy with our food and vowed we would be back. The one thing that was a little off for me was the atmosphere. There was good music playing, but the place itself could use some color and personalized touches. In this regard, it doesn't feel much like a real diner. Hopefully they will get more creative with the decorating as they get more established. Note that I do not mean adding TV's! I would like to see this place survive and think it has the food and service quality to make it. It just needs a little more personality to make it come alive. Oh, and adding some veggie meat options to the menu would help bring in the vegetarian crowd. Even just some Morningstar veggie sausages! Look to Modern Times or Seward Cafe for inspiration.
(4)
Ali M.
Lol. Yelp removed my review for a fucking joke - so I removed the joke to appease all of the sensitive little snowflakes. Here you go. Happy reporting, Nicollet Diner employees or Yelp haters. =D Take two: I'll start this off with my biggest pet peeve of all about this place...their bacon is complete shit. It's a blight upon humanity. It is cheap, thin, and I wouldn't even use it to try and lure stray cats into my crazy cat lady clutches because it's an insult to cats who hunt and dig through garbage to survive. Fuck this bacon and the anorexic, welfare pig that made it. This is another bullshit place that can't temp meat to save their lives. The neckbeard ordered a medium rare bacon cheeseburger and received a medium well hockey puck that tasted like dried out, withered snatch. He was so mad he could barely choke down his mushy, overly salted fries. We're talking about a man who'd eat a plate of french fries off a hobo's naked corpse. But these fries offended him. I ordered the biscuits and gravy and didn't get any gravy. How does that even happen? I want what ever drugs the kitchen staff are doing. My eggs were supposed to be scrambled but ended up being spongy and tasted staler than a 3 star review of Spoon & Stable written by an entitled Elite Yelper who just "doesn't get all the hype". As a final kick in my metaphorical nutsack, the hashbrowns were so burnt and bland that I couldn't even pawn them off on the neckbeard or my neighbor's bipolar dog. Asdfghjkl. Fuck. You. If I was the owner, I'd burn this place down and try my hand at disappointing people some other way. I'm pretty sure everyone who works here hates breakfast food and burgers and the people who enjoy eating these things.
(1)
Keith F.
Could be four stars. I'm on the edge on that. This is exactly what it claims to be. A 1950s diner with booths, counter stools, a jukebox, malts and a very good menu. The breakfast menu, served all day, has a fine selection of pancakes, omelets, skillets, biscuits and gravy, etc. The lunch and dinner menu starts at 11 am and features hamburgers of all kinds, hot and cold sandwiches, salads and hot open face sandwiches. Oh and don't forget the soda fountain for dessert. We had very attentive service and food came quickly. Parking is on the street but readily available. The prices are very reasonable.
(3)
Jonna N.
Went here because I love diner food and wanted to grab some food before I went to a conference. The service was horrible. I noticed constantly that the table behind us kept getting their every command fulfilled (countless refills, multiple hot meal choices and desserts orders taken down and brought to the kitchen, even hot sauce) while my friend and I sat waiting for a waiter to even come by to give us a refill of soda and coffee. We weren't even brought waters while we waited for our drinks in the first place before even placing an order. No one came to see if the food was okay or if we needed anything else. Our waiter changed 3 times during our meal. There were two waiters when we walked in and then we looked up after 20 minutes and there were 7 people all serving and bringing played out. We had to wave and raise our hand like we were in grammar school to get their attention. It wasn't even a busy hour at all. The food wasn't bad. I had Eggs Benedict but you could notice the grease on the hollandaise sauce. I didn't mind that so much since diner food is known to be greasy and also I didn't notice it because of the terrible service. I wouldn't come back here again and specifically ignored this place since there are many other dining choices near by.
(1)
Jenny S.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner four times. Today was awful. First our soup arrived cold. Like, not even room temperature, but cold. It was returned and clearly microwaves. Gross. We didn't eat it. Next our entrees arrive (open faced fried chicken with mashed potatoes and the chicken-fried chicken breakfast.). Mediocre at best - we'll never order either again. To go, we order a peanut butter/banana malt. We waited 30 minutes to receive a malt. 30 minutes! Once received, it was not smoothly blended and has chunks of peanut butter throughout. Spending nearly $45 for lunch and a snack, and leaving wholly unsatisfied is a huge bummer. I will be calling management. It saddens me because I really wanted to love this place!
(1)
Aeliza R.
I watched construction continue on this place for a year and very eagerly awaited it's opening. The food is cheap and the quality is about on par with the price. Ordered Bitesquad and I got everything cold. My chicken quesadilla was replaced with a breakfast quesadilla (gross) and the hashbrowns were so greasy that they gave me a headache. The owners of this place ought to hire a worth while kitchen manager soon or this place is gonna close. I won't go back again unless I'm drunk and even then, there are 3 restaurants on that block that are open late.
(2)
Mike B.
Food pretty good - we had reuben, ham sandwich and french dip so typical diner fare - but the wait was WAY too long. Long time to even take our order, even longer to get actually served. Not worth the wait - only real reason to go back will be if I need food at 3 am.
(1)
Sharon R.
Always looking to support local businesses, unfortunately Nicollet Diner may not be one of them again. I went on Christmas Eve and the food we ordered was fantastic I gave a 4 star rating on the Facebook page, was very happy food wise. We ordered biscuits and gravy(they were okay,did like it was homemade) side of bacon(was nice and crispy) hashbrowns cooked perfect ,home made onion rings(not greasy- best I've had) and the Chicken and Waffles with the spicy sauce was delsih! Chicken was lightly breaded, deep fried, not overly greasy tasting. We went back to dine two weeks ago, and this visit is the reason I will not spend my money again. Biscuits and Gravy-gravy was not the same, had a strange, sour taste. I'm assuming the cooks are not consistent? Side of bacon- was semi cooked. Hasbrowns not cooked well. I decided to order the Chicken and Waffles again, since the first time they were the best tasting food. This time around, the waffle was burnt ,the chicken over fried -burnt, even the spicy gravy tasted horrid. I ordered the Frickles.$7.00 for paper thin slices of pickles that had about 3 inches of deep fried overly greasing coating on them. Only item that was tasty (not burnt, cooked the proper way)was the giant pecan pancake with fruit.I truly hope they can get better, as they are open 24/7 and the staff is very nice.
(2)
Kayla S.
I was walking by the diner yesterday and decided to stop and get some chicken strips. I received these beautiful Panko coated coconuty chicken fingers. They were delicious! Imagine my dissapointment when I order them again tonight and recieve basic sysco chicken tenders. So sad. Whoever was in the kitchen around 4 o'clock on Sunday, kudos to you. If I received food like I received on Sunday, this review would have 5 stars and probally a regular customer.
(2)
Katie L.
Let me just say- I created a yelp Account because of the awful experience I had this morning. We came in at 11:30 with a group of five, there were about 10 people waiting for tables and when we looked around the restaurant there were empty tables ready to be seated. We waited for about 15 minutes to be sat at a table that had been open the entire time. We order and our food came about AN HOUR later. The server poured water into my coffee and my food was cold after we had just waited so long. The whole process took so long I felt like I was being held captive! It took another 10 minutes to pay our ticket. The whole ordeal took about and hour and 45 minutes. I was hoping this would be a secret gem in Minneapolis but needless to say I will not be going back!
(1)
Jonathan H.
After coming here for breakfast a few times all I can say is that it is very hit and miss with everything from the service you receive to the quality of the food. sometimes the service is quick and friendly other times you may be waiting 20 minutes for an incorrect order. The food is great most of the time so long as they don't run out of what you want. They will substitute if that happens without informing you or just leave out spices, like they did with my hash browns, leaving the flavor behind. I will say that the place is new and the price is reasonable so they may improve with time.
(3)
Michael M.
After waiting for over a year for thsi business to open I was happy to see they finally had an opening date in early September 2014. Having a diner in my neighborhood would be a great thing - especialy since they have applied to the city to be open 24 hours. I had breakfast at The Nicollet Diner this morning - my first experience there. Arriving at 6:30 a.m. the restaurant was pretty quiet - one other person seated and a couple people waiting for take out orders. I sat at the counter and ordered the French Toast, one egg, side of sausage. I went with water as their orange juice was not fresh squeezed. Overall, the restaurant is a nice space, clean, well lit. It would be nice to have some wall mounted TV's in the space with a CNN on. The juke box was a cute idea - but someone did play a song while I was there and while I was on the other side of the resaturant from the juke box I could hear it clearly - however if I was sitting right by the juke box it would be way too loud - I don't want to hear loud music that early in the morning or be subject to someone elses musical selection - I think they should limit the hours the juke box can be used to mid-day to evening only and play some basic music over the speaker system. The waiter was OK - he could have been a little more upbeat, pleasant and welcoming- was very even keeled personality - must not be a morning person. For a new restaurant you should make me feel like coming back! The Food - I'm gonna have to say this was just OK and there was room for improvement for sure. Nothing I ate made me say to myself that it was satisfying or I'd want to order it again. The Syrup - was served in the dispenser cold - I really hate putting cold syrup on my hot food! The dispenser also had fingerprints on the top of it - those should have been wiped off. Please pay a visit to Perkins or Original Pancake house and see how they serve the syrup hot. The whipped butter - which I had to ask for - was also served cold and hard. It's impossible to spread cold whipped butter on your frensh toast - this should not be served like this. It should be room temperature spreadable. The Utensiles - Fork and knife wrapped in a napking were clean - however it seemed like I was using a small salad fork instead of a regular fork. My hands aren't big at all but if you have larger hands you'd struggle using this to eat your food. The French Toast - was just ok - nothing exicting about it - maybe sprinkle a little powdered sugar on it or somthing to jazz it up. It was actually a little tough to cut the french toast with my fork if you can believe that. The Sausage - two pieces, weren't that great - it was very difficult to cut a piece off with my fork along - had to use my knife, was tough meat. The counter area has electircal outlets along the edge which is great if you want to charge your phone or use a laptop. The floor appears to be the original floor and it is OK but look a little dated and at some point new flooring would really make this place look amazing. I realize this place is brand new and they may be working out the kinks at this point - hoping they do as it would be great to see great quaility food served well. I'll give it another shot at some point in the future and reevalute this new spot in Loring Park. I realize it was 6:30 in the morning when I was there but it never seemed like there was a manager on duty - if there was I couldn't determine who it was - seems like they need a manager to over see all the operation and keep things in control.
(2)
Emily C.
FOOD POISONING. iiiiick! I ordered a BLT, caesar salad, and breakfast burrito on Bite Squad, as you have to spend a minimum amount of money for delivery. I was hoping to have extra food for tomorrow, but I ended up throwing everything away. The bacon was BAD, the tomatoes smelled rancid, and the lettuce was brownish. There were basically no vegetables in the breakfast burrito - which is advertised as having onions, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Thank God Bite Squad refunded me, but it's too bad they had to take the blow for it. BARF. This is an edit the next day: barf is right. I've been in bed all day with what must be food poisoning. Won't go into details, but it's awful. I contacted them about it, and they said it could not possibly have been them. This is interesting, because I researched food poisoning online, and what they've said is absolutely untrue. Furthermore, they were unwilling to stand behind their product, which tasted disgusting. 0% customer service.
(1)
Mel R.
Have been a few times for breakfast and as long as you order bacon & hash browns to be burnt (so that they arrive cooked not raw) you'll be fine. Tried for dinner & ordered one of the burgers with a side of onion rings. Food had sat long enough before being brought to me that the burger grease had made the bun so soggy it was disintegrating and the onion rings, actually burnt, were cold. The portion was so small it fit in a fry basket. Burger sans bun wasn't too shabby and the non burnt onion rings were fine...but for a diner, teeny portions, and nothing I'd write home about? Price at $15 is pretty steep.
(3)
Megan C.
I work across the street and love stopping by for lunch or my a.m. caffeine fix. The staff are super friendly and nice and the food is wonderful. Crispy shoestring fries at lunch and fresh-roasted, delicious coffee in the morning (or afternoon, or evening)... how could you go wrong? Also, I'm into the modernized retro feel of the ambiance and decor. They even have a TouchTunes jukebox. An excellent addition to the Loring Park neighborhood!
(4)
Gina C.
The staff was attentive and fun. Great place for a lazy day lunch. The hot sandwiches were superb. Fresh mashed potatoes! The turkey was moist and tender. The meatloaf was tasty and not dry. You should give this diner a try.
(5)
Kevin S.
Went with a group of friends last night for some late night diner food. Only two waiters who happened to be the most unorganized individuals I'd ever seen. No sense of urgency. Looked like they'd never waited a table in their lives. The cook was snacking on food as he cooked but definitely needed help. We waited over an hour and still didn't get hour food. We got up to leave and tracked down the waiter who said I rang in your food but it still isn't up. We told him we had to leave and although he felt bad about it he was obviously over his head. Everyone in the restaurant was sitting and waiting on their food and it was comical to all. Why is this place even open? Is there a way to give negative stars on Yelp? I'd give it a negative eight. What a crappy experience. If you ever go here bring your own food.
(1)
Reilly H.
I had a very unpleasant experience at Nicolett Diner. First, I put two dollars in the jukebox to play some music, but they immediately turned the volume down once they saw me playing music ): I was playing top 40 hits so I don't understand why they did that. I immediately felt uncomfortable. When I sat down with me group I asked if they could turn the volume up and my server, Jerry, didn't even acknowledge my request. I ordered hashbrowns since I wasn't very hungry. When they came they were hard and not cooked all the way and didn't taste good at all ); I only ate a few bites, so Jerry asked me if they were okay. while I was telling him that they were heard he turned his back and walked away and didn't even say sorry ); why did he even ask?? It was clear our group didn't like any of the food since we left a whole cheeseburger, a basket of frickles, and hashbrowns. The waitstaff didn't seem surprised at all. I didn't appreciate the attitude I got from servers while I was just trying to be nice. The food was also not good. I think the waitstaff was treating me differently because I am gay ); or at least that's how I felt.
(1)
Autumn S.
Both my partner and I live just two blocks away from the diner and are frequent late-night goers so we're no strangers to the service or quality of the food. It's true, the service is painfully slow and even at times awkward. I never really seemed to care since the food is decent, the prices are reasonable and of course...they're open 24 hours! But last night was just plain ridiculous, we showed up around 10pm, ordered ONE vanilla malt to split and it literally took half an hour to get to our table. It wasn't even busy and none of the staff seemed to care that the service was slow. Granted we should have asked where our order was after 10 minutes, but I don't think it would have helped. Over all I like the diner and I will continue to eat and hang out there but I literally can not comprehend how they're so slow. Someone explain it to me??
(3)
Tarik H.
I end up eating here far to often because they are open 24/7. I keep hoping for better service but it keeps going from bad to terrible. I can't put into words how terrible the service is at this place, if they give you water it comes when you are half way done with your food. And the food is at best sub par. If you are hoping for anything other than an overcooked burger go elsewhere.
(1)
Jase R.
I live with my partner just a block away from the diner. I really have enjoyed watching it get better and better. The food is just the start, it's always big portions and comes out hot and quick. The jukebox is pretty fun and really can set the atmosphere. And the staff is so friendly and remembers us everytime we come in and just feels like a neighborhood diner in downtown... granted there are things here and there that pop up overall I really am loving this place..
(4)
Miguel C.
Where to begin? My GF and I were very excited to see a late night diner open up 3 blocks from our house. We thought it would be a great rival to Uptown Diner, boy were we wrong. The first time we went was for dinner and to try their burgers. My GF ordered a cheeseburger and fries and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with avocado and fried mushrooms. The food took about 15min to come out which was a little slow considering the lack of people in the place. When we got the food I began to eat it and after a few bites realized they forgot the bacon, avocado, and mushrooms!!!! All the things I paid extra for! I couldn't believe it, by the time realized it I was almost done. The server was ok, but took forever to get us the bill, but did apologize for the miss. The second time we went was for brunch. My GF ordered her fave biscuits and gravy and I ordered my fave eggs benedict. Our orders took a while to come out again and when they did i noticed my food looked odd again. Once again I began eating before I realized my food was lacking something, and it was HOLLANDAISE SAUCE!!! How the f$&k does a cook, expeditor, and waiter let that out to a customer!?!?!? Once again we left disappointed but chalked it up to being new and working the kinks out. Finally we went again just last night and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I ordered a tuna melt on wheat with a side of fruit salad. The place was dead yet our food took 20min to come out. Our server did not write any of out order down and I got my tuna melt on WHITE!? How does this keep happening to me? The salad my GF looked like it came out of bag and unappetizing. My tuna melt was bleh, once again nothing to keep me wanting to come back. But the real "winner" was the fruit salad. Normally you would serve large pieces of fruit, not here! I got finely diced melon and grapes. It looked like i was eating diced onions and it fell off my fork and it also tastes old. At the end we both looked at each other and knew this was going to be our last time going to the diner we so desperately wanted to become one of our favorites. Now all that is just the tip of the iceberg b/c this place was designed and is run so poorly. Those 2 seat tables are the most awkward places to sit and the back room has never been used for seating in my XP visiting there. The overall decor is clearly screaming that they cut corners and did not hire an expert - so i hope - it screams that it was done by someone who's friends never told him/her that they are a terrible interior decorator. The fish tank in the back, seriously? That what you invested money in?? Does nothing to improve the environment, in fact, it does the opposite. How about that bathroom sink? Wtf was that person thinking? What a joke its the most ridiculous sink I've ever seen and very awkward to use. This place needs to fire the executive chef b/c they have no clue how to run a kitchen or how to come up with traditional, yet creative menu. If your kitchen can't execute a simple fruit salad bowl you have BIG, BIG issues. The FOH mgmt needs to be re-worked to because aside from 1 or 2 servers, the rest are pretty terrible at their job. Feels like they just hired their friends to work there. I'd bet good money that this is the restauranteur's first venture on their own b/c there are so many rookie mistakes and feels very "try hard". If nothing changes I guarantee it closes its doors before its 2 yr anniversary.
(1)
Patch L.
Great newer diner... the bacon,blue and mushroom burger has been excellent.. had it a couple of times. Fresh cut fries.. never frozen. Pancakes are huge and very tasty... nice staff open 24/7 I believe.... will definitely be back
(4)
Pooks D.
Like some of the prior reviewers, I live in the area, and was excited to see this place finally open. Anyone who's tried the Bad Waitress knows how much this street could use a simple, affordable, unpretentious "diner." Unfortunately this place is too simple and cheap in their presentation, sterile, and lacked virtually any charm. And yes, as I also read below, why not throw in at least a TV or 2, maybe not all over, but so that there's some area where people who come in alone can take in some news, or a game, while they WAIT -- more on that in a moment .... First, the food: The "salsa" with the quesadilla was a little cup of salsa flavored water, with small bits of pepper and tomato, as if scooped straight from a jar of the cheapest bulk salsa you could buy at Costco. The guac was likewise some sort of bulk, whipped, vaguely-avocado flavored paste. The sausage in it looked like sliced frozen breakfast sausage. The French toast my companion ordered was absolutely the least-effort French toast I could whip up at home in 5 minutes. Which brings me to the WAIT: We arrived at maybe 12:30 on a Sunday for a late breakfast as lunch. We were seated right away (although the hostess became surly when we asked for a both on the side not in the sun, which she had to bus herself, rather unpleasantly). The waiter was incredibly nice, hard to fault him. But once we ordered, wow, our order fell into a black hole. Our malt came in 15-20 mins. It was about an hour after we ordered before our meals arrived. At that point, 2 or 3 tables around us were chatting about the wait. Two nice ladies next to us finally got up and left, after they'd waited 45 minutes, and asked the hostess, who would only say (again unpleasantly) the kitchen was working on their order. One table warned two young men who came in that if they stayed and ordered they'd better be ready to spend 45 mins to an hour waiting. There's no excuse for opening a casual, comfort-food diner, where you seem to be mostly scooping ingredients out of industrial-sized pre-prepared jars, yet can't get food to the table at a moderately-busy time in under an hour. There's a tradeoff, right -- if you're going to make me wait an hour, I assume it's because someone is actually slicing up fresh avocados, etc., and putting some care into the food. Hopefully with the number of similar reviews here they'll get their act together.
(2)
John X.
Never got to try the expanded menu. I was waited on served coffee then about 1hr later I was told my order was never put in:-( . Not a busy day not sure what the staff is smoking but service is slow as molasses. Previous time hash brows were soggy swimming in a pool of grease:-( no more for me my stomach says!
(2)
kendall M.
I live in the Loring Park neighborhood and really wish I could give this diner a positive review because I believe it could be a great addition to "Eat Street." And, I refrained from giving reviews early on to give them time to fix all that wasn't going well when the restaurant first opened. But, after my most recent visit, it became clear that the "grace" period for this place is up. From the conistent mediocre food and horrible service (do they do any sort of training for wait staff??), I can only hope the Nicollet Diner will someday be taken over by people who know how to run a restaurant.
(1)
Benjamin J.
I really wanted to like this place! I walk by several times a week and I've always been happy to see it full of customers - but now I know why it seems to be so busy.....it took us over an hour to get served our food and we sat at a booth by the window for 90 minutes while countless people walked by. Our nice server was apologetic and I understand that sometimes things happen, but reading the other Yelp reviews, this seems to be common. I also waited until today to stop by because the lighting is so harsh that I never wanted to eat there at night. Even in the day it's too sterile and trying way too hard to look like an old school diner. In truth, my expectations were not high. I was just hoping that the food would be better than Bad Waitress and I was disappointed that the food was worse than Perkin's. I'm glad we ordered cheese curds right away, even if it took 25 minutes to get them. For $8 I expected more than greasy, frozen food aisle curds. We had Chicken Fried Chicken and the Protein Omelet. The CFC was crunchy and salty in all the wrong ways. The sauce was tasty - but I was using it to mask the flavor of the chicken. And my over-easy eggs came under cooked and slimy. The PO had a strange flavor that didn't quite taste like eggs - and the bacon and sausage were of obviously low quality. Both were served with the strangest, greasiest, undercooked "hash browns" I've ever seen. One bite persuaded us to leave them alone. After an hour of waiting there our waitress offered us Fries or Onion Rings as an apology while we waited on our main course. We (wrongly) chose the Onion Rings and then they came out AFTER we got our meals! They were exactly the type of Onion Rings you would expect at an awful sports bar in an unnamed suburb. Seriously, the concept is great, the service staff is helpful and trying their best. Hopefully they can fix a few key points. I'd really hate to see this place close down, but as it stands I would never go back and would never recommend it. MANAGEMENT: - harsh lights need to go - the whole kitchen staff clearly needs to be fired and started again from scratch - the layout should be changed around (no one wants to sit at those tiny tables for 2) - The food isn't expensive, but it's not cheap either. Suck it up and take a hit in the profit margin and buy better ingredients! *hmmmm.....Looking at the other reviews - it's strange that people from Minneapolis are rating this low and people from out of town think it's wonderful.
(1)
Erik A.
I went for brunch on new years day and they weren't staffed to handle the crowd. It took over an hour to get our food and almost half the dishes came out differently than we ordered. My omelette was fine but nothing special.
(2)
Brianna K.
I came here based on the recommendation from a kindly eavesdropping stranger on the bus. Absolutely delightful and perfect for an evening dessert. Plus the onion rings were divine.
(4)
Meee E.
I arrived near 1 p.m and sat at the bar. The wait just for a menu seemed near 15-20 minutes. I ordered a pricey hamburger, and it took forever. There was only one cook and one helper in the kitchen. The place easily needs 2 cooks and one food preparer for that time of day. The burger for the price was small, but even smaller was the bun. The white onions were not cut properly to fit on the burger. The white onions were raw and strong! They should have been fried for a while on the grill. I removed 3/4 of the onions because they over-powered the burger. My dessert had healthy portions and with real fruit, but could have been better. - I went back a couple weeks later for a banana split. No problem with waiting for service this time. The banana split was brought in a tiny ceramic banana boat. They placed the banana split platter down with no napkin or a plate, so it made for a mess. They didn't offer me a napkin. I took a napkin from one of the empty malt glasses that were set up on the bar. There would be no reading the papers I brought since the banana split which was already melting when I received it (maybe it's soft serve ice cream they use) was to the brim of the platter and spilling as I ate from it. The portions were tiny and the cost of the banana split, $7.70!! I just can't bring myself to ever go back again. The place is clueless.
(2)
Bridget E.
Food was really good, prices are really good. I love the variety of food available. The decor is fun. Service was unimpressive. They were slow and unhelpful. The thing that pissed me off the most was that the server tricked us into ordering other things. She would ask 'do you want hashbrowns on the side or inside the burrito"? Without notifying us that hashbrowns were extra. This was a nice surprise when the bill came. Good food, bad service.
(2)
Kate T.
I was so excited to have a diner in the neighborhood and especially one open 24/7. The breakfast is good but a bit expensive, however I'm happy to support an independent restaurant. Tonight we decided to try dinner and both ordered burgers. After one bite, my SO noticed the wrapper was not taken off the cheese. When we alerted the waitress, she was apologetic and took the burger to have it remade. She mentioned that a manager would come to apologize but that never happened and we were still charged full price for the burger. Overall, we were left feeling disappointed with the service & food. We'll definitely stick with breakfast from now on.
(2)
Mike Y.
New business, so a wait even we see 40% of empty tables. Not because of people. NO ... Their kitchen was understaffed !!! Food was okay, nothing to brag about. During check out someone else complained. They ripped their bill apart and gave him a 20$ certificate. That was nice but can get expensive if they do not get their act together!
(1)
Jeremy B.
Worst. Service. Ever. They are clueless here. They don't know how to run the registers or do basic math. Expect to wait 20+ minutes for a to-go malt when the restaurant is completely empty. Do yourself a favor and skip this place for ANYWHERE ELSE.
(1)
Amanda C.
I've eaten here about 4 or 5 times here with my daughter as it's right around the corner from my apartment and I want to like it so much more than I do. The club sandwich is amazing, my daughter absolutely loves the chicken strips and the malts (which are divine). The service is mediocre, it all depends on which waiter/waitress you get. We've sat there at times for over 20 minutes waiting on drinks alone. It seems as though once you're food order is taken, that's pretty quick. The last time we were there I ordered the biscuits and gravy, which were cold and had very strong onions added. The food seems a little different every time we go. This is a brand spanking new business so of course there's going to be growing pains. We will continue to go in the hopes that the issues get worked out.
(3)
Cary W.
So I've been going to the Nicollet Diner probably once a week for the past month or so and it is what is it. It's reasonably priced, diner food.. I've worked my way through most of the breakfast menu and so far, the breakfast quesadilla is my favorite and for the open face sandwiches, the meatloaf is where it's at. The staff are friendly (although, a bit forget from time to time - apparently it's easy to forget about toast) and they still make some mistakes (not sure how they got scrambled from over easy), but I'm willing to overlook these things because 1. They fix it when you mention it to them and 2. Location. They're a nice addition to the neighborhood.. I just hope they continue to tighten up on their service and stick around for awhile.
(4)
Mark W.
We decided to stop into the newest downtown diner on the block. What could be more exciting? What a mistake. The staff wouldn't turn around when we asked if we could sit at the breakfast bar. Finally he turned around and snapped at us that he would check if we could sit there. Seriously? The food took 73 minutes to arrive and it wasn't even very good. As a business owner I want to tell the owners that I advise you protect your investment better than this and fix things sooner than later
(1)
Ron O.
We arrived as a party of three around noon today (Saturday) and got seated immediately. From there it went downhill as we waited over 20 minutes before anyone even took our drink order. We ordered, then waited another half-hour until, in desperation I walked up to the counter and asked for an update. It was not very busy - many tables were open so it's not just that. Something is wrong with the system here - we saw nobody expediting meals. When my omelet finally arrived, I had to ask for some jam for my English muffin. The food was nothing special - certainly not worth nearly an hour of waiting. Simple salt & pepper would have helped. We will never go back - just too many problems.
(1)
Carlyn R.
Yum. Very friendly and attentive staff. Massive portions at a reasonable price. Very clean with nice ambiance. We will be back.
(4)
Scott E.
The two stars are for the awesome design of the place that opened in September 2014. What was once a run down community center is now the latest renovation to a sketchy area. I was so excited to check this place out. The large windows allow you to see in the place. The newness is inviting. The malts and food looked good. We entered the place at 1130 pm on a Friday night. The waiter was great. Booths are large and comfy. Everything shinny clean. I asked how business was. He said spotty. I was surprised. In the next 45 minutes I understood why. We ordered the hangover breakfast. Three eggs, toast, hash browns, ham, sausage and bacon. $10. Also hot chocolate and a chocolate shake. The place was not busy. It took over thirty minutes to get our food. When it arrived the hash browns were burnt and cold, the scrambled eggs lacked any flavor, the bacon was cold und greasy and the Ham was burnt. The sausage and toast were edible. In a city that has few 24 hour late night breakfast options this has the potential to become a fixture. At this time it is not worth the effort to drive here or the risk to be in this part of the city. There is a public lot across the street. Two bucks per hour. I will check future reviews and maybe go back in a year. If the food and kitchen staff do not improve, I fear this will once again be a community center.
(2)
Jacob R.
I live near this place and have been often, the food varies as far as how it has been prepared(once the fries were amazing, the next time they were totally raw) and there aren't a lot of health conscious options, but it is a diner after all. The thing that has always been consistent for me is the staff-wonderfully friendly and attentive.
(4)
Bryce V.
Love it, great staff, food is great, plus open 24 hrs a day. Plus compared to your standard dinner, much better.
(5)
Steven W.
Very big, filling, mix of classics and new ideas. Service was friendly - they were a little short handed. If I lived here I be at this place constantly for breakfast or late-night milkshakes. Extra points for the counter Formica pattern.
(4)
Linh D.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner several times now. Initially I was not impressed but I appreciated the atmosphere of this locally owned joint. I decided, hey, it's a new business, I'll give it another chance. I did many times over, and so I can confidently say now that it is not worth your time. Diner food is simple, comforting and SATISFYING, and they just aren't up to par with my expectations. The biscuits and gravy were an embarrassment. Better burgers can be found elsewhere (it's Minneapolis!!!). The sandwiches aren't even good. My boyfriend got the BLT and had many complaints, especially about the weak ass bacon. I've tried their sandwiches as well and I have never enjoyed my experience. Their Hawaiian chicken sandwich was poorly seasoned, greasy, and just SO salty. The fries are alright, but again, better fries can be found elsewhere. I did enjoy their malts but how can you mess up a malt. The service is also a hit or miss, sometimes the servers are absolutely wonderful, and sometimes they forget you exist for 45 minutes. Their partner business, The Muffin Top Cafe, is also pretty shitty. Just avoid it altogether.
(1)
Anna L.
Overall: 2.25/5 menu: 3.6/5 - Decent. It is well laid out and matches the decor of the diner, but I think it lacks some typical diner foods. The lack pictures on the menu, and I do realize that I like overly complicated menu's but in my opinion, the do not have enough options. atmosphere: 3.4/5 - It has a good color scheme, but it feels very sterile. It feels like a combination between a hospital cafeteria, and a diner. Quality: 2/5 - The food is way too bland for my taste, excluding the malts, which are way too sugary. I have been there three times and the only item that I received that was worth the money in quantity (not quality) was the breakfast burrito/quesadilla. Staff: 1/5 - I generally try to reserve 1 stars for restaurants where the staff makes me want to get up and leave in the middle of my meal, but I've had poor service here every time I have gone. The first, even though the diner had maybe three other table to wait on, we were ignored for about 15 minutes once we were seated. The food took longer than it should have to get out, but it wasn't an incredibly long wait. The kicker is when we asked for a box we had to wait 20 minutes to get it. During that time we asked 2 other people, and our server a second time if we could get a box because the second each one left our table, the went to do something else, or sit at the counter. My boyfriend started to complain about halfway through the meal and the waiter overheard. When he asked if everything was okay, I said yes and my boyfriend stayed silent. When we went up to the cash register to pay, we heard him whisper to the gentlemen, saying we were two-faced and betting that we wouldn't tip. Which upset me because I hadn't said anything rude at that point. The second time we were there, the food took longer than it should, but again nothing to get too huffy about. However, we were served a water glass with a heavy lipstick stain around it. When we asked for a new one we were given water with a piece of food in it. The waiter was nice, but was a bit inattentive. The third time we were there we ordered a malt, and Vietnamese egg cream. It took just under half an hour for them to get the malt out to us, and they were out of banana's so we had to change our order (which reminds me, they were out of something the previous time we were there also, I just can't recall what it was) and we overheard the 'cook' asking several times how to make a malt. The Vietnamese egg cream was brought out a short while after the malt, but it had chocolate in it. I have yet to see a recipe that had chocolate; which maybe they tried to put a spin on it, but it tasted very bad with the chocolate. The waitress was not rude, but very indifferent about serving us. Price: 1.2/5 - For the quality, quantity, and service the price is horrible. I understand that they are a 24 hour diner and they probably can't always find the best help, but I had hoped at least one of my experiences would be good. another thing that irked me, was that while they say the malts/milkshakes are 4.95, you pay an additional .75 cents for each flavor, including vanilla and chocolate, so in reality it's 5.70 minimum. Seems deceitful to me.
(2)
Anthony E.
I called in to place my order and when I got there is was not even presented to the cook. The fries where COLD and the burger was ugly but tasted decent. The fries would have been good if they where at least warm. The club sandwich was great. The club sandwich was a nice size. Overall it was fair. Slightly spendy.
(3)
Richard M.
Worse breakfast i ever had too many other better diners to go to so ill never go here again and with a menu that doesnt really set it apart from anything else in town eggs were burnt on edges so half the egg is gone except for the yolk,then bacon was way undercooked and overly greasy i couldve drank it as a side but used every napkin to sop it up instead.the prices werent bad for what u think u can get but what i had it wasnt worth ten bucks and i tipped 2bucks for the waitress cause i felt bad i had to tell her about it.thank god the meters werent working cause of the federal holiday or i wouldve felt like it was more of a waste of money.do yourself a favor and go to the grocery ull save money and you will have a better meal and your stomach wont hurt afterwards like it did mine.
(1)
Sarah B.
The bf and I went here for breakfast, since we both had Friday off for once. It was delicious. The coffee and orange juice are both yummy. The breakfast burrito looked amazing, but we both ended up with a make your own skillet. They come with hash browns or home fries, two eggs, and a bread, then you pick your toppings. I got chili, avocado, tomato, cheddar and green pepper. It was awesome, I can't wait to finish it for lunch. The bf got ham, mushroom, jack cheese, and avocado, he too can't wait to finish his for lunch. It was a ton of food. It was a little greasy, but it is breakfast at a diner, so that's normal. It's also not super duper fast, so be prepared to enjoy the company of whomever you're with, which is actually really nice. They space itself is really cool, looks like a diner straight out of a movie. Everyone is very nice and the prices are totally reasonable. Plus, the whole menu looks amazing, I can't wait to try some of their sandwiches.
(4)
Nic J.
Server was annoyingly up selling, french toast was not good, the omelet was alright, hash browns were different..
(3)
Jay O.
Had dinner for the first time there tonight. Very clean and great colors. Would be nice to see more wall decor or art. Staff that I encountered err really friendly. The temperature inside the diner was a bit chilly. I noticed most people kept their coats on while dining. In order to have a comfortable and pleasurable experience, temperatures need to comfortable. The food was great and my server knew what was on the sandwich I ordered when I inquired about it. I look forward to having breakfast here on another future visit. I was surprised to hear that they are open 24 hours. What a perfect stop to get something to eat after the bars close on the weekend. I will definitely return. Prices seem appropriate to the competition.
(4)
Taylor S.
Longest breakfast wait ever! An hour is not cool! Avoid until they get their stuff together or wait forever.
(1)
Marcus K.
When I first noticed this diner a couple months ago I was excited to try it, hoping it might be a go-to breakfast spot close to my house. New Year's morning rolled around and a few friends and I needed a solid breakfast for obvious reasons and decided to check this place out. Ultimately, my experience was bad enough to create a yelp account and hopefully warn others from making the same mistake I did. Needless to say, we all wished we had gone somewhere else. The food wasn't terrible but the service and wait times were ridiculously bad. It was as if they didn't know it was New Years and were not staffed to handle any extra traffic. We waited for at least 20 minutes to get a table that was sitting open but hadn't been cleaned. Once we finally got seated we placed our orders the very first time our waiter came to the table and still waited over an hour for our food. The place wasn't even filled to capacity as there were at least 2 or 3 tables open the whole time we were there. The food wasn't anything special, lukewarm, and average priced - except the coffee. $2.50 for regular drip coffee at a diner seemed a bit steep to me. The whole ordeal was frustrating and we literally felt trapped in the restaurant because of how long everything took. We even had to wait in line to pay, which isn't the worst thing in the world but was just another example of the disorganized and slow service we experienced. There are plenty of other excellent breakfast places around, so there will not be a second review of Nicollet Diner from me.
(1)
Liz V.
Went there this past week and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a really kind and attentive server. If you're in the mood for a classic old-fashioned burger stop by here. Super cute diner decor. I will be back for breakfast!
(4)
Joseph G.
During the past week, I have needed to come over from St. Paul around dinner time a couple of times, Ate at the Nicollet on Monday and liked it so much I went back on Wednesday. Hamburgers are great and the salads even better. Service has been excellent twice and the place is really clean. Highly Recommend.
(5)
Jason S.
Great neighborhood joint within walking distance of convention center. Good beer option & real nice paninis. Cool hangout spot that locals seem to dig (& so did I).
(4)
Jason C.
The Nicollet Diner is very clean and bright. The wait staff are all very friendly, attentive, and fun. We got the cheese curds and a couple of open faced sandwiches. Everything was delicious, and the portions were large.
(5)
Vance H.
The Nicollet Diner has to stay open 24 hours because it takes them that long to fill an order. The food is just so-so . . . so, so very greasy. The breakfast skillets should come with a side of Rolaids. On a positive note, the portions are mercifully small.
(1)
Cameron A.
Great service, super clean, and decent prices. Plus they bring you those little chocolate mints when you're finished! It's a little bit more than I expected out of a diner. Eat here.
(5)
Gerlaine B.
I've tried, really I have, but I cannot make myself like this place. The decor is so painful. I understand what they were trying for, but it didn't quite make it there. The food is ok, not bad, not good, not consistent. I've been here three times now. I can't go back. I refuse. The first time, the place was pretty empty. We ordered malts & an order of fries. I got a chocolate & hot fudge malt. It was still white in color. Very disappointed, especially when I found out that I was charged $7. I also noticed something about the wait staff that was truly troubling. They all drink on the floor behind the counter. Not to mention, I look over at one point & saw one of them shoveling food into their mouths. I chalked it up to the place being new & them not realizing how gross this looks. The final time I went, we sat at the counter. Unfortunately was witness to things, in my opinion, that should not have happened. Two separate wait staff took food from the service window & shoved it in their mouths. One of the plates happened to be ours. The food fell from the plate onto the counter where it was grabbed from, but still didn't sit well with me. I really hope they get their shit together & make this place worth going back to enjoy & not an anxious experience overhearing customers upset because their waiter forget or screwed up or ate food off of their plate.
(1)
Michael M.
Went for the first time this morning for breakfast....really good, very well priced and had wonderful service. The breakfast quesadilla was over the moon delicious and very reasonably priced for such a large serving. Very much liked the hip understated decor and the retro diner feel. Jeremy, my server was smart and funny...he was not only helpful with menu choices but also quick on serving and made sure I had all I needed. It was a very nice experience and I am looking forward to trying lunch there next time.
(5)
Miguel C.
Where to begin? My GF and I were very excited to see a late night diner open up 3 blocks from our house. We thought it would be a great rival to Uptown Diner, boy were we wrong. The first time we went was for dinner and to try their burgers. My GF ordered a cheeseburger and fries and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with avocado and fried mushrooms. The food took about 15min to come out which was a little slow considering the lack of people in the place. When we got the food I began to eat it and after a few bites realized they forgot the bacon, avocado, and mushrooms!!!! All the things I paid extra for! I couldn't believe it, by the time realized it I was almost done. The server was ok, but took forever to get us the bill, but did apologize for the miss. The second time we went was for brunch. My GF ordered her fave biscuits and gravy and I ordered my fave eggs benedict. Our orders took a while to come out again and when they did i noticed my food looked odd again. Once again I began eating before I realized my food was lacking something, and it was HOLLANDAISE SAUCE!!! How the f$&k does a cook, expeditor, and waiter let that out to a customer!?!?!? Once again we left disappointed but chalked it up to being new and working the kinks out. Finally we went again just last night and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I ordered a tuna melt on wheat with a side of fruit salad. The place was dead yet our food took 20min to come out. Our server did not write any of out order down and I got my tuna melt on WHITE!? How does this keep happening to me? The salad my GF looked like it came out of bag and unappetizing. My tuna melt was bleh, once again nothing to keep me wanting to come back. But the real "winner" was the fruit salad. Normally you would serve large pieces of fruit, not here! I got finely diced melon and grapes. It looked like i was eating diced onions and it fell off my fork and it also tastes old. At the end we both looked at each other and knew this was going to be our last time going to the diner we so desperately wanted to become one of our favorites. Now all that is just the tip of the iceberg b/c this place was designed and is run so poorly. Those 2 seat tables are the most awkward places to sit and the back room has never been used for seating in my XP visiting there. The overall decor is clearly screaming that they cut corners and did not hire an expert - so i hope - it screams that it was done by someone who's friends never told him/her that they are a terrible interior decorator. The fish tank in the back, seriously? That what you invested money in?? Does nothing to improve the environment, in fact, it does the opposite. How about that bathroom sink? Wtf was that person thinking? What a joke its the most ridiculous sink I've ever seen and very awkward to use. This place needs to fire the executive chef b/c they have no clue how to run a kitchen or how to come up with traditional, yet creative menu. If your kitchen can't execute a simple fruit salad bowl you have BIG, BIG issues. The FOH mgmt needs to be re-worked to because aside from 1 or 2 servers, the rest are pretty terrible at their job. Feels like they just hired their friends to work there. I'd bet good money that this is the restauranteur's first venture on their own b/c there are so many rookie mistakes and feels very "try hard". If nothing changes I guarantee it closes its doors before its 2 yr anniversary.
(1)
Patch L.
Great newer diner... the bacon,blue and mushroom burger has been excellent.. had it a couple of times. Fresh cut fries.. never frozen. Pancakes are huge and very tasty... nice staff open 24/7 I believe.... will definitely be back
(4)
Pooks D.
Like some of the prior reviewers, I live in the area, and was excited to see this place finally open. Anyone who's tried the Bad Waitress knows how much this street could use a simple, affordable, unpretentious "diner." Unfortunately this place is too simple and cheap in their presentation, sterile, and lacked virtually any charm. And yes, as I also read below, why not throw in at least a TV or 2, maybe not all over, but so that there's some area where people who come in alone can take in some news, or a game, while they WAIT -- more on that in a moment .... First, the food: The "salsa" with the quesadilla was a little cup of salsa flavored water, with small bits of pepper and tomato, as if scooped straight from a jar of the cheapest bulk salsa you could buy at Costco. The guac was likewise some sort of bulk, whipped, vaguely-avocado flavored paste. The sausage in it looked like sliced frozen breakfast sausage. The French toast my companion ordered was absolutely the least-effort French toast I could whip up at home in 5 minutes. Which brings me to the WAIT: We arrived at maybe 12:30 on a Sunday for a late breakfast as lunch. We were seated right away (although the hostess became surly when we asked for a both on the side not in the sun, which she had to bus herself, rather unpleasantly). The waiter was incredibly nice, hard to fault him. But once we ordered, wow, our order fell into a black hole. Our malt came in 15-20 mins. It was about an hour after we ordered before our meals arrived. At that point, 2 or 3 tables around us were chatting about the wait. Two nice ladies next to us finally got up and left, after they'd waited 45 minutes, and asked the hostess, who would only say (again unpleasantly) the kitchen was working on their order. One table warned two young men who came in that if they stayed and ordered they'd better be ready to spend 45 mins to an hour waiting. There's no excuse for opening a casual, comfort-food diner, where you seem to be mostly scooping ingredients out of industrial-sized pre-prepared jars, yet can't get food to the table at a moderately-busy time in under an hour. There's a tradeoff, right -- if you're going to make me wait an hour, I assume it's because someone is actually slicing up fresh avocados, etc., and putting some care into the food. Hopefully with the number of similar reviews here they'll get their act together.
(2)
John X.
Never got to try the expanded menu. I was waited on served coffee then about 1hr later I was told my order was never put in:-( . Not a busy day not sure what the staff is smoking but service is slow as molasses. Previous time hash brows were soggy swimming in a pool of grease:-( no more for me my stomach says!
(2)
Benjamin J.
I really wanted to like this place! I walk by several times a week and I've always been happy to see it full of customers - but now I know why it seems to be so busy.....it took us over an hour to get served our food and we sat at a booth by the window for 90 minutes while countless people walked by. Our nice server was apologetic and I understand that sometimes things happen, but reading the other Yelp reviews, this seems to be common. I also waited until today to stop by because the lighting is so harsh that I never wanted to eat there at night. Even in the day it's too sterile and trying way too hard to look like an old school diner. In truth, my expectations were not high. I was just hoping that the food would be better than Bad Waitress and I was disappointed that the food was worse than Perkin's. I'm glad we ordered cheese curds right away, even if it took 25 minutes to get them. For $8 I expected more than greasy, frozen food aisle curds. We had Chicken Fried Chicken and the Protein Omelet. The CFC was crunchy and salty in all the wrong ways. The sauce was tasty - but I was using it to mask the flavor of the chicken. And my over-easy eggs came under cooked and slimy. The PO had a strange flavor that didn't quite taste like eggs - and the bacon and sausage were of obviously low quality. Both were served with the strangest, greasiest, undercooked "hash browns" I've ever seen. One bite persuaded us to leave them alone. After an hour of waiting there our waitress offered us Fries or Onion Rings as an apology while we waited on our main course. We (wrongly) chose the Onion Rings and then they came out AFTER we got our meals! They were exactly the type of Onion Rings you would expect at an awful sports bar in an unnamed suburb. Seriously, the concept is great, the service staff is helpful and trying their best. Hopefully they can fix a few key points. I'd really hate to see this place close down, but as it stands I would never go back and would never recommend it. MANAGEMENT: - harsh lights need to go - the whole kitchen staff clearly needs to be fired and started again from scratch - the layout should be changed around (no one wants to sit at those tiny tables for 2) - The food isn't expensive, but it's not cheap either. Suck it up and take a hit in the profit margin and buy better ingredients! *hmmmm.....Looking at the other reviews - it's strange that people from Minneapolis are rating this low and people from out of town think it's wonderful.
(1)
Jase R.
I live with my partner just a block away from the diner. I really have enjoyed watching it get better and better. The food is just the start, it's always big portions and comes out hot and quick. The jukebox is pretty fun and really can set the atmosphere. And the staff is so friendly and remembers us everytime we come in and just feels like a neighborhood diner in downtown... granted there are things here and there that pop up overall I really am loving this place..
(4)
Keith F.
Could be four stars. I'm on the edge on that. This is exactly what it claims to be. A 1950s diner with booths, counter stools, a jukebox, malts and a very good menu. The breakfast menu, served all day, has a fine selection of pancakes, omelets, skillets, biscuits and gravy, etc. The lunch and dinner menu starts at 11 am and features hamburgers of all kinds, hot and cold sandwiches, salads and hot open face sandwiches. Oh and don't forget the soda fountain for dessert. We had very attentive service and food came quickly. Parking is on the street but readily available. The prices are very reasonable.
(3)
Meee E.
I arrived near 1 p.m and sat at the bar. The wait just for a menu seemed near 15-20 minutes. I ordered a pricey hamburger, and it took forever. There was only one cook and one helper in the kitchen. The place easily needs 2 cooks and one food preparer for that time of day. The burger for the price was small, but even smaller was the bun. The white onions were not cut properly to fit on the burger. The white onions were raw and strong! They should have been fried for a while on the grill. I removed 3/4 of the onions because they over-powered the burger. My dessert had healthy portions and with real fruit, but could have been better. - I went back a couple weeks later for a banana split. No problem with waiting for service this time. The banana split was brought in a tiny ceramic banana boat. They placed the banana split platter down with no napkin or a plate, so it made for a mess. They didn't offer me a napkin. I took a napkin from one of the empty malt glasses that were set up on the bar. There would be no reading the papers I brought since the banana split which was already melting when I received it (maybe it's soft serve ice cream they use) was to the brim of the platter and spilling as I ate from it. The portions were tiny and the cost of the banana split, $7.70!! I just can't bring myself to ever go back again. The place is clueless.
(2)
Bridget E.
Food was really good, prices are really good. I love the variety of food available. The decor is fun. Service was unimpressive. They were slow and unhelpful. The thing that pissed me off the most was that the server tricked us into ordering other things. She would ask 'do you want hashbrowns on the side or inside the burrito"? Without notifying us that hashbrowns were extra. This was a nice surprise when the bill came. Good food, bad service.
(2)
Kate T.
I was so excited to have a diner in the neighborhood and especially one open 24/7. The breakfast is good but a bit expensive, however I'm happy to support an independent restaurant. Tonight we decided to try dinner and both ordered burgers. After one bite, my SO noticed the wrapper was not taken off the cheese. When we alerted the waitress, she was apologetic and took the burger to have it remade. She mentioned that a manager would come to apologize but that never happened and we were still charged full price for the burger. Overall, we were left feeling disappointed with the service & food. We'll definitely stick with breakfast from now on.
(2)
Mike Y.
New business, so a wait even we see 40% of empty tables. Not because of people. NO ... Their kitchen was understaffed !!! Food was okay, nothing to brag about. During check out someone else complained. They ripped their bill apart and gave him a 20$ certificate. That was nice but can get expensive if they do not get their act together!
(1)
Jeremy B.
Worst. Service. Ever. They are clueless here. They don't know how to run the registers or do basic math. Expect to wait 20+ minutes for a to-go malt when the restaurant is completely empty. Do yourself a favor and skip this place for ANYWHERE ELSE.
(1)
Amanda C.
I've eaten here about 4 or 5 times here with my daughter as it's right around the corner from my apartment and I want to like it so much more than I do. The club sandwich is amazing, my daughter absolutely loves the chicken strips and the malts (which are divine). The service is mediocre, it all depends on which waiter/waitress you get. We've sat there at times for over 20 minutes waiting on drinks alone. It seems as though once you're food order is taken, that's pretty quick. The last time we were there I ordered the biscuits and gravy, which were cold and had very strong onions added. The food seems a little different every time we go. This is a brand spanking new business so of course there's going to be growing pains. We will continue to go in the hopes that the issues get worked out.
(3)
Cary W.
So I've been going to the Nicollet Diner probably once a week for the past month or so and it is what is it. It's reasonably priced, diner food.. I've worked my way through most of the breakfast menu and so far, the breakfast quesadilla is my favorite and for the open face sandwiches, the meatloaf is where it's at. The staff are friendly (although, a bit forget from time to time - apparently it's easy to forget about toast) and they still make some mistakes (not sure how they got scrambled from over easy), but I'm willing to overlook these things because 1. They fix it when you mention it to them and 2. Location. They're a nice addition to the neighborhood.. I just hope they continue to tighten up on their service and stick around for awhile.
(4)
Mark W.
We decided to stop into the newest downtown diner on the block. What could be more exciting? What a mistake. The staff wouldn't turn around when we asked if we could sit at the breakfast bar. Finally he turned around and snapped at us that he would check if we could sit there. Seriously? The food took 73 minutes to arrive and it wasn't even very good. As a business owner I want to tell the owners that I advise you protect your investment better than this and fix things sooner than later
(1)
Ron O.
We arrived as a party of three around noon today (Saturday) and got seated immediately. From there it went downhill as we waited over 20 minutes before anyone even took our drink order. We ordered, then waited another half-hour until, in desperation I walked up to the counter and asked for an update. It was not very busy - many tables were open so it's not just that. Something is wrong with the system here - we saw nobody expediting meals. When my omelet finally arrived, I had to ask for some jam for my English muffin. The food was nothing special - certainly not worth nearly an hour of waiting. Simple salt & pepper would have helped. We will never go back - just too many problems.
(1)
Carlyn R.
Yum. Very friendly and attentive staff. Massive portions at a reasonable price. Very clean with nice ambiance. We will be back.
(4)
Scott E.
The two stars are for the awesome design of the place that opened in September 2014. What was once a run down community center is now the latest renovation to a sketchy area. I was so excited to check this place out. The large windows allow you to see in the place. The newness is inviting. The malts and food looked good. We entered the place at 1130 pm on a Friday night. The waiter was great. Booths are large and comfy. Everything shinny clean. I asked how business was. He said spotty. I was surprised. In the next 45 minutes I understood why. We ordered the hangover breakfast. Three eggs, toast, hash browns, ham, sausage and bacon. $10. Also hot chocolate and a chocolate shake. The place was not busy. It took over thirty minutes to get our food. When it arrived the hash browns were burnt and cold, the scrambled eggs lacked any flavor, the bacon was cold und greasy and the Ham was burnt. The sausage and toast were edible. In a city that has few 24 hour late night breakfast options this has the potential to become a fixture. At this time it is not worth the effort to drive here or the risk to be in this part of the city. There is a public lot across the street. Two bucks per hour. I will check future reviews and maybe go back in a year. If the food and kitchen staff do not improve, I fear this will once again be a community center.
(2)
Jacob R.
I live near this place and have been often, the food varies as far as how it has been prepared(once the fries were amazing, the next time they were totally raw) and there aren't a lot of health conscious options, but it is a diner after all. The thing that has always been consistent for me is the staff-wonderfully friendly and attentive.
(4)
Bryce V.
Love it, great staff, food is great, plus open 24 hrs a day. Plus compared to your standard dinner, much better.
(5)
Steven W.
Very big, filling, mix of classics and new ideas. Service was friendly - they were a little short handed. If I lived here I be at this place constantly for breakfast or late-night milkshakes. Extra points for the counter Formica pattern.
(4)
Linh D.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner several times now. Initially I was not impressed but I appreciated the atmosphere of this locally owned joint. I decided, hey, it's a new business, I'll give it another chance. I did many times over, and so I can confidently say now that it is not worth your time. Diner food is simple, comforting and SATISFYING, and they just aren't up to par with my expectations. The biscuits and gravy were an embarrassment. Better burgers can be found elsewhere (it's Minneapolis!!!). The sandwiches aren't even good. My boyfriend got the BLT and had many complaints, especially about the weak ass bacon. I've tried their sandwiches as well and I have never enjoyed my experience. Their Hawaiian chicken sandwich was poorly seasoned, greasy, and just SO salty. The fries are alright, but again, better fries can be found elsewhere. I did enjoy their malts but how can you mess up a malt. The service is also a hit or miss, sometimes the servers are absolutely wonderful, and sometimes they forget you exist for 45 minutes. Their partner business, The Muffin Top Cafe, is also pretty shitty. Just avoid it altogether.
(1)
Anna L.
Overall: 2.25/5 menu: 3.6/5 - Decent. It is well laid out and matches the decor of the diner, but I think it lacks some typical diner foods. The lack pictures on the menu, and I do realize that I like overly complicated menu's but in my opinion, the do not have enough options. atmosphere: 3.4/5 - It has a good color scheme, but it feels very sterile. It feels like a combination between a hospital cafeteria, and a diner. Quality: 2/5 - The food is way too bland for my taste, excluding the malts, which are way too sugary. I have been there three times and the only item that I received that was worth the money in quantity (not quality) was the breakfast burrito/quesadilla. Staff: 1/5 - I generally try to reserve 1 stars for restaurants where the staff makes me want to get up and leave in the middle of my meal, but I've had poor service here every time I have gone. The first, even though the diner had maybe three other table to wait on, we were ignored for about 15 minutes once we were seated. The food took longer than it should have to get out, but it wasn't an incredibly long wait. The kicker is when we asked for a box we had to wait 20 minutes to get it. During that time we asked 2 other people, and our server a second time if we could get a box because the second each one left our table, the went to do something else, or sit at the counter. My boyfriend started to complain about halfway through the meal and the waiter overheard. When he asked if everything was okay, I said yes and my boyfriend stayed silent. When we went up to the cash register to pay, we heard him whisper to the gentlemen, saying we were two-faced and betting that we wouldn't tip. Which upset me because I hadn't said anything rude at that point. The second time we were there, the food took longer than it should, but again nothing to get too huffy about. However, we were served a water glass with a heavy lipstick stain around it. When we asked for a new one we were given water with a piece of food in it. The waiter was nice, but was a bit inattentive. The third time we were there we ordered a malt, and Vietnamese egg cream. It took just under half an hour for them to get the malt out to us, and they were out of banana's so we had to change our order (which reminds me, they were out of something the previous time we were there also, I just can't recall what it was) and we overheard the 'cook' asking several times how to make a malt. The Vietnamese egg cream was brought out a short while after the malt, but it had chocolate in it. I have yet to see a recipe that had chocolate; which maybe they tried to put a spin on it, but it tasted very bad with the chocolate. The waitress was not rude, but very indifferent about serving us. Price: 1.2/5 - For the quality, quantity, and service the price is horrible. I understand that they are a 24 hour diner and they probably can't always find the best help, but I had hoped at least one of my experiences would be good. another thing that irked me, was that while they say the malts/milkshakes are 4.95, you pay an additional .75 cents for each flavor, including vanilla and chocolate, so in reality it's 5.70 minimum. Seems deceitful to me.
(2)
Anthony E.
I called in to place my order and when I got there is was not even presented to the cook. The fries where COLD and the burger was ugly but tasted decent. The fries would have been good if they where at least warm. The club sandwich was great. The club sandwich was a nice size. Overall it was fair. Slightly spendy.
(3)
Marcus K.
When I first noticed this diner a couple months ago I was excited to try it, hoping it might be a go-to breakfast spot close to my house. New Year's morning rolled around and a few friends and I needed a solid breakfast for obvious reasons and decided to check this place out. Ultimately, my experience was bad enough to create a yelp account and hopefully warn others from making the same mistake I did. Needless to say, we all wished we had gone somewhere else. The food wasn't terrible but the service and wait times were ridiculously bad. It was as if they didn't know it was New Years and were not staffed to handle any extra traffic. We waited for at least 20 minutes to get a table that was sitting open but hadn't been cleaned. Once we finally got seated we placed our orders the very first time our waiter came to the table and still waited over an hour for our food. The place wasn't even filled to capacity as there were at least 2 or 3 tables open the whole time we were there. The food wasn't anything special, lukewarm, and average priced - except the coffee. $2.50 for regular drip coffee at a diner seemed a bit steep to me. The whole ordeal was frustrating and we literally felt trapped in the restaurant because of how long everything took. We even had to wait in line to pay, which isn't the worst thing in the world but was just another example of the disorganized and slow service we experienced. There are plenty of other excellent breakfast places around, so there will not be a second review of Nicollet Diner from me.
(1)
Liz V.
Went there this past week and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a really kind and attentive server. If you're in the mood for a classic old-fashioned burger stop by here. Super cute diner decor. I will be back for breakfast!
(4)
Joseph G.
During the past week, I have needed to come over from St. Paul around dinner time a couple of times, Ate at the Nicollet on Monday and liked it so much I went back on Wednesday. Hamburgers are great and the salads even better. Service has been excellent twice and the place is really clean. Highly Recommend.
(5)
Jason S.
Great neighborhood joint within walking distance of convention center. Good beer option & real nice paninis. Cool hangout spot that locals seem to dig (& so did I).
(4)
Jason C.
The Nicollet Diner is very clean and bright. The wait staff are all very friendly, attentive, and fun. We got the cheese curds and a couple of open faced sandwiches. Everything was delicious, and the portions were large.
(5)
Vance H.
The Nicollet Diner has to stay open 24 hours because it takes them that long to fill an order. The food is just so-so . . . so, so very greasy. The breakfast skillets should come with a side of Rolaids. On a positive note, the portions are mercifully small.
(1)
Cameron A.
Great service, super clean, and decent prices. Plus they bring you those little chocolate mints when you're finished! It's a little bit more than I expected out of a diner. Eat here.
(5)
Gerlaine B.
I've tried, really I have, but I cannot make myself like this place. The decor is so painful. I understand what they were trying for, but it didn't quite make it there. The food is ok, not bad, not good, not consistent. I've been here three times now. I can't go back. I refuse. The first time, the place was pretty empty. We ordered malts & an order of fries. I got a chocolate & hot fudge malt. It was still white in color. Very disappointed, especially when I found out that I was charged $7. I also noticed something about the wait staff that was truly troubling. They all drink on the floor behind the counter. Not to mention, I look over at one point & saw one of them shoveling food into their mouths. I chalked it up to the place being new & them not realizing how gross this looks. The final time I went, we sat at the counter. Unfortunately was witness to things, in my opinion, that should not have happened. Two separate wait staff took food from the service window & shoved it in their mouths. One of the plates happened to be ours. The food fell from the plate onto the counter where it was grabbed from, but still didn't sit well with me. I really hope they get their shit together & make this place worth going back to enjoy & not an anxious experience overhearing customers upset because their waiter forget or screwed up or ate food off of their plate.
(1)
Michael M.
Went for the first time this morning for breakfast....really good, very well priced and had wonderful service. The breakfast quesadilla was over the moon delicious and very reasonably priced for such a large serving. Very much liked the hip understated decor and the retro diner feel. Jeremy, my server was smart and funny...he was not only helpful with menu choices but also quick on serving and made sure I had all I needed. It was a very nice experience and I am looking forward to trying lunch there next time.
Takes Reservations : No Delivery : No Take-out : Yes Accepts Credit Cards : Yes Good For : Brunch, Late Night Parking : Street Bike Parking : Yes Wheelchair Accessible : Yes Good for Kids : Yes Good for Groups : Yes Attire : Casual Ambience : Casual Noise Level : Average Alcohol : No Outdoor Seating : No Wi-Fi : Free Has TV : No Waiter Service : Yes Drive-Thru : No Caters : No
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Chris B.
Each time I've come here, the service on food have gotten worse. This morning was the last straw. The service was terrible and the food took forever to come out even though there was only 3 table with people at them in the place. The has browns were only slightly warm and my buffalo chicken sandwich was nothing special. It was supposed to have "blue cheese crumbles" on it but had sliced blue cheese on in instead. The person I went with ordered chicken and waffles which were horrible. I would't have served the plate to my dog. The waffle was soggy and limp, the chicken was extremely overcooked, and don't even get me started on the red eye gravy... It's the cheapest thing that they probably just make out of their leftovers. It's made out of syrup, orange juice, coffee, and spices the woman said. Who would want to put that on their food? It was repulsing. NEVER AGAIN! I'm not psychic but I don't think this place is going to be around much longer. I would never go back again nor will we be eating our leftovers.
(1)Lynne L.
4 words: Red Eye Country Gravy. Best I've ever had - and I'm from the south!! Their food really is incredible. I had their breakfast burrito (with sausage) 2 meals in a row. I will say that the staff is kind of grouchy and "blah" on the weekdays. HOWEVER, Timothy is the best server around! He's super honest and tends to his tables pretty attentively. My brother and I came back every day we were in Minneapolis just because of Tim!!
(5)Titi P.
Lolllll I came here at like 6 am after binge drinking and it was ok I think. Fries: Came in a ball. Like they were all stuck together to form a literal ball. Biscuits and Gravy: I remember saying they were actually "not bad" Maybe there were pancakes? Anyway, I woke up feeling like garbage. But it was not garbage at the time.
(2)Sike C.
I stopped in here for some post-bar grub last night. I'll admit I wasn't expecting much because of the mixed reviews, but I wanted to see for myself. To start, it took a bit longer than it should have to be seated. There were several guys rushing about waiting tables and another working the register. One of the wait people did acknowledge that I was waiting, but still, for how not busy it was, it seemed a little long. Once I took my seat though, I was promptly served in every way. I got water and a menu quickly. Darren (that's a guess on spelling) was very friendly and kinda funny and very quick to take my order. The food arrived FAST, which surprised me in light of the many reviews complaining of meals taking too long. The food was kinda meh (I had the All-American). It wasn't terrible; on par with what you'd get at Perkins or Embers. Overall, I wasn't wow'ed by the place, but I also didn't hate it. I would def go to this place again for some late night eats.
(3)Dillon J.
Great hash browns (order em crispy ;) and you can order espresso drinks from the place next door while your seated.
(4)Suzanne P.
With a diner I expect huge portions, cheap food or both. At The Nicollet Diner we got neither. I guess I also expect service to be quick, especially when we're there at an off hour (2:30 pm on a Sunday) and there weren't many people there at all, but maybe that's a lot to ask.... My toast was soggy with fake butter spread, the chocolate malt we ordered wasn't blended enough and the hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict appeared to be from a mix. We arrived hangry and left angry. I'm starting to think that the 2 stars I'm giving this review are quite generous. But... they're open 24 hours and in a city where there isn't a ton open late-night, that's worth one additional star. Big ups to the silver and blue sparkley booths. It was my favorite part about dining here.
(2)Jerice A.
Decent option- open 24,7! Street parking. Wings, chicken fried chicken, and grilled cheese options-great!
(3)Jonathan H.
I've been here a few times mostly for their late-night dinner. I've had breakfast there too. I had high expectations for this place, considering what was in that location before it became Nicollet Diner combined with the much-improved decor. Before it became Nicollet Diner, there were two run-down and poorly run coffee shops there. Now, the overall place and the appearance look much better. Despite this much needed improvement having been done, the experience inside is a hit and miss. Nothing there is consistent. Some waiters there are better than others. Some are friendly, some aren't. Some are on top of their game, some aren't. Sometimes, the food is good and speedy, sometimes it isn't. While the food quality is between satisfactory and outstanding, I am disappointed in the size of the plate portions compared to how much I pay. Late-night is the best time. If a waiter can be requested, I recommend requesting Zac. He is the best. He typically works nights. I do NOT recommend going anywhere near Erik. He is extremely rude (more than one occasion). He is the worst employee there by far! To their benefit, the place has always been clean, spotless, and well-organized when I have visited. I have felt comfortable there based on those good details. I love that this place is open 24 hours everyday. This is great for those who are in the area late at night and are hungry. Before this place, I always had to drive to St. Louis Park to their Perkins. That Perkins is still a good option, but it's nice that I don't have to drive that distance as an only choice. This location is especially good for those who live in Loring Park because they don't have to walk that far for a good late-night meal. Overall, when I go there, I don't expect the best of the best, judging on my past experiences. This place is best for late-night dinner, compared to the other times.
(3)Carl F.
The food was simply terrible. How do you mess up a BLT? This, I can now tell you: you lightly toast some bread that's going stale and don't put any butter or mayonnaise on it. And fries? You leave a bit of them out of the fryer and serve them with the ends still frozen. And you use a meager portion. Sysco probably charges $3 for a 5 pound bag, you should really be giving a good portion away as an included side and not charging customers extra to get fries at a diner. They got the yuppie decor, got a few yuppie menu ideas, didn't get the yuppie recipes though, but they got the yuppie prices. Service was good though, so there's that. And they were open.
(2)Sissorelle F.
I love this place. It's typical diner food so you know what you are getting, plus a few extra surprises on the menu that I wouldn't expect on the menu at a diner, so that's cool! Their cream soda is totally badass, def recommend. Besides the good tasting food the employees and management are all very nice. It is one of the most LGBT friendly places I have ever dined at and it made my girlfriend and I very comfortable. I'm not sure what most people's issues are with rating this diner so low, but I did witness a particular incident when I was eating there most recently. A woman ordered a Reuben sandwich. Now if you know what kind of meat Reubens have on them; they tend to be a pretty fatty meat compared other meats. This lady demanded that she have a LEAN Reuben. I was thinking to myself, then why not order a Rachel? But NOPE, she had to have the Diet Reuben. Well, when the food came out she got in a hissy fit with the waitress saying, "I told you I wanted lean meat!" As the waitress attempt to resolve the situation by asking her if she can bring her another one/something else the lady got hysterical and said her appetite was ruined and not to bring another piece of food in front of her ever again. The Reuben lady sat there in silence as her friend finished her burger and eventually left. I can only assume crazy people are having bad service, because you would have to be crazy not to love it here. :)
(5)Melissa L.
Reading all the Yelp reviews I was wary of coming, especially with the comments about slow/bad service. Still, my boyfriend wanted to go so we went. It's seat yourself, so that might explain being overlooked if it's busy. There were about a dozen tables occupied that night. Our server was really nice. I ordered an omelette with hash browns and Sam ordered the burger and a vanilla malt. The omelette and the malt were great. The hash browns were rubbery and bland, like they'd been cooked an hour ago and left under a light. Blech. Overall, not terrible as I imagine! They do provide a great service - 24 diner - in the middle of a neighborhood that could really use such a space. I hope they continue to improve in order to win more people over. And straighten out their hash brown game.
(3)Zachary K.
Given, we went to Nicollet Diner on New Year's day. Everyone was hungover- we were, the waiters were, probably the guys in the kitchen too. That's how New Year's day goes, and honestly I was happy to be eating breakfast with friends after being out all the night before. That said, the whole thing was a logistical nightmare. We had about 8 people. I ordered the breakfast burrito with hashbrowns outside the tortilla. Another friend and myself were served first: the hashbrowns were tucked inside of the burrito. Little detail, no big whoop. Then we waited an hour for the rest of our party to get food! Honestly, I think they gave me someone else's order. They even charged me 2.25 extra for "vegetables and cheese" which I had no recollection of ordering. Another member of our group ordered the breakfast burrito as well. When it finally came, though, it looked much different than mine. First off, they ran out of fresh salsa, so they clearly switched to something that looked straight out of a jar of Pace. He didn't even get guac or sour cream. He did get hashbrowns on the side though. Look, it was passable breakfast burrito. Not great but not bad for the price. I heard that the chicken and waffles was quite tasty, if you like those two items with nothing else accompanying them. But it just wasn't worth it for the wait and all of the mix ups. But then again, everyone was probably just hungover. At least no one got any shells in their scrambled eggs.
(2)Chris B.
Each time I've come here, the service on food have gotten worse. This morning was the last straw. The service was terrible and the food took forever to come out even though there was only 3 table with people at them in the place. The has browns were only slightly warm and my buffalo chicken sandwich was nothing special. It was supposed to have "blue cheese crumbles" on it but had sliced blue cheese on in instead. The person I went with ordered chicken and waffles which were horrible. I would't have served the plate to my dog. The waffle was soggy and limp, the chicken was extremely overcooked, and don't even get me started on the red eye gravy... It's the cheapest thing that they probably just make out of their leftovers. It's made out of syrup, orange juice, coffee, and spices the woman said. Who would want to put that on their food? It was repulsing. NEVER AGAIN! I'm not psychic but I don't think this place is going to be around much longer. I would never go back again nor will we be eating our leftovers.
(1)Erik A.
I went for brunch on new years day and they weren't staffed to handle the crowd. It took over an hour to get our food and almost half the dishes came out differently than we ordered. My omelette was fine but nothing special.
(2)Brianna K.
I came here based on the recommendation from a kindly eavesdropping stranger on the bus. Absolutely delightful and perfect for an evening dessert. Plus the onion rings were divine.
(4)Carolyn B.
I tried this place for the first time last weekend. Other than roasting in the sun at my booth (a problem I will likely long for in a couple of months), we had an enjoyable experience. The service was prompt and helpful. The menu had a number of tasty-sounding options to choose from at affordable prices. I ended up building my own omelette, while my companion built his own skillet. We threw in a pancake to satisfy our sweet tooth. Both of us were happy with our food and vowed we would be back. The one thing that was a little off for me was the atmosphere. There was good music playing, but the place itself could use some color and personalized touches. In this regard, it doesn't feel much like a real diner. Hopefully they will get more creative with the decorating as they get more established. Note that I do not mean adding TV's! I would like to see this place survive and think it has the food and service quality to make it. It just needs a little more personality to make it come alive. Oh, and adding some veggie meat options to the menu would help bring in the vegetarian crowd. Even just some Morningstar veggie sausages! Look to Modern Times or Seward Cafe for inspiration.
(4)Ali M.
Lol. Yelp removed my review for a fucking joke - so I removed the joke to appease all of the sensitive little snowflakes. Here you go. Happy reporting, Nicollet Diner employees or Yelp haters. =D Take two: I'll start this off with my biggest pet peeve of all about this place...their bacon is complete shit. It's a blight upon humanity. It is cheap, thin, and I wouldn't even use it to try and lure stray cats into my crazy cat lady clutches because it's an insult to cats who hunt and dig through garbage to survive. Fuck this bacon and the anorexic, welfare pig that made it. This is another bullshit place that can't temp meat to save their lives. The neckbeard ordered a medium rare bacon cheeseburger and received a medium well hockey puck that tasted like dried out, withered snatch. He was so mad he could barely choke down his mushy, overly salted fries. We're talking about a man who'd eat a plate of french fries off a hobo's naked corpse. But these fries offended him. I ordered the biscuits and gravy and didn't get any gravy. How does that even happen? I want what ever drugs the kitchen staff are doing. My eggs were supposed to be scrambled but ended up being spongy and tasted staler than a 3 star review of Spoon & Stable written by an entitled Elite Yelper who just "doesn't get all the hype". As a final kick in my metaphorical nutsack, the hashbrowns were so burnt and bland that I couldn't even pawn them off on the neckbeard or my neighbor's bipolar dog. Asdfghjkl. Fuck. You. If I was the owner, I'd burn this place down and try my hand at disappointing people some other way. I'm pretty sure everyone who works here hates breakfast food and burgers and the people who enjoy eating these things.
(1)Jonna N.
Went here because I love diner food and wanted to grab some food before I went to a conference. The service was horrible. I noticed constantly that the table behind us kept getting their every command fulfilled (countless refills, multiple hot meal choices and desserts orders taken down and brought to the kitchen, even hot sauce) while my friend and I sat waiting for a waiter to even come by to give us a refill of soda and coffee. We weren't even brought waters while we waited for our drinks in the first place before even placing an order. No one came to see if the food was okay or if we needed anything else. Our waiter changed 3 times during our meal. There were two waiters when we walked in and then we looked up after 20 minutes and there were 7 people all serving and bringing played out. We had to wave and raise our hand like we were in grammar school to get their attention. It wasn't even a busy hour at all. The food wasn't bad. I had Eggs Benedict but you could notice the grease on the hollandaise sauce. I didn't mind that so much since diner food is known to be greasy and also I didn't notice it because of the terrible service. I wouldn't come back here again and specifically ignored this place since there are many other dining choices near by.
(1)Jenny S.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner four times. Today was awful. First our soup arrived cold. Like, not even room temperature, but cold. It was returned and clearly microwaves. Gross. We didn't eat it. Next our entrees arrive (open faced fried chicken with mashed potatoes and the chicken-fried chicken breakfast.). Mediocre at best - we'll never order either again. To go, we order a peanut butter/banana malt. We waited 30 minutes to receive a malt. 30 minutes! Once received, it was not smoothly blended and has chunks of peanut butter throughout. Spending nearly $45 for lunch and a snack, and leaving wholly unsatisfied is a huge bummer. I will be calling management. It saddens me because I really wanted to love this place!
(1)Aeliza R.
I watched construction continue on this place for a year and very eagerly awaited it's opening. The food is cheap and the quality is about on par with the price. Ordered Bitesquad and I got everything cold. My chicken quesadilla was replaced with a breakfast quesadilla (gross) and the hashbrowns were so greasy that they gave me a headache. The owners of this place ought to hire a worth while kitchen manager soon or this place is gonna close. I won't go back again unless I'm drunk and even then, there are 3 restaurants on that block that are open late.
(2)Mike B.
Food pretty good - we had reuben, ham sandwich and french dip so typical diner fare - but the wait was WAY too long. Long time to even take our order, even longer to get actually served. Not worth the wait - only real reason to go back will be if I need food at 3 am.
(1)Sharon R.
Always looking to support local businesses, unfortunately Nicollet Diner may not be one of them again. I went on Christmas Eve and the food we ordered was fantastic I gave a 4 star rating on the Facebook page, was very happy food wise. We ordered biscuits and gravy(they were okay,did like it was homemade) side of bacon(was nice and crispy) hashbrowns cooked perfect ,home made onion rings(not greasy- best I've had) and the Chicken and Waffles with the spicy sauce was delsih! Chicken was lightly breaded, deep fried, not overly greasy tasting. We went back to dine two weeks ago, and this visit is the reason I will not spend my money again. Biscuits and Gravy-gravy was not the same, had a strange, sour taste. I'm assuming the cooks are not consistent? Side of bacon- was semi cooked. Hasbrowns not cooked well. I decided to order the Chicken and Waffles again, since the first time they were the best tasting food. This time around, the waffle was burnt ,the chicken over fried -burnt, even the spicy gravy tasted horrid. I ordered the Frickles.$7.00 for paper thin slices of pickles that had about 3 inches of deep fried overly greasing coating on them. Only item that was tasty (not burnt, cooked the proper way)was the giant pecan pancake with fruit.I truly hope they can get better, as they are open 24/7 and the staff is very nice.
(2)Kayla S.
I was walking by the diner yesterday and decided to stop and get some chicken strips. I received these beautiful Panko coated coconuty chicken fingers. They were delicious! Imagine my dissapointment when I order them again tonight and recieve basic sysco chicken tenders. So sad. Whoever was in the kitchen around 4 o'clock on Sunday, kudos to you. If I received food like I received on Sunday, this review would have 5 stars and probally a regular customer.
(2)Katie L.
Let me just say- I created a yelp Account because of the awful experience I had this morning. We came in at 11:30 with a group of five, there were about 10 people waiting for tables and when we looked around the restaurant there were empty tables ready to be seated. We waited for about 15 minutes to be sat at a table that had been open the entire time. We order and our food came about AN HOUR later. The server poured water into my coffee and my food was cold after we had just waited so long. The whole process took so long I felt like I was being held captive! It took another 10 minutes to pay our ticket. The whole ordeal took about and hour and 45 minutes. I was hoping this would be a secret gem in Minneapolis but needless to say I will not be going back!
(1)Jonathan H.
After coming here for breakfast a few times all I can say is that it is very hit and miss with everything from the service you receive to the quality of the food. sometimes the service is quick and friendly other times you may be waiting 20 minutes for an incorrect order. The food is great most of the time so long as they don't run out of what you want. They will substitute if that happens without informing you or just leave out spices, like they did with my hash browns, leaving the flavor behind. I will say that the place is new and the price is reasonable so they may improve with time.
(3)Michael M.
After waiting for over a year for thsi business to open I was happy to see they finally had an opening date in early September 2014. Having a diner in my neighborhood would be a great thing - especialy since they have applied to the city to be open 24 hours. I had breakfast at The Nicollet Diner this morning - my first experience there. Arriving at 6:30 a.m. the restaurant was pretty quiet - one other person seated and a couple people waiting for take out orders. I sat at the counter and ordered the French Toast, one egg, side of sausage. I went with water as their orange juice was not fresh squeezed. Overall, the restaurant is a nice space, clean, well lit. It would be nice to have some wall mounted TV's in the space with a CNN on. The juke box was a cute idea - but someone did play a song while I was there and while I was on the other side of the resaturant from the juke box I could hear it clearly - however if I was sitting right by the juke box it would be way too loud - I don't want to hear loud music that early in the morning or be subject to someone elses musical selection - I think they should limit the hours the juke box can be used to mid-day to evening only and play some basic music over the speaker system. The waiter was OK - he could have been a little more upbeat, pleasant and welcoming- was very even keeled personality - must not be a morning person. For a new restaurant you should make me feel like coming back! The Food - I'm gonna have to say this was just OK and there was room for improvement for sure. Nothing I ate made me say to myself that it was satisfying or I'd want to order it again. The Syrup - was served in the dispenser cold - I really hate putting cold syrup on my hot food! The dispenser also had fingerprints on the top of it - those should have been wiped off. Please pay a visit to Perkins or Original Pancake house and see how they serve the syrup hot. The whipped butter - which I had to ask for - was also served cold and hard. It's impossible to spread cold whipped butter on your frensh toast - this should not be served like this. It should be room temperature spreadable. The Utensiles - Fork and knife wrapped in a napking were clean - however it seemed like I was using a small salad fork instead of a regular fork. My hands aren't big at all but if you have larger hands you'd struggle using this to eat your food. The French Toast - was just ok - nothing exicting about it - maybe sprinkle a little powdered sugar on it or somthing to jazz it up. It was actually a little tough to cut the french toast with my fork if you can believe that. The Sausage - two pieces, weren't that great - it was very difficult to cut a piece off with my fork along - had to use my knife, was tough meat. The counter area has electircal outlets along the edge which is great if you want to charge your phone or use a laptop. The floor appears to be the original floor and it is OK but look a little dated and at some point new flooring would really make this place look amazing. I realize this place is brand new and they may be working out the kinks at this point - hoping they do as it would be great to see great quaility food served well. I'll give it another shot at some point in the future and reevalute this new spot in Loring Park. I realize it was 6:30 in the morning when I was there but it never seemed like there was a manager on duty - if there was I couldn't determine who it was - seems like they need a manager to over see all the operation and keep things in control.
(2)Emily C.
FOOD POISONING. iiiiick! I ordered a BLT, caesar salad, and breakfast burrito on Bite Squad, as you have to spend a minimum amount of money for delivery. I was hoping to have extra food for tomorrow, but I ended up throwing everything away. The bacon was BAD, the tomatoes smelled rancid, and the lettuce was brownish. There were basically no vegetables in the breakfast burrito - which is advertised as having onions, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Thank God Bite Squad refunded me, but it's too bad they had to take the blow for it. BARF. This is an edit the next day: barf is right. I've been in bed all day with what must be food poisoning. Won't go into details, but it's awful. I contacted them about it, and they said it could not possibly have been them. This is interesting, because I researched food poisoning online, and what they've said is absolutely untrue. Furthermore, they were unwilling to stand behind their product, which tasted disgusting. 0% customer service.
(1)Mel R.
Have been a few times for breakfast and as long as you order bacon & hash browns to be burnt (so that they arrive cooked not raw) you'll be fine. Tried for dinner & ordered one of the burgers with a side of onion rings. Food had sat long enough before being brought to me that the burger grease had made the bun so soggy it was disintegrating and the onion rings, actually burnt, were cold. The portion was so small it fit in a fry basket. Burger sans bun wasn't too shabby and the non burnt onion rings were fine...but for a diner, teeny portions, and nothing I'd write home about? Price at $15 is pretty steep.
(3)Megan C.
I work across the street and love stopping by for lunch or my a.m. caffeine fix. The staff are super friendly and nice and the food is wonderful. Crispy shoestring fries at lunch and fresh-roasted, delicious coffee in the morning (or afternoon, or evening)... how could you go wrong? Also, I'm into the modernized retro feel of the ambiance and decor. They even have a TouchTunes jukebox. An excellent addition to the Loring Park neighborhood!
(4)Gina C.
The staff was attentive and fun. Great place for a lazy day lunch. The hot sandwiches were superb. Fresh mashed potatoes! The turkey was moist and tender. The meatloaf was tasty and not dry. You should give this diner a try.
(5)Kevin S.
Went with a group of friends last night for some late night diner food. Only two waiters who happened to be the most unorganized individuals I'd ever seen. No sense of urgency. Looked like they'd never waited a table in their lives. The cook was snacking on food as he cooked but definitely needed help. We waited over an hour and still didn't get hour food. We got up to leave and tracked down the waiter who said I rang in your food but it still isn't up. We told him we had to leave and although he felt bad about it he was obviously over his head. Everyone in the restaurant was sitting and waiting on their food and it was comical to all. Why is this place even open? Is there a way to give negative stars on Yelp? I'd give it a negative eight. What a crappy experience. If you ever go here bring your own food.
(1)Reilly H.
I had a very unpleasant experience at Nicolett Diner. First, I put two dollars in the jukebox to play some music, but they immediately turned the volume down once they saw me playing music ): I was playing top 40 hits so I don't understand why they did that. I immediately felt uncomfortable. When I sat down with me group I asked if they could turn the volume up and my server, Jerry, didn't even acknowledge my request. I ordered hashbrowns since I wasn't very hungry. When they came they were hard and not cooked all the way and didn't taste good at all ); I only ate a few bites, so Jerry asked me if they were okay. while I was telling him that they were heard he turned his back and walked away and didn't even say sorry ); why did he even ask?? It was clear our group didn't like any of the food since we left a whole cheeseburger, a basket of frickles, and hashbrowns. The waitstaff didn't seem surprised at all. I didn't appreciate the attitude I got from servers while I was just trying to be nice. The food was also not good. I think the waitstaff was treating me differently because I am gay ); or at least that's how I felt.
(1)Autumn S.
Both my partner and I live just two blocks away from the diner and are frequent late-night goers so we're no strangers to the service or quality of the food. It's true, the service is painfully slow and even at times awkward. I never really seemed to care since the food is decent, the prices are reasonable and of course...they're open 24 hours! But last night was just plain ridiculous, we showed up around 10pm, ordered ONE vanilla malt to split and it literally took half an hour to get to our table. It wasn't even busy and none of the staff seemed to care that the service was slow. Granted we should have asked where our order was after 10 minutes, but I don't think it would have helped. Over all I like the diner and I will continue to eat and hang out there but I literally can not comprehend how they're so slow. Someone explain it to me??
(3)Tarik H.
I end up eating here far to often because they are open 24/7. I keep hoping for better service but it keeps going from bad to terrible. I can't put into words how terrible the service is at this place, if they give you water it comes when you are half way done with your food. And the food is at best sub par. If you are hoping for anything other than an overcooked burger go elsewhere.
(1)kendall M.
I live in the Loring Park neighborhood and really wish I could give this diner a positive review because I believe it could be a great addition to "Eat Street." And, I refrained from giving reviews early on to give them time to fix all that wasn't going well when the restaurant first opened. But, after my most recent visit, it became clear that the "grace" period for this place is up. From the conistent mediocre food and horrible service (do they do any sort of training for wait staff??), I can only hope the Nicollet Diner will someday be taken over by people who know how to run a restaurant.
(1)Carl F.
The food was simply terrible. How do you mess up a BLT? This, I can now tell you: you lightly toast some bread that's going stale and don't put any butter or mayonnaise on it. And fries? You leave a bit of them out of the fryer and serve them with the ends still frozen. And you use a meager portion. Sysco probably charges $3 for a 5 pound bag, you should really be giving a good portion away as an included side and not charging customers extra to get fries at a diner. They got the yuppie decor, got a few yuppie menu ideas, didn't get the yuppie recipes though, but they got the yuppie prices. Service was good though, so there's that. And they were open.
(2)Jonathan H.
I've been here a few times mostly for their late-night dinner. I've had breakfast there too. I had high expectations for this place, considering what was in that location before it became Nicollet Diner combined with the much-improved decor. Before it became Nicollet Diner, there were two run-down and poorly run coffee shops there. Now, the overall place and the appearance look much better. Despite this much needed improvement having been done, the experience inside is a hit and miss. Nothing there is consistent. Some waiters there are better than others. Some are friendly, some aren't. Some are on top of their game, some aren't. Sometimes, the food is good and speedy, sometimes it isn't. While the food quality is between satisfactory and outstanding, I am disappointed in the size of the plate portions compared to how much I pay. Late-night is the best time. If a waiter can be requested, I recommend requesting Zac. He is the best. He typically works nights. I do NOT recommend going anywhere near Erik. He is extremely rude (more than one occasion). He is the worst employee there by far! To their benefit, the place has always been clean, spotless, and well-organized when I have visited. I have felt comfortable there based on those good details. I love that this place is open 24 hours everyday. This is great for those who are in the area late at night and are hungry. Before this place, I always had to drive to St. Louis Park to their Perkins. That Perkins is still a good option, but it's nice that I don't have to drive that distance as an only choice. This location is especially good for those who live in Loring Park because they don't have to walk that far for a good late-night meal. Overall, when I go there, I don't expect the best of the best, judging on my past experiences. This place is best for late-night dinner, compared to the other times.
(3)Melissa L.
Reading all the Yelp reviews I was wary of coming, especially with the comments about slow/bad service. Still, my boyfriend wanted to go so we went. It's seat yourself, so that might explain being overlooked if it's busy. There were about a dozen tables occupied that night. Our server was really nice. I ordered an omelette with hash browns and Sam ordered the burger and a vanilla malt. The omelette and the malt were great. The hash browns were rubbery and bland, like they'd been cooked an hour ago and left under a light. Blech. Overall, not terrible as I imagine! They do provide a great service - 24 diner - in the middle of a neighborhood that could really use such a space. I hope they continue to improve in order to win more people over. And straighten out their hash brown game.
(3)Zachary K.
Given, we went to Nicollet Diner on New Year's day. Everyone was hungover- we were, the waiters were, probably the guys in the kitchen too. That's how New Year's day goes, and honestly I was happy to be eating breakfast with friends after being out all the night before. That said, the whole thing was a logistical nightmare. We had about 8 people. I ordered the breakfast burrito with hashbrowns outside the tortilla. Another friend and myself were served first: the hashbrowns were tucked inside of the burrito. Little detail, no big whoop. Then we waited an hour for the rest of our party to get food! Honestly, I think they gave me someone else's order. They even charged me 2.25 extra for "vegetables and cheese" which I had no recollection of ordering. Another member of our group ordered the breakfast burrito as well. When it finally came, though, it looked much different than mine. First off, they ran out of fresh salsa, so they clearly switched to something that looked straight out of a jar of Pace. He didn't even get guac or sour cream. He did get hashbrowns on the side though. Look, it was passable breakfast burrito. Not great but not bad for the price. I heard that the chicken and waffles was quite tasty, if you like those two items with nothing else accompanying them. But it just wasn't worth it for the wait and all of the mix ups. But then again, everyone was probably just hungover. At least no one got any shells in their scrambled eggs.
(2)Richard M.
Worse breakfast i ever had too many other better diners to go to so ill never go here again and with a menu that doesnt really set it apart from anything else in town eggs were burnt on edges so half the egg is gone except for the yolk,then bacon was way undercooked and overly greasy i couldve drank it as a side but used every napkin to sop it up instead.the prices werent bad for what u think u can get but what i had it wasnt worth ten bucks and i tipped 2bucks for the waitress cause i felt bad i had to tell her about it.thank god the meters werent working cause of the federal holiday or i wouldve felt like it was more of a waste of money.do yourself a favor and go to the grocery ull save money and you will have a better meal and your stomach wont hurt afterwards like it did mine.
(1)Sarah B.
The bf and I went here for breakfast, since we both had Friday off for once. It was delicious. The coffee and orange juice are both yummy. The breakfast burrito looked amazing, but we both ended up with a make your own skillet. They come with hash browns or home fries, two eggs, and a bread, then you pick your toppings. I got chili, avocado, tomato, cheddar and green pepper. It was awesome, I can't wait to finish it for lunch. The bf got ham, mushroom, jack cheese, and avocado, he too can't wait to finish his for lunch. It was a ton of food. It was a little greasy, but it is breakfast at a diner, so that's normal. It's also not super duper fast, so be prepared to enjoy the company of whomever you're with, which is actually really nice. They space itself is really cool, looks like a diner straight out of a movie. Everyone is very nice and the prices are totally reasonable. Plus, the whole menu looks amazing, I can't wait to try some of their sandwiches.
(4)Nic J.
Server was annoyingly up selling, french toast was not good, the omelet was alright, hash browns were different..
(3)Jay O.
Had dinner for the first time there tonight. Very clean and great colors. Would be nice to see more wall decor or art. Staff that I encountered err really friendly. The temperature inside the diner was a bit chilly. I noticed most people kept their coats on while dining. In order to have a comfortable and pleasurable experience, temperatures need to comfortable. The food was great and my server knew what was on the sandwich I ordered when I inquired about it. I look forward to having breakfast here on another future visit. I was surprised to hear that they are open 24 hours. What a perfect stop to get something to eat after the bars close on the weekend. I will definitely return. Prices seem appropriate to the competition.
(4)Taylor S.
Longest breakfast wait ever! An hour is not cool! Avoid until they get their stuff together or wait forever.
(1)Lynne L.
4 words: Red Eye Country Gravy. Best I've ever had - and I'm from the south!! Their food really is incredible. I had their breakfast burrito (with sausage) 2 meals in a row. I will say that the staff is kind of grouchy and "blah" on the weekdays. HOWEVER, Timothy is the best server around! He's super honest and tends to his tables pretty attentively. My brother and I came back every day we were in Minneapolis just because of Tim!!
(5)Titi P.
Lolllll I came here at like 6 am after binge drinking and it was ok I think. Fries: Came in a ball. Like they were all stuck together to form a literal ball. Biscuits and Gravy: I remember saying they were actually "not bad" Maybe there were pancakes? Anyway, I woke up feeling like garbage. But it was not garbage at the time.
(2)Sike C.
I stopped in here for some post-bar grub last night. I'll admit I wasn't expecting much because of the mixed reviews, but I wanted to see for myself. To start, it took a bit longer than it should have to be seated. There were several guys rushing about waiting tables and another working the register. One of the wait people did acknowledge that I was waiting, but still, for how not busy it was, it seemed a little long. Once I took my seat though, I was promptly served in every way. I got water and a menu quickly. Darren (that's a guess on spelling) was very friendly and kinda funny and very quick to take my order. The food arrived FAST, which surprised me in light of the many reviews complaining of meals taking too long. The food was kinda meh (I had the All-American). It wasn't terrible; on par with what you'd get at Perkins or Embers. Overall, I wasn't wow'ed by the place, but I also didn't hate it. I would def go to this place again for some late night eats.
(3)Dillon J.
Great hash browns (order em crispy ;) and you can order espresso drinks from the place next door while your seated.
(4)Suzanne P.
With a diner I expect huge portions, cheap food or both. At The Nicollet Diner we got neither. I guess I also expect service to be quick, especially when we're there at an off hour (2:30 pm on a Sunday) and there weren't many people there at all, but maybe that's a lot to ask.... My toast was soggy with fake butter spread, the chocolate malt we ordered wasn't blended enough and the hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict appeared to be from a mix. We arrived hangry and left angry. I'm starting to think that the 2 stars I'm giving this review are quite generous. But... they're open 24 hours and in a city where there isn't a ton open late-night, that's worth one additional star. Big ups to the silver and blue sparkley booths. It was my favorite part about dining here.
(2)Jerice A.
Decent option- open 24,7! Street parking. Wings, chicken fried chicken, and grilled cheese options-great!
(3)Sissorelle F.
I love this place. It's typical diner food so you know what you are getting, plus a few extra surprises on the menu that I wouldn't expect on the menu at a diner, so that's cool! Their cream soda is totally badass, def recommend. Besides the good tasting food the employees and management are all very nice. It is one of the most LGBT friendly places I have ever dined at and it made my girlfriend and I very comfortable. I'm not sure what most people's issues are with rating this diner so low, but I did witness a particular incident when I was eating there most recently. A woman ordered a Reuben sandwich. Now if you know what kind of meat Reubens have on them; they tend to be a pretty fatty meat compared other meats. This lady demanded that she have a LEAN Reuben. I was thinking to myself, then why not order a Rachel? But NOPE, she had to have the Diet Reuben. Well, when the food came out she got in a hissy fit with the waitress saying, "I told you I wanted lean meat!" As the waitress attempt to resolve the situation by asking her if she can bring her another one/something else the lady got hysterical and said her appetite was ruined and not to bring another piece of food in front of her ever again. The Reuben lady sat there in silence as her friend finished her burger and eventually left. I can only assume crazy people are having bad service, because you would have to be crazy not to love it here. :)
(5)Carolyn B.
I tried this place for the first time last weekend. Other than roasting in the sun at my booth (a problem I will likely long for in a couple of months), we had an enjoyable experience. The service was prompt and helpful. The menu had a number of tasty-sounding options to choose from at affordable prices. I ended up building my own omelette, while my companion built his own skillet. We threw in a pancake to satisfy our sweet tooth. Both of us were happy with our food and vowed we would be back. The one thing that was a little off for me was the atmosphere. There was good music playing, but the place itself could use some color and personalized touches. In this regard, it doesn't feel much like a real diner. Hopefully they will get more creative with the decorating as they get more established. Note that I do not mean adding TV's! I would like to see this place survive and think it has the food and service quality to make it. It just needs a little more personality to make it come alive. Oh, and adding some veggie meat options to the menu would help bring in the vegetarian crowd. Even just some Morningstar veggie sausages! Look to Modern Times or Seward Cafe for inspiration.
(4)Ali M.
Lol. Yelp removed my review for a fucking joke - so I removed the joke to appease all of the sensitive little snowflakes. Here you go. Happy reporting, Nicollet Diner employees or Yelp haters. =D Take two: I'll start this off with my biggest pet peeve of all about this place...their bacon is complete shit. It's a blight upon humanity. It is cheap, thin, and I wouldn't even use it to try and lure stray cats into my crazy cat lady clutches because it's an insult to cats who hunt and dig through garbage to survive. Fuck this bacon and the anorexic, welfare pig that made it. This is another bullshit place that can't temp meat to save their lives. The neckbeard ordered a medium rare bacon cheeseburger and received a medium well hockey puck that tasted like dried out, withered snatch. He was so mad he could barely choke down his mushy, overly salted fries. We're talking about a man who'd eat a plate of french fries off a hobo's naked corpse. But these fries offended him. I ordered the biscuits and gravy and didn't get any gravy. How does that even happen? I want what ever drugs the kitchen staff are doing. My eggs were supposed to be scrambled but ended up being spongy and tasted staler than a 3 star review of Spoon & Stable written by an entitled Elite Yelper who just "doesn't get all the hype". As a final kick in my metaphorical nutsack, the hashbrowns were so burnt and bland that I couldn't even pawn them off on the neckbeard or my neighbor's bipolar dog. Asdfghjkl. Fuck. You. If I was the owner, I'd burn this place down and try my hand at disappointing people some other way. I'm pretty sure everyone who works here hates breakfast food and burgers and the people who enjoy eating these things.
(1)Keith F.
Could be four stars. I'm on the edge on that. This is exactly what it claims to be. A 1950s diner with booths, counter stools, a jukebox, malts and a very good menu. The breakfast menu, served all day, has a fine selection of pancakes, omelets, skillets, biscuits and gravy, etc. The lunch and dinner menu starts at 11 am and features hamburgers of all kinds, hot and cold sandwiches, salads and hot open face sandwiches. Oh and don't forget the soda fountain for dessert. We had very attentive service and food came quickly. Parking is on the street but readily available. The prices are very reasonable.
(3)Jonna N.
Went here because I love diner food and wanted to grab some food before I went to a conference. The service was horrible. I noticed constantly that the table behind us kept getting their every command fulfilled (countless refills, multiple hot meal choices and desserts orders taken down and brought to the kitchen, even hot sauce) while my friend and I sat waiting for a waiter to even come by to give us a refill of soda and coffee. We weren't even brought waters while we waited for our drinks in the first place before even placing an order. No one came to see if the food was okay or if we needed anything else. Our waiter changed 3 times during our meal. There were two waiters when we walked in and then we looked up after 20 minutes and there were 7 people all serving and bringing played out. We had to wave and raise our hand like we were in grammar school to get their attention. It wasn't even a busy hour at all. The food wasn't bad. I had Eggs Benedict but you could notice the grease on the hollandaise sauce. I didn't mind that so much since diner food is known to be greasy and also I didn't notice it because of the terrible service. I wouldn't come back here again and specifically ignored this place since there are many other dining choices near by.
(1)Jenny S.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner four times. Today was awful. First our soup arrived cold. Like, not even room temperature, but cold. It was returned and clearly microwaves. Gross. We didn't eat it. Next our entrees arrive (open faced fried chicken with mashed potatoes and the chicken-fried chicken breakfast.). Mediocre at best - we'll never order either again. To go, we order a peanut butter/banana malt. We waited 30 minutes to receive a malt. 30 minutes! Once received, it was not smoothly blended and has chunks of peanut butter throughout. Spending nearly $45 for lunch and a snack, and leaving wholly unsatisfied is a huge bummer. I will be calling management. It saddens me because I really wanted to love this place!
(1)Aeliza R.
I watched construction continue on this place for a year and very eagerly awaited it's opening. The food is cheap and the quality is about on par with the price. Ordered Bitesquad and I got everything cold. My chicken quesadilla was replaced with a breakfast quesadilla (gross) and the hashbrowns were so greasy that they gave me a headache. The owners of this place ought to hire a worth while kitchen manager soon or this place is gonna close. I won't go back again unless I'm drunk and even then, there are 3 restaurants on that block that are open late.
(2)Mike B.
Food pretty good - we had reuben, ham sandwich and french dip so typical diner fare - but the wait was WAY too long. Long time to even take our order, even longer to get actually served. Not worth the wait - only real reason to go back will be if I need food at 3 am.
(1)Sharon R.
Always looking to support local businesses, unfortunately Nicollet Diner may not be one of them again. I went on Christmas Eve and the food we ordered was fantastic I gave a 4 star rating on the Facebook page, was very happy food wise. We ordered biscuits and gravy(they were okay,did like it was homemade) side of bacon(was nice and crispy) hashbrowns cooked perfect ,home made onion rings(not greasy- best I've had) and the Chicken and Waffles with the spicy sauce was delsih! Chicken was lightly breaded, deep fried, not overly greasy tasting. We went back to dine two weeks ago, and this visit is the reason I will not spend my money again. Biscuits and Gravy-gravy was not the same, had a strange, sour taste. I'm assuming the cooks are not consistent? Side of bacon- was semi cooked. Hasbrowns not cooked well. I decided to order the Chicken and Waffles again, since the first time they were the best tasting food. This time around, the waffle was burnt ,the chicken over fried -burnt, even the spicy gravy tasted horrid. I ordered the Frickles.$7.00 for paper thin slices of pickles that had about 3 inches of deep fried overly greasing coating on them. Only item that was tasty (not burnt, cooked the proper way)was the giant pecan pancake with fruit.I truly hope they can get better, as they are open 24/7 and the staff is very nice.
(2)Kayla S.
I was walking by the diner yesterday and decided to stop and get some chicken strips. I received these beautiful Panko coated coconuty chicken fingers. They were delicious! Imagine my dissapointment when I order them again tonight and recieve basic sysco chicken tenders. So sad. Whoever was in the kitchen around 4 o'clock on Sunday, kudos to you. If I received food like I received on Sunday, this review would have 5 stars and probally a regular customer.
(2)Katie L.
Let me just say- I created a yelp Account because of the awful experience I had this morning. We came in at 11:30 with a group of five, there were about 10 people waiting for tables and when we looked around the restaurant there were empty tables ready to be seated. We waited for about 15 minutes to be sat at a table that had been open the entire time. We order and our food came about AN HOUR later. The server poured water into my coffee and my food was cold after we had just waited so long. The whole process took so long I felt like I was being held captive! It took another 10 minutes to pay our ticket. The whole ordeal took about and hour and 45 minutes. I was hoping this would be a secret gem in Minneapolis but needless to say I will not be going back!
(1)Jonathan H.
After coming here for breakfast a few times all I can say is that it is very hit and miss with everything from the service you receive to the quality of the food. sometimes the service is quick and friendly other times you may be waiting 20 minutes for an incorrect order. The food is great most of the time so long as they don't run out of what you want. They will substitute if that happens without informing you or just leave out spices, like they did with my hash browns, leaving the flavor behind. I will say that the place is new and the price is reasonable so they may improve with time.
(3)Michael M.
After waiting for over a year for thsi business to open I was happy to see they finally had an opening date in early September 2014. Having a diner in my neighborhood would be a great thing - especialy since they have applied to the city to be open 24 hours. I had breakfast at The Nicollet Diner this morning - my first experience there. Arriving at 6:30 a.m. the restaurant was pretty quiet - one other person seated and a couple people waiting for take out orders. I sat at the counter and ordered the French Toast, one egg, side of sausage. I went with water as their orange juice was not fresh squeezed. Overall, the restaurant is a nice space, clean, well lit. It would be nice to have some wall mounted TV's in the space with a CNN on. The juke box was a cute idea - but someone did play a song while I was there and while I was on the other side of the resaturant from the juke box I could hear it clearly - however if I was sitting right by the juke box it would be way too loud - I don't want to hear loud music that early in the morning or be subject to someone elses musical selection - I think they should limit the hours the juke box can be used to mid-day to evening only and play some basic music over the speaker system. The waiter was OK - he could have been a little more upbeat, pleasant and welcoming- was very even keeled personality - must not be a morning person. For a new restaurant you should make me feel like coming back! The Food - I'm gonna have to say this was just OK and there was room for improvement for sure. Nothing I ate made me say to myself that it was satisfying or I'd want to order it again. The Syrup - was served in the dispenser cold - I really hate putting cold syrup on my hot food! The dispenser also had fingerprints on the top of it - those should have been wiped off. Please pay a visit to Perkins or Original Pancake house and see how they serve the syrup hot. The whipped butter - which I had to ask for - was also served cold and hard. It's impossible to spread cold whipped butter on your frensh toast - this should not be served like this. It should be room temperature spreadable. The Utensiles - Fork and knife wrapped in a napking were clean - however it seemed like I was using a small salad fork instead of a regular fork. My hands aren't big at all but if you have larger hands you'd struggle using this to eat your food. The French Toast - was just ok - nothing exicting about it - maybe sprinkle a little powdered sugar on it or somthing to jazz it up. It was actually a little tough to cut the french toast with my fork if you can believe that. The Sausage - two pieces, weren't that great - it was very difficult to cut a piece off with my fork along - had to use my knife, was tough meat. The counter area has electircal outlets along the edge which is great if you want to charge your phone or use a laptop. The floor appears to be the original floor and it is OK but look a little dated and at some point new flooring would really make this place look amazing. I realize this place is brand new and they may be working out the kinks at this point - hoping they do as it would be great to see great quaility food served well. I'll give it another shot at some point in the future and reevalute this new spot in Loring Park. I realize it was 6:30 in the morning when I was there but it never seemed like there was a manager on duty - if there was I couldn't determine who it was - seems like they need a manager to over see all the operation and keep things in control.
(2)Emily C.
FOOD POISONING. iiiiick! I ordered a BLT, caesar salad, and breakfast burrito on Bite Squad, as you have to spend a minimum amount of money for delivery. I was hoping to have extra food for tomorrow, but I ended up throwing everything away. The bacon was BAD, the tomatoes smelled rancid, and the lettuce was brownish. There were basically no vegetables in the breakfast burrito - which is advertised as having onions, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Thank God Bite Squad refunded me, but it's too bad they had to take the blow for it. BARF. This is an edit the next day: barf is right. I've been in bed all day with what must be food poisoning. Won't go into details, but it's awful. I contacted them about it, and they said it could not possibly have been them. This is interesting, because I researched food poisoning online, and what they've said is absolutely untrue. Furthermore, they were unwilling to stand behind their product, which tasted disgusting. 0% customer service.
(1)Mel R.
Have been a few times for breakfast and as long as you order bacon & hash browns to be burnt (so that they arrive cooked not raw) you'll be fine. Tried for dinner & ordered one of the burgers with a side of onion rings. Food had sat long enough before being brought to me that the burger grease had made the bun so soggy it was disintegrating and the onion rings, actually burnt, were cold. The portion was so small it fit in a fry basket. Burger sans bun wasn't too shabby and the non burnt onion rings were fine...but for a diner, teeny portions, and nothing I'd write home about? Price at $15 is pretty steep.
(3)Megan C.
I work across the street and love stopping by for lunch or my a.m. caffeine fix. The staff are super friendly and nice and the food is wonderful. Crispy shoestring fries at lunch and fresh-roasted, delicious coffee in the morning (or afternoon, or evening)... how could you go wrong? Also, I'm into the modernized retro feel of the ambiance and decor. They even have a TouchTunes jukebox. An excellent addition to the Loring Park neighborhood!
(4)Gina C.
The staff was attentive and fun. Great place for a lazy day lunch. The hot sandwiches were superb. Fresh mashed potatoes! The turkey was moist and tender. The meatloaf was tasty and not dry. You should give this diner a try.
(5)Kevin S.
Went with a group of friends last night for some late night diner food. Only two waiters who happened to be the most unorganized individuals I'd ever seen. No sense of urgency. Looked like they'd never waited a table in their lives. The cook was snacking on food as he cooked but definitely needed help. We waited over an hour and still didn't get hour food. We got up to leave and tracked down the waiter who said I rang in your food but it still isn't up. We told him we had to leave and although he felt bad about it he was obviously over his head. Everyone in the restaurant was sitting and waiting on their food and it was comical to all. Why is this place even open? Is there a way to give negative stars on Yelp? I'd give it a negative eight. What a crappy experience. If you ever go here bring your own food.
(1)Reilly H.
I had a very unpleasant experience at Nicolett Diner. First, I put two dollars in the jukebox to play some music, but they immediately turned the volume down once they saw me playing music ): I was playing top 40 hits so I don't understand why they did that. I immediately felt uncomfortable. When I sat down with me group I asked if they could turn the volume up and my server, Jerry, didn't even acknowledge my request. I ordered hashbrowns since I wasn't very hungry. When they came they were hard and not cooked all the way and didn't taste good at all ); I only ate a few bites, so Jerry asked me if they were okay. while I was telling him that they were heard he turned his back and walked away and didn't even say sorry ); why did he even ask?? It was clear our group didn't like any of the food since we left a whole cheeseburger, a basket of frickles, and hashbrowns. The waitstaff didn't seem surprised at all. I didn't appreciate the attitude I got from servers while I was just trying to be nice. The food was also not good. I think the waitstaff was treating me differently because I am gay ); or at least that's how I felt.
(1)Autumn S.
Both my partner and I live just two blocks away from the diner and are frequent late-night goers so we're no strangers to the service or quality of the food. It's true, the service is painfully slow and even at times awkward. I never really seemed to care since the food is decent, the prices are reasonable and of course...they're open 24 hours! But last night was just plain ridiculous, we showed up around 10pm, ordered ONE vanilla malt to split and it literally took half an hour to get to our table. It wasn't even busy and none of the staff seemed to care that the service was slow. Granted we should have asked where our order was after 10 minutes, but I don't think it would have helped. Over all I like the diner and I will continue to eat and hang out there but I literally can not comprehend how they're so slow. Someone explain it to me??
(3)Tarik H.
I end up eating here far to often because they are open 24/7. I keep hoping for better service but it keeps going from bad to terrible. I can't put into words how terrible the service is at this place, if they give you water it comes when you are half way done with your food. And the food is at best sub par. If you are hoping for anything other than an overcooked burger go elsewhere.
(1)Jase R.
I live with my partner just a block away from the diner. I really have enjoyed watching it get better and better. The food is just the start, it's always big portions and comes out hot and quick. The jukebox is pretty fun and really can set the atmosphere. And the staff is so friendly and remembers us everytime we come in and just feels like a neighborhood diner in downtown... granted there are things here and there that pop up overall I really am loving this place..
(4)Miguel C.
Where to begin? My GF and I were very excited to see a late night diner open up 3 blocks from our house. We thought it would be a great rival to Uptown Diner, boy were we wrong. The first time we went was for dinner and to try their burgers. My GF ordered a cheeseburger and fries and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with avocado and fried mushrooms. The food took about 15min to come out which was a little slow considering the lack of people in the place. When we got the food I began to eat it and after a few bites realized they forgot the bacon, avocado, and mushrooms!!!! All the things I paid extra for! I couldn't believe it, by the time realized it I was almost done. The server was ok, but took forever to get us the bill, but did apologize for the miss. The second time we went was for brunch. My GF ordered her fave biscuits and gravy and I ordered my fave eggs benedict. Our orders took a while to come out again and when they did i noticed my food looked odd again. Once again I began eating before I realized my food was lacking something, and it was HOLLANDAISE SAUCE!!! How the f$&k does a cook, expeditor, and waiter let that out to a customer!?!?!? Once again we left disappointed but chalked it up to being new and working the kinks out. Finally we went again just last night and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I ordered a tuna melt on wheat with a side of fruit salad. The place was dead yet our food took 20min to come out. Our server did not write any of out order down and I got my tuna melt on WHITE!? How does this keep happening to me? The salad my GF looked like it came out of bag and unappetizing. My tuna melt was bleh, once again nothing to keep me wanting to come back. But the real "winner" was the fruit salad. Normally you would serve large pieces of fruit, not here! I got finely diced melon and grapes. It looked like i was eating diced onions and it fell off my fork and it also tastes old. At the end we both looked at each other and knew this was going to be our last time going to the diner we so desperately wanted to become one of our favorites. Now all that is just the tip of the iceberg b/c this place was designed and is run so poorly. Those 2 seat tables are the most awkward places to sit and the back room has never been used for seating in my XP visiting there. The overall decor is clearly screaming that they cut corners and did not hire an expert - so i hope - it screams that it was done by someone who's friends never told him/her that they are a terrible interior decorator. The fish tank in the back, seriously? That what you invested money in?? Does nothing to improve the environment, in fact, it does the opposite. How about that bathroom sink? Wtf was that person thinking? What a joke its the most ridiculous sink I've ever seen and very awkward to use. This place needs to fire the executive chef b/c they have no clue how to run a kitchen or how to come up with traditional, yet creative menu. If your kitchen can't execute a simple fruit salad bowl you have BIG, BIG issues. The FOH mgmt needs to be re-worked to because aside from 1 or 2 servers, the rest are pretty terrible at their job. Feels like they just hired their friends to work there. I'd bet good money that this is the restauranteur's first venture on their own b/c there are so many rookie mistakes and feels very "try hard". If nothing changes I guarantee it closes its doors before its 2 yr anniversary.
(1)Patch L.
Great newer diner... the bacon,blue and mushroom burger has been excellent.. had it a couple of times. Fresh cut fries.. never frozen. Pancakes are huge and very tasty... nice staff open 24/7 I believe.... will definitely be back
(4)Pooks D.
Like some of the prior reviewers, I live in the area, and was excited to see this place finally open. Anyone who's tried the Bad Waitress knows how much this street could use a simple, affordable, unpretentious "diner." Unfortunately this place is too simple and cheap in their presentation, sterile, and lacked virtually any charm. And yes, as I also read below, why not throw in at least a TV or 2, maybe not all over, but so that there's some area where people who come in alone can take in some news, or a game, while they WAIT -- more on that in a moment .... First, the food: The "salsa" with the quesadilla was a little cup of salsa flavored water, with small bits of pepper and tomato, as if scooped straight from a jar of the cheapest bulk salsa you could buy at Costco. The guac was likewise some sort of bulk, whipped, vaguely-avocado flavored paste. The sausage in it looked like sliced frozen breakfast sausage. The French toast my companion ordered was absolutely the least-effort French toast I could whip up at home in 5 minutes. Which brings me to the WAIT: We arrived at maybe 12:30 on a Sunday for a late breakfast as lunch. We were seated right away (although the hostess became surly when we asked for a both on the side not in the sun, which she had to bus herself, rather unpleasantly). The waiter was incredibly nice, hard to fault him. But once we ordered, wow, our order fell into a black hole. Our malt came in 15-20 mins. It was about an hour after we ordered before our meals arrived. At that point, 2 or 3 tables around us were chatting about the wait. Two nice ladies next to us finally got up and left, after they'd waited 45 minutes, and asked the hostess, who would only say (again unpleasantly) the kitchen was working on their order. One table warned two young men who came in that if they stayed and ordered they'd better be ready to spend 45 mins to an hour waiting. There's no excuse for opening a casual, comfort-food diner, where you seem to be mostly scooping ingredients out of industrial-sized pre-prepared jars, yet can't get food to the table at a moderately-busy time in under an hour. There's a tradeoff, right -- if you're going to make me wait an hour, I assume it's because someone is actually slicing up fresh avocados, etc., and putting some care into the food. Hopefully with the number of similar reviews here they'll get their act together.
(2)John X.
Never got to try the expanded menu. I was waited on served coffee then about 1hr later I was told my order was never put in:-( . Not a busy day not sure what the staff is smoking but service is slow as molasses. Previous time hash brows were soggy swimming in a pool of grease:-( no more for me my stomach says!
(2)kendall M.
I live in the Loring Park neighborhood and really wish I could give this diner a positive review because I believe it could be a great addition to "Eat Street." And, I refrained from giving reviews early on to give them time to fix all that wasn't going well when the restaurant first opened. But, after my most recent visit, it became clear that the "grace" period for this place is up. From the conistent mediocre food and horrible service (do they do any sort of training for wait staff??), I can only hope the Nicollet Diner will someday be taken over by people who know how to run a restaurant.
(1)Benjamin J.
I really wanted to like this place! I walk by several times a week and I've always been happy to see it full of customers - but now I know why it seems to be so busy.....it took us over an hour to get served our food and we sat at a booth by the window for 90 minutes while countless people walked by. Our nice server was apologetic and I understand that sometimes things happen, but reading the other Yelp reviews, this seems to be common. I also waited until today to stop by because the lighting is so harsh that I never wanted to eat there at night. Even in the day it's too sterile and trying way too hard to look like an old school diner. In truth, my expectations were not high. I was just hoping that the food would be better than Bad Waitress and I was disappointed that the food was worse than Perkin's. I'm glad we ordered cheese curds right away, even if it took 25 minutes to get them. For $8 I expected more than greasy, frozen food aisle curds. We had Chicken Fried Chicken and the Protein Omelet. The CFC was crunchy and salty in all the wrong ways. The sauce was tasty - but I was using it to mask the flavor of the chicken. And my over-easy eggs came under cooked and slimy. The PO had a strange flavor that didn't quite taste like eggs - and the bacon and sausage were of obviously low quality. Both were served with the strangest, greasiest, undercooked "hash browns" I've ever seen. One bite persuaded us to leave them alone. After an hour of waiting there our waitress offered us Fries or Onion Rings as an apology while we waited on our main course. We (wrongly) chose the Onion Rings and then they came out AFTER we got our meals! They were exactly the type of Onion Rings you would expect at an awful sports bar in an unnamed suburb. Seriously, the concept is great, the service staff is helpful and trying their best. Hopefully they can fix a few key points. I'd really hate to see this place close down, but as it stands I would never go back and would never recommend it. MANAGEMENT: - harsh lights need to go - the whole kitchen staff clearly needs to be fired and started again from scratch - the layout should be changed around (no one wants to sit at those tiny tables for 2) - The food isn't expensive, but it's not cheap either. Suck it up and take a hit in the profit margin and buy better ingredients! *hmmmm.....Looking at the other reviews - it's strange that people from Minneapolis are rating this low and people from out of town think it's wonderful.
(1)Erik A.
I went for brunch on new years day and they weren't staffed to handle the crowd. It took over an hour to get our food and almost half the dishes came out differently than we ordered. My omelette was fine but nothing special.
(2)Brianna K.
I came here based on the recommendation from a kindly eavesdropping stranger on the bus. Absolutely delightful and perfect for an evening dessert. Plus the onion rings were divine.
(4)Meee E.
I arrived near 1 p.m and sat at the bar. The wait just for a menu seemed near 15-20 minutes. I ordered a pricey hamburger, and it took forever. There was only one cook and one helper in the kitchen. The place easily needs 2 cooks and one food preparer for that time of day. The burger for the price was small, but even smaller was the bun. The white onions were not cut properly to fit on the burger. The white onions were raw and strong! They should have been fried for a while on the grill. I removed 3/4 of the onions because they over-powered the burger. My dessert had healthy portions and with real fruit, but could have been better. - I went back a couple weeks later for a banana split. No problem with waiting for service this time. The banana split was brought in a tiny ceramic banana boat. They placed the banana split platter down with no napkin or a plate, so it made for a mess. They didn't offer me a napkin. I took a napkin from one of the empty malt glasses that were set up on the bar. There would be no reading the papers I brought since the banana split which was already melting when I received it (maybe it's soft serve ice cream they use) was to the brim of the platter and spilling as I ate from it. The portions were tiny and the cost of the banana split, $7.70!! I just can't bring myself to ever go back again. The place is clueless.
(2)Bridget E.
Food was really good, prices are really good. I love the variety of food available. The decor is fun. Service was unimpressive. They were slow and unhelpful. The thing that pissed me off the most was that the server tricked us into ordering other things. She would ask 'do you want hashbrowns on the side or inside the burrito"? Without notifying us that hashbrowns were extra. This was a nice surprise when the bill came. Good food, bad service.
(2)Kate T.
I was so excited to have a diner in the neighborhood and especially one open 24/7. The breakfast is good but a bit expensive, however I'm happy to support an independent restaurant. Tonight we decided to try dinner and both ordered burgers. After one bite, my SO noticed the wrapper was not taken off the cheese. When we alerted the waitress, she was apologetic and took the burger to have it remade. She mentioned that a manager would come to apologize but that never happened and we were still charged full price for the burger. Overall, we were left feeling disappointed with the service & food. We'll definitely stick with breakfast from now on.
(2)Mike Y.
New business, so a wait even we see 40% of empty tables. Not because of people. NO ... Their kitchen was understaffed !!! Food was okay, nothing to brag about. During check out someone else complained. They ripped their bill apart and gave him a 20$ certificate. That was nice but can get expensive if they do not get their act together!
(1)Jeremy B.
Worst. Service. Ever. They are clueless here. They don't know how to run the registers or do basic math. Expect to wait 20+ minutes for a to-go malt when the restaurant is completely empty. Do yourself a favor and skip this place for ANYWHERE ELSE.
(1)Amanda C.
I've eaten here about 4 or 5 times here with my daughter as it's right around the corner from my apartment and I want to like it so much more than I do. The club sandwich is amazing, my daughter absolutely loves the chicken strips and the malts (which are divine). The service is mediocre, it all depends on which waiter/waitress you get. We've sat there at times for over 20 minutes waiting on drinks alone. It seems as though once you're food order is taken, that's pretty quick. The last time we were there I ordered the biscuits and gravy, which were cold and had very strong onions added. The food seems a little different every time we go. This is a brand spanking new business so of course there's going to be growing pains. We will continue to go in the hopes that the issues get worked out.
(3)Cary W.
So I've been going to the Nicollet Diner probably once a week for the past month or so and it is what is it. It's reasonably priced, diner food.. I've worked my way through most of the breakfast menu and so far, the breakfast quesadilla is my favorite and for the open face sandwiches, the meatloaf is where it's at. The staff are friendly (although, a bit forget from time to time - apparently it's easy to forget about toast) and they still make some mistakes (not sure how they got scrambled from over easy), but I'm willing to overlook these things because 1. They fix it when you mention it to them and 2. Location. They're a nice addition to the neighborhood.. I just hope they continue to tighten up on their service and stick around for awhile.
(4)Mark W.
We decided to stop into the newest downtown diner on the block. What could be more exciting? What a mistake. The staff wouldn't turn around when we asked if we could sit at the breakfast bar. Finally he turned around and snapped at us that he would check if we could sit there. Seriously? The food took 73 minutes to arrive and it wasn't even very good. As a business owner I want to tell the owners that I advise you protect your investment better than this and fix things sooner than later
(1)Ron O.
We arrived as a party of three around noon today (Saturday) and got seated immediately. From there it went downhill as we waited over 20 minutes before anyone even took our drink order. We ordered, then waited another half-hour until, in desperation I walked up to the counter and asked for an update. It was not very busy - many tables were open so it's not just that. Something is wrong with the system here - we saw nobody expediting meals. When my omelet finally arrived, I had to ask for some jam for my English muffin. The food was nothing special - certainly not worth nearly an hour of waiting. Simple salt & pepper would have helped. We will never go back - just too many problems.
(1)Carlyn R.
Yum. Very friendly and attentive staff. Massive portions at a reasonable price. Very clean with nice ambiance. We will be back.
(4)Scott E.
The two stars are for the awesome design of the place that opened in September 2014. What was once a run down community center is now the latest renovation to a sketchy area. I was so excited to check this place out. The large windows allow you to see in the place. The newness is inviting. The malts and food looked good. We entered the place at 1130 pm on a Friday night. The waiter was great. Booths are large and comfy. Everything shinny clean. I asked how business was. He said spotty. I was surprised. In the next 45 minutes I understood why. We ordered the hangover breakfast. Three eggs, toast, hash browns, ham, sausage and bacon. $10. Also hot chocolate and a chocolate shake. The place was not busy. It took over thirty minutes to get our food. When it arrived the hash browns were burnt and cold, the scrambled eggs lacked any flavor, the bacon was cold und greasy and the Ham was burnt. The sausage and toast were edible. In a city that has few 24 hour late night breakfast options this has the potential to become a fixture. At this time it is not worth the effort to drive here or the risk to be in this part of the city. There is a public lot across the street. Two bucks per hour. I will check future reviews and maybe go back in a year. If the food and kitchen staff do not improve, I fear this will once again be a community center.
(2)Jacob R.
I live near this place and have been often, the food varies as far as how it has been prepared(once the fries were amazing, the next time they were totally raw) and there aren't a lot of health conscious options, but it is a diner after all. The thing that has always been consistent for me is the staff-wonderfully friendly and attentive.
(4)Bryce V.
Love it, great staff, food is great, plus open 24 hrs a day. Plus compared to your standard dinner, much better.
(5)Steven W.
Very big, filling, mix of classics and new ideas. Service was friendly - they were a little short handed. If I lived here I be at this place constantly for breakfast or late-night milkshakes. Extra points for the counter Formica pattern.
(4)Linh D.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner several times now. Initially I was not impressed but I appreciated the atmosphere of this locally owned joint. I decided, hey, it's a new business, I'll give it another chance. I did many times over, and so I can confidently say now that it is not worth your time. Diner food is simple, comforting and SATISFYING, and they just aren't up to par with my expectations. The biscuits and gravy were an embarrassment. Better burgers can be found elsewhere (it's Minneapolis!!!). The sandwiches aren't even good. My boyfriend got the BLT and had many complaints, especially about the weak ass bacon. I've tried their sandwiches as well and I have never enjoyed my experience. Their Hawaiian chicken sandwich was poorly seasoned, greasy, and just SO salty. The fries are alright, but again, better fries can be found elsewhere. I did enjoy their malts but how can you mess up a malt. The service is also a hit or miss, sometimes the servers are absolutely wonderful, and sometimes they forget you exist for 45 minutes. Their partner business, The Muffin Top Cafe, is also pretty shitty. Just avoid it altogether.
(1)Anna L.
Overall: 2.25/5 menu: 3.6/5 - Decent. It is well laid out and matches the decor of the diner, but I think it lacks some typical diner foods. The lack pictures on the menu, and I do realize that I like overly complicated menu's but in my opinion, the do not have enough options. atmosphere: 3.4/5 - It has a good color scheme, but it feels very sterile. It feels like a combination between a hospital cafeteria, and a diner. Quality: 2/5 - The food is way too bland for my taste, excluding the malts, which are way too sugary. I have been there three times and the only item that I received that was worth the money in quantity (not quality) was the breakfast burrito/quesadilla. Staff: 1/5 - I generally try to reserve 1 stars for restaurants where the staff makes me want to get up and leave in the middle of my meal, but I've had poor service here every time I have gone. The first, even though the diner had maybe three other table to wait on, we were ignored for about 15 minutes once we were seated. The food took longer than it should have to get out, but it wasn't an incredibly long wait. The kicker is when we asked for a box we had to wait 20 minutes to get it. During that time we asked 2 other people, and our server a second time if we could get a box because the second each one left our table, the went to do something else, or sit at the counter. My boyfriend started to complain about halfway through the meal and the waiter overheard. When he asked if everything was okay, I said yes and my boyfriend stayed silent. When we went up to the cash register to pay, we heard him whisper to the gentlemen, saying we were two-faced and betting that we wouldn't tip. Which upset me because I hadn't said anything rude at that point. The second time we were there, the food took longer than it should, but again nothing to get too huffy about. However, we were served a water glass with a heavy lipstick stain around it. When we asked for a new one we were given water with a piece of food in it. The waiter was nice, but was a bit inattentive. The third time we were there we ordered a malt, and Vietnamese egg cream. It took just under half an hour for them to get the malt out to us, and they were out of banana's so we had to change our order (which reminds me, they were out of something the previous time we were there also, I just can't recall what it was) and we overheard the 'cook' asking several times how to make a malt. The Vietnamese egg cream was brought out a short while after the malt, but it had chocolate in it. I have yet to see a recipe that had chocolate; which maybe they tried to put a spin on it, but it tasted very bad with the chocolate. The waitress was not rude, but very indifferent about serving us. Price: 1.2/5 - For the quality, quantity, and service the price is horrible. I understand that they are a 24 hour diner and they probably can't always find the best help, but I had hoped at least one of my experiences would be good. another thing that irked me, was that while they say the malts/milkshakes are 4.95, you pay an additional .75 cents for each flavor, including vanilla and chocolate, so in reality it's 5.70 minimum. Seems deceitful to me.
(2)Anthony E.
I called in to place my order and when I got there is was not even presented to the cook. The fries where COLD and the burger was ugly but tasted decent. The fries would have been good if they where at least warm. The club sandwich was great. The club sandwich was a nice size. Overall it was fair. Slightly spendy.
(3)Richard M.
Worse breakfast i ever had too many other better diners to go to so ill never go here again and with a menu that doesnt really set it apart from anything else in town eggs were burnt on edges so half the egg is gone except for the yolk,then bacon was way undercooked and overly greasy i couldve drank it as a side but used every napkin to sop it up instead.the prices werent bad for what u think u can get but what i had it wasnt worth ten bucks and i tipped 2bucks for the waitress cause i felt bad i had to tell her about it.thank god the meters werent working cause of the federal holiday or i wouldve felt like it was more of a waste of money.do yourself a favor and go to the grocery ull save money and you will have a better meal and your stomach wont hurt afterwards like it did mine.
(1)Sarah B.
The bf and I went here for breakfast, since we both had Friday off for once. It was delicious. The coffee and orange juice are both yummy. The breakfast burrito looked amazing, but we both ended up with a make your own skillet. They come with hash browns or home fries, two eggs, and a bread, then you pick your toppings. I got chili, avocado, tomato, cheddar and green pepper. It was awesome, I can't wait to finish it for lunch. The bf got ham, mushroom, jack cheese, and avocado, he too can't wait to finish his for lunch. It was a ton of food. It was a little greasy, but it is breakfast at a diner, so that's normal. It's also not super duper fast, so be prepared to enjoy the company of whomever you're with, which is actually really nice. They space itself is really cool, looks like a diner straight out of a movie. Everyone is very nice and the prices are totally reasonable. Plus, the whole menu looks amazing, I can't wait to try some of their sandwiches.
(4)Nic J.
Server was annoyingly up selling, french toast was not good, the omelet was alright, hash browns were different..
(3)Jay O.
Had dinner for the first time there tonight. Very clean and great colors. Would be nice to see more wall decor or art. Staff that I encountered err really friendly. The temperature inside the diner was a bit chilly. I noticed most people kept their coats on while dining. In order to have a comfortable and pleasurable experience, temperatures need to comfortable. The food was great and my server knew what was on the sandwich I ordered when I inquired about it. I look forward to having breakfast here on another future visit. I was surprised to hear that they are open 24 hours. What a perfect stop to get something to eat after the bars close on the weekend. I will definitely return. Prices seem appropriate to the competition.
(4)Taylor S.
Longest breakfast wait ever! An hour is not cool! Avoid until they get their stuff together or wait forever.
(1)Marcus K.
When I first noticed this diner a couple months ago I was excited to try it, hoping it might be a go-to breakfast spot close to my house. New Year's morning rolled around and a few friends and I needed a solid breakfast for obvious reasons and decided to check this place out. Ultimately, my experience was bad enough to create a yelp account and hopefully warn others from making the same mistake I did. Needless to say, we all wished we had gone somewhere else. The food wasn't terrible but the service and wait times were ridiculously bad. It was as if they didn't know it was New Years and were not staffed to handle any extra traffic. We waited for at least 20 minutes to get a table that was sitting open but hadn't been cleaned. Once we finally got seated we placed our orders the very first time our waiter came to the table and still waited over an hour for our food. The place wasn't even filled to capacity as there were at least 2 or 3 tables open the whole time we were there. The food wasn't anything special, lukewarm, and average priced - except the coffee. $2.50 for regular drip coffee at a diner seemed a bit steep to me. The whole ordeal was frustrating and we literally felt trapped in the restaurant because of how long everything took. We even had to wait in line to pay, which isn't the worst thing in the world but was just another example of the disorganized and slow service we experienced. There are plenty of other excellent breakfast places around, so there will not be a second review of Nicollet Diner from me.
(1)Liz V.
Went there this past week and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a really kind and attentive server. If you're in the mood for a classic old-fashioned burger stop by here. Super cute diner decor. I will be back for breakfast!
(4)Joseph G.
During the past week, I have needed to come over from St. Paul around dinner time a couple of times, Ate at the Nicollet on Monday and liked it so much I went back on Wednesday. Hamburgers are great and the salads even better. Service has been excellent twice and the place is really clean. Highly Recommend.
(5)Jason S.
Great neighborhood joint within walking distance of convention center. Good beer option & real nice paninis. Cool hangout spot that locals seem to dig (& so did I).
(4)Jason C.
The Nicollet Diner is very clean and bright. The wait staff are all very friendly, attentive, and fun. We got the cheese curds and a couple of open faced sandwiches. Everything was delicious, and the portions were large.
(5)Vance H.
The Nicollet Diner has to stay open 24 hours because it takes them that long to fill an order. The food is just so-so . . . so, so very greasy. The breakfast skillets should come with a side of Rolaids. On a positive note, the portions are mercifully small.
(1)Cameron A.
Great service, super clean, and decent prices. Plus they bring you those little chocolate mints when you're finished! It's a little bit more than I expected out of a diner. Eat here.
(5)Gerlaine B.
I've tried, really I have, but I cannot make myself like this place. The decor is so painful. I understand what they were trying for, but it didn't quite make it there. The food is ok, not bad, not good, not consistent. I've been here three times now. I can't go back. I refuse. The first time, the place was pretty empty. We ordered malts & an order of fries. I got a chocolate & hot fudge malt. It was still white in color. Very disappointed, especially when I found out that I was charged $7. I also noticed something about the wait staff that was truly troubling. They all drink on the floor behind the counter. Not to mention, I look over at one point & saw one of them shoveling food into their mouths. I chalked it up to the place being new & them not realizing how gross this looks. The final time I went, we sat at the counter. Unfortunately was witness to things, in my opinion, that should not have happened. Two separate wait staff took food from the service window & shoved it in their mouths. One of the plates happened to be ours. The food fell from the plate onto the counter where it was grabbed from, but still didn't sit well with me. I really hope they get their shit together & make this place worth going back to enjoy & not an anxious experience overhearing customers upset because their waiter forget or screwed up or ate food off of their plate.
(1)Michael M.
Went for the first time this morning for breakfast....really good, very well priced and had wonderful service. The breakfast quesadilla was over the moon delicious and very reasonably priced for such a large serving. Very much liked the hip understated decor and the retro diner feel. Jeremy, my server was smart and funny...he was not only helpful with menu choices but also quick on serving and made sure I had all I needed. It was a very nice experience and I am looking forward to trying lunch there next time.
(5)Miguel C.
Where to begin? My GF and I were very excited to see a late night diner open up 3 blocks from our house. We thought it would be a great rival to Uptown Diner, boy were we wrong. The first time we went was for dinner and to try their burgers. My GF ordered a cheeseburger and fries and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with avocado and fried mushrooms. The food took about 15min to come out which was a little slow considering the lack of people in the place. When we got the food I began to eat it and after a few bites realized they forgot the bacon, avocado, and mushrooms!!!! All the things I paid extra for! I couldn't believe it, by the time realized it I was almost done. The server was ok, but took forever to get us the bill, but did apologize for the miss. The second time we went was for brunch. My GF ordered her fave biscuits and gravy and I ordered my fave eggs benedict. Our orders took a while to come out again and when they did i noticed my food looked odd again. Once again I began eating before I realized my food was lacking something, and it was HOLLANDAISE SAUCE!!! How the f$&k does a cook, expeditor, and waiter let that out to a customer!?!?!? Once again we left disappointed but chalked it up to being new and working the kinks out. Finally we went again just last night and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I ordered a tuna melt on wheat with a side of fruit salad. The place was dead yet our food took 20min to come out. Our server did not write any of out order down and I got my tuna melt on WHITE!? How does this keep happening to me? The salad my GF looked like it came out of bag and unappetizing. My tuna melt was bleh, once again nothing to keep me wanting to come back. But the real "winner" was the fruit salad. Normally you would serve large pieces of fruit, not here! I got finely diced melon and grapes. It looked like i was eating diced onions and it fell off my fork and it also tastes old. At the end we both looked at each other and knew this was going to be our last time going to the diner we so desperately wanted to become one of our favorites. Now all that is just the tip of the iceberg b/c this place was designed and is run so poorly. Those 2 seat tables are the most awkward places to sit and the back room has never been used for seating in my XP visiting there. The overall decor is clearly screaming that they cut corners and did not hire an expert - so i hope - it screams that it was done by someone who's friends never told him/her that they are a terrible interior decorator. The fish tank in the back, seriously? That what you invested money in?? Does nothing to improve the environment, in fact, it does the opposite. How about that bathroom sink? Wtf was that person thinking? What a joke its the most ridiculous sink I've ever seen and very awkward to use. This place needs to fire the executive chef b/c they have no clue how to run a kitchen or how to come up with traditional, yet creative menu. If your kitchen can't execute a simple fruit salad bowl you have BIG, BIG issues. The FOH mgmt needs to be re-worked to because aside from 1 or 2 servers, the rest are pretty terrible at their job. Feels like they just hired their friends to work there. I'd bet good money that this is the restauranteur's first venture on their own b/c there are so many rookie mistakes and feels very "try hard". If nothing changes I guarantee it closes its doors before its 2 yr anniversary.
(1)Patch L.
Great newer diner... the bacon,blue and mushroom burger has been excellent.. had it a couple of times. Fresh cut fries.. never frozen. Pancakes are huge and very tasty... nice staff open 24/7 I believe.... will definitely be back
(4)Pooks D.
Like some of the prior reviewers, I live in the area, and was excited to see this place finally open. Anyone who's tried the Bad Waitress knows how much this street could use a simple, affordable, unpretentious "diner." Unfortunately this place is too simple and cheap in their presentation, sterile, and lacked virtually any charm. And yes, as I also read below, why not throw in at least a TV or 2, maybe not all over, but so that there's some area where people who come in alone can take in some news, or a game, while they WAIT -- more on that in a moment .... First, the food: The "salsa" with the quesadilla was a little cup of salsa flavored water, with small bits of pepper and tomato, as if scooped straight from a jar of the cheapest bulk salsa you could buy at Costco. The guac was likewise some sort of bulk, whipped, vaguely-avocado flavored paste. The sausage in it looked like sliced frozen breakfast sausage. The French toast my companion ordered was absolutely the least-effort French toast I could whip up at home in 5 minutes. Which brings me to the WAIT: We arrived at maybe 12:30 on a Sunday for a late breakfast as lunch. We were seated right away (although the hostess became surly when we asked for a both on the side not in the sun, which she had to bus herself, rather unpleasantly). The waiter was incredibly nice, hard to fault him. But once we ordered, wow, our order fell into a black hole. Our malt came in 15-20 mins. It was about an hour after we ordered before our meals arrived. At that point, 2 or 3 tables around us were chatting about the wait. Two nice ladies next to us finally got up and left, after they'd waited 45 minutes, and asked the hostess, who would only say (again unpleasantly) the kitchen was working on their order. One table warned two young men who came in that if they stayed and ordered they'd better be ready to spend 45 mins to an hour waiting. There's no excuse for opening a casual, comfort-food diner, where you seem to be mostly scooping ingredients out of industrial-sized pre-prepared jars, yet can't get food to the table at a moderately-busy time in under an hour. There's a tradeoff, right -- if you're going to make me wait an hour, I assume it's because someone is actually slicing up fresh avocados, etc., and putting some care into the food. Hopefully with the number of similar reviews here they'll get their act together.
(2)John X.
Never got to try the expanded menu. I was waited on served coffee then about 1hr later I was told my order was never put in:-( . Not a busy day not sure what the staff is smoking but service is slow as molasses. Previous time hash brows were soggy swimming in a pool of grease:-( no more for me my stomach says!
(2)Benjamin J.
I really wanted to like this place! I walk by several times a week and I've always been happy to see it full of customers - but now I know why it seems to be so busy.....it took us over an hour to get served our food and we sat at a booth by the window for 90 minutes while countless people walked by. Our nice server was apologetic and I understand that sometimes things happen, but reading the other Yelp reviews, this seems to be common. I also waited until today to stop by because the lighting is so harsh that I never wanted to eat there at night. Even in the day it's too sterile and trying way too hard to look like an old school diner. In truth, my expectations were not high. I was just hoping that the food would be better than Bad Waitress and I was disappointed that the food was worse than Perkin's. I'm glad we ordered cheese curds right away, even if it took 25 minutes to get them. For $8 I expected more than greasy, frozen food aisle curds. We had Chicken Fried Chicken and the Protein Omelet. The CFC was crunchy and salty in all the wrong ways. The sauce was tasty - but I was using it to mask the flavor of the chicken. And my over-easy eggs came under cooked and slimy. The PO had a strange flavor that didn't quite taste like eggs - and the bacon and sausage were of obviously low quality. Both were served with the strangest, greasiest, undercooked "hash browns" I've ever seen. One bite persuaded us to leave them alone. After an hour of waiting there our waitress offered us Fries or Onion Rings as an apology while we waited on our main course. We (wrongly) chose the Onion Rings and then they came out AFTER we got our meals! They were exactly the type of Onion Rings you would expect at an awful sports bar in an unnamed suburb. Seriously, the concept is great, the service staff is helpful and trying their best. Hopefully they can fix a few key points. I'd really hate to see this place close down, but as it stands I would never go back and would never recommend it. MANAGEMENT: - harsh lights need to go - the whole kitchen staff clearly needs to be fired and started again from scratch - the layout should be changed around (no one wants to sit at those tiny tables for 2) - The food isn't expensive, but it's not cheap either. Suck it up and take a hit in the profit margin and buy better ingredients! *hmmmm.....Looking at the other reviews - it's strange that people from Minneapolis are rating this low and people from out of town think it's wonderful.
(1)Jase R.
I live with my partner just a block away from the diner. I really have enjoyed watching it get better and better. The food is just the start, it's always big portions and comes out hot and quick. The jukebox is pretty fun and really can set the atmosphere. And the staff is so friendly and remembers us everytime we come in and just feels like a neighborhood diner in downtown... granted there are things here and there that pop up overall I really am loving this place..
(4)Keith F.
Could be four stars. I'm on the edge on that. This is exactly what it claims to be. A 1950s diner with booths, counter stools, a jukebox, malts and a very good menu. The breakfast menu, served all day, has a fine selection of pancakes, omelets, skillets, biscuits and gravy, etc. The lunch and dinner menu starts at 11 am and features hamburgers of all kinds, hot and cold sandwiches, salads and hot open face sandwiches. Oh and don't forget the soda fountain for dessert. We had very attentive service and food came quickly. Parking is on the street but readily available. The prices are very reasonable.
(3)Meee E.
I arrived near 1 p.m and sat at the bar. The wait just for a menu seemed near 15-20 minutes. I ordered a pricey hamburger, and it took forever. There was only one cook and one helper in the kitchen. The place easily needs 2 cooks and one food preparer for that time of day. The burger for the price was small, but even smaller was the bun. The white onions were not cut properly to fit on the burger. The white onions were raw and strong! They should have been fried for a while on the grill. I removed 3/4 of the onions because they over-powered the burger. My dessert had healthy portions and with real fruit, but could have been better. - I went back a couple weeks later for a banana split. No problem with waiting for service this time. The banana split was brought in a tiny ceramic banana boat. They placed the banana split platter down with no napkin or a plate, so it made for a mess. They didn't offer me a napkin. I took a napkin from one of the empty malt glasses that were set up on the bar. There would be no reading the papers I brought since the banana split which was already melting when I received it (maybe it's soft serve ice cream they use) was to the brim of the platter and spilling as I ate from it. The portions were tiny and the cost of the banana split, $7.70!! I just can't bring myself to ever go back again. The place is clueless.
(2)Bridget E.
Food was really good, prices are really good. I love the variety of food available. The decor is fun. Service was unimpressive. They were slow and unhelpful. The thing that pissed me off the most was that the server tricked us into ordering other things. She would ask 'do you want hashbrowns on the side or inside the burrito"? Without notifying us that hashbrowns were extra. This was a nice surprise when the bill came. Good food, bad service.
(2)Kate T.
I was so excited to have a diner in the neighborhood and especially one open 24/7. The breakfast is good but a bit expensive, however I'm happy to support an independent restaurant. Tonight we decided to try dinner and both ordered burgers. After one bite, my SO noticed the wrapper was not taken off the cheese. When we alerted the waitress, she was apologetic and took the burger to have it remade. She mentioned that a manager would come to apologize but that never happened and we were still charged full price for the burger. Overall, we were left feeling disappointed with the service & food. We'll definitely stick with breakfast from now on.
(2)Mike Y.
New business, so a wait even we see 40% of empty tables. Not because of people. NO ... Their kitchen was understaffed !!! Food was okay, nothing to brag about. During check out someone else complained. They ripped their bill apart and gave him a 20$ certificate. That was nice but can get expensive if they do not get their act together!
(1)Jeremy B.
Worst. Service. Ever. They are clueless here. They don't know how to run the registers or do basic math. Expect to wait 20+ minutes for a to-go malt when the restaurant is completely empty. Do yourself a favor and skip this place for ANYWHERE ELSE.
(1)Amanda C.
I've eaten here about 4 or 5 times here with my daughter as it's right around the corner from my apartment and I want to like it so much more than I do. The club sandwich is amazing, my daughter absolutely loves the chicken strips and the malts (which are divine). The service is mediocre, it all depends on which waiter/waitress you get. We've sat there at times for over 20 minutes waiting on drinks alone. It seems as though once you're food order is taken, that's pretty quick. The last time we were there I ordered the biscuits and gravy, which were cold and had very strong onions added. The food seems a little different every time we go. This is a brand spanking new business so of course there's going to be growing pains. We will continue to go in the hopes that the issues get worked out.
(3)Cary W.
So I've been going to the Nicollet Diner probably once a week for the past month or so and it is what is it. It's reasonably priced, diner food.. I've worked my way through most of the breakfast menu and so far, the breakfast quesadilla is my favorite and for the open face sandwiches, the meatloaf is where it's at. The staff are friendly (although, a bit forget from time to time - apparently it's easy to forget about toast) and they still make some mistakes (not sure how they got scrambled from over easy), but I'm willing to overlook these things because 1. They fix it when you mention it to them and 2. Location. They're a nice addition to the neighborhood.. I just hope they continue to tighten up on their service and stick around for awhile.
(4)Mark W.
We decided to stop into the newest downtown diner on the block. What could be more exciting? What a mistake. The staff wouldn't turn around when we asked if we could sit at the breakfast bar. Finally he turned around and snapped at us that he would check if we could sit there. Seriously? The food took 73 minutes to arrive and it wasn't even very good. As a business owner I want to tell the owners that I advise you protect your investment better than this and fix things sooner than later
(1)Ron O.
We arrived as a party of three around noon today (Saturday) and got seated immediately. From there it went downhill as we waited over 20 minutes before anyone even took our drink order. We ordered, then waited another half-hour until, in desperation I walked up to the counter and asked for an update. It was not very busy - many tables were open so it's not just that. Something is wrong with the system here - we saw nobody expediting meals. When my omelet finally arrived, I had to ask for some jam for my English muffin. The food was nothing special - certainly not worth nearly an hour of waiting. Simple salt & pepper would have helped. We will never go back - just too many problems.
(1)Carlyn R.
Yum. Very friendly and attentive staff. Massive portions at a reasonable price. Very clean with nice ambiance. We will be back.
(4)Scott E.
The two stars are for the awesome design of the place that opened in September 2014. What was once a run down community center is now the latest renovation to a sketchy area. I was so excited to check this place out. The large windows allow you to see in the place. The newness is inviting. The malts and food looked good. We entered the place at 1130 pm on a Friday night. The waiter was great. Booths are large and comfy. Everything shinny clean. I asked how business was. He said spotty. I was surprised. In the next 45 minutes I understood why. We ordered the hangover breakfast. Three eggs, toast, hash browns, ham, sausage and bacon. $10. Also hot chocolate and a chocolate shake. The place was not busy. It took over thirty minutes to get our food. When it arrived the hash browns were burnt and cold, the scrambled eggs lacked any flavor, the bacon was cold und greasy and the Ham was burnt. The sausage and toast were edible. In a city that has few 24 hour late night breakfast options this has the potential to become a fixture. At this time it is not worth the effort to drive here or the risk to be in this part of the city. There is a public lot across the street. Two bucks per hour. I will check future reviews and maybe go back in a year. If the food and kitchen staff do not improve, I fear this will once again be a community center.
(2)Jacob R.
I live near this place and have been often, the food varies as far as how it has been prepared(once the fries were amazing, the next time they were totally raw) and there aren't a lot of health conscious options, but it is a diner after all. The thing that has always been consistent for me is the staff-wonderfully friendly and attentive.
(4)Bryce V.
Love it, great staff, food is great, plus open 24 hrs a day. Plus compared to your standard dinner, much better.
(5)Steven W.
Very big, filling, mix of classics and new ideas. Service was friendly - they were a little short handed. If I lived here I be at this place constantly for breakfast or late-night milkshakes. Extra points for the counter Formica pattern.
(4)Linh D.
I have been to the Nicollet Diner several times now. Initially I was not impressed but I appreciated the atmosphere of this locally owned joint. I decided, hey, it's a new business, I'll give it another chance. I did many times over, and so I can confidently say now that it is not worth your time. Diner food is simple, comforting and SATISFYING, and they just aren't up to par with my expectations. The biscuits and gravy were an embarrassment. Better burgers can be found elsewhere (it's Minneapolis!!!). The sandwiches aren't even good. My boyfriend got the BLT and had many complaints, especially about the weak ass bacon. I've tried their sandwiches as well and I have never enjoyed my experience. Their Hawaiian chicken sandwich was poorly seasoned, greasy, and just SO salty. The fries are alright, but again, better fries can be found elsewhere. I did enjoy their malts but how can you mess up a malt. The service is also a hit or miss, sometimes the servers are absolutely wonderful, and sometimes they forget you exist for 45 minutes. Their partner business, The Muffin Top Cafe, is also pretty shitty. Just avoid it altogether.
(1)Anna L.
Overall: 2.25/5 menu: 3.6/5 - Decent. It is well laid out and matches the decor of the diner, but I think it lacks some typical diner foods. The lack pictures on the menu, and I do realize that I like overly complicated menu's but in my opinion, the do not have enough options. atmosphere: 3.4/5 - It has a good color scheme, but it feels very sterile. It feels like a combination between a hospital cafeteria, and a diner. Quality: 2/5 - The food is way too bland for my taste, excluding the malts, which are way too sugary. I have been there three times and the only item that I received that was worth the money in quantity (not quality) was the breakfast burrito/quesadilla. Staff: 1/5 - I generally try to reserve 1 stars for restaurants where the staff makes me want to get up and leave in the middle of my meal, but I've had poor service here every time I have gone. The first, even though the diner had maybe three other table to wait on, we were ignored for about 15 minutes once we were seated. The food took longer than it should have to get out, but it wasn't an incredibly long wait. The kicker is when we asked for a box we had to wait 20 minutes to get it. During that time we asked 2 other people, and our server a second time if we could get a box because the second each one left our table, the went to do something else, or sit at the counter. My boyfriend started to complain about halfway through the meal and the waiter overheard. When he asked if everything was okay, I said yes and my boyfriend stayed silent. When we went up to the cash register to pay, we heard him whisper to the gentlemen, saying we were two-faced and betting that we wouldn't tip. Which upset me because I hadn't said anything rude at that point. The second time we were there, the food took longer than it should, but again nothing to get too huffy about. However, we were served a water glass with a heavy lipstick stain around it. When we asked for a new one we were given water with a piece of food in it. The waiter was nice, but was a bit inattentive. The third time we were there we ordered a malt, and Vietnamese egg cream. It took just under half an hour for them to get the malt out to us, and they were out of banana's so we had to change our order (which reminds me, they were out of something the previous time we were there also, I just can't recall what it was) and we overheard the 'cook' asking several times how to make a malt. The Vietnamese egg cream was brought out a short while after the malt, but it had chocolate in it. I have yet to see a recipe that had chocolate; which maybe they tried to put a spin on it, but it tasted very bad with the chocolate. The waitress was not rude, but very indifferent about serving us. Price: 1.2/5 - For the quality, quantity, and service the price is horrible. I understand that they are a 24 hour diner and they probably can't always find the best help, but I had hoped at least one of my experiences would be good. another thing that irked me, was that while they say the malts/milkshakes are 4.95, you pay an additional .75 cents for each flavor, including vanilla and chocolate, so in reality it's 5.70 minimum. Seems deceitful to me.
(2)Anthony E.
I called in to place my order and when I got there is was not even presented to the cook. The fries where COLD and the burger was ugly but tasted decent. The fries would have been good if they where at least warm. The club sandwich was great. The club sandwich was a nice size. Overall it was fair. Slightly spendy.
(3)Marcus K.
When I first noticed this diner a couple months ago I was excited to try it, hoping it might be a go-to breakfast spot close to my house. New Year's morning rolled around and a few friends and I needed a solid breakfast for obvious reasons and decided to check this place out. Ultimately, my experience was bad enough to create a yelp account and hopefully warn others from making the same mistake I did. Needless to say, we all wished we had gone somewhere else. The food wasn't terrible but the service and wait times were ridiculously bad. It was as if they didn't know it was New Years and were not staffed to handle any extra traffic. We waited for at least 20 minutes to get a table that was sitting open but hadn't been cleaned. Once we finally got seated we placed our orders the very first time our waiter came to the table and still waited over an hour for our food. The place wasn't even filled to capacity as there were at least 2 or 3 tables open the whole time we were there. The food wasn't anything special, lukewarm, and average priced - except the coffee. $2.50 for regular drip coffee at a diner seemed a bit steep to me. The whole ordeal was frustrating and we literally felt trapped in the restaurant because of how long everything took. We even had to wait in line to pay, which isn't the worst thing in the world but was just another example of the disorganized and slow service we experienced. There are plenty of other excellent breakfast places around, so there will not be a second review of Nicollet Diner from me.
(1)Liz V.
Went there this past week and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a really kind and attentive server. If you're in the mood for a classic old-fashioned burger stop by here. Super cute diner decor. I will be back for breakfast!
(4)Joseph G.
During the past week, I have needed to come over from St. Paul around dinner time a couple of times, Ate at the Nicollet on Monday and liked it so much I went back on Wednesday. Hamburgers are great and the salads even better. Service has been excellent twice and the place is really clean. Highly Recommend.
(5)Jason S.
Great neighborhood joint within walking distance of convention center. Good beer option & real nice paninis. Cool hangout spot that locals seem to dig (& so did I).
(4)Jason C.
The Nicollet Diner is very clean and bright. The wait staff are all very friendly, attentive, and fun. We got the cheese curds and a couple of open faced sandwiches. Everything was delicious, and the portions were large.
(5)Vance H.
The Nicollet Diner has to stay open 24 hours because it takes them that long to fill an order. The food is just so-so . . . so, so very greasy. The breakfast skillets should come with a side of Rolaids. On a positive note, the portions are mercifully small.
(1)Cameron A.
Great service, super clean, and decent prices. Plus they bring you those little chocolate mints when you're finished! It's a little bit more than I expected out of a diner. Eat here.
(5)Gerlaine B.
I've tried, really I have, but I cannot make myself like this place. The decor is so painful. I understand what they were trying for, but it didn't quite make it there. The food is ok, not bad, not good, not consistent. I've been here three times now. I can't go back. I refuse. The first time, the place was pretty empty. We ordered malts & an order of fries. I got a chocolate & hot fudge malt. It was still white in color. Very disappointed, especially when I found out that I was charged $7. I also noticed something about the wait staff that was truly troubling. They all drink on the floor behind the counter. Not to mention, I look over at one point & saw one of them shoveling food into their mouths. I chalked it up to the place being new & them not realizing how gross this looks. The final time I went, we sat at the counter. Unfortunately was witness to things, in my opinion, that should not have happened. Two separate wait staff took food from the service window & shoved it in their mouths. One of the plates happened to be ours. The food fell from the plate onto the counter where it was grabbed from, but still didn't sit well with me. I really hope they get their shit together & make this place worth going back to enjoy & not an anxious experience overhearing customers upset because their waiter forget or screwed up or ate food off of their plate.
(1)Michael M.
Went for the first time this morning for breakfast....really good, very well priced and had wonderful service. The breakfast quesadilla was over the moon delicious and very reasonably priced for such a large serving. Very much liked the hip understated decor and the retro diner feel. Jeremy, my server was smart and funny...he was not only helpful with menu choices but also quick on serving and made sure I had all I needed. It was a very nice experience and I am looking forward to trying lunch there next time.
(5)