Tag Archives: downtown Minneapolis

May 21, 2016 · 8:00 am

Another review of Hell’s Kitchen, Minneapolis

It’s been a few years since I wrote my last review of this fine dining establishment so I thought I would create a new, birthday version this time. When I made the reservation to celebrate my birthday at Hell’s Kitchen they asked if we would be celebrating something so I answered “birthday”. When we checked in the hostess noted that we were celebrating a birthday and seated us with a little something with “happy birthday” on our table. This was to alert the wait staff to offer a special gift. I didn’t know they offered anything special but our waitress gave me several options of items that were on the house as their way of saying happy birthday. Well, how nice! I decided on a house wine to have with dinner. Perfect!

I always get the same thing when I come here because it is absolutely wonderful! At Hell’s Kitchen they offer breakfast items all day and the huevos rancheros are to die for! Here is how they’re described on the menu: A crisp flour tortilla layered with buttery hashbrowns, spicy black beans, soft-scrambled eggs and a 3-cheese topping baked to a golden brown. Topped with hand-chopped salsa and a dollop of sour cream. You can add all sorts of things like guacamole, bacon or avocado but I think it’s perfect without anything extra. Both Miss M and myself had the huevos rancheros while hubby had their French dip: This isn’t a standard deli-sliced French dip sandwich. At Hell’s Kitchen, we slow-roast a prime rib for hours until it’s so tender, it falls apart with a fork. We’ll serve yours piled with mounds of thin slices on a grilled ciabatta bun with plenty of roasted garlic au jus for dipping. He doesn’t get the same thing every time like I do and he’s always enjoyed every meal we’ve had there. I’m including a few photos from the great time we had last night.

the “happy birthday” doodad with my free glass of wine

Minnesota scenes placemat

Prince in front of famous mural across the street

Minnesota city names above the booths. I was surprised to learn there is an Elgin, MN! I was born in Elgin, IL.

Hell’s Kitchen Minneapolis for my birthday in May

hubby’s French dip

huevos rancheros estupendos!!

After dinner we walked across the street where the famous music mural resides on the side of the building of what used to be Schmitt Music’s headquarters. You might have seen the photo of Prince posing in front of it in the 70s, the same photo that is part of the place mats at Hell’s Kitchen in my gallery above. The music is by Ravel and according to Miss M, it’s the hardest piece to play on piano. I found another story online with more informaiton on the mural and it mentions this fact as well.

Schmitt music mural, Minneapolis

Hell’s Kitchen entrance from across the street

It was such a nice evening with great food and company. Once again, I highly recommend Hell’s Kitchen. And if you’re celebrating something, do mention it and get your freebie. They really treat you right here and I will continue to visit. Thanks Hell’s Kitchen for a wonderful birthday dinner!

I’ll leave you with a photo of downtown Minneapolis. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

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Filed under Food, Minnesota, Restaurant reviews

Tagged as downtown Minneapolis, Hell's Kitchen, Minneapolis, photography, restaurants

November 28, 2014 · 12:18 pm

not our usual Thanksgiving

But it was a fine one nonetheless!! Since we decided we weren’t going to turn on our new oven just yet due to our mice infestation issue, we opted to spend Thankgiving at a restaurant almost at the last minute. I say at the last minute because when I started looking for restaurants that were open on Thanksgiving less than two weeks ago, some had already filled up! And in the 2-4 hours that I started looking then booked our reservation, more reservation spots had filled up at Fire Lake Grill House. A few days later a co-worker suggested Windows on Minnesota, which is atop the Marquette Hotel, also in downtown Minneapolis. He said it was an excellent buffet and the views are fabulous. I never could get in touch with anyone there. Each time I tried I got a voicemail box and I didn’t leave a message. It was probably about $5 more than the meal we had and from the sounds of it, it may have been a better meal choice? I might consider Windows on Minnesota next year, we’ll see.

For nearly our entire married life, I have planned and cooked (and cleaned up after) our Thanksgiving meal. It’s my favorite holiday, so much so that I created a post about it last year. Feel free to read about it at the link. Since we decided to spend the meal out this year, we opted to make just some appetizers to get us through the day until we left for dinner just after 5 p.m. We had our usual deviled eggs, mixed nuts, cheese and crackers, longhorn caviar and cheddar stuffed mushrooms. All were excellent and we staggered them throughout the day. We all agreed that it was odd to not have much to do and that not much cooking was going on.

What’s interesting about this trip downtown is that there are plenty of places to park within walking distance of the restaurant. We chose the lot adjacent to the restaurant. It was an underground lot and when we drove down the ramp, we were greeted with a huge panel of doors with a sign that read something like “pull forward, the doors will open automatically”. Like out of a sci-fi movie, cool!! What’s also interesting is that we didn’t know this would be a nice, warm parking lot, meaning we really didn’t need to bring our coats. However, being the weather saavy Minnsesotans that we are, we always bring our coats, boots, gloves and hats with us in the unlikely event of going in the ditch. And considering that yesterday was the coldest day of the week (a high of 10, whee!!), it was nice to not have to face the elements. Score!!

We were seated immediately with our friend joining us from the bar. I noticed that our table was on the edge of two rooms so I wondered how that was going to work. Luckily, my happy-go-lucky hubby had the “right” seat. He was the one that everyone kept bumping into and he didn’t mind a bit. One thing that I liked about this restaurant was that they had more than their Thanksgiving meal on the menu. So, if my vegetarian daughter didn’t want their Thanksgiving meal, she could choose something else. Instead, three of us had their Thanksgiving meal and hubby had their prime rib. Miss M just ate everything but the turkey, which we brought home with us. Here is the write-up from their website of their holiday menu:

Join us for Thanksgiving and what has been a tradition for many over the last decade at FireLake Grill House and Cocktail Bar in downtown Minneapolis. Our Executive Chef Jim Kyndberg and his team will provide the perfect meal to celebrate. Enjoy our cider cured, applewood smoked, Wild Acres Turkey prepared over the wood-burning rotisserie. The trimmings include wild rice stuffing, cheddar herb mashed potatoes, cider gravy, maple glazed yam and apples, green beans with crimini mushrooms and crispy shallots and cranberry-orange relish.

There were plenty of other choices on their menu but I’m glad that I chose the traditional meal. The turkey was delicious and moist, the potatoes, yams and green beans were equally yummy. It seemed that the stuffing was not a big hit as all three of us had some leftover at the end. There was also pumpkin pie for dessert but I was too stuffed to finish mine and I didn’t like that it was cold. I guess they had to refrigerate the pie but we’ve always had room temperature pie.

Some photos of the meal and environs:

loved the napkin: a towel

view from our table

the popovers were amazing!

my Thanksgiving plate

pumpkin pie

They also sent everyone home with “leftovers”: a bag with a turkey sandwich inside! I thought that was a nice touch. Here is Miss M with her bag:

Here’s hubby in his holiday garb. He matches so well with the decor doesn’t he?

All in all a good experience. And we really enjoyed the restaurant. We will probably go back again!

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Filed under Food, Minnesota, Restaurant reviews

Tagged as downtown Minneapolis, Fire Lake Grill House, food, holiday meal, Minnesota, photography, restaurant review, restaurants, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving meal

May 30, 2014 · 8:17 pm

Downtown Minneapolis on a warm, late spring evening

We were meeting out of town friends for dinner at Hell’s Kitchen last night(I wrote a review of it last year so please do check it out at the link if you are so inclined. It’s a great place to eat!). Since we had an 8:30 reservation, we decided to head downtown early and walk around, maybe get a drink before dinner. Hell’s Kitchen is a block away from Nicollet Avenue, a popular pedestrianized street. After we parked, we headed to Nicollet to see what we could find. Both directions were filled with people enjoying the outdoor areas of all the restaurants. We sat down at the first place we found that had open tables and that happened to be The News Room. I don’t know much about it but it ended up being a great spot to watch the world go by as well as have a drink and an appetizer to tide us over until dinner. Hubby had a beer and I had a very tasty Spanish red wine. We also had their popcorn shrimp which hit the spot.

Of course I took a few photos and here are some that I liked. I hope you do too :)

First, some downtown buildings:

building with skyway

Here’s our food and drinks:

Across the street was another restaurant full of people making merry:

Next door were two available bicycle carriages. We didn’t do this and maybe should have but it looked like pedestrians could hire the bicycle carriages to take them from point A to point B. I kept waiting for someone to hire one of these two alas, it didn’t happen. But we did see several going by with 2 or 3 people in them. They are parked in front of another popular restaurant, The Local. We will have to return to try that one next.