Nick and Eddie

My girlfriend and cousin held a surprise b-​day party at this place. I liked it very much. The food, service, and drinks were good to me; however, my entire party was overcharged $ 10 – 30 extra on their bill!!! It definitely was not the gratuity charge! This place was good until i found out how SHADY OF A PLACE IT REALLY IS. DO NOT GO THERE!!!

it was about 1am, and i was about ready to go home after a night of drinks and fireworks. as my group and i were walking towards the car, which was parked in the lot behind joes garage, we heard loud live music playing from the alley. one of the members of our group (who was also wasted) was drawn to the beats of the drums and he wandered off into the alley. The rest of us quickly followed, initially to retrieve him, but landed in the back door of nick and eddie. we saw a bunch of lounge chairs and booths through the large open windows. the crowd was intimate and alternative. i would suspect late 20’s to early 30’s and the drink specials were reasonable at the time as it was 12 am already. i did not have any food so i have nothing to contribute on that. i’ll probably try the place again and maybe arrive a bit earlier and planned.

I hate hate to change this review — and so drastically too!
I came here on a Friday night with a group of 8 for dinner before a wine tasting event. I am almost embarrassed when I mentioned how AMAZING this place was to the group — after the result of our meal. Our waiter might have been the flakiest man alive. He «lost» our drink order and had to ask again. And when we asked to order (and get our checks at the same time since this was a good 40 minutes later) I thought he would say «oh you are here to eat dinner?». After the meal… 2 hours later… we had to ask 3 times to get our checks. Awful.
Then the food! A once lover of all things Nick and Eddie it was just a terrible meal. I had the spicy pork tacos. Not spicy. At all. The pork was cooked well but that’s all it was. Pork. Soggy corn tortillas and some kind of beets. The lime on the side was already squeezed ?. It was so odd. The fact that I had to drench it in ketchup to stomach it just hurts my heart. The boys who can usually stomach about anything weren’t impressed. My other foodie friends ordered the potato pancakes… so bland, and one was brought the wrong pasta, which tasted like watered down Ragu.
The icing on the cake was the 20% gratuity we were added for having a large group :(. Bummer.
This place was my FAVORITE in the twin cities — this little Unilocaler is heartbroken… but this is my last visit to an old love.

OK, OK, OK — I appreciate the history behind Nick & Eddie’s, and the iconic people that spent many a night there. But that does not make a good bar.
A good bar has a vibe that draws people in, which was completely lacking the couple of times I have been there. Maybe it isn’t the place to be before 10pm — that might be true. But a bar should also offer drinks– a great beer selection, interesting cocktails or a unique wine list. Nick & Eddie’s doesn’t have that either — 3 beers on tap, and a handful more in the bottle — you can find a better selection at your local wine & spirits store. Something about that seems a little strange.
The place could use a serious cleaning and maybe replace the booths. But the place does look cool in low light — what doesn’t look good in the dark?
I don’t know — I would need a really good reason to go back and give it a third try. I’ll think about it… but I’m not going back during the day.

I expected so much more than what I got here. It wasn’t from reading others’ reviews that got my expectations up, but rather from my entering their space. The place screamed «like me» when I walked in. Nice layout, beautiful staff, clean. But here it was the lunch hour rush and the two of us coming for lunch doubled the occupancy of the place.
We were able to sit where we liked, but yet it took a while for a server to find us in the open dining area. Service was less than memorable and the quaint serving of a nick and eddie burger on an english muffin, not quite the gimmick that will keep me coming back..

Wow, how are they still open? We had a four top on a Friday night, and expected a meal that we would talk about for years to come.
Oh, we’ll talk about it… the first 4 things we wanted off the menu were out… and we got there at 6:30. They had no tap beer, only a can of PBR and bottles of Heineken and Guinness.
The food we did get was tasty, but nothing that you might come to crave.
Tip: They wave the corkage fee on the first bottle of wine you bring in.

I recently went to Nick and Eddie’s for a birthday celebration with 6 friends. The best way to sum up this little adventure is that it was the worst dining experience any of us have ever had.
We sat down to find out that the menu was completely different from what was posted on the website. We could deal with that, but when we tried to order they were out of over half of the items. So if you were thinking about those pork tacos, you can forget it! After we ordered, our server pretty much disappeared until our food came out — an hour later and cold.
Some other fun things to note:
My friend had a large bug in her martini. They replaced it, but they later attempted to charge for said martini.
Another friend ordered a martini, and they gave it to her in a champagne glass. Not a huge deal, but wtf?
It was SO hard to find something to order here. They were out of nearly all of their beers, and when a bunch of us began to order steak our server had to go in back to check how many they had left (answer: only 3).
This kind of experience is unacceptable even in a busy restaurant, but on this night there were only a small handful of other tables. Needless to say, we won’t be back.

The food is good, but that doesn’t matter when everything about the place is just a big mess.
Word to bands — this is a terrible place to play. I would not recommend it unless you are desperate. Very unprofessional and disrespectful.

Nick and Eddie reminds me of a restaurant you’d find in New York. It has a great location on Loring Park and a clever menu.
Parking can be a challenge in this area so if you have a reservation, budget some time to circle the block a few dozen times before finding a spot.
I had the chicken and dumplings on my first visit and it was tasty. They didn’t have their menu updated online so my husband was disappointed when the duck they featured on the site wasn’t available. He settled for a salad that didn’t do much for him. The general consensus of our group was to stick to the menu items that got the most raves and not take chances with the others.
We ate there on a Thursday night and were seated next to the back room where a band was getting ready to play for the late-​night crew. It was loud and hindered our conversation. Despite, I loved the vibe of the place and can see why it’s such a popular neighborhood hang out.

I just went for brunch and ordered the Cheeseburger Benedict – holy Hollandaise this is amazing! A halved bialy, each with a small burger patty and nicely poached egg, all smothered with cheddar Hollandaise, with a side of salty and subtly sweet fries and a salty and black peppery bloody to wash it down.
The only downside was that I couldn’t bring my leftovers home to Los Angeles with me, and someone in our party got her food several minutes after the rest of us. Luckily, I had enough fries to go around.

I was excited when a new restaurant opened up in the area, and couldn’t wait to try it. So armed with a
coupon and a rare free afternoon, my friend and I went to Nick and Eddie’s hoping for a new favorite spot.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to what I was expecting.
The chicken and stars soup was fabulous, and by far my favorite part of the meal. Savory, complex, and full of chicken and veggies, I had to stop myself from licking the bowl and asking for seconds.
My friend ordered the pot roast and I ordered the roast chicken — both seemed to be tasteless and bland, and the pot roast was tough and stringy. The chicken was cold and tasted odd, and I had to peel the skin off (hard and dry) to make it appetizing at all.
To console myself, I ordered a hot chocolate with whipped cream. When it came out it was ice cold — barely more than chocolate milk with a little whipped cream. I sent it back and asked them nicely to warm it up to «hot», and it came back lukewarm and barely above room temperature. At that point I gave up, drank the tepid chocolate, and got out of there quickly.
It’s a shame it didn’t seemed to work out — with an excellent Loring Park location and a view onto the park, this could have been a great place to go to regularly. But, like a bad blind date, things weren’t quite what they appeared to be.
On to the next blind da… er… restaurant.

We had awful service — inattentive, distracted, unresponsive.
They were out of many items on the menu. At 8 p.m. on a Saturday? Really?
The food we had was good. But there are lots of good places to eat right on Loring Park. So why go back?

This is one of my favorite places to eat in Minneapolis. The space is gorgeous with its high ceilings, cool art, and great location right across from Loring Park. I ordered an incredibly rich pork belly here, which I had been trying to find all over the city but with not much luck until I came to Nick and Eddie. They frou-​frou it up with a delicate nest of fried potato served on top in what resembles the sort of food towers seen in fancy restaurants during the ‘90s. It’s a tad pretentious and makes it seem like they’re trying too hard for foodie legitimacy… but it’s easily forgivable because all in all, it still tasted great.
One last note: try the butterscotch pudding. The chef’s wife is a pastry chef, and this is her recipe. It blew me away. I had no idea pudding could be so satisfying. It elevated butterscotch pudding in my mind, so much that I was inspired to make my own!

Nick and Eddie is another one of those places that I really, really, REALLY wanted to like. I gave them three visits, hoping that I could be convinced to like them. Alas, I think I’m done.
It’s not the service — that’s been fine. But their menu just can’t seem to draw me in at all. I’ve agonized repeatedly trying to figure out exactly what on their menu I would actually like. And unfortunately, either I’m always choosing completely wrong, or there’s nothing that I can find that is anything more than so-​so. Actually, I did have some pasta that I liked, but I don’t remember what it’s called and I can’t fix that because…
This is my biggest beef with Nick and Eddie. Not once have we gone there and found the menu in front of us to match with anything we’ve seen on the website. This is doubly frustrating when the whole reason you decide to go there is because you spent an hour online at home scouring restaurant menus and found something that sounded fantastic, only to find that it’s no longer available. Oh yeah, and you find an alternate on their actual menu only to find out that they’re out of that particular item. MADDENING.
The drinks, however, will mess you up something fierce. There’s no actual drink menu, which means you had best have a favorite in mind, but they don’t skimp on what they put in your hands. I’m sure coming to Nick and Eddie for shows with the intent of having nothing more than booze works very well. But unless I’ve got some friends playing, I don’t have a whole lot of incentive go back.

I went here on a recommendation from a friend, and had to call her the moment I left to let her know how spot on she was! Nick and Eddie is my new favorite dinner hangout. Why, you ask? Three reasons:
1. Food. Delicious. Even as I’m writing this, I’m craving their fries.
2. Atmosphere: top notch. Whether you’re there for girl’s night, date night or to catch the cabaret show in back, the restaurant feels like the perfect spot. Oh, and the staff is awesome.
3. Prices — most of their plates are right around ten bucks. Which makes it an easy decision to come back to try something new whenever the mood strikes!

So close, but yet so far.
Let’s start on a positive note. The location is fantastic, nestled between Joe’s Garage and Lurcat (and next to LunaLux, worth a trip by itself) right on beautiful Loring Park. Love the old school lettering on the windows in front.
Bell’s Two Hearted and Lagunitas on tap… a very good sign. My wife wanted a martini menu and the bartender, a gruff guy who looked as though his previous gig as at Standup Frank’s, laughed at the thought of a menu. My wife asked for ideas… he said he could pour a shot. With that confidence boosting comment, my wife eyed a cocktail over her should and said «I’ll have one of those.» Her expectations were low but this guy proceeded to whip up one of the best lemon drops she’s had. Under promise, over deliver I guess.
Menu was a bit confusing, both in its form and substance. Visually, the layout is a bit of a challenge to follow. Gastrically, nothing really clicked as a whole… not much of a theme in terms of starter, app, main course, dessert. However, everything we had was very good. The risotto dish with an interesting chicken preparation was plate lickin’ good.
One bathroom (if there is another, please alert) for a place like this is not cool.
Given Lurcat (both Bar and Café) just down the street, my guess is Nick and Eddie will always come in 2^nd place in Loring Park. Given the number of people in the area, that might be okay.

so sad… last night’s dinner makes me wonder if my expectations have gotten too high, or was my experience at N&E really that bad? Ordered a table full of food and my dinner companion and I fought over the french fries because it was the only tasteful edible item we got.
Service was pretty infrequent, but she seemed to be friendly to all the other tables nearby? must have been us? or the fact we were the only non-​male dominate group?
As we left it was unanimous that it would take a major overhaul to get either of us back.

Our team at work decided to try out Nick and Eddie on a hot day in August. It was about an 8 block walk from Target HQ and we were hot when we got there.
I ordered the pizza again and my coworkers mostly got the N & E burger. They were all pleased with what they got and the pizza was awesome as always.
Our server was awesome and very professional, we got our water refilled when they were dry and we had some lively conversation.
Overall, the place is awesome and delivers great food at a reasonable price.

02/​01/​2011 — Ok, I have a star crisis here, people. I decided to give N&E another shot for dinner, and I ended up having a fantastic and efficient dinner with my friends. I had their N&E burger with goat cheese and fries, a Surly Seasonal, and their butterscotch pudding with cookies. The burger was absolutely wonderful: simple, cooked a perfect medium rare, a goat cheese topping that is divine, all on wonderfully fresh-​baked bialy that won’t quit. The butterscotch was unlike any other. It comes in this tall-​ish glass with an assortment of cookies on the side. It’s not overly butterscotch-​y, but it’s just the *perfect* amount of sweetness. I demolished it quite happily.
Oh, and the fries were really, really, really good. It has a hint of sweetness to it, the right crispiness, length and width, and remarkably not too oily. I’m a french fry fiend, and this freaking flips me out (fffffffffffffffrt).
So, maybe bump my rating up to a 4??? OK, maybe that wasn’t such a crisis of the mind after all. Phew!
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2010
Hmmm, I decided to come back here for dinner with my friends after I’ve raved about their brunch. First off, their bread service is great, warm and toasty and buttery and all that. However, the entrees that we got were just OK, nothing spectacular. Maybe I’m just being more nitpicky than usual, but only because their brunch was soooo yummier by comparison. I got the lobster mac and cheese, and thankfully it had discernible chunks of lobster, but the entire thing was pretty much floating in oil. My friend was also dismayed because her sandwich was swimming in oil. The pizza that my other friend had was just fine. Again, maybe I was just expecting too much from N&E, but I think I’ll stick to breakfast from now on.

I had a delightful breakfast experience here last weekend, but was a little shocked by how empty the place was at 10:30am on a Sunday morning. If you’re debating about trying them for breakfast, I would say give it a try. Check out their menu online and you’ll see that they have some fun, unique options.
Like Miss Lindsay C. I ordered the omelet of the day at the coaxing of the server and it rocked! Oyster mushrooms, gruyère and arugula = I’m not sharing this with anyone.
My pops ordered shrimp étouffée and a prettied up Scotch Egg and the hubs opted for Creole Benedict and a sinfully delicious éclair. They are clearly health food freaks. :)
Overall, the food was great and service came with a smile.