doodledee.com

minnehaha lanes

[address]

955 Seminary Ave St. Paul, MN

[phone]

(651) 488-7208

[date of visit]

5/9/2003

[price]

[summary]

Its got bowling, burgers and beers. If you need more than that to convince you to go, then you're beyond help.

[the joint]

Minnehaha Lanes is a giant of a bowling alley. It's basically two full size regular bowling alleys joined by a bar. You might think it would look like a big letter H from above, but in reality it's more like a big L. Confusing? No, not really. Fun? You bet!

The bar itself is your standard dark, dingy bowling alley bar. Not overly smokey, not overly dirty, and not overly memorable. It's a bunch of tables, some video poker type games, a karaoke machine, and a huge dart room in the back. We were there on a Friday at 6:30 and at first were nearly the only people in the place. Other groups gradually arrived, but even fairly late into the evening it stayed surprisingly empty. I think it's one of those places where the regulars are super regulars and the rest of us are just along for the ride.

[the food]

The food at Minnehaha Lanes is your basic humble bar fare. They've got the whole array of frozen then fried appetizers, a bunch of good sounding burgers, and probably some other stuff, too, who knows.

To start, the group dug into some nachos, some wings, some onion petals, and a couple of \$10 pitchers of the coldest beer that has ever been poured. Seriously. It was oddly cold. Cold as in 'how can this not be frozen' cold. (My conclusion: magic beer.) As for the appetizers themselves, they were quite delicious, especially the onion petals. They came a side of some kind of dipping sauce that made them extra, extra good. The one knock would be size of the wings, which appeared to have been taken from cornish game hens instead of the more traditional chicken.

As for the Jucys themselves, they're available stuffed with either American or pepperjack cheese and are all served California style on a toasted bun. Onions - fried or raw - are available for no charge. For sides you get to choose from either regular fries, waffle fries, or tator tots. (Aww yeah, tator tots!) The whole shootin' match is \$6.95. Not bad at all.

When our burgers arrived, we were immediately impressed with their size. These are truly half-pounders, people. And unlike some other 'large' jucys, these weren't just tall - they were beautifully proportioned, filling the bun nicely from edge to edge. Bravo.

The burgers were all cooked to perfection. Most were completely stuffed with cheese. Blowouts were rare, indicating care was taken to ensure a quality seal. The buns were fresh, and even though few of us bothered with the lettuce/tomato stuff, toppings appeared to be reasonably fresh. The sides varied from hot and fresh (tots) to cold and undercooked (regular fries).

Also worth noting is the portioning of the sides. Each order of fries or tots weighed no less than a pound. No member of our group was able to eat more than maybe a third of their non-burger food. It was insane. We asked the waiter about it and he claimed that the cook always portions like that. Bravo again.

It's hard to think of much bad to say about the food. The pickle chips were those stupid floppy thin ones instead of the [better] thicker rippled ones. The fries and/or tots, although plentiful, were far from the fresh cuts that we've eaten at other places. So I guess even though it's quite good overall, there's still room for improvement.

[service]

Service was a little strange. The bartender lady took care of us most of the time, but there was this other waiter dude walking around who would come over and check on us, too. They kept water glasses full, though, so I don't really care what was going on.

Also on a service note, while we were hanging out before our food came, the owner of the place came over and introduced herself. That's her in the picture with me. What a hoot.

[conclusion]

If you're looking for a top shelf jucy with reasonable sides, Minnehaha Lanes is the place. If you're looking for atmosphere and cheap pitchers, look elsewhere.