Erin's Review
Since it had been exactly one month since we went to the last restaurant on our list, we made it a point to go somewhere new this past weekend! The weather was beautiful on Sunday, so we decided to make the trek over to South Minneapolis and do a walk around Lake Harriet followed by brunch at Zumbro Cafe in Linden Hills.
After the grueling walk around the lake, we were both starving. The crowd outside Zumbro didn't look promising, but luckily when I walked in, there was a table for 2 inside that no one wanted :) Zumbro Cafe is a very cute place - not a lot of decor, but it's clean, cozy, and friendly.
The pancakes were calling my name that morning, which is pretty rare for me. I chose the "Butters" option as opposed to the 2 probably much healthier options of Buckwheat Wild Rice and Cornmeal. They were delicious! You could definitely taste the hint of cinnamon. I also got the fresh squeezed orange juice, which hit the spot.
My one bite of Ben's frittata was also wonderful. He also helped polish off my pancakes, so I know he enjoyed those as well :) South Minneapolis is a long haul from us in St. Paul, so it's doubtful we'll go back to Zumbro, but I'd definitely hit this place up for breakfast if you're in the area!
Ben's Review
It has been far too long since we had gone out to one of our restaurants, so we planned to go out for breakfast on Sunday morning. We also had several places in south Minneapolis on our list, so we went for a walk around Lake Harriet and then headed over to Zumbro Cafe in Linden Hills for brunch. Fun fact: Zumbro Cafe is the last restaurant on our list, and will likely always be last :)
We rolled up to Zumbro Cafe around 11:45 on Sunday morning and I got worried as I dropped Erin off that there would be a long wait, due to all the people milling about outside. I went and parked the car and came back to the restaurant to find Erin already sitting at a table. Turns out most people were waiting for a spot on the porch side of the restaurant, but we weren't that picky this morning so we got sat right away.
The interior ambiance of Zumbro Cafe reminded me of the Egg & I in uptown, with a fancier feel to it. The tables are close enough together so you can hear your neighbors conversations and the decoration and outside porch are similar, however there are less piercings and no clear glass coffee mugs :)
The laminated menus are relatively small (both sides of a single sheet), but they feature most breakfast options you would expect. I went with the Zumbro frittatas with the bacon and cheese option. I also added fresh spinach, which turned out to be a good choice. The frittata was large, about eight inches across, and loaded with bacon, havarti cheese and spinach. My meal also came with some roasted potatoes with green onions and sourdough toast. The potatoes were especially good, I loved the green onions and it tasted like they were cooked in some olive oil.
The first cup of coffee I had was really good, I even made Erin try some. The second cup, however, tasted a little funny, almost like the cream had gone a little bad, but it was the same cream I had used in the first cup. It's possible that the coffee was getting a little old, I'm not sure if that would cause the taste I had, but something seemed off.
Overall I liked Zumbro Cafe a lot and I would recommend them for a weekend brunch, the service and food are both great.
- Service: Good service, no issues even though it was busy.
- Food: Excellent food and they use local, organic ingredients if you care about that sort of thing.
- Drinks: The menu doesn't have any alcohol, but they do have an espresso bar.
- Ambiance: There was good ambiance because it's a small place that was full of people in good spirits.
- Price: Prices were in line with other breakfast places, especially considering that they use organic ingredients. My frittata was $8.75.
- Convenience: I might be off the mark here, but it seems like going to the Linden Hills area is always kind of a pain. It's not near any freeway, and there's no decent road that cuts through the neighborhood, so I would say it's a bit inconvenient. We went on a Sunday, so we weren't in a hurry anyways.
