Sunday, November 28, 2010

Edina Grill

Visited on Saturday, November 27th with Jake and Allison

Outside Edina Grill

Ben's Review
Erin wanted to go out for breakfast this weekend and since it had been a pathetically long time since we last visited a place on our list, we decided to hit up Edina Grill for breakfast on Saturday. Our friends Jake and Allison live nearby so we invited them along, and they joined us in spite of the early hour (8:30).

94W, 35W, and 62W were all nearly empty at 8am on Saturday which made the drive over to Edina not bad at all. I was surprised by how dead the whole city seemed to be, is 8am on a Saturday too early to be out and about? Maybe because of the holidays. We also had no trouble finding a parking spot at 50th & France, which usually sucks to drive around, and there were also plenty of tables for us when we arrived.

inside Edina Grill

inside Edina Grill

Edina Grill is one of the Blue Plate restaurants so I knew the type of place it was and also many of the menu options. On the list of specials they listed a poblano bloody mary that sounded damn good, and Jake actually attempted to order one, but apparently there is a law in Edina that they can't serve booze until 10am, so he was out of luck. The server said the law used to be noon, which seems ridiculous. Not sure what the details are around that (beer vs booze, bars vs restaurants, etc) but that seems like a harsh law.

Coffee

As we chatted we realized that the place was actually filling up, not that it's a huge space, but with how quiet the morning had been on the drive over I was surprised to see all these people arriving, clearly we got there at the right time.

In very cutesy fashion, both couples ordered the same things: Jake and I both had the breakfast burrito, Erin and Allison got the eggs benedict. Annie was stuck with her cut up banana and some cheerios, life is rough sometimes.

trying to get Dad's burrito
This is what Annie REALLY wanted

I had actually had the breakfast burrito before, at Longfellow Grill, so I knew what I was getting, but it's just too damn good to pass up. Pulled pork, hash browns, eggs, black bean salsa, and cheddar cheese make up the bulk of the burrito and it is delicious. Jake even, very seriously, commented that it was the best breakfast burrito he's ever had. It's about the size of a Chipotle burrito and it's topped with salsa verde and sour cream, so you won't be hungry for lunch after this meal. I didn't eat again until dinner at 6:30.

Breakfast burrito

I had a great time at Edina Grill and the food was excellent, as I have come to expect at the Blue Plate restaurants. I probably won't be back to Edina Grill anytime soon simply because Highland Grill and Longfellow Grill are so much closer and have nearly identical menus and quality. I'm glad we went though because Jake and Allison have come to Saint Paul the last several times we've hung out so now that we went to their neck of the woods, I won't feel bad making them come back to Saint Paul the next six times we see them.

Service: Great service, our server was friendly and not intrusive.Food: Excellent breakfast burrito, highly recommended.
Drinks: The coffee is strong, gave me the shakes, and they have that weird law to deal with. The poblano bloody mary sounds good, I'd like to try it.
Ambiance: This is a quiet, friendly breakfast place, it would be interesting to see how the environment changes at dinner time.
Convenience: Parking around 50th & France usually sucks but we were there early enough so it wasn't an issue.

Erin's Review
It feels a bit like cheating to review Edina Grill at all, since we've already reviewed most of the remaining Blue Plate restaurants - Highland Grill, Longfellow Grill, and Groveland Tap. Scusi just opened up near our house, so I'll have to throw that on the list as well. But, here we are - anything to get a review up, I guess! As parents, Blue Plate restaurants are exactly the kind of places we love - consistent and kid friendly. We used up all of our baby-sitter cards recently for organized events, so we haven't been able to do a baby-free dinner out in awhile, despite having quite a few gift cards we need to use up.

Checking out the menu

Anyway, as I expected, Edina Grill was very similar to the other Blue Plate restaurants, probably most similar to Longfellow Grill in that it's pretty spacious. My eggs benedict were really quite good - the eggs were still runny but not underdone and the hollandaise was creamy and hot. The hash browns were crispy, and Annie enjoyed the few bites I let her have.

Eggs Benedict

The orange juice was fresh squeezed, which was a nice touch. After seeing how twitchy Ben got from the coffee, I was glad I didn't have any! I had already had a cup before we left and certainly didn't need to transmit any more wakefulness to Annie - she has plenty of that all on her own :)

We had a great time at Edina Grill - it was a beautiful morning, and thankfully we didn't need to deal with a huge rush since we got there so early. I won't go back since it's not even close to our house, but rest assured, we'll be back to Longfellow and Highland many times.

Deets
5028 France Ave S
Edina, MN