The Nook

Her perspective: C-

After seeing a special on this place on the Food Network, we decided to head out and see if it's as good as Matt's Juicy Lucy that we love.

This is a very small restaurant with barely any waiting room. We had to hear from someone in line that the bartender was taking care of the waiting list. I was hoping that the long line meant the food was worth the wait. It was completely packed. We waited about a little less than an hour and ended up sitting at the end of the bar, in perfect view of the kitchen. Bill ordered a Coke and I ordered a Cherry Coke (Coke and grenadine). They both tasted a bit odd.

For an appetizer, we decided on cheese curds. They seemed undercooked and didn't have much flavor. The Ranch dressing they were served with it was really tasty, though.

We both ordered their signature burger: "Juicy Nookie". It mentioned in the menu that they are all cooked to medium and all are served with their fries which we had learned from the Food Network were "marinated" in vinegar. When we got our burgers (which have the cheese in the middle of the burger, in case you're unfamiliar with a Juicy Lucy), we noticed that they weren't very hot, especially the cheese in the middle. The meat tasted better than the burgers we get at Matt's, but not by much, and my burger was cooked Medium Rare to Rare, rather than the Medium it said in the menu. My stomach is very delicate right now due to my medical issues, so this was not good news. Also, both our orders of fries were very overcooked. We had noticed that the cook had cooked some fries, left them sitting over the fryer (which makes them soggy), then popped them back into the grease when he got an order for them, just to heat them and crisp them up a bit. That explains why ours were overdone.

We heard the bartender talking to the party next to us at the bar and she was saying that they were busy before they appeared on the Food Network, but were even busier afterwards. There is a second location about a mile away, but neither of us remember them saying anything about a second location on the show. So all the extra business is going to this location, which can't handle it. It just seemed like they were so busy, that the cooks were just trying to get the food out to the guests, but not making sure it was properly cooked.

The bartender had mentioned that the other location (which in the menu was called "The Irish Nook") was on Randolph and West 7th St. We looked for it and couldn't find it. The only pub that was there was a place called Shamrock's. When we got home, I looked on line and found out that the actual name of the second location is Shamrock's Irish Nook. The words irish nook were nowhere to be found on the sign outside, so there was no way for us to know that it was the right place.

Overall, we were very disappointed. It is definitely not worth the wait. I might go back for appetizers if I want to go someplace that's packed - and that will never happen... We will probably give the other location a try at some point, but most likely not soon. We would much rather get our Juicy Lucy's from Matt's at 35th and Cedar on Minneapolis.