Little Mermaid Cafe — Restaurant in Askov

I've always enjoyed this restaurant but the last 2 times were awful & I won't be going back after today. It was my husband & my 34th anniversary & we took our grandson with us for a late breakfast. 1st it took over a half hour to get our food after we ordered. Then when we finally got our food our orders were wrong. I didn't order bacon but it was with my order. My grandson didn't get the bacon he ordered because they gave his bacon to me. Our waitress checked with someone in back then returned to our table to inform us the bacon on my plate should've been on my grandson's & asked if we wanted another order. We said no & scooped the bacon onto his plate which left a puddle of grease on my plate. It would've been better if they just made him another order so I wouldn't notice the grease puddle on my plate. As we get about half-way thru our meal my husband pulls out a long whisker (not his, too long) out of his chicken fried steak. We were instantly done, a hair in your food is pretty disgusting. As he paid the $32 for our meals he mentioned the whisker in his food. There should've been an apology at the least & he shouldn't have been charged anything for his whisker meal. We all lost our appetites. None of us could finish our food after the whisker. We were charged full price & paid full price for food with whiskers in it. Nobody offered a complimentary anything. I will not going back to the Little Mermaid in Askov MN again or recommending them to anyone, this was very...

I was looking through our online checking account, and I saw all these charges for Little Me and I told my husband I thought our account had been hacked. He looked at the charges and told me it was The Little Mermaid Cafe in Askov. The…what? The restaurant is in a building that used to be a school and also houses the town’s history museum. To be clear, this isn’t a fine dining venue, but if I was headed up to Duluth, I’d drive right past Tobie’s and hit The Little Mermaid for breakfast. Much better food, no Up North tourist crowds and better service. What makes this place so special is Michelle, who runs it with care and pride. She is supported by young service staff and many members of the community who volunteer there. Let that sink in for a moment. The people of Askov believe in this place so much, they donate their time. I love that, and I’m sure it’s a business model that probably won’t work outside of a small town like this. Great breakfast food, the burgers and sandwiches are solid. I didn’t try any of the pies because I happened to stop in on the 4th Saturday of the month when they offered their Aebleskivers. These are Danish doughnuts? They’re really like a hybrid of a popover and a pancake. Lovely little pastries perfect for sharing. I didn’t get enough time to tour the museum on this visit, but I will make a stop the next time...

Super cool place with great home cooked food, huge portions, great low prices. This is an entire middle school they’ve turned into a restaurant and museum and antique store so it’s a HUGE space, lots of room for kids to stretch legs (and they can sort of run around as there’s hallways outside the restaurant, which was the cafeteria of the school). There’s also lots of space between tables. Amazing skylights gives beautiful natural light. This is the perfect place for big groups, and big parties because there’s so much space. Servers are great – tolerant, patient, accommodating. You can do all kinds of substitutions, breakfast all day, and they do it all with a smile. True small town customer service.

We had omelettes, amazing cranberry bread, ebelskiver (Danish round pancake with fruit or syrup). All delicious.

Museum is also a must see, so much history there, and the gift shop is really a fabulous antique shop, plus some newer gift shop type items. Very much worth a stop on your way north from the cities-trust! Take your time and enjoy, plan on two hours total if you go through the museum ($5, goes towards...