Frisky Otter — Restaurant in Ely

Today was our first time visiting The Frisky Otter in Ely, MN, and unfortunately, it was a very disappointing experience.

We ordered the Wisconsin cheese curds with bacon, a blackened chicken sandwich (requested plain), a build-your-own burger, and a small salad for our daughter.

When the cheese curds arrived, my husband — who has a very high spice tolerance — tried one and immediately told me not to eat one. They were extremely spicy, which is not typical of cheese curds, and there was no noticeable bacon flavor. Even our spice-loving daughter found them overwhelming. The curds were also oddly square-shaped, so we asked the waitress if they were really cheese curds. She confirmed they were, but later returned to tell us that the kitchen had the cook prepare a batch themselves to essentially "fact-check” our complaint — and only after doing that did they realize the curds were actually ghost pepper cheese curds, which had been ordered by mistake and are not something they normally carry. At no point were we warned about the intense spice level.

Things didn’t improve with the rest of the meal. My husband’s chicken sandwich came with all the toppings despite being ordered plain — and the chicken itself was very dry. My burger was undercooked (slightly pink, though I asked for well done), and my fries were bland and completely unseasoned, despite being advertised as seasoned. To top it off, our daughter’s small salad had a large hair in it. When we informed the waitress, she asked to physically see the hair and took it away.

We tried to handle everything calmly. My husband said they could just take off whatever the manager felt was fair. In the end, they only removed the cheese curds and dismissed the other concerns — including the hair in the salad — as just us “not liking the food,” which was completely untrue and honestly offensive.

We paid over $50 for a meal that was barely edible and left to find food elsewhere in Ely. Between the food quality and how poorly the issues were handled, we won’t be returning. Save yourself the hassle — there are plenty of other great places to...

My wife and I went to Frisky Otter today to celebrate our anniversary. This was our first time there. Our family visits Ely regularly and we are proponents of supporting any new businesses in Ely, especially restaurants. While we acknowledge that the restaurant was busy likely due to a holiday weekend it seems that the restaurant is still working out some kinks. For example we arrived at 6pm, we were seated relatively quick but it took nearly 70 minutes to get our food after ordering (close to 7:20 by the time the food arrived).

On the menu it has ribs listed as the Sunday daily special (which is what we wanted) but were not available nor were steak sandwiches according to the waitress. The waitress should have mentioned this to us right when we were seated because then we wouldn't have been left undecided and had to wait for her to come back again. They substituted the rib daily special with mostiaccioli served with meatballs and sausage. My wife ordered that dish and it did not have any meat in it whatsoever. The noodles were overcooked to the point the noodles fell apart and the sauce tasted like a cheap store bought brand and the garlic bread was poor quality. We were going to mention it to the waitress but didn't want to get stuck waiting longer. It was not worth the $21+ price. I had the Norwegian salmon with sweet potato fries and green beans. Overall the dish was fine with the sweet potato fries being the best part.

Also, they need to do something different with the black plastic glasses they serve fountain beverages in. The waiter or waitress don't know you need a refill until you flag them down or they just happen to check if you need a refill which our waitress never did.

Overall the ambiance of the restaurant is nice with the northwoods vibe but we likely...

This review is about a month in the making, but I’m STILL thinking about how bad this food was. Cute environment, and some live music at the moment- but holy crap was the food the most bland stuff I’ve ever seen or experienced. My friend got the walleye tacos and I just went with a simple chicken strips dish. The waitress brought our food and ask “is there anything else I can bring?”

My friend says “I’d LOVE the seasoned fries I ordered”

And the waitress says “those ARE the seasoned fries.”

I’m telling you there was no hint of seasoning of any kind in our food. It was the blandest most horrible meal ever for the both of us.

I got about a bite into my chicken before I was done. Zero flavor.

I hear the breakfast here is phenomenal and we are sad that we missed it. If it’s really that good, they should think about offering all day bfast cause everything else is made for people who can’t handle spice or flavor.

Ely is a special place and I know this location has had multiple restaurants and businesses that clearly didn’t do well. If this place doesn’t do something different, they...