Coalition Restaurant — Restaurant in Excelsior

I’m an avid positive reviewer for restaurants on Google and initially didn’t want to leave a negative review on this restaurant as I’d rather reach out directly, but we never received a response. My husband and I showed up around 5:45pm and asked for a table for two; the hostess had greeted us and said she could get us in and sat us immediately. Our server was great and the food was good too during our evening. However, in the middle of eating our entrees the hostess came up to us and said “I don’t know if I mentioned this to you when I sat you but you have a limited time to eat, but no rush, but you have about an hour and 15 minutes”. At this point we had only been there for 50 minutes and had ordered an app and our main entrees. By no means were we delaying ordering or sitting for long lengths of time before ordering. We thought that was a bit strange as I’ve been to this restaurant before and never had a time limit. In addition, there were many open tables around us but the hostess kept making eye contact for us and walking by. Mind you, we hadn’t even been at the table for an hour. About two minutes after she told us that, she sat a table for 4 people next to us and we overheard them say, “we should try to tip the hostess for sneaking us in here without a reservation and to get us a table for 6”. Then they looked over at us and it clicked that the hostess tried to rush us in order for the table next to us to seat their friends at our table. I had asked that group and they confirmed that the hostess had said she would give them our table and push it over to theirs. As we were waiting for our bill, their 2 friends came in and stood behind us waiting for us to sign our check. On our way out of the restaurant, we noticed multiple tables were available with no wait. Overall, it was a very uncomfortable experience and was quite rude from the hostess perspective. We were really taken off guard. Like I mentioned, I usually like to write positive reviews of restaurants but for around $100 bill, this was unfortunately a really negative...

NEW: Espresso machine on-premise!

Here’s a secret:

Are you tired of the same-ol’, hum-drum local coffee shop experience?

Me too. I frequently struggle to find what I’m looking for in the suburbs. And inevitably, I drive into Minneapolis.

I want:

An Americano or Italiano Bar top seating Power outlet for my MacBook Hook for my backpack Light music Light dining options A beer or glass of wine with my meal And ambience that doesn’t make me want to run for the door

Coalition is a marvelous mid-day alternative to the coffee shop + lunch. Call it a “cafe experience” starting @ 11 am on weekdays. More European than Midwest. More casual than formal.

And yes...there’s WiFi available if you like to “nerd” digitally while you dine. I do. Lunch traffic is light midweek, so bring your laptop and hang out without “table turn” pressure. I found the environment (ambience) is conducive to getting a little work done on the side, perhaps even inspiring for creative work.

Great seating at the rail. Wonderfully comfortable bar chairs. Bar top stone has a delightful feel. The interior lighting and materials are warm, inviting, and unpretentious.

The House Salad and Salmon I had was simply delightful. I tend to get picky about complex foodie “fusions”.

The menu is really priced for dinner dining. So the experience is going to....La Cost.

The biggest improvement opportunities:

The menu could benefit from simple, lower cost items to draw more people in for lunch.

More vegetables in the house salad.

But all-in-all, the experience is 5 stars. #Bravo

1 more thing:

The Key Lime...

I liked the idea of the patio seating but the sun at the front along the street would have been in our eyes. However, on our way out we learned there was seating behind the restaurant as well, adjacent to the rear parking lot.

We weren't extremely hungry, though needed a bite. We split two dishes. An order of the tacos, which I think were Korean, and a medium rare California burger, though I don't recall what it was called on the menu.

The tacos were fine. I hate cilantro, he hates sour cream, we got all that on the side.

What was especially nice was that our server offered to add an extra taco, to make an even number.

We split our meals out all the time. We have never been offered an extra anything to make things even besides plates. We have also never had a burger cut in half and plated separately!

OH! The hamburger! I can't stop thinking about it! 2nd best burger of our very long lives. PERFECTLY cooked. The only thing anyone could say against it was that one side was cooked longer than the other.

It was perfectly seasoned and the veg was fresh, cold, crisp and portioned in a perfect balance with the bun and beef, so much so I never knew all the other hamburgers in my life were so second rate.

Also, the Bloody Mary mix was obviously done in house and not purchased elsewhere. Very good. Good amount of horseradish. Not too many garnishments. But the cheese was obviously Tillamook and the pickle seemed to be made in...