Hell's Kitchen Inc. — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Good morning, everyone! We got up at 7:45 a.m. to have breakfast at Hell’s Kitchen. It’s across the street from Manny’s Steakhouse. We beat the line up and got seated right away.

This restaurant had a large menu, so we carefully looked it over. I took a decaf coffee and Sparkling NA-groni. The decaf was average. The NA-groni was nonalcoholic but still tasted like vermouth. It was an aperitif, which means it’s meant to drink before eating and supposed to stimulate one’s appetite.

From the beginning, I was imagining the Caramel-Pecan Roll. It’s a cinnamon roll with caramel sauce and chopped pecans. This was priced at $8.95 USD.

I could have chosen many other things for my main, but trusted my gut to go with their Triple Layer Grilled Cheese. The menu’s brief write-up says, “Total decadence: sourdough bread encrusted with toasted parmesan cheese and grilled with thick, melted layers of Swiss, Vermont white cheddar, and fontina cheeses.” Not to be harsh, Hunter and Co. outclasses Hell’s Kitchen in the grilled cheese game. Hell’s Kitchen’s was listed at $15.95 USD.

Later on, I ordered a Damn Hot Cocoa. It had a nice presentation with whipped cream and fudge sauce, and the actual foamy cocoa ran down the side of the mug. Despite all those positives, one thing turned me off… cinnamon. I tried to get my parents to drink it, but they didn’t like it either.

The one item that tasted okay was my Brownie Bit ice cream. I had this as dessert. It tasted and looked like pieces of brownie mixed in with chocolate ice cream.

The bill was $93 USD, but this encompassed my parent’s meal as well. Mom got the same grilled cheese as me but had a hard time chewing. Dad got a very casual, comforting meal of ham, hashed browns, sunny side up eggs, and toast with peanut butter. He found the peanut butter was different, to say the least. It was dry and chunky, more like chopped peanuts than actual peanut butter. He actually said, “I love peanut butter but not that one.” And also said, “I’ve had much better breakfasts. Denny’s beats them to hell.”

We weren’t impressed. We think it’s possible that Gordon Ramsay sold the restaurant off. The website for this particular Hell’s Kitchen states, “Hell's Kitchen is an independent, Employee-Owned restaurant.” The owners might have changed things to do it their way. I’m willing to bet that Ramsay would...

Go at night when Lexi is working (but don’t be creepy about it, I’m just saying we appreciated the service), sit at the bar, order cocktails. We did that last night and had such a fantastic experience with the cocktails we received that we went back this morning for breakfast. My partner ordered some sort of oatmeal stout last night and said later it was the worst he’s ever had, so sincerely - stick to the cocktails. We had the Naughty and Nice themed cocktails, which were each stupendous, and then Lexi suggested a pistachio martini that was truly life changing. I cannot recommend this enough! We stopped on the way home today to get the ingredients so we can make so many more.

As for this morning - had we not been there before, we definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Our server was very kind, but clearly having kind of a day, and we unfortunately had to pay for that. Our food came out cold, like actually cold to the touch, and the potatoes on my plate had turned somehow rubbery. My partner was okay with his food being cold, but I sent mine back and they did bring another plate quickly. One side of the hash browns on the new plate was burnt and inedible, but the bison benedict was stupid delicious. Make sure to check your receipt before paying - we were nearly charged twice for the bison benedict had we not caught it on the bill. All in all, the food was good - we shared a lemon ricotta pancake that definitely lived up to the hype - but not worth dropping $95 after the tip for breakfast when we didn’t even order alcohol.

Edit to add: if you’re like me and stop on the way out to buy a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of sausage bread assuming you’ll like them, note that although they are pictured together on the website, there are different ways to enjoy them that are less…. intense. The bread is begging to be savory, so cooking it in garlic oil and topping it with an egg is a delightful option. The peanut butter is basically sugar disguised as a nut spread, so paring it with pepper jam (we used the stuff from Jellybean and Julia’s in Anoka) on a plain slice of toast or a cracker let it shine as it should while adding a little kick. This is how we preferred them both at any rate. I’m not saying to skip them - these were not regrettable purchases - just allow yourself to be a little creative in how...

Everything started out great until we got the check. Seemed way too high, and there was no itemized bill. Adam, “the manager“ said it must have fallen out. We waited for him to print up another one and when we got it, he explained the service charge of 15% at that point (not when the original bill was brought over incomplete.) None of the happy hour pricing was accounted for. He seemed flustered and nervous and I just chocked it up to him having to run a lot of tables. He blamed it on the computer and we waited for a corrected itemized receipt. His bar manager brought it over. And it was still wrong. We were charged a 15% service charged on 160 vs the 117 that it should have been. The bar manager took the check back and my adult son said to my family “finally someone with a brain”. When the bar manager came back, he proceeded to lecture my son that he cannot talk like that. We weren’t even talking to him. When I told Adam it came back wrong a second time, he brought up that “we’re employee owned and I’m not trying to scam you.” I said, “wait, I didn’t even bring the word scam into this….you did”. He walked off quickly and said “I can’t continue this conversation.” We’ve never been treated so rudely by restaurant staff and it took us 20 minutes to try and pay our bill. By the end, they were screaming at us to leave and following us out the door. If my kids weren’t active military, I would have felt a little bit threatened. The level of defensiveness for their mistake and the way they treated us for calling it out, politely at first, I have never experienced. No apology for how long we had to wait. Instead, we got screamed at in the middle of the restaurant in front of all their customers yelling “we don’t want your money” after already hitting my card for the charge. As someone that has a lot of loss prevention experience, I believe Adam and his bar manager are not operating on a high moral compass. Which is a shame because up until that point, his service and the food were exceptional. And that is why it deserves at least 1-star. If you go there make sure you check their math. I mean “Adam’s computer’s” math 😂

In summary, I think starving would be a more pleasant experience than eating at Hell's Kitchen. And definitely a better value...