Normandy Kitchen — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Even IF their food was terrible... (it's NOT, and FAR from it...) THEY HAVE POPOVERS! (Popovers - the conveniently sized butter-absorbing, warm, crusty cousin of Yorkshire pudding...) A super cozy hidden gem that's especially perfect on a snowy winter evening. Nice bar, good drinks, from-scratch kitchen in a pleasantly kitschy environment that's been around (and kitschy) since 1941. The fact that it's hiding on the front corner of a Best-Western motor-hotel means an ample parking lot out back with free parking if you remember to bring in your ticket. The hotel basement was one of Minneapolis old 'convention-centers' before Minneapolis had a convention center. In the back of the lobby heading toward the parking lot is a glossy white baby grand piano. It is placed over what used to be the stairway to the basement collection of convention rooms. I'm sure they wanted something heavy like a piano to hold in the ghosts of all of the 1970s "Psychic Fairs" and "Comi-cons" and "Midwest Macrame Meet-ups" that were held in the large, low-ceilinged expanses of textured burgundy carpet soaked in cigarette smoke, spilled Mogen David 'wine' and hotel coffee. If you listen intently while the butter soaks in to your hot, eggy popover, you can still hear the long-ago raucous, drunken, hoarse-voiced cajoling of a encyclopedia-salesmen's convention pushing up through the floorboards to the...

I ordered a vodka and club soda. I'm pretty strict keto and don't consume sugar if i can help it. I was also asked if I had a preference in vodka, which I shrugged off. I didn't expressly say "rail is fine," but I've always been under the impression that if I don't have a preference, then a less expensive vodka is typically used.

Anyway, I was served my drink, and had sipped it for about 15 minutes before the bartender came out to let me know she had accidentally made it with tonic. To her credit, she apologized and asked if I was okay, and then offered to remake it.

However.

1. The price was unaffected by the mistake. In my opinion, she should have comped my drink. I ordered it correctly and she made it incorrectly. She also could (and may) have knocked me out of ketosis. That sucks.

2. It was made with Tito's. That's a pretty classy vodka--not exactly something you serve to someone who shrugs at you and says, "Yeah, it doesn't matter. Nothing special."

Overall, I'm kind of disappointed with my experience. Maybe it's my fault for being on a strict diet, but I also feel like if you order something, you should get what you order. Accidents happen, and I was fine with that, but to charge me full price...eh, it just seems kind of lame. Really wanted to like this place, but I just don't think I'll be back.

(My server was very sweet and I...

We had visited the Normandy with friends several times in the years past and liked the food very much then, but we had not been back since the renovation. We came today (Sunday) for breakfast with a larger group and liked what we saw, and the service was very good. Sadly, what came out of the kitchen wasn’t that great. They listed Eggs Benedict on the menu, but they were out of English Muffins and offered to make it on toast instead (not the end of the world) – but they only offered one type of toast (rye bread with caraway seeds), which really is not everybody’s favorite. They were also out of the Breakfast Muffin on the menu (we were ok with that, too), but then the story continued with them being out of breakfast tea, and when we ordered the Eggs Cocotte, the ham that was supposed to be in there was nowhere to be found. Several people that had the hashbrowns did not like them because they were undercooked and looked really pale. So, I don’t know if this was just a bad Sunday morning with the B-team in the kitchen not getting things straight, but we were not too impressed. Being that we liked the location, service and atmosphere, we may give the place another try in the future. Hopefully, they will have straightened out some of these...