Norske Nook - Rice Lake — Restaurant in Rice Lake

We were passing through with another couple on our way to Duluth and I typically stop in Rice Lake for fuel. This time it was lunch time and we were told to try the Norske Nook.

The location was easy to get to and parking was plentiful. We were seated at a table for 4 by a pleasant enough server. She was not overly friendly until we engaged her in conversation but she was not rude either. Likely just being professional while being busy.

Because we knew we would be eating well for dinner in Duluth, we opted for 2 salads and 2 chicken strip baskets. The salads had quite large chunks of red onions and way too many that the taste of onion would likely create heartburn and lovely aftertaste if eaten. The chicken strips (calling them strips seems fraudulent) looked and tasted like process chicken formed into shapes that I crudely remarked looked similar to poo. The breading was uniquely flavored, not in a good way, and very firm. I suspect only unsuspecting children that will eat anything and are mostly interested in the fries are the only ones that are served this menu item and ordered by their parents that have no idea they taste like... well, not like chicken strips should . Avoid this menu item. Definitely not worth $12.30.

Since the meals were disappointing and the chicken strips left us unfulfilled and needing something to please our bellies and our pallet, we decided to try some pie as the placemat showed A LOT of Blue Ribbon pies.

We ordered 2 slices of the Blueberry Crumble which we shared. While the pie was good, it was served at what felt like a bit cooler than room temperature. More pies would probably be sold if they were warmed allowing the fragrance and flavor to come to life. And offering a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream to accompany the pie would be the bomb. But alas, we had no such luck.

Our return trip through Rice Lake included a stop at Kwik Trip for fuel and some sarcastic responses about the Norske Nook. Sorry, but it is not worth the stop unless you are only looking for sustenance or pie - to take home and warm up and served...

We stopped in at the Norske Nook this morning thinking that it would be one of the safer places in the area to eat. We greatly appreciated the social distancing, mask wearing, and sanitizing procedures. Absolutely fantastic job on that! If the food wasn't so awful, we would definitely be back. Also, our food took 30 minutes after ordering to arrived and it was quite quiet with lots of available (not roped off) tables.

I ordered the Hashbrowns Supreme, extra crispy hashbrowns, eggs over easy, sour dough toast, and the meat sampler. The Hashbrowns Supreme claimed in the description, "crispy hashbrowns" and I ordered them extra crispy to ensure they would be crispy. What arrived was a plate of cold, soggy hashbrowns. The eggs were less than over easy and cold, and the toast was cold. The "meat sampler" was a bunch of meat chopped up on top of the soggy hashbrowns, which was not as described.

The other order was the morning sampler, eggs over medium to hard, extra crispy hashbrowns, whole wheat toast, the meat sampler and a pancake on the side. What arrived was the morning sampler, eggs, hashbrowns, sausage links, sausage patty, bacon, (the meat sampler) and toast. No pancake. The waitress did apologize for not putting in the order for the pancake and asked if he still wanted the pancake. He said yes, as long as it won't take another half an hour. The hashbrowns were cold and soggy, the toast cold with butter not melted as well as burnt. The sausage links and patty were slightly under cooked. The bacon and eggs were fine. The pancake finally arrived as he was about 3/4 done eating and was very pale and raw in the center thus not edible.

I did bring the complaints to the waitress and for the first meal I was only charged for the eggs and toast and the second meal the pancake was removed from the bill. I do appreciate that they took care of that.

We will not be returning due to the...

My boyfriend and I had been wanting to try the food here for a while. We finally got a chance to get up there today for lunch and we were not disappointed. The place was empty as it was 2 pm, but we were hoping it wasn't busy anyways. The host girl seemed a little annoyed while seating us, but we brushed it off as our server was a nice older lady. She definitely was Midwest friendly and was great at making small talk, as well as helping us choose some pie to bring home for later!

My boyfriend got country fried steak, hashbrowns, eggs, and toast. He loved it, and I tried some and agreed. I got the Frisco Melt Burger with fries and both were super good as well. Everything was fresh and hot too, so we had a good time enjoying our meal.

On our way out we bought some blueberry crumble topped pie; very delicious! We also got a sour cream sugar cookie and a snickers cookie which were also both amazing. And some really lovely Rosettes that were perfectly made.

Overall we really enjoyed all the food we tried and the friendly service; we'll definitely...