Smorgie's — Restaurant in Saint Paul

Smorgies just opened in January 2025, and we decided to take a gamble and stop in before a Nine Inch Nails concert at the Xcel Energy Center. Normally, we don’t stop at new places without many reviews, but the few that were here had a solid 4.5 stars, and now I see why! The location is excellent. It’s right across from the Xcel Energy Center (Now called Grand Casino Arena) making it a perfect stop before a concert or Wild game. The atmosphere is fun and unique. It's seat yourself (which I loved), and they have such a cool mix of seating: booths, tall tables, swing benches, cozy chairs, standing tables, and even outdoor seating. It gives you a lot of options depending on your vibe. They also have a pull tab machine and pull tabs at the bar, which is always a win in my book. Ordering was simple. You can grab a paper menu, or scan a barcode to pull it up on your phone. You can order individually or as a group, so everyone can use their own device. Super convenient! One thing to note: they run a condensed menu around event times, so not everything you see online on their website menu will be available when you get there! Bit of a bummer because my husband and I really wanted to try the Tater Tot Hot Dish, but it wasn’t offered. Online it says "Kitchen hours daily 11:00am-1:00am". It mentions nothing about an event menu and certain items not being available. To improve, I’d recommend updating the website with a clear note (in bold red lettering) next to what items aren’t available during/around event times. That way expectations match up. That said, the food came out lightning fast, which honestly shocked me. I got the double smash burger with tater tots and also tried the chili wings—both were excellent. Drinks are Pepsi products (which I prefer), reasonably priced, and you get to do your own free refills at the machine. Love that setup because there's no waiting around for someone to bring a refill, and I wish more places did this. Overall, this place exceeded my expectations. Between the quick service, great food, fun atmosphere, and prime location, I can’t recommend it enough. We’ll absolutely be...

I’ll admit it, I’m pretty much past my days of staying out until 1am (and usually even 11 or 12 for that matter). But it made me really happy to see that there’s a place in downtown Saint Paul, right on the fringe of west seventh, that is open until 1am every night. It’s surprisingly hard on the occasion one is looking for this to find more than one place open in the immediate area. Most places, especially that serve food, close by 9 around here, maybe 10 or 11 on weekends.

Having a place like this open until 1am every night of the week makes it feel a little more like a city to me. I like knowing it’s there if i want, and hope they’re able to keep these hours. I stopped in for a quick bite and drink on a Thursday night after 10 and there was a nice crowd there.

Smash burger and fries was really tasty and only $12, and a glass of decent wine was $7. Tough to beat those prices. And i have to say, there were a lot of other things on the menu that intrigued me, and i had a tough time choosing. Everything from tater tot hotdish and Swedish meatballs, to spicy chicken sandwiches, salads, burgers, chili Mac and cheese, etc., all of which were very reasonably priced (i think the most expensive stuff i saw was $12 or $13?)

Atmosphere was a fun kind of vintage vibe with some 70s wallpaper, cool lighting, and plenty of options for either nice bar seats, tables, or booths. It’s a cool space, and i like that basically all the exterior walls are glass so you can watch the city moving around you as you enjoy your food and drinks.

Service was super friendly, and the bartender was really knowledgeable on all the food and drinks there. Told me if i like spicy chicken their sandwich is actually pretty legitimately spicy, not just “Minnesota spicy”, and she described several cool drinks and different options to me.

Always rooting for cool new places in the neighborhood, will definitely be back and hope this place...

So, the set up is stupid in my opinion. You don't get a waitress, you get a delivery person. This was my first visit here, before a concert at the Palace Theater, there were 4 people in my group. So there's no explaination anywhere about how the ordering works. You scan a code, and it takes you to their website to place your order. I ordered 2 beers, because it made me put in my credit card, before it actually told me I could keep my tab open. So thinking I had to pay up front, I just ordered 2 beers, and my food. Pretty quickly, the delivery person brought me 3 beers. I told her I only ordered 2, she quickly set them down, and said, the computer said you ordered 3. As I again said, I only ordered 2, she ignored me and walked away. So it started off bad, and only got worse. So within a few minutes my wings came. And then about every 5 minutes another person's food came. So by the time the 4th person's food came, I was done eating. And that person had watched the rest of us eat for 15 minutes. When my friend ordered a 2nd beer, she brought him 2. He said he only ordered 1, and as you guessed it, she said well the computer said 2. She walked away without offering to fix it. So is that the business model, to add things to people's orders, who don't order them? That's TERRIBLE service. Well, actually, it's no service. It's basically self service. The delivery person does not offer to help or fix anything. You will get much better service walking into a McDonalds, than you will in this place. At least at McDonalds you'll get a real person taking your order. This place is counting on Xcel energy traffic to survive, and that is the only way it will survive. It will not survive based on its food quality, or service, because it...