Jake's Restaurant & Bar

I was in Bloomington MN for a week on business and luckily for me Jake's was located in my hotel.  I had  dinner at the hotel every night because it was snowy and ball shrinking cold and just too miserable to leave the hotel any more than necessary.  

So here is my summary of a weeks worth of food: The salads are good the greens are fresh & crisp! The Cobb & Buffalo Chicken & even a simple dinner salad all make for a good choice.  

The Mushroom & Wild Rice Soup is quite good and nice way to warm up your insides on a dreary day.

The big disappointment for me was actually the steak. The flavor was good but I ordered it medium and got well done instead. Yuk, no meat should be well done--might as well eat shoe leather!  Actually though the biggest problem was that the cut of meat was mostly all fat & gristle.  It's a 12 ounce ribeye (which I know is a marbled cut of beef) but this was more than half fat and gristle.  

The interior is fine, nothing fancy and typical of a hotel restaurant.  They do have a bountiful bar with a great variety/selection of wine, beer and alcohol.  Overall,  the kitchen is crazy fast, the wait staff is attentive, some more than others.  They did make amends for the disappointing steak with a nice slice of Carrot Cake.

Located within the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, Jake's Restaurant & Bar is a very classy establishment.

We were looking for a restaurant to seat us and get my brother fed within the hour so my dad could drop him off at the airport.  We previously tried getting in at Outback Steakhouse, and there was no way with a 30 min wait-time to be seated.

The ambiance is great; it is a small restaurant with white tablecloths.  I was glad that I was still wearing my suit from work, because it was a very intimate setting.  They were able to seat our group of 5 without a wait time.  We were thrilled!

The staff was very attentive to our drinks... it seemed like after even a few sips that our water glasses were refilled... I thought this was particularly impressive for 7 pm on a Friday night!

And this is just a family thing, but when we saw french onion dip and homemade chips on the menu, our socks were officially knocked off.  That was seriously the best way to enjoy french onion dip... I love the crispy edges with slightly tender insides of freshly cut and fried homemade potato chips--- you can still taste the potato flavor that has been completely lost in your typical commercially made potato chip from the bag!

I ordered the ribeye steak, which is the only steak on the menu and one of the priciest items on the menu.  It was well worth it! They gave a great cut of meat and cooked it to medium perfection.  It was served with garlic mashed potatoes with russets that had some of the russet potato skins mixed inside.  It also had my favorite veggie, brocolini, sauteed on the side.  

To start I also ordered a cup of the minnesota wild rice soup, and it was heavenly.  You can tell that the soup was made fresh that day and NOT from a can.  It was also refreshing to know that they incorporated a minnesotan staple into the menu with the wild rice.

My mom ordered the salmon, my aunt and dad ordered a salad, and my brother ordered a large burger... they all appeared to be satisfied with their order!

Loved the ambiance, the food and the service.  The proximity to the airport is also a major plus.  Highly recommend this restaurant for when you crave and expect quality american food!