Nick & Eddie

A few weeks back, my friend C.M. and I had made plans to check out Nick & Eddie’s (N&E’s) near Loring Park. I really didn’t know what to expect from the place as the reviews I’ve heard ranged from “fantastic to “never again!”

It was about 8:00p on a Saturday night when we arrived and the place was barely half full. It always worries me a bit when restaurants aren’t busy on Saturday nights – especially when they are located in a popular neighborhood like N&E’s is.

My concerns continued to build slightly as I looked around the space. Despite the character given by the tall ceilings, dark wood, and dim lighting, the place has a bit of an “unfinished” feel to it. Someone had tried to improve things with a few comic book-like pictures randomly placed on a couple of walls, but they seemed to clash with the structural character of the restaurant. Even the booth we sat in was a this weird “let’s cram one more booth into this place” angle, and our table was about a foot shorter than the booth seats. Though my opinion of N&E’s was slowly beginning to form, I wanted to try the food before making any serious pre-judgments.

After given some time to peruse the menu, C.M. and I decided to split several items. Our waitress was very accommodating and offered to split everything for us onto two smaller plates. It’s rare that restaurants would offer this service outright, so we appreciated N&E’s effort to cater to their customers.

We started with both the Scotch Egg and the Mississippi Greens Salad with Roasted Beets, Bacon Buttermilk vinaigrette, Chevre and Fig. The Scotch Egg had a nice crispy outer coating, and the sausage on the inside was pretty mild but still had a nice flavor. The egg itself though was completely bland. The dish was served with just a bit of a yummy honey mustard – I was really wanted more of that mustard! I think there were even beets on the plate – which I didn’t understand, especially since the description on the menu included apple, not beets. Overall, this Scotch Egg was good, but it was no comparison to the Victory-44 Scotch Egg.

As for the salad, it came out deconstructed with a pile of peppery micro greens surrounded by a bit of chevre as well as a few chopped dates and beets. The vinaigrette on the salad was very light…so light that I couldn’t detect any bacon except the one piece that had somehow gotten mixed in with the beets. Again, like the Scotch egg, it was good, but I have definitely had better.

For our final course, we split the Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Cheddar, Gruyere, Andouille, and Lobster. I think in total I counted three small pieces of lobster and two pieces of sausage in my half of the mac and cheese. I was really hoping for more of both, but since the dish only cost $15, they obviously had to cut back on the expensive ingredients. The noodles were perfectly done, and I think they used the same sausage in this dish as they did for the Scotch Egg which was a plus. Unfortunately the cheese was on the light side and it could have used more salt. I’m pretty picky with mac and cheese though. I am usually expecting a big, flavorful cheesy punch, and rarely do the versions I order deliver on this expectation.

So, will I return to Nick and Eddie? Most likely, but more because of its convenient location and reasonable prices rather than the food itself.

Additional Details:
1. Website: http://www.nickandeddie.com
2. There is metered parking right outside of the restaurant. Otherwise, there is a parking lot adjacent to the Bascilica underneath the 94 bridge that only costs $2 on nights and weekends.