Axel’s Restaurants

The food had always been great! All u can eat crab legs on Tuesdays. Can’t go wrong with a filet. Spicy chicken penne was great. Haven’t had anything bad. Cool room. Has a old gangster feel, but still kinda fine dining. Parkings never been a issue. They have there own lot and there’s street parking.

We used to like this place, we would often go there for special occasions, but after our last experience, we may not e go back. We had a 7pm reservation to celebrate a birthday and we weren’t seated until 8pm. Shortly before we were seated a manager (?) came out to apologize for the wait and she asked us if we wanted any apps or drinks on the house, then, after we were seated, the obnoxious waitress told us that we could have one or the other, but not both apps and a drink on the house.
The popovers are a great treat, but the food was only okay. Probably won’t go there again in future. They are a long established restaurant with years and years of experience making reservations, there is no excuse for making customers with a reservation wait for an hour to be seated.

My husband and I went for the happy hour but brought along a friend who loves sea bass. She is rarely able to find it served in any restaurant so she could resist ordering it.
I had the crab cakes which were very tasty and interesting at the happy hour pricing. My husband was trying their mussels for the first time. He loves mussels and has enjoyed them at many places lately. He said they were some of the largest ones he has had lately. However, the sauce they were in was way too lemony tasting. It needed more garlic and seafood/​chicken base flavor as the lemon juice was overwhelming. I was shocked when I tasted what he had left in the bowl (broth).
My friend was very disappointed in the sea bass. First she dug into it and burned her mouth as it was too hot. The taste of the salt/​seasoning they used was overwhelming and masked any taste of sea bass. I had to agree when I tried it that it reminded me of blackened fish served at Dead Lobster. The flavoring was very salty and that’s all I could taste. So, I still don’t know what sea bass tastes like. I guess it’s endangered so she shouldn’t be eating it any way since she makes all sorts of monetary donations to saving the planet.
We liked the beer that the server recommended but were disappointed that there seemed to be no price break on the beer during happy hour.

Lunch with 3 colleagues. First time here. Service knowledgeable and friendly. We followed service recommendations and all dishes were good. Nice portion size too. Nice place for a business lunch.

Just had the best ½ price apps & drinks. Three drinks, five apps $ 45. Plus super service.

Axel’s was recommended by my customer on a business trip as a great lunch spot. The atmosphere was very classy — great for business or a date. Joyce was a wonderful waitress — informative, friendly, playful. The Sinatra playing in the background added ambiance without being too loud. Buffalo bites were tender and delicious. The French onion soup had a perfect cheese crust, but the broth could have been more flavorful. The baked apples in the harvest chicken wrap really made my mouth happy!

It’s been a couple years since I’ve been at axels. And it is better than I remember. There’s a bit of an old school feel — low lighting and dark wood. The food was wonderful, from my wife’s chicken Marsala to my lobster tail and petite filet. I will definitely be back, and hopefully sooner than two years.

I was looking for Italian/​pasta for dinner but thought better of the prices at some of the restaurants in the area. Skeptical that a steakhouse would offer the same homemade quality, I tried Axel’s nonetheless. I was pleasantly surprised. What surprised me the most was that the fine dining experience came at a chain restaurant price. I feel very lucky to have tried Axel’s as it will be on my ‘must visit’ list anytime I am in the area.

Axels in Mendota has a cozy, intimate bar area, in a supper club atmosphere, complete with couches and pillows, candlelight (and who doesn’t look good by candlelight?), and Crooners background music. Daily Happy Hour from 3pm-​6pm and 9pm-​close featuring $ 2 off cocktails, wine and beer and half priced appetizers. My friend loved the mussels (a steal at $ 6 during happy hour) steamed steamed with garlic, white wine, and lemon.

Wow. We have been coming here for over 15 years but tonight the staff was so rude that we left after a drink at the bar. Hostess staff needs to work on manners.

I’ve been a huge fan of this restaurant for years! I got the sirloin oscar style and it was incredible; one of the best steaks I’ve had in a long time. The popovers are the best part of the restaurant. Nice selection of specialty bottled house wines that were a reasonable price $ 16-​$ 22 the night we went. Great atmosphere and good service. I would recommend this place to most people although the prices are fairly high. Not much variability in terms of entrée prices.

Fantastic food and service. Expensive but worth it… Server forgot our appetizer, as soon as food came out I brought this up. She didn’t hesitate to say either the appetizer or dessert was on her. Great atmosphere and and interesting/​funny art throughout the building as well.

We had the steak and walleye combo. Everything was delicious! I love starting the meal with those delicious popovers. Great patio!

I took a group of coworkers to Axel’s for a recognition dinner. We ordered three appetizers and a round of drinks to start off. The calamari was ok, nothing special compared to many others I’ve sampled. The onion rings were good, almost like a puffy beer battered style. They were a little greasy for my liking. For dinner, most guys ordered steaks or wall eye. I ordered a combination of both and it was fantastic. I prefer rare red meat and the filet was perfectly cooked.
I’m a fan of the Leinenkugel family brewery and as an east coast guy, I never see it on tap. When our server said Summer Shandy was on tap, I could not have been happier (until my 5am flight the next morning!). Our server was attentive and stay on top of things throughout the night.
It was a great experience and I would highly recommend Axel’s for any occasion.

Going to up my last review by a star based on last night’s great experience. We were long time customers of Parker House, now Axel’s. When they sold out and went Corp. things did change. Food was hit or miss, some ingredients were definitely frozen, processed crap. Service has always been exceptional though, I will give them that.
Last night we decided to give it another shot. We were seated by a very chatty, old host who thoroughly enjoyed listening to himself talk :) In an enjoyable way, of course. Our server Tricia, who has been there a long time, was very generous with beer samples and super helpful with menu choices. She made sure we always had a fresh beer without ever having to rubber neck and full glasses of water, I love that! My bulls bites were tender, nicely spiced with a cajun salt. Husband’s walleyes was very moist and large in portion, enough to take home for lunch today.
Overall we had a very enjoyable dinner, enjoyed the old school charm of Axel’s& excellent service. Definitely will be returning.

Pricy but well worth it! I loved the french onion soup. It gets busy here a lot so call ahead and make a reservation.

I love anything with an old school supper club feel, cuz imma old school gangsta! Well, that’s what I feel like at Axels in Mendota, not to be confused with the Axels Bonfires. The Bonfires have a different menu, and has that chain feel.
If you plan on eating here on the weekend make sure to make a reservation as dinner time is always busy, but dies down after 8:30pm. The décor might not have been updated since it opened. It’s dark, lot’s of red tones, black booths, and beautiful gold framed paintings of really full figured people (sort of odd). I have to mention the hideous light fixtures, they’re red little hat like shades with antlers coming out! I hate looking at those things. Axels, please update these.
My boyfriend and I have dined here several times and we have never had a bad food experience. They’re known for their walleye so start there if you don’t know what to get. On this particular occasion we started with old fashions, one with brandy, and one with bourbon. Both were delicious, although I was drunk after one sip of the bourbon one. It burned all the way down. The good kind of burn.
For food we decided on walleye fingers with house made tartar sauce, french onion soup, chicken wild rice soup, we split the kings cut herb crusted prime rib (kings cut is 14 ounces, queens cut is 10 ounces) that came with potatoes and green beans, and finished with the Baileys chocolate cake. This was my cheat meal this week so I ate like a goddamn fatty. It felt great.
Our entrée came with popovers with brown sugar butter. The popover is a little too hard on the outside for me, and I like my popovers with more gooey bread on the inside than what was here. But the butter is the star anyway. Put a glob of that on anything and it turns amazing.
The chicken wild rice soup has to be the best I’ve ever had. So silky, creamy, and flavorful. Yum! The French onion was also perfect, most of the time at other places these can be pretty salty, not here.
Walleye fingers had the right crunch, flaky fish, and tangy tarter. My first bite of prime rib was so incredible. It was so tender and juicy. I instantly closed my eyes and made that extra long mmmmm sound. I’m making the sound now thinking about it. We had Rosemary red skin potatoes for our potato choice. Eh, wouldn’t order those again, it just needed to be cooked a bit longer for my liking. The beans were great, but anything deep fried is. The chocolate cake was a nice sweet ending, moist and creamy.
We had a ton of food for the two of us, and leftovers to take home (the only leftovers were the vegetables), all for $ 100. We had some beers too so I consider this a damn good price for this meal. There was no split plate charge on the prime rib, which was $ 38, and they actually split it for you and brought two plates. I’m pretty sure they gave us a little extra on the potatoes and beans too.
We’ve never had a bad server here either, but Michelle was our server on this occasion, and she’s probably one of the best here. If you’ve never been to Axels in Mendota Heights, please go!

No problem was what we heard when we showed up a week early for our reservation… totally my fault. We got to wait at the bar and enjoyed the house made chips along with a cocktail expertly made by a friendly bartender. Despite not actually having a reservation we were seated in about 20 minutes at a nice quiet and roomy table towards the back.
Our server approached with a friendly smile and conversation and took great care of us throughout our dinner. Service is the way it should be at this place.
We split the wedge salad which made it the perfect portion. It came with a generous amount of crispy bacon and tasty blue cheese. I had to have the Cioppino as it is hard to find in the Twin Cities. Their version, while very flavorful had a somewhat too thick of a sauce and the fish was slightly overdone. The traditional sauce is more of a tomato & wine broth. The shellfish on the other hand were plentiful and done perfectly. My partner had the chicken masala which was tender and redolent of the right amount of wine and seasonings.
The room is warm and inviting, the service spot on and the menu has a nice variety that will certainly make this one of our go to places.

This place used to be soooo good, now the service is slow and all unattractive old women, popovers are cold wet and taste like a pancake, the food is horrendous, how about a fan and some air flow in your sweat box, what a dump

The food is always spectacular – so at least they have that going for them. I’ve been to Axel’s a few times and have never been dissapointed by their food or service. Unfortunately when I chose to sit outside last night, the mosquitoes were so terrible that they were offering bug spray for guests to spray outside. They notified us that they released a bug bomb to try to limit the mosquitoes but honestly – it was so terrible that they should have closed off the area. My other complaint was the service – it took us 2 hours to get appetizers and food because our server had so many customers outside. There was hardly any assistance from other servers either. And by the time we got out bill, it was wrong. I love the food but they’ve got to get their operations in order.