Harbor View Cafe

Stopped in last Friday for lunch. Nice clean premises with a library theme. On that particular day the clientele were primarily seniors and it was a nice quiet atmosphere. I ordered the sautéed chicken with curried lentil soup. The soup was fabulous. Nicely seasoned. The sautéed chicken was delicious as well however with a $ 24 price tag I expected a little more. The chicken breast was moist but it was so small that I ate it in five bites. The baked/​sautéed garlic was baked well but at $ 24 for the plate I would of liked to have the garlic peeled. Perhaps the skin was left to satisfy the daily recommended serving of roughage. Overall a satisfying experience. With the high prices I feel it is place to visit on special occasions.

I was looking so forward to try this restaurant and have to say was dissatisfied. I ordered the pork cheeks with mushrooms. While the pork was fork tender it was drenched in this almost sour tasting sauce… the sauce was so overwhelming you could not taste anything else… husband got the stuffed mushrooms over linguine and it was better than mine but still nothing exceptional. The bread and salads were tasty! Would like to give it a try again and hope to have a meal to rave about. This was on Monday of this week. Tonight we ate at Nosh in Lake City! Now that was 5 stars hands down…

Fill up your car, put the dog in the back yard or with a sitter for a week, and get in your car and drive right here. If you live a long way away, pack accordingly and sleep if you must — but drive. Drive like your life depended on it and get here as fast as the law will allow.
And then, eat. Slowly. Take your time. Bring friends and order 1.5 dishes per person and have it family style so that you can taste as many of the dishes as possible.
Ask for Linda — she’s so lovely. She is knowledgable
We had Linguine Papalina — rich and fresh with prosciutto, mushrooms, garlic and red onions. Amazing. Take what’s left home or eat it in the car in a couple of hours after you’ve finished your nap.
Entrees:
Sautéed Chicken Breasts
Hawaiian Swordfish
Soup — Cream of Sweet Potato with Chili Lime
Peppercorn dressing on salads that was homemade
Desserts:
Chocolate Buttercream Pie
Almond Cake with Lingonberries
Strawberry Rhubarb Custard
AMAZING. Say it again. Amazing.

Lovely in every way. Classic upper Midwest décor: checkered blue and white tablecloths, wooden furniture and walls. Hearty and heartwarming menu.

Great ambiance, view, and service! Our food was good, we got soup, salad, and lasagna. All were very good, but if you don’t like cheese the lasagna may not be for you because it’s very rich in cheese! Very happy to have found this place and stopped. :)

Go early or you will wait in long line. They take no reservations and do not hold tables for anyone!!! The food is amazing and has been written up in the cities papers and beyond. People come from all over. They
frown on customers whom hold tables by drinking lots before ordering thus holding up table, and you will get the message. Food is pricy but worth every bite and you will come back!

One of our best meals anywhere. Awesome food and service at reasonable prices. A gourmet food gem on the upper Mississippi. Definitely recommended! Too bad it’s 300 miles from home. We’d be here every weekend. Yummy!

If you go on a weekend, especially in the fall, go right at opening and eat early or you will wait 3 hours for a table.
Atmosphere is cozy, the staff was friendly despite how busy it was and the food was good. Probably more enjoyable if you don’t have a 3 hour wait.

Okay here’s the thing; this restaurant is alright. I’m a gourmet cook and a foodie so I was excited when a good friend of mine who lives in the area suggested dinner here. I had been here before but it was many years ago and because I travel a lot I didn’t remember the food. I ordered the halibut with black butter sauce. I couldn’t eat the dish. The fish was horrendously overcooked. It was grainy and completely inedible. I ended up eating some of the rice with the sauce. The sauce was fine and I’m not sure why others say there are 30 ingredients, there might be 6 in a sauce like that. It’s just a butter balsamic sauce which they seem to have added cornstarch to make it thick.
I had the squash soup which was okay.
My friend had the lamb which was so perfectly cooked. I almost ordered it but because he did I tried something else. I suspect because a lot of people don’t really know how to eat lamb, which should be on the rare side, probably don’t order that dish. Which is why I was happy to see that it was medium rare the way it should be.
Basically I don’t know who the cook is but it’s all over the place. So if you know food and how it should be properly prepared and tastes I would suggest that you were going to get 50 50 out of this restaurant and pay an extremely high price for it.

Excellent food. Perfect day trip. My husband and I took a day trip and drove through the towns of Bayport, Maiden Rock, Stockholm, and Pepin. We had lunch at Harbor View Café. I’ve heard that it can be a long wait to be seated but we got there around 11:30 and it was just the two of us so we were seated right away. There was a larger group lingering outside waiting.
The décor is homey with book shelves lined on top of the room. The menu is written on a chalk board. The service was attentive and friendly.
We ordered the Roasted Squash soup, fresh salad, Linguine, and Sauteed Chicken. It was delicious and felt like a home cooked meal. We took a walk down to the harbor and it was such a beautiful day! So worth it.

This place is ridiculously over priced. The food was good, service was good but $ 25 a plate was not worthy. Can’t go back because I can’t afford it!

I was so excited to be back because it had been years since I had been here. I was just not thrilled with the food this time. For one, the menu was very heavy for a hot summer day. I got the stuffed mushrooms over linguine. Very cheesy, but really nothing else to it. My daughter go the pepperoni pizza (made with local pepperoni). The pizza was good, but there was one little half slice of pepperoni on each piece of pizza. The staff was nice, but for the price I was just ok with it. No outdoor seating for food, but you can sit out in the chairs facing Lake Pepin with a cocktail if you have to wait.

I grew up in Western Wisconsin and the Harbor View has always been my parents’ top choice for a nice dinner out (despite the nearly hour long drive to get there). The food has always been impeccable and the ambience warm and inviting. I can’t remember eating anything in the nearly 15 years I have been dining there that I was anything less than thrilled with.
Today I emailed them, on a day that they are closed after a busy holiday weekend, requesting their advice on how best to surprise my parents by picking up the check for their anniversary dinner there this coming Saturday. I received a very friendly response from the owner via email almost immediately with a number of suggestions on how best to accomplish this. I have always received fantastic service at the Harbor View, but thought that this prompt response on the owner’s day off was above and beyond taking good care of customers. Thanks to her quick attention, my siblings and I will be able to treat our parents’ to a special anniversary dinner.
Thank you, Harbor View! You always exceed my expectations and I’m so grateful to have such a great restaurant right in my home state.

The location is ideal and ambience very nice. Service wasn’t amazing and food was just OK. Good portions, however! One plate makes two meals for sure.

This was our first visit and if we are ever in town again, we will be back! Great location by the water, only bad thing is the trains going by every 10 minutes but you get used to them. Large portions, great service, definitely give it a try!

My husband and I have been coming to the Harbor View Café for many years now. When I read recent reviews that were slightly negative I felt compelled to write a review on our recent visit. We brought a couple of friends with us this time, drove in from the Twin Cities. I have to say my meal was probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Our friends were impressed as well. I ordered the seared ahi tuna. The flavors were so complex, it tasted like an authentic japanese dish. We also shared the morel mushroom appetizer, which was delicious. The service was perfect. The Harborview Café never fails. We’ll definitely be back!

We where told this was «The Best» NOT. Our food tasted burnt, our waitress paid not attention to us, asked for butter, never got it. The dinner rolls where old and awful, we find out after we complain at the bar our waitress was the owner. Shame on Her.
I will gladly stay in Rochester and eat at Michaels.

I expected top-​notch service AND food from this place based on the things I have heard over the years.
The food was very disappointing – I got stuffed mushrooms over linguine and my dining companions got the pork shank, the halibut, and the marlin – so I tasted four things and there was nothing I would order again. The halibut is trumpeted as one of the most delicious things on the menu – when i tasted some of this I could barely get past the smell — oh so fishy and the sauce was overpowering apparently to cover up stinky fish,
The curly Kale that was underneath the pork and marlin was not cooked appropriately and was somewhere between raw and done. I would take either way but it has to be one or the other not just flashed under some steamy water.
The pork was tender but had a sweet sauce and tons of it all over it so you could not really get past the flavor to embrace the meat. I think the sweetness came mostly from carrots.
The Marlin was dry and bland.
The salad was swimming in dressing
My stuffed mushrooms had a ton of bagged cheap cheese in and all over it… I took three bites.
The wines were not very good and I have had way better bread at most places.
I just don’t know why people think this is good food because there are so many other dining choices where you can really get a chef inspired and created meal. I think they are all just heady with the view of the water and being in this quaint little town.
Two things I would eat again — the pear crisp and the root vegetable purée.
The prices here are averaging around 20 – 25 a plate and i think they are going for an elegant yet casual dining experience. The service was not overly eager to explain the food –and you have to get up and stalk people behind the bar to try and read the teeny tiny chalkboard menu so of course you still have questions about things as they put about 12 ingredients in everything – they need to practice some restraint and let the food flavor speak for itself with perhaps a little enhancement of sauce or dressing. I had to ask for water three times.
When my companions got their 7.00 dessert it was a chocolate torte sitting naked on a plate. No raspberry drizzle or anything. Seemed like just another disappointing plate and not the fun joyful celebration dessert should be.
You will have to wait 45-​minutes or better to get seated here more than likely — I don’t think I will make the 60 mile trip from the twin cities to experience this ever again.

Hmm.
So I live in the Red Wing area and have been waiting to come here as everyone I know LOVES this place. I have never heard a negative thing about this place. Needless to say, I guess I was expecting more.
I get they are going kind of rouge with the chalkboard menu– but for the price, give me a menu. I don’t want to awkwardly stand next to a table and while I try to read the bad (tiny) handwriting of the menu behind the bar.
I got the Halibut and a Caesar salad. Salad had too much dressing. Halibut was delish but not worth $ 33, in my opinion.
Would go back but will not be a regular here any time soon!

Regulars here for 20 years, making the trek down the Mississippi from St. Cloud. There must be a reason:
1. Halibut with black butter and capers. One of the best seafood dinners anyplace.
2. They know how to treat fish. Yet this is NOT a seafood restaurant, over half of the menu is not fish. For example, the garlicky and spicy chicken breasts or as made when available tamed down with champagne grapes.
3. Any fish with the shrimp and curry sauce.
4. Sticky toffee cake.
5. Real lemonade.
6. Unbeatable view like the name implies.
7. Great service.
8. Curiously ordinary white and wheat bread with a salty crust that is great.
Prisoner’s Last Meal caliber, try it out, but don’t tell anyone because the lines can be long, no reservations.