Nelson Cheese & Deli

I love this place. Family small business. Their sandwich selection is excellent, the staff wonderful esp. the bearded tall guy Matt– he makes his sandwiches consistent and good. They have specials that are out of this world. The salad bar and drink selection are very nice.
FYI– don’t go during the state fair they are closed. I like to stop in and grab food and go to Como Park and have a picnic.

If you ever need catering, they’re very convenient.
You need to have ordered and paid at least a day before your event. You can choose what you want and they’ll have everything ready for you.
1. Price
I think the price is reasonable. I paid about $ 80 for big platters as shown in picture.
2. Variety
You can choose different types in your platter. It’s very convenient and can accommodate tastes of different people.
3. Taste
Make no mistake, they don’t taste bad. I just personally not a fan of tortilla or whatever they use as wraps. And after eating maybe 2 – 3 rolls, you’ll feel the sour taste of it and in my case I feel like it’s developing my acid reflex.
Turns out, people aren’t that into it either. After hosting a group of 25 people, not even half the rollettes were eaten. Maybe choose something else.
I still would recommend this place for catering,
It’s very easy to deal with and looks good when you have it on the table. Good for both academic events and entertainment needs.

Everything I have tried has been good. The hot dogs here are seriously underrated. The St. Paul Red Hot is my personal favorite, and isn’t quite as spicy as the name implies but you’ll catch me reaching for my water after a couple bites. My favorite sandwiches have been the New Orleans, a Cajun/​Buffalo Chicken sandwich with blue cheese dressing, and the Mr. T, a turkey veggie sandwich. The meatball sandwich is good, but can be hit or miss. Salads are also phenomenal.
Employees are mostly high school age, which I appreciate. It can get pretty busy but I haven’t had a frustratingly slow experience, even when there’s 30 people in there (I counted). This place is definitely on my repertoire of lunch places due to affordability, convenience and tastiness.
Like other reviewers have mentioned, there is nowhere to sit and eat in there. So if you aren’t planning to quickly go home or sit in a nearby park to eat, you’re going to have to eat in your car. Keep in mind that this place is closed during the state fair!

Miss this place! I used to live in Falcon Heights and this place was a hidden gem! It is small, there is no place to dine in so be prepared to take your food and leave or even make a picnic of it by heading down the street to Como Park. They have hot and cold sandwiches, several different salads, tasty bakery desserts and of course CHEESE! If you are in the area would definitely check it out!

Awesome sub shop. Great value for the money

Great place to go for quick lunch!
Sandwiches and salads are prepared with quality ingredients and generous portions.
Price is reasonable and they have daily lunch specials.
Nice local place to go vs. subway, firehouse, quiznos, etc.

I like this place because it’s in my neighborhood but, every time I go for a sandwich they are «out» of Havarti cheese. They SELL packaged Havarti in the cooler 3 feet behind me. Why can’t they just open one and slap it on my turkey on rye?

Awesome little Sandwich and Cheese Deli, Salads are very good. BUT, Don’t ask about sub sizes, this is a real sand which shop, not subway or Jimmy John’s and the sandwiches are 10 x better. However special orders can be made for a large version of their sandwhiches. Soft Rolls packed with hearty portions of meat, cheese and fixings. Great Menu selection can be found online. Service was great, prices even better.

Totally screwed up a delivery order for work. We order from Nelson ‘s often, and its really hit or miss. Sandwiches are usually spot on, but today seemed off a bit. I don’t normally order the «Manhattan», and probably won’t again. Just too much bread. Carb coma.. . Yuck.
Everone’s sides/​salads were wrong. They also didn’t have potato salad as advertised on the website. Very disappointed. Seemingly simple stuff. Asked for a side Caesar and got pasta salad and fruit salad with mushy disgusting green grapes. Others had similar issues.
Turned out no one got exactly what they ordered. Not making that mistake again. How hard can lunch be? Especially an expensive one.

A wonderful deli with great sandwiches and salads. My personal favorite is the hot hero sandwich. They also have a variety of pasta salads, baked goods, root beers, chips, and cheeses. If you go during a work day lunch hour, expect a little bit of a wait but it’s not too bad. Great service and solid food.

Good sandwiches and the staff is always friendly. Love the Cheese Maker Substantial as well as the Monster Hamline (a Substantial version of the Hamline, with extra cheese, bacon and extra sauce! Yummm!)

I’ve been back 3 times so far, and each time my food has been excellent. I’ve gotten the Philly beef sandwich, the Chicago dog, and the BBQ beef sandwich. Definitely don’t worry about getting enough food. One sandwich can easily fill you up, and you won’t even need the chips. That said, they have a huge selection of chips, and a cooler full of novelty sodas, so you can always get something different each time.

Decided to take a sabbatical up to the land of my ancestors a little while back. Having just gotten off the road, I reached out to a friend to find a good place to lunch. He mentioned an amazing sandwich place he went to during work with great frequency, and already having larger dinner plans, a nice sandwich to warm up the palette seemed just the think.
It’s located right off a highway, on a wide suburban street, which unfortunately leads to some dicey parking. Bit of a trick to figure out what is and isn’t parking on the street. They apparently have a couple spots along the building, but there’s no clear marking of it, at least not to a newcomer.
Upon entering the building, you’re greeted by a clean, wonderful smelling deli. Not really going to go into a lot of detail. It’s a deli. Seriously, if you’ve been in one decent deli, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what this place looks like. Huge blackboard with the sandwich options and fixings listed, large glass front coolers where you can pick out ingredients, etc. One thing of particular interest, though, was the huge cooler full of craft sodas.
There’s a huge selection of meats, cheeses, spreads, vegetables. Anyone that says they couldn’t find something they liked is lying. I decided to give the place a good test, and ordered my staple. Pastrami on rye, smoked gouda, bacon, sprouts, spinach, and blue cheese. It is by this sandwich I just judge sandwich places. Before getting too into the ordering, I had to ask them the question I loathe to ask, but must for my safety. «Are those pickles sweet or dill?» to which the sandwich magician behind the counter responded simply «Dill. None of that sweet gerkhin bullshit here.» Sandwich wizard, if you are reading this, that simple sentence has earned you a place among my favorite people. Rattle off the rest of the ingredients, grab a ginger ale with the most visible ginger, and then pay.
Prices on the sandwich were excellent. Hardly pay anything more than you would at somewhere like Quiznos or Jimmy Johns, but the quality leaves them all behind in the dust. They do NOT skimp on portions on the fixings. Bacon was crisp, the meat was tender, the cheese was… cheesy, the bread was soft and fragrant, and vegetables had the perfect crunch, and the pickles… oh the pickles… dill pickle heaven. Only downside, the blue cheese came in the form of a mayo/​dressing/​thing, and didn’t have as much zip as I tend to like in my blue cheese. Also, the soda prices are a bit steep compared to other places I’ve been that have sold similar things.
So yeah. Want a sandwich? Eat here. Going somewhere else is just silly.

Go for the daily walk in special where you can get sandwich + side + drink for under $ 9. The quality of meats and cheeses is top notch. Desserts aren’t bad either. The lemon cake is the clear winner.

I loved it!!! No seating, just order and go. MEATBALL SUB WAS GREAT, definitely going back for more. Coworker tips to go around 11 am to avoid rush, great food and staff was friendly :)

Nelson’s kills it. Forget about those chain sandwich restaurants. If you are within driving range of this place, this is where you should be getting your sandwiches from.
There is an expansive menu to choose from both hot and cold as well as a build your own section with tons of choices, and don’t miss the hotdog/​brat menu at the end of the sandwich line.
The employees are great, super friendly and will take the time to make you something you will like. Nice selection of chips and drinks and a solid rotating pasta and cold sides menu as well.
Quick, easy, delicious. Been twice now and will be back many times.

OMG. This place is amazing. Really small thing but I think the pickle was the best one I’ve ever eaten. The only thing I would skip is the chocolate chip cookie. Bread and Chocolate’s cookie is way better. But the pasta salads are perfect. Love all the extra teats you can get here like Anna’s cookies. This place is worth the trip. For sure.

Great deli. This is the place I go to get food for my bosses when they come into town. Great variety of sandwiches, and a really heavy duty salad bar. Every sandwich I’ve ordered from here I like. Variety is the key with Nelson’s, a staple off Como Ave.

There is no seating here. So be prepared to take your food back to the office, home or car. This is a great place to take people with varying tastes because they can make their own salad or sandwich or choose from one of the many speciality items on the menu.
There is not one weak point of the menu. The salads, sandwiches (hot and cold), hotdogs, and baked goods are all awesome! My go to items are: seven layer salad, health nut salad, como club, coney hotdog, and the meatball sub.

I love this place, everything is delicious! My only neg is that they have changed the way that they charge you for the salads. Everything is now based on weight. The issue is that the customer is not making it themselves, the employees are. If you pay by weight it is a way to keep the customer honest when they load up the container. If you want to charge $ 10 for a salad, that’s fine, but post it and train your staff to make it the same weight every time. I am put off by charging by the weight of my salad if I do not make it myself and I have expressed this. I’ll bet sales on salads have decreased because of this ambiguity. But I will return because, again, they are delicious. I would go there more often if the salad thing wasn’t so backwards.

Nelson’s is one of my favorite sandwich and salad shops. The staff is extremely friendly and make sure you say hi to Mark. Everything is made to order and they get quite busy. So give yourself a little extra time.

I stopped in for a salad to bring with me to night class. I try to be as healthy as possible most of the time so I usually end up with a salad wherever I go, unless I am having a yolo moment (which happens more than I’d like sometimes!) so I came for the salad, although the sandwiches sounded delicious.
I am notoriously indecisive, so I couldn’t decide among their salad options so I chose the «create your own» salad. You don’t actually get to make it yourself, you tell them what you want and they put it together in a bowl for you. Mine was huge and delicious! I wished they had red peppers or sun dried tomatoes though. They do have a big selection and didn’t skimp on the meat.
They lost a star because of their dressing options… they had a lot available but only one light option (ranch), which is a bummer. I love a nice light vinaigrette.
I’ll definitely come again for a big salad, especially since it’s so close to Hamline!

I’m so blessed to have this deli near work when I travel in. I wish it was close by for a dinner option so I can buy some cheese from their wide selection.
For lunch they have a small selection of pre-​made salads but you can also build your own and choose from over 30 different items. You can choose between 20 different sandwiches. regular, larger, and hot sandwiches. There are also a few selection for soups. If you’re a big fan of pasta or potato salads, they have a few to choose from as well that’s sold by the pound. It seems like they rotate selections daily and have a few staples ones to choose from.
There is a small parking lot in the back, so it might be an issue around the lunch rush, but I think there’s street parking available as well if it’s really all full. Service is fast and they’re very nice!
Do yourself a favor and try them!

Really enjoyed this place and may become a regular. It’s very casual, no seating, lots of sandwich choices, some salads, cheeses, desserts, and good bottled sodas.
Chicken Little was our favorite out of it, the Hamline, and Rachel.

It’s all in the bread. The moist tasty Nelson’s bread is the best part of holding their sandwiches together and surrounding the content with a fresh baked flavor. Based on three visits the product is consistent and I’ve never had an unpleasant surprise. Many years ago before expanding the deli they used to have a larger selection of cheese as per their name. The little sandwich counter caught on and of course the owners wisely expanded deli selections promoted their catering business which is probably even bigger than their counter sales.
There seems to be a little confusion among the patrons as to where to stand to order. It appears the deli does not want to appear procedure driven (No sandwich for you) but depending on who’s working the counter people congregate from the middle to the right side. One time there was an employee on one end of the counter who apparently was not taking orders for sandwiches, and one on the other side who was but he just seemed to pick people at random rather than any order leaving some of us standing and staring longer than those who had just walked in. The most recent visit two employees were working sandwiches and after I ordered two, I received one back. There doesn’t seem to be a system for tracking orders, just rely on memory and verbal reminders.
The selection of sodas and various drinks and chips is better than most other places and grocery delis.

A nice mom & pop type cheese and sandwich shop.
I’ve been here a few times. I like picking up string cheese every now and then at this location.
This shop is the sister location to the one in Wabasha, MN. I think the owners are brothers.
I find the prices here are a bit steep for what you end up getting, but I try to remember that I’m supporting a local small business.
It can get busy here during the 12:00 lunch time, so shoot for 11am or 1pm to avoid the line.
They have an online ordering system I haven’t tried yet, but its mainly for their cheese baskets.

Great little sandwich shop over by the State Fair. Today I had their marvelous
7 Layer Salad w/​Romaine lettuce, bacon, smoked-​turkey, cheddar cheese, peas, onions, tomatoes & croutons. It was fresh and plentiful. I’ve been coming here for years and always impressed with sandwiches, soups, desserts and customer service. You will not be disappointed.

Kitty corner to the greatest fair on earth is Nelson cheese and deli. I was amazed to find a bottle of Bubble-​Up 25 years later after being a regular drinker at Red Owl. The lady helping me checkout looked puzzled for how happy I was over a bottle of soda. After all these years it’s not as mind blowing as I remember, tastes like a flat 7up with a hint of orange flavor mixed in
Tried the Cheesemaker, which was the most recommended on Unilocal.It was good but needed more dressing in my opinion. The chips on the othe hand was 5 stars, simply awesome.
Disappointed there was no seating so I had to eat in the car, which another guy was doing next to me.

Nelson, we are cool
If you weren’t so close to work
I would like you more
The first couple hundred times I ate here, I probably would have given it five stars. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, I guess. Nothing has changed about the place other than that my palate has been fully exposed to the menu, and variety is the spice of life.
The KC BBQ sandwich is my favorite item. The thing is massive. Probably not the best for the waistline, though. Usually, I tried to mix in a salad every now and then when I was coming here non-​stop. For sandwiches, the Rachel and Reuben are also both quite good. They added three different hot dogs to the menu a year or two ago. Everything is very affordable.
Be advised that this is a take-​out only place and it can get very busy during the workday noon hour. Best to go for an early or late lunch. Como Park is just down the street if you want to eat there when the weather is decent.
Will I be back? Absolutely, but more and more my food booty call rather than my main squeeze.