Vanilla Bean Restaurant

We had a very nice lunch — the half sandwich and cup of soup. Delicious and reasonably priced. Our server, Jackie, was cordial and efficient. The best chicken wild rice soup I’ve ever eaten (except for my own). It was SOUP, not wallpaper paste. The cranberry bread the club sandwich was assembled on was really good! I’d go back in a heartbeat.

Great place! Awesome wait staff and décor. Have the tator tot nachos. They’re wonderful. There was enough for four people, easy. One of us had a hamburger, one a famous cranberry club, one a pasty and I had the walleye. Everything was prepared to perfection and was presented extremely well. The deserts we tried (gitchi gami pie ala mode and pecan/​maple bread pudding) were excellent. I hear breakfast is the best meal of the day for them. I can’t imagine how it could be better than the dinner. I wish I took pictures!!! Argh!

Was here on Sat., 6÷11÷2016. I had their char burger, which was
way over done. The fry cook left it on way to long, even for well
done. Was burnt to deep, a good ¹⁄₃^rd. Thru from both sides of
patty. Pricing ok, maybe a little on the high side, but not enough
to complain about. Service good, until Oder is placed, then much
too long of wait for food.
If I go back sometime in the future, I’ll try something different.
(3) star at best.
I almost forgot, their coffee is really over priced and was quite
possibility the worst I ever had. I think it was the bottom of the
coffee pot, as it tasted real burnt.

Wonderful breakfast! I had the Scandinavian Breakfast and it was phenomenal! Definitely a must if you are in the area.

Coming down from Gooseberry Falls, my wife searched on Unilocal for a good place for lunch. She happened across this one which was top on the list. We parked on the street since it was already 1:30PM and the street was pretty busy. We managed to get a table in the next room over. I looked at the menu and felt like a ½ soup and ½ sandwich. So, I got the cranberry bread turkey club sandwich with their signature chicken wild rice soup. My wife copied me as well since it was late in the day so just needed a quick bite. Well, the food took a little longer than expected with the crowd. However, once it arrived we were very satisfied. The bread was perfect with tiny cranberries in it. There was plenty of spinach as well as slice of cucumber to complement the turkey and 2 slices of bacon. Plus, it was nice to eat between sandwich and soup which was creamy goodness with special surprise rice on bottom. We picked up some jam as well and bummed that they ran out of blueberry. Well, Lighthouse B&B had a $ 2 bucks for this place so picked up blueberry jam the next day. The nice waitress saved a few from the office and brought it to the cashier desk the next morning for us:) Talk about good service.

I was in an extremely bad mood when we ate there yesterday, so I am going to go with two starts instead of the one star I really want to leave.
We stopped in for dinner last night, ambience a little lacking, but I don’t care as much if the food is good. We sit down and are told they are out of chicken, nbd, that happens even though it was only 18:00 and they close at 21:00. We order drinks, sodas were crazy syrupy, again that happens I am not putting up too much fuss over that.
We order food, I try to get the catch of the day, also gone. Okay, I will order something else. Waitress also doesn’t know the veggie of the day, which she should. Our table ends up going with the walleye, two pork chop meals, and the hanger steak. Bread and cranberry butter comes out and it is all pretty good. It was a really small loaf of bread, five little slices of bread for four of us. We ask for more after we eat it, they are out of that too. Again it is free, not going to fuss about that. Soup (wild rice and chicken) was not good.
Food comes out. One of my wife’s pork chops was black. I mean, slightly darker black — black. No reason that should get put out of a kitchen, ever. She still tried to eat and said it was overwhelmingly salty. So she stopped trying. Sweet mashed potatoes were really runny. My father-​in-​law had the hanger steak. It is normal for the filet to be sliced up, but this was diced up into almost little cubes, and came in an extremely small portion. He said it tasted fine though (which means it was good). His fries came in a cone, which is fine in and of itself, but absolutely did not fit this restaurant.
I had the walleye, after the catch of the day was out, and it came out with a nice sauce on it. Unfortunately, it was upside down. The fish was a bit overcooked and the skin is really thick and tough on that fish, so not as easy to eat as with salmon or something else like it. So the sauce did me no good when I had to flip the fish over to eat. Also, the fish wasn’t salted, so had no taste at first. Not bad once I did put a little on there. The rice pilaf was weird, and didn’t look or taste good. The snap peas, though (veggie of the day, we found out), were awesome. Grilled and well seasoned.
There were definite food quality issues, and they really should be ashamed with a few of the mistakes that were made (upside down fish, steak mutilation, burnt pork chop), being out of so much so early and some of the other things that happened. Overall it was very disappointing, and the food was not representative of what was on the website and in previous reviews. We won’t ever be going back.

The food was delicious and full of flavor — leave the ketchup behind. They make their own jam and provide a generous portion for your English muffin or toast. The vanilla bean coffee is light and flavorful.
Service was very friendly and we were checked on appropriately without that feeling of someone hanging around.
The only thing that may hold you up is the wait as it is a very popular place and everything is made from scratch and to order so of course it will take some time to turn tables. :]] go for a relaxed breakfast or lunch.

Tonight we had the most amazing 6 course meal paired with Castle Danger Brewery beers. Our group of 6 is walking away satiated and wishing we could come back tomorrow for round two. My favorite was a lobster roll profiterole with a close second of Black Forest Cake. We will certainly be looking for another opportunity to come back.

Slow service food flavorless. Expensive for what you get. Black coffee was good. Chai tea rather blah. Salad was fresh. Blue cheese dressing very good and chunky. Soda was flat. Reuben toast was good corned beef was thick but no flavor kraut was good. Overall nothing special. Hamburger very blah.

Amazing and quaint North Shore restaurant. Amazing service, atmosphere, and food! Desserts are to die for!!!

With such a cute name, I wanted to try the Vanilla Bean for a coffee to-​go. It was a normal lunch crowd but the staff seemed overwhelmed. It took 5 – 10 minutes of waiting in the entry just to be greeted. My waitress was friendly. But another waitress really glared at me like I was in the way (my nice waitress needed to check out at a back register). A small plain coffee cost $ 3. I think that’s more than Starbucks. At least it tasted better.

Vanilla Bean is what I would expect for Duluth. It’s cozy, quaint, and super cute. I’ve passed this place on several occasions heading north. I thought they were an ice cream shop… I’m pretty sure it has the «café» clearly on their sign. Oops.
My boyfriend and I were on a mission to get a quick breakfast so we could get on a trail early before the sun came out and burned our asses. We thought we could grab sandwiches here, but when we walked in it looked so inviting we decided to sit and enjoy a nice breakfast.
There was one server, this worried me since the place had about 6 tables already and people walking in for coffee every 10 minutes. It turned out to be no issue at all. Our server was fast, friendly, and efficient.
I LOVED the wooden tables. They had little imprints of screws and horse shoes. I’ve never seen tables like that before. We were seated by the window facing the street. The window ledges had basil and other herbs I think, and flowers. It was darling. I feel like a little old lady saying that, but that’s what comes to mind.
We ordered an omelet with Gouda cheese, and a classic breakfast dish with eggs, hash browns, turkey sausage, and pancakes. The omelet was really flavorful, the cheese enhanced the mildness of the eggs and other additions in the omelet.
I ordered poached eggs, they were cooked perfectly. The hash browns were crispy/​crunchy, with the middle nicely gooey. The star for me was the house made berry jam. Next time I head north I need to ask if they sell that stuff in a jar. If not, I’m going to beg them to sell me a to-​go container filled with that delicious jam.
I will definitely be back.

We appreciate that this place is open early on a Sunday morning!
I go the Berry White Mocha (espresso w/​steamed milk, Ghirardelli white chocolate, raspberry syrup, topped w/​whipped cream). Tasty, definitely a strong berry flavor (though more of a berry syrup flavor, expectedly). They did not have a bakery/​café as we hoped, unfortunately. Only a sit-​down restaurant.
They also have a cute little shop-​like area with some mugs, clothing, and snacks.

H E L L O N O R T H S H O R E !
What a cute, darling, funny, quirky, tasty, amusing, satisfing, and interesting place to stop for lunch!
Easy access, lovely patio, and great people watching. What a delightful lunch we had.
The coffee choices were simple: Regular
Decaf and of course,
VANILLA
What else would a coffee shop called. VANILLA BEAN have?
An added bonus was the fact that they also serve BOOZE
Let me be clear: this is NOT just a coffee shop! One look at the extensive menu tells you that is NOT your gramma’ s coffee klutch.
The menu will astound you. Even the names of the items are amusing and creative. Someone has a wonderful sense of humor. More importantly, the descriptions of the food shows that all the dishes are equally creatively constructed.
There are many Lake Superior fish on the menu, and all their salmon is house smoked. FRESH!
In addition, they have embellished plain olé baked beans. I tried this at home and it is amazing:
1 can of your favorite baked beans
1 med apple, peeled, chopped &cooked down
½cup finely chopped pecans
Mix together and heat
There is a kids menu too, including Kraft mac and cheese, which is what the kids really want anyway. Many other truly kid friendly choices too.
So my friend had the GLBT Sandwich. Guacamole, Lettuce, Bacon, & Tomato. He loved it, but what makes it extra funny is that he has a sister that used to be his brother. Yup, one of the first transgender reassignment patients at the U. He also had the Vanilla coffee, and being the coffee snob that he is, he approved it.
I had the Cranberry Club, which they say is their best seller. and I can see why. Anytime you put turkey on cranberry bread, the result is phenomenal However, I looked at the. menu online, to refresh my memory and the price was listed as $ 10. My credit card receipt shows a $ 13 charge for the sandwich. Hmmmm… no likey
Even though, I will for sure stop back on my next trip to the north shore. The only thing I would criticize is that the server going off duty sat at the table next to us to count out her money. I certainly would have done that in private!
The patio is good sized, and the flower pots had herbs growing in them. How functional. And, you can buy the Vanilla Coffee BEANS on the way out.
I left happy, burp, and full.
P L E A S E CHECK OUT THEIR M E N U !!! P L E A S E

I had the wild rice soup, and it was delicious. My husband had the pork wrap, and it was tiny and pretty mediocre.
Our waitress didn’t seem like she wanted to be there.
Only go if you like chicken wild rice soup, otherwise it’s pretty meh.

We were driving through Two Harbors last week while on vacation and decided to look for a local restaurant for dinner. We came across the Vanilla Bean, liked the look and the name so we gave it a shot. I have to say it was such an excellent experience and dinner! I didn’t catch our servers name but she was so helpful the whole time and was always right on top of things with drinks, food, etc.
We started out with the Smoked Salmon Pâté appetizer and it was fantastic! The outstanding spread with very tasty pita chips made for a great combination. My burger was excellent and my wife had the Lake Superior Trout, which I sampled and was seasoned perfectly.
I have no idea when I’ll find myself in Two Harbors, but eventually I’ll get back and you can be sure I’ll pay a visit to Vanilla Bean for some great food!

Go for breakfast and have the wild rice porridge. Best thing I’ve ever eaten. A burger and fries at dinner were average, but the porridge was awesome.

Delicious wild rice porridge, unlike anything I have ever had. Topped generously with pecans and cranberries. Delish! My partner had a breakfast burrito and also enjoyed.

We decided to check out Vanilla Bean on our way up to Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse. Knowing this was a «mom and pop» type local joint, seeing it listed on the «find me gluten free app,» and seeing positive Unilocal reviews, we thought Vanilla Bean would be pretty close to a sure thing for an enoyable dining experience. Not so much.
We arrived shortly after breakfast was over (11:40AM, breakfast ended at 11:30) and figured we’d either be able to still order breakfast or order lunch. The website clearly lists lunch starting at 11:30AM. We were told, rather rudely, at 11:40AM that the restaurant was «in recovery mode» from breakfast and we’d have to wait 20 minutes before we could place orders for lunch. We immediately felt unwelcome, not to mention a bit confused since people who had arrived mere minutes before us were ordering breakfast. I get it, we missed the breakfast cutoff, but at least let us sit down and order lunch.
To hold us over until we could order lunch, we decided to order Mimosas. The server taking our orders looked at us like we were speaking some alien language. «Do we even have those?» She asked? We pointed to the drink menu to confirm that they do. She explained that they can’t serve them until noon and was clearly trying to steer us away from ordering them until I insisted that they bring them out for us at noon. At 12:15 we finally received them, after having placed our lunch orders. At this point three different staff in the restaurant had come to our table and we were unsure who our server actually was.
Given the small kitchen I expected the food to take a long time, which was the case (35 – 40 minutes after ordering). With that amount of time, there is zero excuse to overcook the burger I ordered to the extent they did. Our server said that they usually cook it medium well and had no problem with my request that it be cooked medium. There was *zero* pink in the burger — it was nearing on well done, and I also wasn’t impressed with the quality of the meat in the burger. The chicken sandwich was tasty but featured a rather thin portion of chicken.
I have a feeling we caught this place on a bad day at a bad time, after getting slammed during the breakfast hours (it was Grandma’s marathon weekend). Still, we deserved far better service and more care in cooking the burger, particularly after our long wait.

What a nice place for breakfast! Swedish pancakes or crepes? Wild rice porridge or pancakes? French toast or marble rye? Friendly greeting, great fast service, and back on the road.