[Twin Cities - Minneapolis] Hi-Lo Diner - Savory doughnut hi-tops, diner food, cocktails

Hi-Lo Diner is the perfect place for late night diner eats and cocktails in Minneapolis!

Hi-Lo Diner is located in the Hiawatha/Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, right off of Lake Street. This area is quickly becoming gentrified, it's kind of crazy how quickly.

The cocktails are strong and tasty and Hi-Lo Diner also has Minnesota craft brews on draft.

We got the Batten Down the Hatches (seasonal slushy) and the Alexander Hamilton (ice cream cocktail). The beer was an Indeed. I can't remember exactly which one.

The slushy cocktail was gin-based and had cranberry, ginger, and allspice. It was quite tasty all together, even though I thought allspice was a bit strange when I read the ingredients list. The Alexander Hamilton was good (just a Brandy Alexander). We were both pretty sure it was going to taste a lot like ice cream, but you could really taste the brandy and cognac.

I decided I really HAD to have a Hi-Top, the specialty dish of Hi-Lo Diner. It's basically a really fluffy doughnut, but without the sugar...like none of the sugar. I decided to get the Gary Cooper (fried chicken, gravy, and maple bourbon syrup). The names are just SO clever. The gravy was not super salty, which is what I was worried about. It tasted so good when combined with the syrup! The chicken was still tender, although some pieces were a bit on the drier side than I wanted.

It is super filling, but definitely worth it for the experience!

If you do have a sweet tooth, there are sweet options available. Let me know what you think of them if you end up ordering one!

This is the Nisswa Salad (Nisswa is a cute town in Northern Minnesota, but that's an aside). Hi-Lo Diner was really into crawfish, which was a bit interesting considering it's Minnesota, but one of the options for the Nisswa salad is crawfish (shrimp and lox are the other options). This salad was topped with the crawfish. It was a super HUGE salad.

My mom's opinion:

I tried the Nisswa Salad because of its name. I was a little concerned that it had too many special ingredients, but the combination of spinach, heirloom tomatoes and asparagus persuaded me. It was very tasty with each of those special ingredients adding a special flavor. The crawfish was disappointing, however. It was breaded and tasted of frying oil. Next time I would go for the lox, since salmon actually sounded better, just not as unusual.

If you want just classic diner food, there's also burgers and sandwiches. This is the Hi-Lo burger. Check out that bun! The fries are thick crinkle cut fries and are topped with seasoned salt.

My dad's opinion:
I enjoyed the formidable Hi-Lo Burger made with a high-quality beef blend topped with American cheese on a Turtle Bread potato bun.
The burger tasted more like ground steak than hamburger….rich and juicy meat and very filling. The burger was served with a side of rather routine crinkle-cut fries and pickles for $13.50.

This is the Pastrami Sandwich on Whole Wheat. The portions were huge. The sandwich was really delicious both fresh (in restaurant) and leftover the next day.

They've got jokes.

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