[St. Cloud, MN] The Pickled Loon - Burgers, homemade potato chips, and pasta

 

The Pickled Loon is a gastropub in downtown Saint Cloud. It is a locally owned business and the menu is pretty extensive and has a lot of very unique and interesting items for anywhere, but especially for St. Cloud. It is currently open for pickup in the alley.

I ordered a the Pickled Loon burger. It's a third-pound of fresh ground beef topped with bacon, cheddar cheese and pickles. The burger comes with a side of sriracha BBQ sauce but it left it off the burger. No need to cover up the taste of the meat, cheese and bacon. I did dip the house fried lattice in the sauce. The chips were crispy with a light seasoning. The sauce made them a treat. The big pretzel bun held the beef and other ingredients together until the last bit.

The very fresh pappardelle noodles were the highlight of this Alfredo Pasta from Pickled Loon. The menu doesn't say they are house made, as is the Alfredo sauce, but they certainly tasted as if they were. The sauce was very light so the flavor of the portabella mushrooms came through nicely. The broccoli was still crunchy too. My only suggestion would be a dash of white pepper to five the sauce a little zing, but overall, this was a very satisfying dish from a quality local restaurant, one I would like to eat at more often.

The Nest Burger is a homemade veggie burger. It was a little overcooked the day I had it, but I really liked that the burger was handmade with real ingredients. There are actually a ton of vegetarian-friendly options on the menu and so many were tempting to me. The veggie burger is quite flavorful and packed with grains and plant-based protein. It's topped with onions and red peppers. The side sauces were ketchup and caramelized onion dressing. I passed on the ketchup, but ate the caramelized onion dressing. That pretzel bun was also amazing and fresh! We've been loving pretzel buns recently.

I also got the lattice chips, but all burgers and sandwiches come with the option of lattice chips (homemade potato chips, tator tots, and beer battered fries).

Overall, we were impressed and will probably be back soon. Even though they had to pivot and do pickup during this time, they thought it out quite well and the food traveled well without getting soggy or anything, which is a major plus!

Another great thing we were surprised by was the fact that they teamed up with another local business (Poppy Salon) and hosted a giveaway for customers. You get a giveaway ticket with your order and you check back on their Facebook page for the winner to be announced. When we went it was for a $50 certificate for Poppy Salon.

If dine-in were available, there's a main floor dining room and a second floor, "The Nest," which is where they have live music and DJs on the weekend.

Here is the menu and we'll probably be back soon with another review: The Pickled Loon Menu as of March 2020

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