Trying Painted Turtle at Lake Nokomis

First off, we are all bummed out about the beer. Due to unfortunate zoning issues and that the city wouldn’t allow Painted Turtle to operate as previous owners have for years, they aren’t allow to serve beer. A fix is coming but I hope they didn’t suffer too much in the first season of business. A well run tap beer and wine program can be a huge profit center for any restaurant.

What Painted Turtle does have, overall, was a great lakeside experience. The food ordering area was neat and tidy with a friendly staff to boot. You order at the counter, get a buzzer, and then pick up your food when it’s ready. It was a quiet Saturday for early lunch, likely due to a bit of rain, but I walked around the lake with my dog Hank to check out what they had and I was quite hungry.

Unfortunately, the first item I had was the least well executed. I got the order of 3 beef sliders and they were very dry. The burger was well seasoned and was on a fine cookout style bun with cheddar and grilled onions. If the burger was still juicy, this would have been perfectly acceptable, if a little boring. Minneapolis is a burger obsessed town, and though a limited spice tolerance, execution and flavor are a must.

I was pleased with how the rest of my meal went, happy to say. I ordered the waffle fries which had a crunchy exterior and a pillowy interior. Nicely salted with a touch of spice seasoning. I also ordered the pretzel with cheese. The pretzel clearly was not baked in house, but was a quality concession and heated nicely to order. For the price, I got exactly what I expected, with all the pump nacho cheese I could want. Sometimes you need cheese from a pump.

Everything was washed down nicely with a beer I brought from home. I’d gladly pay Painted Turtle in the future for beer and save me from having to my own all the way over. I ordered a coffee shake for my walk home with Hank, and I was very pleased with that beverage. Great texture, nice balance of coffee flavor to ice cream. The chocolate drizzle and whipped cream topping had me all set for a calorie fever dream that afternoon.