Turtle’s Bar & Grill – Shakopee, MN

I hadn’t returned to Shakopee for lunch in quite some time and I still have a handful of restaurants on my list there. I opted for Turtle’s Bar & Grill. I was really in the mood for a burger and their menu online showed they had some winners. I already knew what I was going to get before I even arrived.

The inside is pretty much sports bar-like. Lots of big screens on the walls up high showing sports and such. The twist is that this is a stock car racing bar. Dirt track, asphalt, and NASCAR. And the best part: a minimum of 10 super butch lesbian ladies with sweet fem-mullets. Not that I have any problem with it, it was just really loud and proud at the moment.

Despite the fact that I knew exactly what I wanted when I came into the place, the hostess told me the specials for the day and ruined everything. The specials were Tater Tot Hot Dish and also Cajun Porkchops. Back to the drawing board. I could get a burger anytime I came back here for lunch (as long as whatever special I ordered was up to snuff, of course), so I decided on the Tater Tot Hot Dish.

Since it was the special and easy to make, the kitchen had it all prepared and ready to roll. So I waited about 2 minutes and my food appeared.
It looked really good. They had either warmed up something they had baked that day or it had just come out of the oven. It had a light crust on the top from being baked and also was hot through and through – sometimes you can tell when places microwave these things – this wasn’t microwaved. It was a whole lot of ground beef, peas, carrots, corn, green beans, potatoes, lima beans, and of course tater tots. It needed some salt, but sometimes restaurants have to make it that way for people watching their health. CLEARLY, I’m not! The whole thing was served with a nice dinner roll and was delicious.

Despite the fact that the Bulldog in the Twin Cities has an amazing Cajun Tater Tot Hot Dish, this one at Turtle’s was pretty darn good. I’d get it again if it were on the special menu (and again, ruining my master plan of ordering right away what I had been thinking about all day).

I’ll be back to Turtle’s in the near future. Good people working there, and the clientele are my kind of people. I can’t wait to actually try a couple of their awesome-sounding burgers.

www.turtlesbarandgrill.com