If you’re in the Twin Cities and want that old school steak
house feel, you really should give Lindey’s a shot. It’s been around a really
long time and, from the looks of things, it hasn’t changed much since it opened
(with the exception of them adding in a fire sprinkler system, once safety was
invented around the 1980’s). It’s got that old wood paneling on the walls and
ceiling and it just feels north-woods-homey inside.
They keep things simple at Lindey’s. The menu is probably
the most simple I’ve seen. There are four items on it. Three steaks and one
grilled shrimp dish. The server brings over a large sign that’s on a post and
sets it next to your table to help you decide. Do you want steak, steak, steak,
or shrimp? With each meal ordered, you get a salad with homemade dressing,
unlimited garlic bread, what they refer to as “greaseless hashbrown” – smashed red
potatoes, and pickled watermelon rind. Oh wait, there IS another menu item – sautéed
(in 2 pounds of butter) button mushrooms for the entire table. Which our table
DID order.
Guess what I ordered? A steak. Lindey’s Special Sirloin. I
read on a sign in the lobby that if you want to order your steak medium or
medium rare, you should pay the one dollar extra and get the special steak. I
have no idea what the difference would be, but I went for it, so I like a pink
steak. I also go t an Old Fashioned, since it seemed like the right atmosphere.
The Old Fashioned is VFW-level ratios of 90% booze, so be ready for that. And
it was delicious. Not too sweet, not too much bitters, just right.
The steak is served table side and cut in front of you. So,
it comes in one giant, baby-sized slab, and then they cut it into four pieces –
each person gets two large pieces. Like, two 8-12 ounce pieces. Extremely
generous portions put on your molten hot plate to ensure your steak stays warm.
Also, I’m sure the entire steak is coated in butter, which is always a plus.
Regardless, the steak is extremely delicious. The char on the outside is
outstanding and the meat doesn’t have any gristle at all. It’s an amazingly
good steak.
The greaseless hashbrowns are cooked red potatoes that are
smashed and then covered with some amazingly salty seasoning that makes you
unable to stop eating them. The nice thing is that if you run out, they bring
you more. They’re quite impressive.
The garlic bread is cut into many small pieces. Plenty of
butter and garlic salt on them. Delicious (and fight-inducing).
The button mushroom have also been sautéed in multiple pounds
of butter (sense a theme here?) and are great. There’s a huge mound of them, so
they truly are for the whole table. You can put them on your steak or just pop
them in your mouth. There’s no wrong way.
They also have a sort of palate cleanser – watermelon rind
that has been pickled. I’m not sure the origin story of this particular thing,
but I’ve never had it before. I think overall, the table was split half and
half on who liked this thing. It’s got a pickled beet texture and some of the
brine associated with that. So if you like pickled beets, which my
mother-in-law and I definitely do, you’re really going to like this sweet
treat.
After the meal, they do have some different cheesecake
options from Muddy Paws Cheesecake Shop. We got the turtle cheesecake and were
pretty happy with that. I’ve been meaning to make it to Muddy Paw’s store, but
I haven’t yet.
We ended up taking home four to-go containers with steak,
mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and mushrooms home. There was enough steak left
over that we made steak fajitas the next day, and still had a huge chunk of
steak left over for the following day. It’s an impressive amount of food,
honestly. Now that we’ve actually be inside the place and know how good it is,
we definitely will be back. It isn’t talked about widely, but if you’ve been
there, you know what I’m talking about.
Also, of note, during the lunch hours, they have a few other
things on the menu, like a hamburger. Hahaha. I think that’s the only addition,
but you can also order that if you really need to during dinner. It just amuses
me that THAT is the additional item they do at lunch. Probably so people don’t
fall asleep at work by eating 32 ounces of steak during the workday. Just go
here. Please. And you can thank me later for telling you about it.
