The Happy Gnome
Ambience : 6.3
Food : 7.0
Service : 5.6
on a scale of 1 (worst) - 10 (best)
based on 8 Rater comments
Rate this restaurant
Menu PDFAmerican New, Hamburgers
Lunch, Open late (11pm or later), Open Monday, Open Sunday
$15 ($$)
Throwing back some pints at your favorite ruddy pub usually means good friends, great beer, and artisinal cheese plates, right? Get ready, the gastro-pub craze has finally hit town. Revamping the old Chang O'Hara's in the Selby-Dale neighborhood of St. Paul, the owners of The Happy Gnome have created a warm and friendly pub where the quality of the food finally matches the quality of the beer. An open-face chicken sandwich is slathered with bright, fragrant pesto on a crusty baguette; the hefty bison burger surprises you with bacon inside the patty. The menu is packed with daring pub options as well as familiar crowd pleasers, like the salty rosemary fries that seem heaven sent to accompany a tall frosty Belgian Ale.
Last updated 11/4/2007Rater Comments
11/4/2007
Lunch, Number in party 2, Check total $50.00, Visited 11/2/2007
Ambiance 9.0, Food 9.0, Service 10.0
Excellent venison burger cooked to perfection--charred outside, pink middle. An interesting sweet aioli sauce set if off perfectly. Very good fries, too. And, the high point of course is the Belgian beer selection. Delirium Tremens to start and then back off a bit with a little lighter brew. It was a late lunch and the place really filled up quickly at happy hour time. Lot of fun, lot of people.
4/30/2007
Other, Number in party 2, Check total $29.00, Visited 4/22/2007
Ambiance 8.0, Food 7.0, Service 2.0
Sat on the patio for brunch. The patio is great, but we felt totally ignored. Our server was hard to find and hard to flag. We had to ask for most things twice. It took about 40 minute to receive our breakfast order. The food was good but not worth the hassle.
2/14/2007
Dinner, Number in party 2, Check total $35.00, Visited 2/2/2007
Ambiance 7.0, Food 7.0, Service 8.0
Great beer selection! I liked that they try something a little different than typical "bar food."
8/9/2006
Dinner, Number in party 4, Check total $185.00, Visited 8/5/2006
Ambiance 7.0, Food 9.0, Service 5.0
My husband had the special of the day, which was a beef filet & shrimp. It was out of this world delicious! The shrimp were the size of the steak, I have never seen anything like it and they were so tasty. I had the hummus pita, and it too knocked my socks off. Our only problem was that we asked to have separate checks and she never did it.
7/11/2006
Lunch, Number in party 2, Check total $35.00, Visited 6/28/2006
Ambiance 3.0, Food 5.0, Service 4.0
We are still underwhelmed with the Happy Gnome. We tried to visit several times, but, even after the smoking ban, the inside was too smoky smelling for us. This time we tried the patio, which has been redone, but it was nothing special. Our sandwiches were fine, but the cheese on my grilled cheese was a little underdone. Summit Scandia on tap was a plus, though! Service was lackadaisical. It's an okay place, but I'm not in a hurry to return.
6/9/2006
Dinner, Number in party 3, Check total $60.00, Visited 6/3/2005
Ambiance 3.0, Food 3.0, Service 2.0
Food: mediocre. Dry Bison burger. Nice cheese plate. Wine & Beer: extensive list. Bar: Bartender refers to you as "babe." Service: slow, snotty and incompetent. Don't ask for anything special like, say, cheese on your bison burger. Atmosphere: getting an outside table requires hovering & fighting, as the staff refuses to establish any sort of seating priority based on order of appearance. Patio consists of lots of blank, concrete space & two sickly looking potted plants.
6/2/2006
Dinner,
Ambiance 8.0, Food 8.0, Service 6.0
We have eaten in the bar area at the Happy Gnome on several occasions. There is no better beer list in the Twin Cities! They have a constantly changing selection on the blackboard on the wall.
We've had their vegetarian sandwich, as well as the Bison burger, which were both fantastic! The bartending staff is knowledgable about beer, although the table service in the bar was lacking. (Our waitress disappeared quite a few times).
Great value, great beers, and great food!
2/20/2006
Dinner, Number in party 2, Check total $140.00, Visited 2/14/2006
Ambiance 5.0, Food 8.0, Service 8.0
A friend and I attended a five-course Valentine's Day dinner here. The special menu featured funky dishes such as a "martini" of oysters in champagne with shallots and orange zest and sublime taste treats including a sea scallop wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon, served on a bed of mashed yucca with asparagus tips, onion rings and fresh basil. Kudos to the chef for creating daring, exciting food! Beware: This place has a nice atmosphere that is tainted by billowing clouds of cigarette smoke.
These comments express the opinions of individual Restaurant Raters, not those of The Rake or any of its affiliates.