The Elbow Room

We are driving to Alaska from Michigan and was sick of fast food so I Unilocaled some ma & pa restaurants and I’m glad I did! This place had the BEST mac n cheese wedges I’ve ever had! Also great local feel with nice people, will definitely plan this in our next trip even if it’s a little out of the way!

Wonderful mom and pop diner with friendly service.
The Elbow Room is a small diner in the southern portion of Albert Lea, MN that serves great breakfast and what I understand are great burgers (I have not had an opportunity to enjoy one of their burgers, yet). It has a few wooden booths, a few tables, and a bar that seats between five and six people. So, in The Elbow Room, you may only have a wee bit of elbow room, which gives this diner a cozy feel and a lot of character.
We visited The Elbow Room for breakfast on our way to Minneapolis from Des Moines. I had a half order of biscuits and gravy (sausage gravy), eggs scrambled with cheese (the cook was very gracious with the cheese which I loved), and two sausage patties. Everything was delicious and definitely hit the spot. Before leaving, I ordered a piece of their pumpkin pie, which was somewhat disappointing. It tasted store bought rather than homemade. Typically, I find that mom and pop places make really wonderful pie. Despite this minor slip up, I would strongly recommend The Elbow Room, and I will certainly return to The Elbow Room in future.

A cozy, little slice of small town life. This compact diner is a throwback with classic greasy spoon dishes done well. I loved the classic patty melt with tator tots. Don’t come looking for healthy fair, bit if you want some deep fried deliciousness, this a good pick for lunch.

It’s a cozy little diner type of place. Few tables, counter, and properly named due to it being a smaller place.
Prices are finally cheap here, tried the cheeseburger. It was pretty good and something I would want again. The soup of the day was chicken wild rice, did a nice job with that as well.
For the price it’s a good value. No frills here, just food.

Actually listed in a recent «Best Hamburgers in the US» book. Nothing fancy, but the burgers are outstanding.

Great old school burger joint. Follow the waitress ’ recommendations of what to order. She was spot on. Patty melt, Dick’s limey burger, tots and mac and cheese wedges. We had a great lunch.

We stopped on our way to Minneapolis, small local place, juicy flavorful burgers, friendly service.

Have the patty melt. And the tots. With yellow mustard. Great food and friendly staff.

The Ankle Apartment (Elbow Room) is not too bad. I would eat there again. Great breakfast.

Great burgers & onion rings!

Such a hidden treasure! Don’t let the location and appearance make you waiver! This little «hole-​in-​the-​wall» joint is the best, they always are! The burgers are the best around! They also have several different options that are equally as wonderful, but the burger is my personal favorite (and what they are known for!) If the food isn’t enough to bring you in, the cheap prices are sure to!

What a fun and cheap way to get a heart attack!
The burgers were cheap, greasy and great! After a few hours on the road, this was our pit stop before we drove into the Twin Cities. The burgers are much bigger than you’d imagine. No, you don’t need a double cheeseburger, the single will be just fine. The onion rings were a bit greasy for my taste, but it was a great place and I would go again.

My buddies and I stopped in passing through Albert Lea. Great burgers. You can tell these aren’t the Cisco kinds (unlike the chicken strips) and are hand pattied. Prices were very cheap. My only complaints would be they seemed to be closing at 2pm on Saturday and the beers we ordered were 3.2%. Otherwise, I thought the waitress was prompt and courteous and the good extremely tasty.

Wow… Awesome burgers and onion rings. Great tiny slightly run down place. They are usually the best. This place is no exception. Better burger than Five Guys, and I love Five Guys.

On our way back from our son’s college visit to St. Olaf. Great little spot just off 35. I had the Egg Burger with Peanut Butter and Bacon (very tasty). Boys had cheeseburgers. Nothing fancy on the appetizers, but everything warm and such a friendly server. Will definitely stop back on the way to or from Northfield!

From the outside you would never know that one of the best burgers in all of Albert Lea is just inside waiting to be grilled. It honestly doesn’t look like much of anything until you are opening the door and get hit with the first sent of cooking food.
My partner and I went here my first time in Albert Lea and I LOVED it. I had a burger, and I believe he had a BLT, we shared an order of fries. The burgers are cooked and seasoned to perfection, and they are actually a reasonable size, and a SUPER deal for the money. I don’t know if the fries are hand cut here or not, but they definitely know how to fry and season them! They were delicious! I hate mushy fries, and these were the perfect amount of crisp, without being hard/​burnt.
I will most assuredly be back!

Stopped here on Fourth of July weekend during a long trek through southern Minnesota. The Elbow Room is a little off the path of the interstate, but not going to the chain fast food stuff is pretty high priority. This is a little place that looked a bit divey, but it’s clean and has clearly been there for ages. It’s also clearly family owned and operated, so that was cool. The burgers were very good, and they were friendly. This is a good stopping point if you find yourself with hunger pangs on I-​90.

Fantastic burgers and a very friendly staff for this great hole in the wall. 3.2 beer but you are not there for drinking. Food all made right behind the bar area and limited seating. Have specials such as prime rib and stuff on Friday and Saturday nights. Never tried them because you come here for one reason… the awesome burgers.

I have a special place in my heart for The Elbow Room. Sure, it’s a tiny little dive, with nothing to speak of for parking, but I have a lot of happy childhood memories of walking to this little hole-​in-​the-​wall with my grandparents for lunch.
The burgers are simply the best you’ll find in town. In fact, I haven’t even found a burger in the metro area that makes me as happy as the ones I’ve had here.
Circle bacon on the bacon cheeseburger so that every bite is bacony? Genius!