The Pie Place Cafe

Oh No! What Happened?
Update: 10÷4÷15 Once a year we head to Grand Marais, this is usually our first place we stop to kick off our stay, and usually return nightly to pick up a slice of pie to share.
We arrived at 6:00pm and checked into our hotel, dropped off our belongings walked down to The Pie Place. Instead of munching on the delicious onion rings I look forward to every year, we were greeted with a Closed sign. I had checked their website before we drove into town to make sure we had plenty of time to stop there for dinner.
Looks like they’ve changed to seasonal hours earlier this year. Disappointing, but I’m flexible. There’s no lack of good dining options here, we headed back today…
Which proved to be a mistake. The onion rings with the dipping sauces I raved about in my previous review are still on the menu, but no longer come with the dipping sauces. (you should update your website, because it still lists that they come with one of the two) So basically you just have overpriced onion rings.
We ordered a grilled chicken mozzarella sandwich and a monte cristo sandwich. Both sound delicious, came out of the kitchen amazingly fast. We learned very quickly why.
Both are cold, ice cold. When you think of a monte cristo sandwich you think Hot Ham and Gooey Cheese, nope… And the grilled chicken came with a hunk ¹⁄₃ of an inch, thick slab of cold mozzarella.
I guess they don’t cook these sandwiches as much as assemble them. Their menu specified that the meatloaf came cold. No where did it say that these, should be served warm meals were in fact cold.
Two sodas
Two cold sandwiches
One slice of pie
$ 45.00
Tip $ 5.00
$ 50.00 meal
We come here to enjoy the scenery and the food and are happy to pay more for a good meal. But seriously, I can get a good fillet for what I paid for two deli sandwiches.
As I type this I have been sick in my hotel room for the past two hours. Was it the cold chicken cooked God knows when, or a monumental coincidence? Who knows… I can tell you that once my stomach stops doing hula-​hoops around my bottom and I feel like going out again, I’ll be avoiding The Pie Place at all costs.

We stopped in starving, and were not disappointed! I had the broccoli and cheese soup (which had legit broccolini florets, and was creamy and not stringy) and the meatloaf sandwich. The meatloaf was good, could have had a little more meat on the sandwhich, but it was tasty. it came with caramelized onions, which was a nice touch. I ordered gluten free bread, and it was either the most amazing GF bread ever, or it was a mistake. My husband had the blackberry lemonade which he liked but said was super sweet, and the fish and chips. He said the fish was decent — thickly breaded, so know that if you are more used to the thinly breaded super deep fried kind (I prefer the thickly breaded, myself). Fries for both of us were good. We didn’t get pie this time, but it looked good, and the table next to us raved about it. It seemed a little pricey, but we got in right away and the food was tasty, so I’m not complaining. Our server (don’t remember his name, but he had a red/​yellow/​blue bracelet) was very nice, and is Romanian, so if you happen to know Romanian, say hi! Or multumesc when you leave.

We love Grand Marais. On our most recent visit we decided to try the Pie Place on the recommendation of a friend. The service was fine. Location was good. However, we were both disappointed with our meals.
My boyfriend ordered the single crab cake Benedict. No where did it denote that it was imitation crab. It was basically warm crab salad. It was not the crab cake he was excited for. Plus the egg over easy was not runny at all. I tried an omelette. It was very greasy. The house potato dish was cold and tasteless. We are willing to spend money on good food, however this did not meet expectations. Come here for a nice view of the lake.

Given the name, I probably should have ordered pie. I went there for breakfast and left wishing I had saved those calories for donuts instead, which I then walked down the street and ate anyhow.
Service was fine, but the food wasn’t very good. The pancakes were undercooked (gave me flashbacks to my middle school cafeteria), the eggs were overcooked, the maple sausage was probably made by jimmy dean and the rest was unremarkable.

We had lunch and breakfast during our last visit to Grand Marais. The food was excellent and the pie was wonderful. The service was friendly but rushed us while eating pie in a almost empty restaurant.

Here’s what I’d do to make the pie closer to 5-​star worthy:
1) enlarge the size to better fit the price. This piece looked small vs others I’ve had along Hwy 61 and loved.
2) Do something special with it. It was very plain Jane and the crust taste didn’t make up for that. Thicker crust? Crumb topping? I don’t know but make it obvious why it’s priced the way it is.
Thanks for replying to my last review!

A very good breakfast place in Grand Marias. They have a small patio area, but is friendly for dogs. The menu is very north woods (who would have guessed) but the right size for good execution (also gluten and dairy friendly). The kayaker omlet was on point (LOTS of meat, good amount of sweetness from the maple sausage (?) as well as the breakfast sandwich. The granola pancake was absolutely phenomenal. Our server was new, but did a very quality job. Overall would recommend!

A cozy place, they also have some tables outside to enjoy the shoreview — but you can stil do it from inside. We went here for breakfast, and they had a very wide selection! The food was good, simple but still satisfying. We also shared a slice of homemade pie with berries: I really liked it because it wasn’t «full of butter» as many other typical american pies. Thumbs up!

I wanted to like this place but the food was very mediocre. Great service and friendly but $ 12 Voyageur b-​fast was underwhelming.

We stopped by on a whim on our way out of town. The menu had enough options, and it seemed like if they didn’t have exactly what you were looking for they could make it. I had the 1 pancake, 1 sausage, and 1 egg. The pancake was different than most, a bit more firm on the outside and nice and fluffy in the center. It was delish. The egg was under cooked — poached — but that’s a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance. My husband had a different dish of a similar variety and he seemed to enjoy it as well. My favorite part of our visit was the PIE! I had the bumbleberry — it was nice and tart with such great flavor. My husband had the blueberry and gave it 2 thumbs up as well. The pie is what made the breakfast great, other than that… it’s a cute, decent place.

Very good breakfast place. They’re breakfast potatoes are amazing and the vanilla waffle was delightful as well. I have been here a few times.

Came here for breakfast with the hubby. I had maple sausage, gouda, mushroom, and onion omelette with cranberry wild toast. Did not know what to expect about the toast but thought i’d try something I normally wouldn’t try and boy am I glad I did! The cranberry wild rice toast was really good! The omelette was really good too, but you know it’s one of those things that’s pretty hard to mess up. The best part of the breakfast was their breakfast potatoes! It was thin strips of potatoe (think hash browns) that are mixed with sour cream and who knows what else! It well definitely make you go over your caloric intake for the day but so worth it! Hubby had sausage gravy and biscuits with breakfast potatoes and 2 eggs which looked really yummy too!

This is always a breakfast stop for us when we’re in Grand Marais (ironically though, I’ve never ordered pie). I’ve had most of the breakfasts, and they’re all fantastic — especially the pancakes. Also, the coffee is a house brew that is noticeably good. The prices are, however, a bit high. They seem to a la carte you to death; pancakes are one price, but it’s an upgrade for certain kinds of pancake, an upgrade for fruit in the pancake, and an upgrade for better syrup. Net, the pancakes you thought would be $ 5, turn out to be $ 9. But they ARE darn good.

Good breakfast place in Grand Marais. I loved the maple sausage omelette with the cranberry wild rice toast. I’d be interested to come back for lunch or dinner and try the pie though my husband thinks we should try elsewhere before returning.

In my top ten breakfast’s place of all time. The orange pecan granola had a really great flavor. Wild rice bread tasted really fresh from the oven. But everything was definitely homemade and the real deal. Try the in house maple sausage please!

Simply excellent bumbleberry pie… perfect mix of sweet and sour left over on your mouth… definetly worth stopping over fot

My new favorite place to eat in Grand Marais. I tried the three meat maple meatloaf and it was the best. Served with very tasty homemade hashbrowns and steamed pea pods. The Mango Ginger Iced Tea was good too. I’ll be back.

This place came recommended, so we thought to give it a try. We walked in and asked to be seated outside (they have a few tables just outside the restaurant) and the waiter who graciously greeted us and gave us menus, and said of course. After waiting for 20 minutes and no one checking in with us, we decided to leave.
Don’t get me wrong, we are all about being laid-​back and taking it slow, but this was ridiculous. After sitting out there for over 20 minutes without any server acknowledgment? It’s not like they couldn’t see us — we could see in — they could see out!

Came for lunch based on reviews in a tourist flyer in our cabin.
Should’ve checked Unilocal instead.
So disappointed.
Is it because we didn’t order any pie?
Fish and chips were terrible! Check out the photo I posted and you will see what I mean. The fries were tasteless. The batter on the thin fish fillet was thick and crunchy. I can understand if it is from a freezer box, but this is $ 15 and supposed to be fresh caught. If it was, we couldn’t tell. What a shame. If you want fish and chips, go to the Angry Trout for a much better meal for the same cost.
The crab cake Caesar salad was o.k. Nothing I would dream about or order again. I ate it. I have better Caesar dressing by Brianna in my fridge at home. Funny thing about the salad is, they didn’t chop the lettuce. At all. Not kidding. Huge leaves of romaine me and two other people at the table who ordered this had to struggle to cut. It didn’t look like it was done on purpose. Maybe they were short on time?
Guess we should’ve had pie and only pie.

I’m giving it an extra star. What would keep me coming back is the variety. I got a different kind of omelet but it was odd. It had gouda, mushrooms, onion, and maple sausage. It tasted so sweet, it turns out to be caramelized onion, not just the maple in the sausage which was delicious. There didn’t seem to be much cheese, so it tasted even sweeter. I didn’t get pie either but they are displayed early, and I’m sure more come out throughout the day. They did look pretty droolworthy. The attached lodging looks scary. I think I’ll put it in a movie.