North 45 Restaurant and Bar

Cheese curds are hit and miss when you order them from a new restaurant. This place was a hit. Happy hour apps go for $ 6 along with various drink specials. We also got the chicken quesadilla and a pizza. Both were exceptional and something we would order again.
When staying in the area again, we will return here because it was relatively affordable and very delicious.

I was staying at the Millennium on business for 7 days, 6 nights, so I ate at the hotel restaurant, located in the lobby, more than I would have otherwise. North 45 offers American dishes with high quality ingredients. The prices are high too, but the preparation is middling.
The service was decent. The décor in the bar area is stylishly modern, with a textured ceiling and wall, red strip lighting, and pale stone. There’s a contemporary, glass box fireplace in the lobby sitting area nearby. The restaurant itself is hotel blah, with some windows that look out onto a nondescript street. On a busy night, the bar is very loud, and the sound drowns out conversation in the restaurant.
During my stay, I had the chopped salad with grilled shrimp, a ribeye, and a Maine lobster salad. The chopped salad was topped with too much of a very bitter herb. The grilled shrimp and other elements of the salad were delicious. The tomato soup was unbalanced: way too high in acid. The waitress said she usually adds sugar to hers before eating it. The house bread is whole grain with seeds on top, and is served with each entre.
The ribeye was a disappointment. I ordered medium rare, but the steak came out blackened (producing a bitter aftertaste) and well done. The waitress took off the price of a beer and dessert from my bill in compensation. The apple tart was very good — fresh and warm.
The Maine lobster salad was just okay. It was supposed to have the meat from half of the whole lobster, but I detected no claw meat and there was very little lobster overall. For $ 28, there should have been more. The dressing was forgettable. The best part of the meal was the beer-​battered cheese curds with a horseradish infused cheese dipping sauce. Very good.

Maybe even 5 stars. Cheryl was our waitress and she is ultra delightful. We had drinks and sandwiches. I had the turkey club and it is one of my favorites, EVER. My husband had the steak sandwich and he liked his. Both portions were generous. I loved my Lemon Drop martini. He had a pear vanilla drink. He thought it was too syrupy but Cheryl had warned us that it’s very sweet before we ordered it. She was great. We had a nice time. We just ate in the bar area. The happy hour menu looked amazing. We’ll be back.

If you’re at the hotel and don’t want to venture out in the cold, this place may be «just OK». It is definitely NOT a «destination restaurant». I would never recommend driving to and finding parking for this place. We went as it appeared on Unilocal to be a good restaurant within walking distance of the Convention Center in Minneapolis.
The restaurant is an after thought of the hotel rather than a full fledged restaurant. It is adjacent to the lobby, and not well separated from lobby traffic. Very limited menu. About 6 – 8 dinner items and 10 lunch items.
The place was completely empty which is always my gage of quality. Food was OK, but not worth a trip.
4 and 5 stars for North 45 are completely out of line.

A friend and I stopped here for dinner before going to an event downtown, and we were pleasantly surprised. For being a restaurant in the lobby of the hotel we had a very good experience. The restaurant had a pleasant atmosphere and good service. We made sure we arrived during the happy hour time, and when it was nearing the end of happy hour, our server brought us another drink to make sure we got another, when we hadn’t even asked yet. He really read our minds and we appreciated it greatly! He also comped a drink for each of us which we greatly appreciated as well :) I had a perfectly done med rare steak, and the crème brûlée was pretty tasty too. I would stop again, but perhaps not go out of my way to go here. Overall it was a great experience though. Maybe next time I need a room the Millennium Hotel would be a good choice.

Great Happy Hour prices from 4 to 7. I had a glass of house wine at 6 pm on a Tuesday for $ 4.50. I believe taps are $ 5, with select appetizers for $ 6. The bartenders were sweet; two young ladies hustling behind the counter to keep up with a large private party. As someone who prefers to sit at the bartop and mingle with other hotel guests, the layout was horrendous. It looks like a weird shape from Tetris. 75% of the bar seats contain obstructed views of other patrons sitting at the bar (as well as the hotel lobby itself). It’s plane old awkward.
If you have a group of people and you plan to sit at the hightops tables, you shouldn’t have any issues. But, for lushes like me who prefer to belly up, it is a deal breaker.

North 45 is located in the lobby of the Millenium Hotel (British hotel chain) across from the Hyatt @ 1313 Nicollet Mall.
Based on several trips to North 45, here are my observations & recommendations:
–They have an excellent selection of top shelf vodka & scotch;
–The design of the bar & restaurant is sleek & modern;
–The servers are efficient, friendly and knowledgeable;
–It is a great place for groups, a date & for folks who just want to hang out at the bar;
–The homemade veggie and tomato soups are both excellent. I def recommend adding the grilled cheese sandy w/​aged Wisconsin cheddar to either of the soups, and;
–The 2012 Chilensis Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile is bold and awesome. It sells for $ 9 /​glass & $ 34 /​bottle (750ml).

Terrible, terrible, terrible. Waited an hour for dinner, was under cooked. And no apology.

Extremely poor service. One server for the entire bar and restaurant for Valentine’s Day? Bad planning and sad judgement on the management. Inept server on top of it; should know the difference between Coke and diet Coke at the prices they are charging (accuracy is the most important trait in the service industry). We actually watched multiple large tables of people walk out because the only server gravitated to a single person who only ordered a single drink. Seemed the conversation for that single person’s tip was more important than over a dozen people’s possible tips. While the hostess did lend a hand, she was not much of a help for the bar/​restaurant — she only wanted to do her job.
The staff could also use some training. We were there with two blind people. When the server handed the check to one of these people, he asked what the total was. The server replied that it was right on the bill. He said he couldn’t read it and she moved the bill into the light. It really didn’t matter if the bill was in the dark or in full light, a blind person cannot read it. It wasn’t until we held up the canes (which were always in view) and told her that he was blind that she let out a frustrated sigh (not at all professional) and announced the bill’s total. If you don’t want to help the handicapped, please disclose that upfront instead of treating my friends like second class citizens.
If you are visiting the hotel and are extremely desperate for a drink, then you may have to put up with this overpriced bar (newly renovated and looks nice, but the poor quality service remained). I recommend just walking across the street for a beverage or heading a few blocks north or south on Nicollet to another establishment. There are many other bars or restaurants that will at least welcome you and treat you with respect. Respect yourself and go elsewhere.
Having lived across the street for 20 years, this is not a place I would recommend or suggest people visit. If anything, I recommend anywhere else.

Lovely modern dining ambiance! I loved how quiet this place was! Excellent server — very friendly, welcoming and helpful. It was charming that the horse and carriage walked by the window during our dinner. The manager came to greet us which was very nice! She was super pleasant.
After the delicious fresh bread they brought us, we started with some crab cakes which mom and I thought were FANTASTIC! Perfect choice since they seemed to be out of onion rings. I ordered the walleye. It was large and nicely fried with a light breading. It came with ripple chips (meh) and green beans that could have been devine with a little butter and seasoning, but they were rather plain. They weren’t bad, in fact they seemed fresh and prepared fine… It’s just that they could take them up a notch with some seasoning easily. Mom had the ribeye sandwich. She let me try it and I thought the bread was excellent and the meat was good. I did think the meat needed some seasoning too, but it was fine. We ended dinner with some tiramisu which was terrific!
I thought the food prices were reasonable looking through the menu. The tough part to swallow was $ 7.00 for parking for that short time, but that’s to be expected in Minneapolis I suppose.

Tried this place for a happy hour and found it to be overpriced. The décor is nice, seating is pleasant, but the food and cocktails aren’t worth what they’re charging. We ordered some smothered chip /​nacho type small plate, for example, which cost around 10 dollars — and it was literally FIVE CHIPS. We couldn’t help but laugh when it arrived. Plus, our server was just a little odd /​cold. She warmed up after we had ordered food, but she seemed to by very suspicious of us prior to that.