Wilde Roast Cafe

518 Hennepin Ave E
Minneapolis, MN
612-331-4544
http://www.wilderoastcafe.com/

Category: Breakfast, Cafe, Desserts

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 8
Service: N/A (order at counter)
Ambience: 8

Recommendation: Very good. They serve what might be the finest sweet breakfast entrée in the Twin Cities…enough said.

We’re guilty of having driven past Wilde Roast Café a hundred times, each time wondering what it was all about, and having never stepped in to witness it firsthand. As luck would have it, one Saturday morning, we ended up at Wilde Roast – to be perfectly honest it was an afterthought given that our primary option was closed. Wilde Roast is a neighborhood eatery located in Northeast Minneapolis (at the corner of Hennepin and Central). As you enter the restaurant, your visual senses are bombarded by a myriad of colors, textures, and objects that adorn the interior of this Victorian-inspired café. The noir leather chairs, burgundy walls, dark ceilings, and funky creepy art, that most eateries wouldn’t dare hang in their dining areas, add a great deal of charm to the interior. We salute the owners, who inspired by Oscar Wilde, have created a cozy café that is apt for lounging.

They serve breakfast till 11am on weekdays, and 1pm on weekends and the menu has a nice selection of sweet and savory entrees, including twists on the classics. Our favorite on their menu is the Crème Brulee French Toast, the textures and flavors of which still ring vividly in the mind. The cinnamon-roll shaped French toast has a caramel crusty top and a center that contains chunks of peach and cherry. Add some toasted pecans and small amounts of whipped cream and maple syrup and you’ve got a sweet breakfast entrée that’s at the head of its class. The combination of chewy, crusty exterior and soft interior is deadly and this dish has just the right amount of sweetness – its heaven on a plate. We also ordered the Basic Breakfast with eggs sunny side up and although it doesn’t live up to the French toast, it was a good breakfast meal. For dessert, the Flourless Chocolate Cake is dense, rich, decadent and perfect for two. The Carrot Cake, considered their signature dessert, wasn’t impressive – the nutmeg flavor was overpowering and the cake wasn’t as moist as we would have liked. Service here is friendly and efficient – you order at the counter and your meal is brought out to your table.

$. Breakfast options are under $10. They also serve lunch and dinner.