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Axel's Bonfire
Category: Restaurants Tex-Mex Tex-Mex [Edit]
4365 Pheasant Ridge Dr NE, Ste 102Blaine, MN 55449
(763) 398-2475
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11 am - 12 am
Fri-Sat 11 am - 1 am
Sun 10:30 am - 12 am
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
10 reviews for Axel's Bonfire
10 reviews in English
-
Review from Cindy D.
I will definitely come here again for HAPPY HOUR! It's very nice and big inside, I think. They are so many tvs everywhere around the bar, but if you want a little romantic space, there's a section for it.
I came here for a very late night happy hour and it wasn't busy at all. The bartender was very nice and sweet (forgot her name). I ordered salsa and chips, they had three different kinds of dip.I tried their lettuce wrap and it wasn't too bad. Their food tasted like they were fresh and good. Not going to complain;)
Parking is free on the lot and happy hour is cheap! -
Review from Mike C.
4/24/2012 1 Check-in Here
Swear I already did this review, but at any rate...came here for Easter Brunch, which is only one of two brunches that they serve throughout the year (apparently they also do Mother's Day). That being said, unfortunately it was quite apparent that they do not put on brunches quite often as many things were inconvenient and poorly done.
To start the layout was terrible. It took a few minutes for any of us to even find the plates...NOTE TO BONFIRE: put the plates closer first food table! Secondly, your pancake "chef" (very loosely used here) needs to learn how to cook pancakes through, TIP: Wait for pancakes to BROWN. All the pancakes we ordered were completely runny on the inside until we literally brought it up to the guy manning the griddle. The omlette station was ridiculous, we literally had to stand in front of the guy as he was doing nothing and fill out a form informing him what type of omlette we wanted...NOTE TO BONFIRE: humans have mouths that are able to make sounds useful for communicating between one another, since you only have one pan just have the customer tell the guy behind the table what they want on their omlette and be done with it.
Eggs Benedict was terrible, egg was cooked all the way through, and the thin filmstrip layer of hollandaise sauce was already baked on my the heating light.
Highlights:
Carving station seving roast beef with side of au jus
Two small bowls of peel-and-eat shrimp and crab claws (however, if you are not going to refill it, just don't put it out there in the first place) -
Review from Sam M.
Circle Pines, MN
11/24/2011
My wife and I eat here a couple times a year.
We are fond on the steak and walleye dinner. I love the green beans that come with it.
I usually get Guiness here, but they had Bell's Oberon during the summer. -
Review from Warren C.
6/13/2011
I really have no idea how they place ended up with an average of one star from every other Yelper. My experience wasn't that bad.
Honestly, there isn't much special about this place. The menu is kinda thin, drinks aren't that cheap, service is nothing spectacular. But it certainly isn't one star in my opinion. I'd say it was passable. Would I come here if I didn't work in Blaine? You got me there. -
Review from kyle t.
1/5/2010
Food? Service- terrible, manager- *&%#$*
I have had so many people tell me that the Bonfire places are terrific, well I always like to find things out for myself and in this case I sure did. Maybe it's because it was a week-night with no dueling pianos but it was not good regardless.
It was a business meeting and I must say I really don't even remember what the food was like. This isn't so much because I was so drawn into the conversation that all was missed it is simply because the food was very average. I know we started with one of the flat bread pizzas, word to many...Everyone is doing flat bread pizza, they are nothing special, way to average and unless you are going to do something different it's like serving a loaf of bread, plain.
The real treat came as our meal completed. When I first arrived I had ordered a glass of the house red-cab, a Robert Mondovi something. When the rest of the group arrived we talked with our waitress who was the same person who had served me my glass and we decided to get a bottle of the same thing that I had been drinking, the house red. When we got the bill there was a $70.00 bottle of Rob Mon on the tab. I told her we had been drinking the house (about a $20 bottle) but she said, NO we drank what she brought us. Now I wasn't paying the bill but the whole idea of it really ticked me off, she made a mistake with the bottle and we were supposed to pay for it.
Now I did something I never do, I asked to speak to the manager. I explained the problem and he sided with the waitress. He said we should have know when we saw the bottle. I explained that I hadn't seen the house bottle and I had no way of knowing what the price was or what the label looked like. To make a very long story short, I wouldn't let the party pay and the most he offered was to give us some coupons. I assured him I was the only one from the City and there was NO way I was going to come back to their restaurant. After almost 20 minutes, we payed for the bottle and I will never return.
KT -
Review from Alison C.
Oakland, CA
10/9/2008
Axel's. Why do I seem to always end up here? Oh yeah--I have friends that live in the suburbs and they think it's 'so awesome'.
The last time I came here was one of said friends' birthday parties. There were only 2 people waiting for tables but they gave us one of those light-up buzzers to announce when our table would be ready. I thought it was kind of impersonal since we were sitting 2 feet away from the hostess podium.
When we were seated, our table was one of those uber-tall tables with barstools that make me feel like a 5-year-old because my legs barely reach the rungs. Why they couldnt seat us at one of the empty normal-height tables, I couldn't tell you. Also, I ordered a beer which cost me $5 and usually costs me $3.75 within the city limits.
Next, I ordered the butternut squash ravioli because that is always good. Honestly, always. Nobody has ever messed it up for me, but Axel's did me a doozie.
Theirs comes with "portabello" mushrooms (sure looked like regular white button mushrooms to me!), red peppers, and chicken in a Rosa sauce. I asked the waitress what "Rosa" sauce was since I've never had it and she just stared at me with a blank face. Finally she said, "It's sort of light pink--like a mix of marinara and alfredo." I asked her what it tastes like and I got the blank stare again. I asked if it actually WAS a mixture of marinara and alfredo but she said she didn't know. I even offered up, "Does it taste like vodka sauce?" and the blank stare persisted so I finally said I would order it no matter what it tasted like.
Oh and I am a vegetarian so I asked for no chicken on mine.
After about 20 minutes, we all got our dinners. My friend sitting next to me ordered the same dish but hers had chicken in it. This is the fact I attributed it to when my plate arrived looking like a deflated balloon next to hers.
I was sad with my sacrifice but I started to eat anyway. There were large chunks of tomatoes in the Rosa sauce, which indeed was a mixture of alfredo and marinara. The little garlic toasts that came on the plate were cute and I used them to sop up the sauce and munch away, until I noticed something extremely odd.
I peered closer at my plate to confirm and lo and behold it was true--they forgot to put the ravioli in my dish. My plate actually was full of vegetables and sauce but NO PASTA. I have seriously never had this happen to me and I burst out laughing at the pure idiocy of both cook and server for not noticing this glaring mistake.
It took us another 10 minutes to call the server over and I patiently watched my friends eat their dinners while my soppy mess stared at me, taunting: "No ravioli, no ravioli!" in a sing-song voice. I still cant believe I was served a plate of sauce.
Although the server apologized profusely, my plate came back 15 whole minutes later with just ravioli dumped on top (no extra sauce, no new breads) and she still charged me full price for the meal. I couldn't believe it.
I have worked as a cook for over 5 years and that type of mistake is just ridiculous. How do you not control what comes out of your kitchen--and how do the servers not look at what they put on people's tables? It is unforgivable. -
Review from T P.
Fort Worth, TX
8/11/2011
I've only eaten here once, but my experience is no where near as bad as some of the reviews indicate. The food was good and quick, the beer was cold and the price was about average. I think too many people have been watching cooking shows and think they are food experts now.
-
Review from Dan V.
Naperville, IL
7/21/2011
This place gets hated on quite a bit on here so Ill show it some love. Ive eaten here twice in July and the food was great one time and so so the other time. Both servers always were more than attentive and THE DESERTS ARE SOOO GOOD! The chocolate chip warm giant cooke and two scoops of ice cream are worth the $14! I could eat that all day long...
Give this place a break, I realize it could be a little better for the money but its pretty above average in my book... -
Review from Bert J.
Circle Pines, MN
1/25/2011
Overpriced and less than average food. Horrible service.
-
Review from marilyn d.
Circle Pines, MN
1/5/2010
today is my eldest daughter's birthday. she is 41. yes, that makes me old. we'll discuss that another time.
we went, at her request, to axel's bonfire in blaine. it's in an area mall called "the village". that sounds a little ominous to me, to begin with. (c/f see: bbc series, "the prisoner") we've been there, before, and never been terribly impressed with the speed of service. today, they broke their record. for slow, that is. we'd been in the place for about one minute, and the hostess/server/waitperson showed us to our seats. this was good. hubby doesn't do well standing around for long periods of time. (the parkinson's gets unhappy) then, we waited for about ten minutes for someone to come around and ask about needs, drinkage, etc. (all right, she conceded. that's within standards.) when the drinkage arrived, she was off, again, on another mission. hubby's coffee was coldish, at least by his standards. it took about another ten for her to come and enquire about orders. i'm not sure if it might have been quicker if we'd indulged in alcoholic beverages, but we waited. when the orders went in, we were ready. it was fairly simple fare--a cuban sandwich, a bison burger, a prime rib sandwich. and we waited. no refills offered.
and we waited. and the moment of the actual birthday came and went. and we waited. and waited. and waited some more. none of us even ordered fries--just fruit. and we waited. it took over 45 minutes for the food to get there. it was rush hour, yes, but there were less than 30 customers in the place, by my count. there were at least one or two people standing in the bartender's spot, but nobody standing at the bar. there were at least three servers on the floor, sometimes four...but we waited. at one point i suggested that we could just pay for our coffee, tea, and coke, and go to appleby's, but this was the kid's birthday, and it was her idea.
by then, hubby was getting seriously hungry. and seriously snarky. i jabbed at his ribs, once, to get him to lay off. after all, it's the kid's day, and she should not feel badly because of her eatery choice. so, he backed off. and about 45 minutes after our order went in, we got food. my sandwich was coldish in the center. hubby's au jus was spilled onto his plate, and most of it soaked into the bread. and the kid's bison burger was "okay" in her parlance. (at one point i suggested that maybe they were trying to hunt down the buffalo. or waiting for the fruit to grow.) it took about ten minutes of serious eating to make it all disappear. and we waited. and waited. and when the server finally came by, she asked if hubby wanted a warmup of his coffee. he said, "too late. could i get a diet coke?" she brought one, and disappeared, again.
when the server saw fit, she ambled over, offered to take hubby's plate, and got the bill. then she disappeared again. when she arrived back once more, she was toting an "upside down cupcake" for the kid, with a candle on top and molten chocolate middle in it. it was a nice gesture. too little, too late.
in retrospect, the server did look about 6 months preggers. but, by then, most of us have gotten past the "BOP" stage--brain of pregnancy. yes, there is a fog that settles, but it lifts after a while. and i know that she is not responsible for the speed at which the cook/chef prepares the food. i know that there were two tables with multiple seatings. but she was plenty johnny on the spot with their stuff, their tabs, and individual bills.
okay. all this to say: if you are planning to go to axel's bonfire, either do so with the intention of spending a looooooong time there, or bring a sandwich to eat while you're waiting. bring a book. some knitting. crocheting? crossword puzzle. and forget about efficiency. plan for the long run. bring a pillow. what should have been a 45 minute experience, max, took at least twice that long.
i told kid she was lucky she didn't have another birthday while we were waiting.
and i know we won't be going back there any time soon.
