Millie’s Deli: Chanhassen, MN

May 31st, 2010 in Geocaching, Restaurants, Reviews

I spent Sunday morning roaming around Shakopee and Chanhassen chasing my 4500th geocache which included my 200th multi-stage cache. While we had over 20 geocaches on the list for the day we decided to cut it short after I made my milestones and before the reported bad weather was supposed to hit. With the skies graying and the chain restaurants closing in all around us we decided to stop in for breakfast at Millie’s Deli in Chanhassen.

Located in an outdated strip mall near the Chanhassen Dinner Theater one block removed from highway 5, Millie’s Deli is certainly nothing to look at from the outside but at a little less than half capacity at 9:30 AM on a Sunday I figured they had to be doing something right inside. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by one of the very friendly servers who seated us at a corner table next to the windows, the only table which had plastic lawn chairs instead of the old and tired wooden furniture located elsewhere throughout the rest of the restaurant.

The breakfast menu is quite simple and offers your typical eggs, omelets, pancakes, etc. The prices are fairly reasonable and range between $4 and $8.50. Their website said that they offer the best breakfast in Chanhassen and that people should try their Cajun Omelet if you’re looking for something a little different–so I did and I added an order of home fries. My buddy ordered a simple meal with eggs, home fries, and bacon. I ordered a decaf coffee and he ordered a chocolate milk. The milk and coffee came out and I’m fairly certain the coffee wasn’t decaf, it wasn’t filled even half full and the chocolate milk was slightly larger than a shot glass and was only 3/4 full.

While we waited for our food I got to take a good look around. The restaurant, even though it’s apparently been around since the 1980s, hasn’t come out of the 1970s. There are a lot of dark wood, whiteboards with simple items listed for menus, and campy decor. The proudest item of their collection is what appears to be a congratulations from the City of Chanhassen for being open. One of the business cards inside is at an angle and the writing is hard to read. The staff is quite friendly routinely yelling across the restaurant at customers who are either already seated or had just walked in the door. One apparent regular who was seated in a wheelchair and on oxygen was cared for in a very nice way as soon as he walked in the door. Nice touches.

While it would appear that this place should have gotten high marks from me being that it’s a long-standing treasure in the midst of chain restaurants and the staff is friendly, it missed the mark completely with the food: the omelet looked strange and I didn’t see any chunks of andouille. Instead what I got were too few eggs, not enough cheese and, believe it or not, too much Cajun spice. It came with a side of toasted sourdough which seemed quite stale and had been drizzled with butter in a telltale swirl instead of evenly spread across the toast. Because the bread was so dry I opted to douse it in Tabasco to eat it. The completely tasteless home fries were most likely dumped from a bag conveniently stored in the freezer. As many of you know if one thing really irks me about restaurants serving breakfast, it’s when they don’t make their own potatoes. Seriously get with the program–fast. If I had been eating at a school cafeteria I would have said my my meal tasted all right but being that I was charged over $11…well, you are free to fill in the profanity that normally would have spilled forth from my mouth.

My buddy’s scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon were basically awful. This is a military man who lives by the mantra that you eat when you can because you may not know when you will eat again. He also happily recounts the times he taught others how to kill and skin rabbits in the bush with two simple snaps of his wrist. Being that he left a good bit of the delivered food on his plate I am guessing it was worse than the rations he ate while serving in various horrendous parts of the world in extreme conditions. The home fries were the same as mine and his eggs were done as he requested but the bacon–ugh–the bacon was just awful. It was as if they microwaved it to cook it and then microwaved it again to serve it. The bacon was devoid of flavor and reminded me of Bacos–without the bacon flavor. I’m not even sure my dog would have eaten it and while he doesn’t eat his own crap like so many others, pretty much anything else will slide down his throat.

After tax and before tip our bill came to just over $22. As we were leaving I seriously wondered if I shouldn’t have paid less and ate better at the McDonald’s down the street and as you know that statement should tell you something.

Overall Millie’s Deli in Chanhassen sucked. Flat out sucked. If you’re in the area and looking for decent breakfast please, for the love of all that is holy, do not waste your time and money at Millie’s as you’re far better off at any of the chain restaurants around–possibly even McDonald’s and you know how much I am pained to say that.

Have you ever eaten at Millie’s Deli in Chanhassen? If so please let us know what you thought. Are there non-breakfast options better? Are there other options on their breakfast menu which may have been better suited to two people who would normally eat anything placed in front of them? Whatever you have to say about Millie’s Deli in Chanhassen go ahead and comment on!

Address:
Millie’s Deli
545 W 78th St
Chanhassen, MN 55317

Phone:
952-934-2301