After visiting the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum today, I wanted to revisit a favorite of ours, The Green Room located in Waconia, MN, for lunch. After making the ~10 mile drive to Waconia from the Arboretum, we found The Green Room open but with only a “brunch” menu that included only breakfast items. Not a big fan of breakfast foods as it is and not in the mood for it at 1:30, we changed course and headed back towards the city. As we passed a new strip mall across from a gas station along the way, I noticed what appeared to be a BBQ restaurant and decided to try there. Whole Hog Heaven BBQ in Waconia, MN it was!

We walked in to the completely empty establishment sometime before 2 PM. There were three employees working and signs clearly stating that this was not fast food and that you may have to be patient to get your meal. I was already starving and was quite pissy which is why we left the Arboretum in the first place and a long wait was not going to work. Instead of ribs, which I figured might take a bit to get out to me, I went with their Pulled Pork Large. They have a couple of options including sandwich only, with chips for .50 more, or with a cornbread muffin and two sides for $1.50 more. I went with the two sides (baked beans and coleslaw) and looked at Kim to see what she was going to order. She had originally said she wanted ribs but when I ordered she went with the same thing I did. With two drinks the bill came to $20.19 and didn’t have a place to leave a tip with a credit card payment. They said our orders would be right up and asked us to take a seat and they would bring it to us.

We sat down and looked around. This is obviously a fairly new establishment and has two LCD screens and 15 or so tables. There were rolls of paper towels on the tables along with two bottles of their BBQ sauce. One bottle was spicy and the other was sweet. I got our drinks and after a small problem with their lemonade and water and some clarification from the woman behind the counter, I was back in my seat with our food arriving at the table.

Our sandwiches, sides and cornbread were straight forward and no frills. The sandwiches were fucking huge. When they say “large” they mean it. I slathered a ton of the spicy BBQ sauce on it and dug in. While I thought the sauce was awesome, Kim disagreed and said she would have preferred Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce (OH) or even Famous Dave’s but that this stuff was too thin for her. I had to agree that it was a bit watery and that I may have been so hungry that anything would have been great but honestly, even after I ate a bunch of it, I still thought everything was good.

They won the People Choice for ribs at the 2006 Nisswa Smokin’ Hot BBQ Challenge and after numerous requests for their food at weddings, parties, receptions, etc they began thinking about opening a restaurant but it wasn’t until after Brian won $10,000 for placing 100th in the Brainerd Jaycee’s Ice Fishing Contest in 2007 that they had the opportunity to make their dream come true.

Because I was under extreme hunger-induced duress I am not about to give this the rave review that I still believe it deserves especially with Kim saying there is just no way that it’s as good as other sauces we’ve had. If it wasn’t ~40 miles away from Apple Valley I would be back out there again soon to try again and see what’s up for sure. I really would like to hear from others who have visited or will be visiting Whole Hog Heaven to see what they have to say about the place.

Address:
Whole Hog Heaven BBQ
712 Vista Blvd
Waconia, MN 55387

Phone:
952-442-8646

Hours:
Monday - Closed
Tues to Thurs - 11:00 to 7:30
Fri to Sat - 11:00 to 8:00
Sun - 11:00 to 7:00

See all the pictures from Whole Hog Heaven on Flickr here.

Related posts:

1. The Green Room: Waconia, MN
2. Rascal’s Apple Valley Bar and Grill: Apple Valley, MN
3. Hot Sauce Taste Test Challenge: Day Five
4. McHugh’s Bar and Grille: Savage, MN
5. World Buffet: Apple Valley, MN