A Taste of Ely - United States

I regularly stop through Ely on my way to the Boundary Waters and wanted to try someplace new on my recent trip. I happened to stroll by A Taste of Ely and conviced my partner to try it even though he wanted to go to our usual go to place, the Chocolate Moose. It paid off to try a new place! We were so pleased with breakfast the first day that we came back the next morning! The Food: Get the Bacon!! If you like your bacon big and super crispy like I do, then the bacon is a must here. Get a side order even if it doesn't come with your meal you won't regret it. Chapman Street breakfast platter recommend this option since you get a mix of items w/ this choice including the cranberry wild rice toast. Hippy Hash super flavorful and hearty. Gets a bit greasy after awhile but worth it if you like hash browns with the works. Cranberry Wild Rice French Toast smells wonderful. It's simple just the cranberry wild rice bread dipped in some egg but a decent choice if you're looking for a bready option. It's also not too sweet but you can add syrup for that. Crispy Breakfast Quesadilla packed with flavors but I could only eat 2 of the 4 huge pieces they gave me. Was overwhelming I'd try something else next time. Coffee simple but good. Only $2. Overall Tips: Sit in the seating area that is connected to their outside space feels chill like you're outside. It's self service coffee/water. My only complaint about this place is that I wished they had real creamer and unrefined sugar to add to my coffee. Don't worry if there's no one at the counter when you enter. He'll come running out shortly. This place has friendly service but I felt a little bad for the poor guy who alone had to take orders, make specialty coffees, deliver all food, and clean up tables. He did great but it made me a bit stressed seeing him run all over when it was busy so hope he gets some help in the future. Overall, the prices are decent and the food is pretty good here. I like that the ambiance is casual Northern MN cabin feeling. It lets me still be in my camping mood. I'll definitely be back in the future. I hope the place stays open!

We 're out of clean glasses, so I 'll only bring you water if you really want it... And so began our two and a half hour lunch saga at The Taste of Ely. Our party of six waited about 30 40 minutes to be seated on an admittedly busy weekend, hoping that the crowd was a better indicator of this place than the previous Yelp reviews. Lesson learned, guys...never doubt your fellow Yelpers... After finally getting a table, and being informed of the water glass shortage, it didn 't take long for us to figure out that it wasn 't just their dishwasher who was running behind....they were also out of non diet Coca Cola, pickles, and guacamole. We had to wait for coffee saucers, napkins arrived in a heap of (thankfully freshly laundered linens (sans silverware, that came about 15 minutes later , and nobody seemed to know where the extra toilet paper was (or how to load it into the dispenser . Knowledge about the menu also seemed to be in short supply, as our waitress described their featured Finnish special as white looking, with some meat that is...white looking (although, as you can see in the picture below...she wasn 't too far off base... Once our food finally did come, it was good (with the exception of the pale complexioned special but definitely not worth the nearly three hours we spent playing, What will they be out of next? On a more optimistic note, however, the owner/manager did seem genuinely concerned over (and apologetic for our experience so hopefully, once this place has a few months under it 's belt, things will start to shape up. Until then, I 'd skip it unless your looking for ways to burn an afternoon (sans Coke and TP, of course...

We were really excited to try A Taste of Ely as it claims to be a bakery and we had read reviews about their desserts. That being said, we were super disappointed when we found out they only had 2 scones and a few slices of bread pudding. This was during lunch on a Saturday nonetheless. Super bummed. Our waiter/cashier was also super slow and methodical. Thankfully they had really good food. Our food came out right away and was warm and delicious. The chef puts this garlic aioli on the sandwiches that is to die for! And the dressing for their salad is unique but tasty and worth a try. A fine, average place overall. I'd like to go back sometime when I can have a dessert or two.

This place use to be good. Friendly staff, quality, home cooked, savory food. After new ownership and a quick serve restaurant style ordering and self serve beverage bar the charm has evaporated, along with the quality food. We've given it a couple of tries since ownership changed and the new model was put in place but unfortunately the food is mediocre and it's just not the same. Taking this off the list off stops for annual Ely trips.

The wait staff there is non existent. Apparently, you have to be a regular to actually get any attention whatsoever. The place wasn't even busy to make it worse. The food was ok, but overpriced for the lack of service that should come with it. skip this place on your visit.