Town Talk Diner - Minneapolis, MN

I’ve been to the Town Talk Diner twice now.  The first thing that hits you when you walk in is that this is probably a popular place to come just for drinks.  The bar area is tiny but there are lots of martini glasses filled with all kinds of neon colored concoctions.  Everything is well worn from a steady flow of human  traffic.

Town Talk has an industrial feel to it.  There is lots of stainless steel and exposed brick everywhere.  They even use stainless steel hose clamps like you’d find in Home Depot or a plumbing supply store as napkin rings.

Service was very good both times that I was there.  The waitstaff provides just enough service without over doing it.  You can sit and talk in peace for a long time if you want. 

My first time in, I had the brat burger.  This was the one that was featured on the TV program.  It was very good but definitely a heart attack on a bun.  It was a sausage patty with bacon and sour kraut on top.  It had some lettuce and tomato.  The bun was a thick soft bread bun.  The sausage had a bit of a spicy kick to it, kind of like a breakfast sausage.  It looked like a beef burger, so that’s what I was expecting when I bit in.  I wasn’t really all that impressed.  I’d call the brat burger a 4 out of 10 on the ddd scale.

My second time in I had the kitchen sink burger.  That is a basic bacon cheeseburger with some other stuff on it.  It came with a steak knife stabbed straight down into the burger.  The six-inch blade didn’t even pass all the way through the burger to touch the plate.  It was a lot of burger but very tasty.  Also a heart attack on a bun.  I’d score this a 7 out of 10 on the triple-d scale.  It was very good but not outstanding.

Both meals came with garlic fries.  My first experience with the garlic fries was mediocre.  I left expecting more from the fries.  They tasted very flat and ordinary.  My second time was differnent.  They seemed to have a bit more punch and I liked them a lot the second time around for some reason.   I’d score the fries an 8 out of 10.

A guy across from me got the onion rings and they looked like breaded versions of the onion rings that you get at a high-end Japanese hibachi grill all piled high like Mount Fuji.  They looked cool and the people seemed to enjoy them.


2701 1/2 E. Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406