matt's bar

perhaps this wasgoodenough to prevail at one time, but we're not in that era anymore. the opposition has leveled up.

simple meals and reasonable fares.goodplace for a quick bite.

verdict ::

food :: 4.5/5
service :: 4.5/5
ambience :: 4/5
value for money :: 3.5/5
overall :: 4/5

decent food and largely inexpensive food.goodplace for anyone looking for a quick bite .

verdict ::
food :: 3.5/5
service :: 4/5
ambience :: 4.5/5
value for money :: 3/5
overall :: 4/5

matt’s bar is a little hole in the wall bar withgoodburgers including some of the best juicy lucy’s in the area. it gets very busy - we came at 4:30 pm and by 5:15 pm there were a ton of people waiting.

this is my 2nd favorite place for a "jucy lucy". i always end up getting 2 because they are kind of small. you sometimes have to wait but it'sgoodfood.

make sure to bring cash as matt's doesn't accept cards. the wait can be a little long because there is only one griddle, but this contributes to thegoodtasting meat in the burgers. well portioned and tasty for the price. this place is a dive, but worth the experience. the cheese inside the jucy lucy tastes a bit processed, but it fits with the atmosphere of the place. don't expect a gourmet burger or 5 star service, this place is laid back with down to earth, friend staff.

now this is a juicy lucy and a fun experience. i have heard about this place for years and finally experienced it on a beautiful saturday in september. the area is a bit sketchy to me, but in the sunlight hours i was fine. parking on the street less than a block from the front door. when we arrived the line was long, but as we come to find out, the line was rather short. during our 70 minutes here the line never died down and in fact kept growing. when we exited it was wrapping around the side of the building. one college aged man said, "why don't we just go to mcdonalds!". the answer is obvious, this place is an experience. but i think he makes agoodpoint, you do not want to be hungry when you get to matts. you want to be starting to get hungry. the line to be seated was twenty minutes. there are booths and tables and stools at the bar. we ended up at the bar. the bar stools were very comfortable. we were immediately greeted by a friendly bartender who pour a glass of grainbelt premium and kept our water glasses full. we ordered two juicy lucy burgers. one with and one without onions. we ordered a half basket of fries. as we waited in line, the fries looked and smelled awesome. they are the thin style of french fries. then the wait begins. 25 minutes later our food arrives.

a note to parents, this is not the place to bring children. first, it is a bar full of adults who are drinking and speaking like adults speak. second there is not much room for strollers. finally, kids need food now and cry as they wait. they will have plenty of time to cry as it is a long wait for food. i read a sign at the door saying matt's bans the use of e-cigs. they should also ban children. get a sitter. bringing your children is unfair to the kids and the patrons. and they do not have a kiddie menu!

when the burgers arrived the smell was beyond words. they were sogoodthat ketchup and mustard would have ruined the flavor. i do not recall the last time i had a burger where the quality of the meat and how it was prepared, tasted this good. amazing. the $6.50 burger was worth it. here is my suggestion how to eat your food. enjoy the fries first while they are hot and give your burger time to cool down before you bite into the hot cheese center. my guess is that many patrons leave with a burnt mouth. the fastest part of the experience was eating. by the time the food arrives you are hungry and the long line at the door gives you the feel that someone needs your seat. the tab for two juicy lucy burgers (they also offer less expensive burgers, grilled cheese and a chicken sandwich), a half order of fries which was plenty for two people and two tap beers was $22. the place is small, but large enough so you do not feel cramped. i am glad to have experienced the best juicy lucy ever. it is better then 5-8 or blue door. it is an original. no frills and perfectly prepared. would i go back? doubtful. while the food was great, the circus like environment is not something i enjoy when i am dining out. if you have never been to matt' bar, you must go. you will have a wonderful time. you will be in many pictures as smartphones are recording and taking pictures constantly.

too jucy. my wife and i went by matt’s bar on a trip through minneappolis to try their famed jucy lucy. we found matt's buried deep in a residential neighborhood in a new looking building on a corner. we were able to park on the street right next to the front door. once inside, we were found the quintessential hole in the wall burger joint. it was small but packed with a noisy crowd of socializers. after a wait in line of 10 min or so, we were seated in a booth that could hold four, so we invited the couple (traveling business associates from connecticut) who had been in the line behind us to join. they did and we had an enjoyable evening of food and fellowship.
our service was friendly and top notch considering the hectic crowd our waitress had to deal with. we saw none of the service problems in some of the other reviews. our invited lady and i both had the jucy lucy and each couple shared an order of french fries – very large. the burger proved a bit too “jucy” for our lady friend. when she bit into it, the liquidy cheese squirted all over her top, and she was a time cleaning it up. not being a quick learner, i did the same thing a few minutes later. it’s the kind of thing you can avoid if you are expecting it. the burger wasgoodbut not award caliber. all in all, most of the other reviews had the place pegged right (except for problems with service): a great neighborhood hang out,goodbut not great food, generous fries and reasonable prices. my wife and i would go back if we were ever in minneappolis again, but first we would check out their competitor’s “juicy lucy.

oozing with tasty goodness!. it smelled amazing as soon as we walked in, matt's makes a real tasty juicy lucy, steaming hot and cheesy, beefy goodness, served in that delicious taystee bun. to me the burger is only complete with out onions on it. they added so much flavor and i think something would have been missing without them. fries were equally tasty - crisp and crunchy, a quality fry and lots of them. in all it was delicious, casual, cheap, and very friendly, even the jukebox had somegoodtunes, i know we'll be back!

noteworthy.goodburgers. go try the juicy lucy for yourself, and then go to the other jl joints for comparison. who ever had too many burgers?

da bomb. if you think this isgoodfood, you're a moron. of course, if you want crappy food, this place is da bomb! note: there is nothing wrong with crappy food.


-----17 sep, 2010-----

reputation preceeds it. there are a number of places in town that have been around forever. other than longevity, nothing about those places is all that great. matt's is high on that list. any monkey can plop a thin patty on a griddle, let it sit for ten minutes, serve it with a can of warm coke, and charge 9 bucks.

my burger wasn't verygoodon this trip, definitely not asgoodas i remember on my first visit.

...matt’s bar lucy is agoodburger by most any standard, and worth a stop by or a small diversion to try out...

the burgers aregoodfor what they are.... this juicy lucy is very good. it is a delicious burger with a molten hot core of cheese. it is no frills. it is simple burger goodness. don't start to hate on me right away. i really do like this burger. however, i must say that i prefer to get my burger fix somewhere where i have options. i like the nook and the blue door pub because i can choose what kind of cheese i want. variety is the spice of life afterall, right? so having said that i still think this burger rocks and i will continue to eat there when i am in the mood for a really good, not fussy, tried and true delight.

lucy's won our hearts. okay so first off lets settle one thing, i've vowed to make my reviews, sound, just and simply honest, so.... the people who didn't like this place simply do to the service don't understand this place. yes its a small bar restaurant, yes its outdated, yes there is very few staff, yes they only except cash and or check, yes the burger is greasy, and yes they have made a huge reputation for themselves. okay now that's out of the way.
if you're looking for a place that has the nice ambiance, and you can form a special bond between you and your waitress, and where the world revolves around you; the very special customer and you can order what ever you like however you like, and can make it low-carb or carb free. i highly advise you go somewhere else. if you are the type of person who can appreciate the beauty of a delicious burger cooked one way because its damngoodthen you and i my friend along with everyone else who loves this place have something in common.
you see so many people today have fallen into the "i know exactly what i like attitude therefore they cannot trust that someone who has been doing the same thing day in and day out for years could possibly know what they were doing. so lets tackle some complaints i saw in reviews here and whilst i was at the restaurant.
1) lousy service: the service and waitress are not lousy, unless of course your a person who wants to form that, let me talk to you and share my life with you bond, if that is you then you will be disappointed. my wife, myself and our kids ordered 5 jucy lucy's, 2 baskets of fries a corona with a lime slice, a blue moon, and three sodas. all came as ordered expect the lime slice. yes the soda's were in can's but from a business perspective where i know they have limited staff. i wouldn't want to wash that many friggin' cups either. so noticing my wife was missing her lime slice, i walked over and asked our waitress nicely and she explained to me that they don't have limes, lemons, fruit, juice, or ice for that matter. a little bewildered i asked why that was so. she explained well we don't serve cocktails and the beer in the cooler and from tap are already cold. now some people will say now that's just dumb, to me this was the epiphany. the light bulb went on and i realized "when a burger joint knows they do one thing damngoodthere is no need to do anything else.
they are situated in a small neighborhood, that to some (my wife) can consider not the safest, but i assure you all is well. they haven't increased size, or changed location for a larger building or kept up with the times simply because there true customers (the locals) don't really care for all the other crap. the waitress doesn't need nor necessarily care to become your best friend simply because like my family and i we won't see that lady again for quite some time, she wasn't rude she was straight forward and it was actually refreshing. we saw them on man vs. food so we went to find out for ourselves. case in point this place is about that great burger, not your day. so to sum it up the service is straight forward not lousy.

now of course we had that lucy at matt's and everyone knows how picky kids can be, and i heard about this wondrous burger our whole weekend thereafter i believe they even made a song about it, and i heard that they are in love with lucy' more than once. they even facebooked their experience and about the new found love.

being so pleased at matt's like mr. richmond (man vs. food) we the next day went over to the 58 club to see whose was truly better. the place itself was better, the ambiance was there, the waitress formed that bond with you, and made you feel special. we told them we had been to matt's the night before to which they responded we are so sorry, so then and there we knew well this place must be the better of the two. we ordered, and of course unlike matt's they have lots of lucy filling choices. we had the pig pen, the luigi, the american, and the pepper jack. we also ordered a basket of fries and of onion straws. all came out as planned, the fries were larger and due to the cooking times were slightly soggy when they reached the table. the onion straws were very very good, but the lucy's lacked something. yes the filling choices were nice, but there wasn't that bit into gushing pop of cheesy greasiness like matt's. when you squeeze the 58 lucy' she doesn't respond with a oozing pool of greatness. it just kinda sat there bored with no character or personality. yes it seemed healthier, and the bread didn't have the responsibility of soaking up anything. this is what i would call your stuffed burger. you could tell they had sat under heat lamps until our whole order was done (unlike matt's bar has no heat lamps, when yours is done she brings it to you, you may not all get your burgers at the same time, a little unconventional but it ensure your burger is hot and fresh.) there was the hot cheese warning but it wasn't needed because nothing oozed out. you would think one out of 5 would have been the prime example but we were sadly disappointed. there wasn't much competition.

to make the perfect restaurant take matt's lucy and the location and building plus the onion straws and ambiance from the 58 and it would be an all around pleaser, but hey what can you do.

if you care more for the ambiance and special service go to the 58. buttttt.... if you care for a great experience and a hell of agoodburger. matt's takes it all the way hands down. when we go back to the cities i know matt's can expect us again.