We had a good meal stop here on our drive across the country. The Bloody Mary garnishes are great. If I just wanted a snack it would have been enough to get just the BM. We wanted a full meal, though, so I got the Benedict and a steak for my husband. They weren't memorable but they left us full so we were happy. read more

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Fantastic bakery, food is well prepared, and the service is pretty good. The environment is pretty busy so be prepared to wait. read more

Stopped in MN for a weekend reset and enjoyed two meals. First was chicken fried steak. Flavor was great but a little heavy handed on the gravy. Roasted veggies and salad was great. Service friendly and fast. 2nd meal was Country omelette. Fantastic omelette full of beautiful diced veggies and ham. Hash browns were sadly under cooked but omelette was fantastic. I got the short stack pancakes. Very good. Service was once again 5 stars. read more

Food was OK but certainly not great. Service was fine but not fast. Not sure I'll be going back anytime soon though because there are far too many choices nearby read more

What a great find! Nelson Brothers is located inside a travel plaza, but don't let that put you off. Make to order pizza bar; make to order sandwich bar plus a full sit down restaurant and bar. Service was quick and friendly. The menu is massive, ranging from breakfast through dinner. I had the Walleye Sandwich, which was battered and fried and served on a fresh bun. The fish was perfectly sweet and flaky, served with homemade tartar sauce and a chipotle ranch sauce. My wife had the pot roast - moist, tasty and tender, served with masked potatoes, gravy and broccoli. She had to try the Ultimate Bloody Mary, if only for the photo op. Turned out to be delicious, served with a beer chaser and its own charcuterie on a stick, which was delicious and almost too much to finish. Highly recommend this spot. read more

Nelson Bros. - One of several pages of the menu - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

I absolutely love this place! I have visited this place a couple of times and loved it every time. I personally love their donuts here. The lines are fast, and the workers are fantastic! I love everything here! read more

Great service! Bear claws the size of Papa Q. Berenstain's paw. Pastries are formidable. Do not let your eyes deceive you, your stomach shall be vanquished. read more

Nelson Bros. - Bear Claw big enough to drive. - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

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After landing from Rome tired and cranky and wanting to break up my 4 hour drive home I made plans to stop here to grab a donut and go. Instead I knew I needed something more so I popped in to the restaurant. So tired and indecisive, I just decided to grab a burger and be on my way. Restaurant was very busy but I was seated promptly, greeted quickly and served as swiftly as possible. Burger was great but the fries? Oh those fries! I thought maybe I ordered wrong as the amount of fries was crazy! Normally I can eat fries faster that it takes for them to cool down. But there were so many fries that even on my best day I could barely finish half of these perfectly seasoned delights! Then there is the fry dip. Not quite ranch but not ketchup. I may have to get a job here just to procure the recipe. It was the perfect meal to fortify myself to slightly the 190 miles drive home. To quote the Terminator...I'll be back! read more

Nelson Bros. - Cheeseburger and fries with dip. - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

This place has absolutely the best sandwiches within 20 or more miles. Absolutely love this place read more

Nelson Bros. - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

Had a last minute trip to North Dakota so I had to stop at Nelson Brothers to pick up some donuts to make the trip all the way to Bismarck tonight! Never disappointed got myself some beautiful donuts and a big old strawberry rhubarb fritter bread. All these donuts are fantastic even at 10:30 at night. They just keep rolling out fresh donuts. A+ service was excellent. Everything was clean and tidy love the place. read more

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One word Huge ! Huge portions you definitely receive your monies worth. Everyone at our table enjoyed items from pancakes to omelets and sumptuous fritter French toast. A must try is the wild rice sausage links. I had the biscuit and sausage gravy...still trying to find the sausage though! Service staff are very personable & helpful. We were seated right by a large aquarium and surrounded by cabin like decor, nice relaxing environment. read more

Nelson Bros. - Sausage gravy & biscuit plus wild rice sausage & 2 eggs with hash browns. All for one person's order! - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

The deli is wonderful and the bakery is the best I've ever seen! It's crazy wonderful! It's worth a drive to experience this spot! Go go go you will not be disappointed! read more

So disappointed. Love Nelson brothers for breakfast so decided to stop for dinner. Opted for special soup and sandwich. Sandwich was turkey wrap which was good but the problem came with the soup. I chose chicken wild rice, which is one of my favorites. It literally was canned cream of chicken soup with a little wild rice thrown in. Let waiter know it was not good, but nothing offered in exchange,so just didn't eat it. Probably will not be going back except for brea6. read more

We stop and eat there all the time , Tuesday may 5 . The food was not that great . Hot beef meat was dry . And the monte Cisco was terrible ham was left over from Sunday ham dinner and the turkey you could hardly see any . Sorry about the review . But was disappointed . read more

I my quest for a great pastrami sandwich in MN this was 2nd try. They don't serve them in their restaurant but there is a sandwich and pizza shop in another part of the Nelson Bros. travel stop. Ordering a sandwich is patterned after the way they do it at Subway but the bread is sliced rather than long subway buns. So I order a toasted pastrami and I unexpectedly hear, "What kind of bread?" and then, "What kind of meat?", What kind of cheese?", "Do you want it toasted?", "What kind of sauce?", What kind of vegetables?" All the questions you would hear at a Subway. The results were pretty good. The pastrami wasn't hot or even warm but with the mayo, mustard and lettuce and banana peppers and the fact it wasn't on pumpernickel it approached being what I'm looking for more closely than my last try at the Crossroads. I'll give it a 7 out of 10. The result wasn't to bad. The bread read more

Nelson Bros. - Toasted pastrami sandwich on multigrain. - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

wow so I get the asian salad as I look and wait for a half hr for it to go, and i see others that have a other salads that were humugious plate over flowing , my shit took way to long and it didnt even fill up a 5x5 container theres im watching were 20x10 plates still $17for a soggy asian salad with 3 strips of chicken didnt look any bigger than what I get from wendys salads for $8 half the price , rediculious psssst yeah go somewhere else... read more

Nelson Brothers is a famous stopover for Minnesota residents heading north and those big eating North and South Dakota folks headed for their cardiologist...those folks can pack it away. Portions can be huge but everything is served with a smile thanks to the friendly staff (like my server Destiny S.). My Spinach Alfredo (see photo) was pretty tasty, arrived quickly but was also,(no surprise) fairly greasy. After your meal take some time to shop the various pastry, bread and soup outlets. Looking for a discount on fuel? Save $0.10 when presenting your restaurant bill. Down side? The place levies a 3% charge to debit and credit card transactions. Maybe that senior discount isn't so good after all. read more

Nelson Bros. - Alfredo Omlet...tasty even with the Alfredo sauce on the side. A nice portion! - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

When you walk in, it's incredibly chaotic and very unclear where you go, what you do, where you pay, etc. so it was a jarring experience right off the bat. We ate in the restaurant, which was pretty dated. We sat at the bar and the bartender who was serving us was very kind and helpful. I got the Monte Cristo sandwich, which wasn't as sweet as you'd expect given its description. The jam it comes with was delicious and the French toast-like bread was really good. The highlight of the meal, however, were the delicious fries! After our meal, we went to the bakery for some sweet treats (that's truly the main reason this place is so busy!). The person behind the counter was super helpful and sweet. The selection was ENORMOUS as were some of their donuts! They have several billboards claiming they're as big as your head and they are not lying! When it comes to those huge donuts, however, they are not good. We got a cookies and cream and standard sprinkled donut. They were both super stale and bland. The sprinkled one had way more flavor than the cookies and cream one, surprisingly. The saving grace of our bakery selections was the cinnamon roll, which was delectable! Skip the donuts and get that instead! read more

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This place never disappoints! I've been here several times . The food was good as always I had the walleye sandwich. It was excellent. It is a truck stop restaurant. .Expect to spend a little money, I think it is worth the money. The decor is for a dinner type restaurant and the service is excellent. read more

Nelson Bros. - Patio - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

Heard so much about this "Truck Stop Restaurant"... I've never been to one, so I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised! It's a beautiful, clean excellent restaurant, bakery, and souvenir shop, with great service! When we checked in, we got a buzzer, and we expected a long wait, but it was very quick. While we waited for our seat we enjoyed window shopping at their excellent Minnesota Gift shop. Lots of sweatshirts and Minnesota souvenir goods abound! Once we got seated, we had excellent service, and enjoyed their excellent food. My boyfriend got the Meatloaf dinner, and he let me have a taste of and it was so good! I was excited to find a Liver and Onions entree... I love Live and Onions, but most family restaurants don't serve this anymore. The liver even with the onions was a little dry , but fortunately, some A1 sauce, helped with that! The waitress was friendly and our coffee was always refilled. My boyfriend and I purchased an apple strudel on the way out for later, which was super yummy! We'll be back! read more

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This is a must stop when you are in the area. Great food, large portions. Get a dessert for the road!

Drive an hour to try the famous fritter French toast that we kept seeing in TikTok videos. Upon arriving, the parking lot was PACKED. We easily figured it would be a 45-60 minute wait. We were told 30mins. It is inside a gas station with a bunch of snacks and a whole bakery section which had its own line of people buying HUGE sized baked goods. They had the fritter breads for sale, as well as all sorts of donuts (XL and regular size), cookies (XL and regular size), some danish type pastries, and muffins. The restaurant staff was all nice, it's very country kitchen feeling. I ordered iced tea, because the orange juice isn't fresh squeezed sadly. I ordered the bro's choice which comes with 2 slices of fritter French toast (choose between raspberry, apple, blueberry, or cinnamon), 2 eggs your choice, hashbrowns, and sausage links which have wild rice cooked in. At first the sausage sounded weird but I'm glad I tried, it's delicious! The raspberry fritter French toast was the best choice. It has the perfect raspberry taste and it's so soft and fluffy. It does not even need syrup, it's great on its own. My bf ordered the bros choice with blueberry and bacon. And my mom tried the bros choice with the apple fritter (but think they accidentally gave cinnamon instead), because we didn't taste any apple and the apple fritter bread was filled with chunks of apple. The hashbrowns are nothing special. I wish they offered some type of house seasoned breakfast potatoes instead. Overall the French toast is delicious and I'd go back for it. Or to at least buy some of the bread and take it home. I did buy a loaf of raspberry bread to take home, it's $8.99 per loaf. They also have a caramel apple loaf that's available for purchase. I bought some other baked goods and sweets but have yet to try them, I'll update when I try them. read more

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The best food ever the best service ever the ambiance the best place ever the best quality ever the food's amazing

Love your food Love your bakery You need to send your restaurant manager to a customer service class. We were there on Friday at 4-5 Great service Great food we paid our bill and were sitting at our table your manager a little older gal with dyed black hair came to our table and told us we could go sit in another area and talk. We just starred at her. Then she came back five minutes later and told us again she stated they needed the seating they were getting busy. Which I would have gladly got up and left if it was busy. Right behind us was an area with six tables completely emply and I told her that she said we do not seat that area. Obviously it was more important to be rude to your customers. We were leaving looked around seven more empty tables no one waiting in line. Have you people lost your minds. You have young servers and other employees that will take her actions as how you should treat people We spent over $200.00 with restaurant and bakery goods. What has happened to your restaurant. The days of a person named Keith are long gone. That would have never happened. That is how long we have been coming to your restaurant. Shame on you. read more

Great food and Service!! Highly recommend. Wednesday pasta night is phenomenal. Very busy atmosphere.

Where to begin? Truck stop restaurants conjure up certain images and expectations, and Nelson's went out of their way to make the dining area fun, eclectic (trees and a fish tank), and suitable separation of tables! Destiny (our server) is absolutely wonderful... even came back to the table before serving to make sure my multiple requests were properly understood! The food was better than expected. Oh, for certain, the portions are very generous. Flavor spot on. Hot foods were hot (not lukewarm or cold). Hubby had the meatloaf and I'm truly shocked he asked for a to-go box!!! I enjoyed the balanced flavors of chicken fried steak cooked perfectly. Don't pass by the bakery counter! Prices are reasonable and selection is quite varied. We will be back! (Sorry no pics as we dove right in ) read more

my son and i stopped here after a weekend at the nearby scout camp. we rolled in around 930am on sunday. the place was busy, but we were seated immediately. as we were walking to our table, i did see someone having a blood mary with a small buffet of skewered items coming out of it. while it looked delicious, only coffee (aka "go juice") would work after a weekend of 5-11 year old kids running around yelling. the server took our drink orders - coffee for me, apple juice for the boy - and brought them quickly. now, i can't be certain if they always do this, or if she saw my fatigued state, but she left a full carafe at the table ((i'm guessing they always do this to save time). i promptly pulled out my emergency IV kit and poured it directly into my veins. the food - we both got biscuits and gravy and they arrived in a manner of minutes. it comes with eggs (we had over easy), hash browns, and your choice of bacon or sausage (we went with bacon). the biscuits and gravy was delicious, though i felt like the gravy could have used more seasoning. then again, i feel this way about any sausage gravy that i don't make at home. the eggs were cooked perfectly. the bacon was kind of floppy, and i prefer crispy. my son prefers floppy, so, i will disown him soon. the hashbrown were just your standard diner fare hashbrowns. i'm not a big fan of them in general, but i did try them for the sake of this review. they outside was nice and crisp, and the inside was just as you would expect. they also could have used some seasoning. the portions - we both had about half our order left, which made a good meal for later in the day. the service - just the right amount. our server came by often enough, but so often as to keep interrupting our conversations. price - biscuits and gravy were $13 each. with coffee, juice, and tip, the total was around $42. a little on the pricier side, but i also tip well. atmosphere - the restaurant is part of Clearwater travel plaza and it's just what you'd expect. nothing fancy, but nowhere near run down. they have a big fish tank that my son likes watching extras - there's some claw machines as you enter which cost $1 (you have to get tokens from the machine). as we were being seated, they gave my son 4 tokens ($1 worth). i thought this was kind of fun as we were leaving, we hit the bakery. they have a really big selection of sweets and breads. we opted for the giant cinnamon roll ($4.49). we had some when we got home and it was good, not great. good amount of frosting, but no overpowering. would like to have had more cinnamon/sugar in the actual roll though. we would definitely swing by again when we're in the area. read more

A MUST breakfast or brunch spot if you are in the area. I've been at the attached convenience store many times, but finally ate here twice in the past year. Both visits were outstanding, with us raving over the taste and then being very full from the portions. My first visit was their famous fritter French toast, and this recent visit was their special that is a wild rice sausage omelet with biscuits and gravy. I've never really been a biscuits and gravy fan, but loved these. The biscuits were perfect and tasty, and it was nice to have a gravy that didn't seem too salty. In both visits, my daughter potato pancakes, and probably will any time she goes there, as she enjoys them so much. They also have an amazing pastry case with an enormous selection, and also many of them are almost comically large in size. read more

Huge portions! Incredible food! Great service. Always a treat. The place was packed today, for Mother's Day! Was everything 100% perfect? No, but I still give it 5 Stars because they did an outstanding job with how overly busy they were. The biggest problem is trying to decide which yummy food to order. We will definitely be coming back again. read more

Nelson Bros. - Breakfast on Mother's Day! - Bakeries Near Me - Clearwater, Minnesota

This is it It's pretty much the best of what you might have seen in years past at a truck stop Good portions Good food Good prices!

When traveling through Minnesota I don't know how you could miss the billboards-- ya know-- that one with the girl's beaming face behind the strawberry frosted sprinkle bespeckled donut? Yeah. That's Nelson Brothers-- and everyone knows about it-- and you know how I know that? It was PACKED at 11:00 am on Friday. The draw isn't the location-- it's essentially in a truck stop, and it isn't the ambiance-- it's the typical family restaurant deal. The draw is the food and the service! We were a party of 13, 4 of which were small children-- and our waitress handled our group with a grace and aplomb one should only expect from a seasoned stage actress. She was amazing! Patient, detail oriented, personable and attentive-- and fast. It was amazing-- and so was the food. Their claim to fame is something called "fritter bread." I got the fritter bread cinnamon French toast-- it came with eggs, hash browns and their wild rice sausage. The portions were huge-- easily enough for two people-- and that French toast! I see why that stuff keeps 'em comin'! The bread was like a light challa but marbled with cinnamon sugar, bathed in an egg custard then fried golden crispy brown on a flat top-- I slathered on the butter -- REAL whipped butter by the way-- and gave it a spritz of syrup-- it was like breakfast cake-- sweet, warm, and a little "wowww this is really bad for me, but it's so good I can't care about that right now," which is what I thought when I ate it all. The place was packed on a Friday at 11:00- so I'm thinkin' the joys to be found at Nelson Brothers is no secret-- but in case you were tottering on the edge of indecision, I thought I'd throw in my two cents-- and persuade you to give it a try. Nelson Brothers is good. read more

They No longer serve free birthday meals only a piece of pie with purchase of a meal. Very Disappointed

I love this place! Although it's always packed, it's worth the wait. On my most recent visit, I went for brunch and had a veggie omelet with hollandaise, a biscuit, and side of bacon. My partner had the French toast made from their in house cinnamon fritter bread (yumm-o!). The food was delish, and fit the bill for brunch fare. The ambiance of the restaurant is mediocre...I mean it's housed in a travel plaza just off the freeway. On your way out, be sure to check out their bakery which has many items to select from (pies, breads, donuts, sweet rolls, fudge, etc). Food: A+; Service: B; Ambiance: B read more

This is a very cute travel plaza/restaurant! I stopped by on a road trip to get something to eat and some coffee. I was there in between about 9-10am, which I'd assume is one of their busier times. Regardless of this, their bathrooms were shockingly clean and orderly, I was honestly preparing for the worst after the quality of some other rest stop bathrooms. I went to see what foods I could grab quick and get back on the road. They had a few breakfast sandwiches on a little warmer, packaged up but still clearly very fresh. I got a sausage egg and cheese croissant as well as a blueberry scone. They have an overwhelming amount of bakery choices, i could have spent much more time browsing if I had it. I also decided to get a coffee, and surprisingly they have an actual espresso machine and steaming wand for drinks. I got a jungle latte which has banana and chocolate. I honestly did not love it, but what I did love was the thoroughness of the person taking my order who clarified what I wanted every step of the way. As a former barista, this really stuck out to me because it's something that I would make sure to do for my customers as well. Needless to say I received great service from the employees there and I really appreciate that because I know they were busy. My only suggestion is to make the organization of the lines clearer because I couldn't tell where I should wait in line for a little while. read more

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Food was great- but didn't get what I ordered. They brought out wrong food. We eat it, because it looked good, and didn't want to wait to get correct food. Drinks were nice. We had tea Fresh chips were good too Waitress was stressed. Along with other staff. Restaurant was clean and neat read more

One of my favorite restaurant in Minnesota, food is very good & having a Tesla charger close buy is a plus, I hope soon the restaurant will be dog friendly. read more

Early morning today stopped in after working a long long day. . Very tired and needed a donut pick me up. I walked in and I was the only customer in the building. Stood in front of the bakery case for several minutes. The guy with the long beard in the gas station looked at me and after making eye contact just looked away and continued talking to his co-workers ignoring me. I walked over to the gas counter and asked him if the bakery was open. He paused for a minute like I was bothering him taking him away from his banter with his coworkers. He says "yes" and added "there's only person per department at this time of night and she is busy." So all 3 of them doing nothing went back to their banter. I guess I didn't need that donut after all. As a matter of fact, I don't think I ever need a donut from Nelson brothers bakery ever again. They aren't all that good for you anyway. I certainly don't need a donut. And now I learned, I don't really need nelson brothers bakery either. It was just that easy. I left without a donut and there's really no need to ever go back because I learned I could live without a donut. read more

It's a nice place to stop while traveling along 94. It's typical truck stop food with a little flair. One of my favorite things is the fritter French toast, mostly because they have more than apple. There is also cinnamon, Strawberry, Blueberry, and raspberry. I also enjoy the Minnesota omelet, which has chicken, wild rice, Swiss cheese, onions, and tomatoes. Prices are reasonable. Stop thru the store to get some goodies ro take home. read more

Sad to see what happened to the restaurant/ deli counter. We ordered gyros and chicken wild rice soup to go. We got home and the pita bread was soaked and falling apart. The meat was awful - I'm sure it was some byproduct meat - not lamb at all or the lamb/ beef you see sometimes. It was inedible. The soup was gunky- only half portion and had a bad aftertaste, probably from a can. I am disappointed with the new menu, it used to be wonderful dining with choices like salmon fettuccini and crab cakes , tilapia etc . Now it's just pizza, sandwiches ( bad ones) and fried chicken..... The loss is ours read more

A friend told me about this hidden gem on the way to the rock quarry. Loved these giant pastries!! It was difficult to decide which to get. I settled on a huge Apple fritter and my friend went with a big beautiful sprinkle donut! I'd definitely make this a stop if you find yourself near St. Cloud!! One friend saw a post of these doubts and drove over 2 hours to check out their donuts she made it worth her trip! read more

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