Elbow Room in Albert Lea

Awesome food, honestly. Great, fast service.

Nice diner with small town appeal good food

One of the best places to eat in albert lea the food is made fresh and always hot.

Dont know what happened but service was great but the food really went down! Small portions and a 8 oz. Sirloin should not be paper thin! Needs to go back to what it was or I wont come back!

Well worth the stop! Great burgers, fantastic onion rings that were hand dipped and made to order. Home fries were also a standout. Their breakfast options looked amazing as well.

The fish fry was excellent. The service was quick and attentive. The ambiance is exactly as the name implies, elbow room. All seats were filled and people waiting. Dont judge this place by its outside appearance, what we call, a hole in the wall. The food is very good.

What a wonderful place to turn back the clock to whats more than just a burger joint (though their burgers are greatbut a steak, hand battered fish, and more. Good times then , good times now! You will enjoy it.

Great food. The hot beef was only room temperature and the gravy would have preferred that to be warmer the room temp. Still ate it because its great but would have preferred the temperature hotter.

Great food, service. Will definitely be returning. Definitely coming back for the seafood some evening.

Enjoy the wide range of Menu items.The staff is Quite personable !!!Service is Very Good and Food is Good.Looking forward to my next Visit to Elbow Room.

Best lunch place in town bar none...

Spent $60 on takeout. The food was cold and overcooked. When I got home, I realized they had forgotten an entire $10 order. We could not call them either because nobody would answer.

The service was amazing the food was amazing its a tiny little place that feels like home. Looking forward to bringing the rest of my family back it was a 40 minute drive and totally worth it.

I had the 3 peice fish,fries,coleslaw and toast. My wife had the shrimp and cod bites with fries. And for an appetizer she had breaded mushrooms. We were very happy with our meal, and they have good specials going every day.

This place is a "diamond in the rough". The shaved prime rib sandwich was the best Ive ever had. My wife had the beef commercial. Shes from Minnesota and knows her commercials. It was the best. Full liquor bar. Oldies music played. Cant wait to go back.

OMGs! What can I say about this restaurant to do it justice?! I ordered the grilled walleye, it was done to perfection and came with homemade tarter sauce as well as my choice of side and coleslaw. My partner had the Chophouse burger. Beef brisket and ground beef mixture with full on chunks of brisket. The burger is large and is accompanied by choices for sides and was spectacular. The staff was beyond amazing. Doesnt look like much from the outside but go, run there, it will be well worth the drive!!

Very well rounded reasonably priced menu! All meals fresh & made to order- everything smelled so good in there! Seating for around 30 from.what I could see. Basic old fashioned neighborhood style no frills place. HUGE Omelet deeelicious omelet for my first visit. Ill be going back

One of the best little cafés too eat at in albert lea !!!! Cant wait too come back here again, great food large portions, reasonable prices and friendly staff !!!

Great food. Good variety. Very nice staff.

It was crowded, not a bad thing at all. I guess that is where the name Elbow Room comes from. When walking into the Elbow Room the decor and music that was playing transported my back to my childhood. It was as I was walking into my Grandma house . The mix of customers was very surprising, had people from all walks of life. Very friendly and attentive service. The wait for food was expected given the amount of customers, but it was worth it. The food was delicious. Breakfast tacos were a hit, as well were the burrito and sandwiches. French toast was awesome. My over easy eggs were cooked to perfection.

Great dive bar with all you can eat prime rib.

Had the cod fish all u can it .Garlic toast baked potato and coleslaw. All very good. Could not believe the menu size. Will be back again and again. Great price and excellent service!

Service was sensational. Told our server we would come back next time our kid has a tournament here but we might go back sooner. Its only an hour. All you can eat prime rib and free ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

Its a very small hometown feeling dinner. There isnt a lot of parking and seating available, but the food is absolutely delicious!!

The food I had was very good (daily special). My wife didnt like her lunch at all. The bathrooms were very tightThe people are super nice...

Food was delicious, hot, fast, exactly as ordered, friendly service with great recommendations. Even loved the music! So glad we like to find things out for ourselves, go by the good reviews, ignore the whiners in the world because this place is worth the stop. Thank you for the great experience, so glad we stopped here while passing through Albert Lea! See you again!

Food was great, so was the service, we couldnt have gotten nicer staff. Prices were so reasonable, and the selection from the menu was unbelievable. Will definitely go again.

The food is delicious! Do yourself a favor and get the Prime Rib…mmmm good!

What a great place to eat. They have anything you wanna there

Great food! Generous portions. Made a mistake on order, but was corrected quickly. Eclectic atmosphere. Great staff.

Very good food and waitress was amazing...

Good food reasonably priced, with great service!

Absolutely delicious! Food was delivered less than 30 minutes after placing the order and steaming HOT!

Service was fast and friendly. We each had a burger and a screwdriver. We will be returning to try the breakfast and other menu items.

Excellent steak and shrimp, and the chicken fried steak was the best Ive ever had at a restaurant! Very friendly service- I cant wait to go try some of their other menu items!

Service was extremely slow considering there was only us and 1 other table. 8 oz steak was mostly fat. Very poor. Things were forgotten. Wrong food brought... As a server myself I couldnt believe it could be such a task to get correct food and sides when its SO SLOW.

First I would like to say the staff that was working tonight was amazing! Very friendly and efficient! Second I would like to say we had a order for takeout and as a lot of people know when you get food home its not a good as if it was fresh usually, in this case it was absolutely delicious! I will Definitely be returning!

Love food very good waitress was friendly thank us for coming was not disappointed going back again go early they fill up fast you can fine in delievered or curb side

the food was fantastic, priced just right. Waitress was awesome, and the cook did an exceptional job! Drove 30 miles just to try it out was not disapointed! Excellent small hometown eatery!

This is a great hidden gem! We were passing through the state on I-90 and we’re in need of a good breakfast break. This was a little out of way and worth it! We shared the biscuits & gravy and stormin Norman. Great service, great food and generous portions.

Was amazing! All you can ear breakfast for 12.95!! What a steal. Only was a touch cold where we were sitting! But food was fantastic!!

Just ordered here today. Waited 2 hours for delivery, called them,they told us they were on the way,another 30 minutes pass,call them again only to find out they never even turned in our order. Getting a refund and will never order from this place again. 1 star is too much for this place. I wouldve been ok if they made a mistake by not turning in the ticket,but lying to me on the phone and saying the order was on the way was unacceptable. No thanks

Place is very small. We waited 45 minutes for our food (BLT and Chicken sandwich with homemade chipsnot once came to apologize or check with us. When the food finally arrived the chips were so burnt they were not edible and the chicken sandwich order was not right. She never came back to asked if our food was ok. Would not recommend.

Nice local spot. Unless you like really strong Lipton brewed iced tea, you may want to choose a different drink option. Onion rings and burgers are great.

6/4/21........I wanted to update my review, the "Elbow Room" reached out to me with a lovely apology! Also the offer to come back and give them a try again so they can get it right. The burgers would be on them.Thank you very much, its a wonderful step in the right direction. Thank you again!5/31/21 Wont let me leave a 0 star rating.We had supper for 3 here, 3 burgers, 2 fries, 1 onion ring, 3 drinks, our bill was over $54.00! ALL menu items are "ala-cart". 2 of our burgers, JUST 2 of THE BURGERS were 9.95 EACH! 2 were over cooked, one was still borderline raw. Burgers were tasteless very disappointing at what we knew this places burgers used to be.CrinkleFries were ok at best, the "home made" fries were very good. Onion rings were also, under cooked. Cheese curds, they were undercooked, room temp in the center. They looked undercooked.The Ice Tea was FANTASTIC!! What really turned us off was the belittling of fellow employees to the customer at the tables! The first wait staff cleaned off our table, took our drink order, left. Second person came with the remark, " High and mighty princess over there wants me to retake your order" So we redid the order, this time adding the food to the order.After a few, a THIRD person came to the table, saying "shes so slow at putting in your order, I want to get it cooking". We were appalled at the comments.The menu itself is HUGE, its bigger then a Perkins menu! Bottom line, prices are much to high, the food quality is no where near what it used to be, plus the belittling of each other is uncalled for. We were very disappointed. We will not be back anytime soon.

I have always had excellent experiences here. However, this past Saturday evening was so frustrating with a 2.5 hour wait and terrible customer service. We ordered delivery at 5:36pm (2 simple meals). I asked the lady who took my order how long the wait would be, and she said 45 min. That seemed reasonable so I paid and waited. 7pm came along and I called back asking what the status was of my delivery and was told it was just coming off the grill and ready to go out. 40 min later our food still had not arrived. I called back to ask what was taking so long and I spoke with a different lady this time. She said the food was just off the grill and getting wrapped up to go out so it would be nice and hot. I explained to her that I was told this exact line 40 min prior. She then said our order got messed up due to a computer issue. I mentioned that I could understand that, but did not understand how I wasnt updated with this information and our new estimated time. She apologized and said the food was heading out. 2.5 hours after the initial order was placed I received my delivery which was COLD. I never received anything except an apology. No attempt to rectify the situation-no refund, no gift card, nothing. This is one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever had.

If there was anything less than a one to rate this restaurant by, my family and I would be rating it in the negatives. Seriously, this restaurant does not know how to run a restaurant. My family has run a couple amazing restaurants and are pretty particular about their food and know good service when they get it. Everything was going find and dandy, until the food didnt come out for over an hour, which could be expected at such a small establishment for a bigger party. However, a few members decided to get the 20 oz top sirloin, and I mean ALL of my family members ALWAYS ORDER THEIR STEAKS MEDIUM RARE. When one of them got a medium steak and told the waitress, the waitress looked at him in the eyes and told him he was wrong and she had the note on her pad to prove it. The number one rule in hospitality, like it or not, is that the customer is always right even when they are wrong. Then, another member got a steak well done instead of medium rare. The food wasnt very good for the rest of us, either. The icing on the cake was when the two that kept their steaks got their bills, the price was priced higher than what it was on the menu. After talking to one of the staff, they said it was a restaurant error and that my family members were going to still pay the higher price when they couldnt be bothered to even take an ink pen and write on the menus the correct price. Highly avoid this place unless you want ripped off.

The food was really good and fresh. I called for s to go order and it was ready on time and got. The tacos were large and filled with warm taco meat and cool lettuce and tomatoes. The nachos were excellent and not soggy at all. I will definitely order again from here!

Have eaten there twice with parties over 7 people. These guys do a fantastic job. Their menu is huge, it’s incredible how ambitious the menu is, considering the business is very small. There have been a few issues with the orders, general inaccuracies due to the pen and pad order taking, but they are always very good about fixing it. I have read a lot of reviews for this place. There are very few bad reviews, and they generally seem to represent the reviewers temperament more than anything else.

Breakfast was amazing! We stopped in Friday morning around 9am and were waited on immediately. The food was fresh and hot and tasted amazing!