Ding Dong Cafe - Sauk Centre, MN

Another nice find along the 94 between The Cities and Alek.  A few blocks away from Main Street Sauk Centre, tucked away in a residential area, is the Ding Dong Cafe.  The railroad signal and tracks that inspired the name are long pulled up; replaced with The Lake Wobegon Trail (or is it The "Keep Your Hands To Yourself, Garrison" Trail).  Would be a convenient stop on a long bike tour, and turned out to be a convenient stop on a road trip for a tasty lunch

What WASN'T convenient was trying to order.  I'd done some quick research on the menu while the lady drove, and put together an order for the three of us.  But when I called in, I was repeatedly told that they no longer served items I asked for . . . Veal Cutlet . . . Chili . . . Blue Cheese Dressing . . .  Turns out they changed their menu, but neglected to update it on their website.  Annoying.  Deeply annoying.  Oh well.  The food we WERE able to order made up for it, and they made a point to put a paper menu in our takeout bags (pics at the bottom)

German Burger

Bacon Cheeseburger

The burgers were the stars of the order.  They tout on FB that they're hand formed, seasoned, and grilled; we weren't disappointed.  We downed them fast, and they were no slouch in size.  The lady had the German Burger (Sauerkraut, Swiss, & Thousand Island), and I went with the Bacon Cheeseburger.  Both were medium rare as requested, and both were fairly stellar.  Perfect fry on the from Sysco onion rings and waffle fries

 

The Chef Salad was the bare minimum of effort.  Surely pre-cut bag lettuce/diced ham/diced tomatoes, with some nicely yellow yolked sliced hard boiled egg (that I wouldn't be surprised to hear were pre-hard boiled)  

Kids Mac & Cheese

The Engineers (10yrs and younger) Mac & Cheese was the barest of bare minimum effort.  Kraft Mac and fries (again a perfect fry) with an Apple Juice.  I asked on the phone if we could get some kind of fruit or vegetable instead of the fries.  She thought for a sec, and said all they had would be mashed strawberries for the desserts.  Grumble.  Is it so hard for some places to have even a packaged fruit cup as an option?  

Anyways, that looks like a truly sad lunch for a kiddo, but probably absolutely perfect for the pain in the ass picky eater kid.  Good thing we added the Chef Salad to help round out her lunch 

Banana Cream Pie

Speaking of rounding out . . . how about rounding yourself out with a slice of Banana Cream Pie for dessert?  I didn't partake, but the lady and kiddo loved it.  Devoured it

Well, another hit on the growing Hit List along the Road to Alek.  Sooooo many other places we haven't tried yet, but we'll be happy to stop at Ding Dong again

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www.dingdong.cafe

Ding Dong Cafe - 526 Elm St S, Sauk Centre, MN 56378 

(320) 200-4223