Restaurants Near Mayo Clinic, Rochester

By Daniel Taverne

While visiting the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, I took the opportunity to explore eating establishments within walking distance of the clinic. I found the area to have a relatively wide array of food styles to choose from.

Located 4 blocks from the Mayo building at 405 1st Avenue S.W. is The China Star. An unassuming little place reminiscent of a classic 1950‘s style diner, it packs in quite a lunch crowd with its freshly cooked abundant portions that do a nice job of filling that lunchtime tummy rumble. The price range for food here was among the most affordable I’ve encountered during my stay, and for what I paid, I was never disappointed with the quality or quantity of my order.

Bilotti’s Italian Village, best known to locals for its pizza, is located at 304 1st Avenue SW. Unfortunately, I went with my gut and ordered spaghetti instead finding it lacking in substance, freshness and most importantly, flavor. The spaghetti was over cooked, the sauce tasted bitter, and the dinner salad was awkward to eat because a giant wagon wheel of a slice of tomato is placed directly on top of a bowl of chopped lettuce making it nearly impossible to get the dressing down into the salad without first lifting the wagon wheel from the bowl. Though the service, décor, and atmosphere here are fantastic, I have to say that I’ve eaten better spaghetti meals in public school cafeterias.

At 216 1st Avenue SW, The City Café serves New American Cuisine prepared by chef Eric Pater while Newt’s, located at 216 1/2 First Avenue SW is located just a flight of stairs away on the second floor. Newt’s, which was standing room only the night I visited, is known city wide for their burgers which have netted the establishment with the cities “best burger” award 4 years in a row.

At 212 1st Avenue SW the City Market boasts a New York style deli serving grilled panini and hot breakfast sandwiches, made to order fresh salads, gourmet soups, box lunches, and even homemade cookies and brownies.

At 195 S. Broadway, I went into Red Lobster and immediately saw that the manager, Vince Garness was running a tight ship. The dining area was clean, the service was excellent, and the food was fantastic.

Mac’s Café, located about 1 block east of the Mayo clinic at 20 First Street SW boasts a Complete Greek and American menu with daily specials. I loved the café’s updated décor, clean dining area and comfortable atmosphere.

My breakfast: eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast were very good, but I found my lunch, a steak sandwich was cumbersome and difficult to eat. Is it possible the cook was playing a practical joke on me by serving the sandwich with a whole slice of bread for the bottom, and a diagonally halved slice of bread for the top? I’m not sure, but since this was supposed to be a sandwich with lettuce , pickles and tomato, I took my time and finally managed to put it together.

Guess what happened next? After fighting to get a corner of the sandwich into my mouth, the pickles and tomato slipped out onto my lap! This is when I think I saw the cook snickering at me from behind the counter. In all seriousness, for the quality of the food, I found Mac’s Café to be a little pricy but I would encourage anyone dining in the area to check it out and form their own opinion.

Beneath the complex of Mayo clinic buildings you can walk through the subway level which contains a variety of eateries. There is the mayo clinic cafeteria where I was sadly disappointed with the serving size to price ratio, there is a coffee shop, a TCBY, a Subway sandwich shop, a Quizno’s, and 2 other sandwich/soup eateries any of which can satisfy that midday hunger if you’re prepared to spend $8 to $10 for a moderately size meal.

The bottom line, there are plenty of places to eat within walking distance of the Mayo Clinic Rochester if you don’t mind a short walk. Furthermore, if you like eating outdoors, a few of the establishments listed above: City Café, City Market and Bilotti’s even have outside, bistro style seating for your enjoyment.