7 Best Baxter MN Restaurants | Where to Eat in Baxter, Minnesota

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Foodie Flash Packer | August 10, 2021

https://www.foodieflashpacker.com/baxter-mn-restaurants/

Baxter, the second-largest city in the Brainerd Lakes Region, is just north of the geographic center of Minnesota. Incorporated in 1939, it was named after Luther Baxter, an attorney for the Northern Pacific Railroad, a colonel in the Civil War, and also a member of the Minnesota Legislature.

Tourism is one of the leading businesses in the region, with a heavy emphasis on cycling during the summer and ice fishing and snowmobiling in winter.

Where there is tourism, there is usually good food.  Many of the restaurants in Baxter, MN are located on an access road, Edgewood Drive, so call the restaurant and ask for the best street to access them from the highway.

7 Best Baxter MN Restaurants

Christmas Point Wild Rice Co.

14803 Edgewood Dr. // 218-828-0603

It helps to stay on Santa’s nice list, perhaps, to be taken to Christmas Point. Don’t let the store distract you from lunch. Shopping remains available both before and after and is highly recommended. Perhaps it’s like a grown-up holiday Cracker Barrel; the shopping may even help get you in the door. 

Enter to the look and feel of Christmas all year long. Smell fresh pine, hear holiday tunes, feel the rough wood on the chair rungs and holiday-colored oars, touch the comfy sweater wools, and see everything you need for Christmas at the cabin. They have two floors packed with beautiful and useful items for both the holiday season and throughout the year.

The one thing that changes with the seasons is the drink options. In the fall, don’t be surprised if the pumpkin spice sells out early. It’s that popular. But the hot cocoa and peppermint can be found deep into the holiday season. 

Walk in and see all the candy and fudge they offer. Sweet Shop USA indeed.  From chocolate-covered cherries and pretzels to German chocolate cake to the true Minnesota delights like milk cashew grizzly.

For fudge, they carry one of the largest displays I’ve seen outside a free-standing fudge store. Flavors include vanilla, strawberry, rocky road, chocolate, chewy praline, and amaretto chocolate swirl. You may love it so much, you can order it online for your home. Ask if the special is still available – buy four squares and receive two squares free (mention this article, and the manager said they’d honor it).

Next, you’ll see the dessert offerings – two and three-tiered gourmet cakes like their stunning three-tier lemon cake. One slice can easily satisfy four who want a sweet after lunch. 

When you’ve reached the beverage counter, you’ll be reminded of your favorite coffee stores. They have flavored offerings and you can watch the staff work their magic if you stand to the right of the cashier’s counter.

It’s at the main counter, though, that you’ll pick up the menu and place your order. You may want to take your time, so take the menu to a table with you and sit and discuss your options.

They have a soup of the day, served in bowl or cup size, and a variety of ways to present their excellent chicken salad – croissant, wrap, or salad. 

They also offer a grilled vegetable panini and Mediterranean-grilled wrap as vegetarian options.

Although their chicken salad is the most famous, the locals tell me they also enjoy the Reuben, Smoked Turkey Apple Brie Panini (or any of the other paninis), and Tuscan Turkey Melt. You really can’t go wrong.

The gluten-free options are easy to spot. The five salads can be ordered without croutons. 

Choose your meal, pay at the counter, and collect your napkins and silverware from one station and water from another. There is protected seating – glassed-in, but not heated – if you’re there outside of the dead of winter it’s pleasant.

The portions are quite sufficient to fill you properly – which may be a detriment to their dessert and candy counters. Definitely consider at least one dessert per party – it’s worth the extra calories and utterly delicious.  The lunches are great, but it is really the desserts that make this the best of Baxter restaurant.  

Prairie Bay Grill

15115 Edgewood Drive // (218)824-6444

If your family can’t decide on what to have for dinner, you need to go to Prairie Bay. This locals’ favorite actually has something for everyone. They have dishes for meat lovers, vegetarians, celiacs,  vegans, and even celiac vegans.

In addition, it’s a very “green” restaurant, committed to sustainable living. They source locally and grow produce in their own garden to provide fresh, nutritious options, so the menu will change based on the season.

If your appetite is quite large, check to see if the pretzel is available as an appetizer. It comes with an unusual assortment of cheeses and berries – definitely, enough left over to take home and it tastes great reheated (if you don’t finish it off in the car).

Starters include ahi tuna tostadas, spicy pork satay, or coconut shrimp. Or you can try their lobster salad spring rolls, char su duck breast, or bourbon battered onion rings.

Perhaps the most unusual is the drunken hummus. It’s a Bloody Mary Hummus with an English cucumber, celery, brandy braised tomatoes, crumbled feta, pickled red onion, and toasted Naan. 

Continue your build-your-own trend with street tacos. Choose the protein, then three toppings, then your shells. Done.

One of their most popular dishes is the Asian chicken salad. Ask for the dressing on the side if you’re really particular, but I found they blended their dressing in just the right proportion to the salad and chicken.

Try their Reuben or one of their burgers or a very grown-up grilled cheese, a balsamic with chicken. There’s always something elevated about the dish you may have grown up with. 

They offer six different salads, to which you could add steak, chicken, shrimp, vegan sausage or chorizo, large scallops, or Unagi marinated tofu. See what I mean? Options. 

They offer four bowls and five “homegrown entrees” available after 4 pm.

Feel like Italian? Build your own bruschetta or choose a wood-fired pizza (they offer eleven options) or one of their three pasta dishes. The lobster ravioli is highly recommended. 

Their doughnut dessert tray is something to behold. They provide nine doughnuts for you to dip in a cutting board filled with options – from coconut to almond, chocolate or caramel, or raspberry. 

If you like to build your own meals, particular to your special tastes, this is a great place to eat in Baxter.