Union Rooftop

Service was pretty good, seated quickly. The food was atrocious, the calamari was so over cooked and tough it was inedible, the $ 29 sampler platter was somewhere between a small plate and an entrée size and disappointing. The meals were undersized for the price, particularly the build your own Mac and cheese and the rest was barely edible for a group of hungry young professional males. Would not recommend the food or a return visit

Kind of pricy. Small pizza for one and 2 drinks cost more than $ 40. My friend had a burger and fries with 2 drinks, Another $ 40.

Great place for a restaurant, just not this one. May have been an off day, but food wasn’t very good when it finally arrived, service was on par with the meal, and the prices were too high for what it was. I’ll be back, but it will only be for a beer and the vista.

Great rooftop patio, food is below average, which is too bad for downtown MPLS.

We enjoyed an early dinner here, lots of interesting options. Open, airy atmosphere with lots of tv screens showing sports. Good option for dinner after seeing a matinée show at the Orpheum Theater.

I came here for a quick drink and you really can’t mess up what I got (bourbon). The unique location and building alone are worth 3-​stars. It is very cool that this place has a retractable roof so that you can see the skyline of the city. I will have to come back and try the food to get a full picture of this place.

This place is fancy! (I wish I had known…)
I can’t wait to come here again. It is so beautiful and warm. We sat at the bar and watched the staff even though they weren’t doing much.
The rooftop was very busy on a Saturday evening but we found a spot at the bar. Diners are and older crowd and ritzy.
There were two bartenders that were very busy. As I stated above much of the other staff was standing around doing nothing. If they had a water cooler they would have been at it. Just odd.
We each had salads (much of the menu was very expensive). Mine had salmon and asparagus and both were very fresh and delicious.
Drinks were made well but nothing out of this world

The atmosphere was nice?
Food isn’t terrible. Huevos Rancheros is delicious.
First server was rude, after we requested a new one service was a lot better. Shoutout to Phillip Bottom less mimosas kind of watered down but they keep coming so eh. I wouldn’t come back

Environment: 4.5÷5
Food: 2.5÷5 (Brunch service)
Drink: ¹⁄₅
Verdict: IF I ever came back, it’d be for the environment/​music. I’d probably eat and drink somewhere else though.
Environment:
Man this place was pretty dope. I mean a glass-​covered rooftop with a side patio and full bar is a pretty awesome idea. The only thing is that it sort of leads to a small greenhouse effect. Maybe it was up because it was a little windy but it was also pretty sunny. My friends and I were sweating before long. There’s definitely a lot of hustle-​bustle in the rooftop with people passing in every direction and the tables are pretty packed together. Try not to scoot out of your chair too much or you’ll hit someone.
The music mixes the DJ was playing was definitely good but man was it loud. While trying to eat brunch, it was an ordeal to even try and talk to my friends because we’d all be yelling at each other just to hear over the music.
Food:
Got an order of hash browns with a fried egg. It was decent. This one was swimming in oil inside and out. If other restaurants can serve hash browns without it drenched with oil, I’m pretty sure Union Rooftop can learn how to. The portion wasn’t too bad and the egg was cooked to my liking though. My friends got a Classic American breakfast and huevos rancheros though and they said it was pretty good so I bumped up my rating a star and a half.
Drink:
Bloody Marys are pretty tomatoey. I know that’s the point of a bloody mary but some people like it like that, some others don’t. Mimosas were pretty sweet and not enough champagne in it. OH! And while we’re on the topic of drinks, their water cups are so dirty. Like when they were setting them down on the table, there were already things floating in it and my friend’s water had sand in it. SAND. I don’t even understand. Someone must have tried really hard to get sand inside this water glass.

We’d not been to a brunch as a full family (the four of us) in years, and my daughter wanted to rekindle the practice. Of course, she suggests this days before easter, so it wasn’t the easiest thing to find a reasonable brunch buffet at that time.
I found Union Rooftop (where we didn’t sit — no one did for the brunch from what I could tell) and thought that the reviews were just north of terrible enough for me to make a reservation. I had no expectations and yet, hoped that a featured brunch would increase the chances of better food and service.
Well, I don’t have any real issues with the service. Our waitress was as attentive as one would expect at a buffet and she was nice and polite. The food was… cooked. We did enjoy the bacon and sausages, which they cut in half a little later during our stay. I’ve NEVER seen that before. The cheesy hashbrowns were actually good. I don’t normally eat hasbrowns, so I was glad that I didn’t pay for this deviation.
The Man had an odd-​looking Benedict that he seemed to eat grudgingly. This was accompanied by bacon, sausage, and cheesy hashbrowns. The Boy ate some pasta spirals (I think it was cavatapi) and cheese and covered his plate in bacon. He ate all but one slice of the bacon. The Girl had some green salad and some bacon, I believe. Both of the kids chose a «dessert» item and regretted it. My son had picked up two petit fours, which looked waxy. They tasted worse than waxy. The muffins — we still don’t know what they were supposed to be — caused the biggest grimace on this boy’s face I’ve ever seen. No one tried it to see why he’d make such a face. The nibble of the «red velvet» petit four was more than enough to sour the experience. The Girl being a pastry chef and coming from a long line of good cooks and bakers means that critiques can be tough on the recipient.
Before leaving, I’d decided that i wanted some of the green salad that The Man and The Girl had eaten. Well, I didn’t eat my portion, as it was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy overdressed and vinegary to the point of near-​fatal puckering. Another odd thing was the guys standing at the buffet opening the cloches for the diners. Don’t get that at all. It wasn’t a big buffet and nothing was of a caliber that it needed to be «revealed» to the folks there.
Now, I must admit that another reason that I chose this place is because of its location. It’s a few blocks from where I work and I had to go to the office for a few hours on Sunday. The Girl was so disgusted by the desserts that we tried to go elsewhere, but said place was closed for the holiday. Wah-​wah.
Ultimately, my low expectations were met. I wasn’t disappointed in anything except the salad. I’m a minimalist when it comes to dressings, so destroying those nice greens was an affront to my senses.
They say that you can have a once in a lifetime experience every day. Well, we’ve had ours here. No reason to return and on to the next!

Great dinner experience with a smaller group for a birthday dinner! First off our server was excellent. She was very prompt, professional and could tell she was well experienced. We let her know at the onset that we were celebrating a birthday without giving it away to the birthday boy. She got it and didn’t forget once we had wrapped up.
Food was delicious too. I ordered the lobster Mac and cheese and we shared the calamari starter. Calamari was particularly good I have to say. Everyone liked their dishes as well as cocktails.
Would love to give it five stars. I thought the patio furniture was nice and totally get the rooftop. Also they started moving furniture around us pretty early to turn into a club. Several times, not just once.
Probably perfect in warmer weather. Overall a solid four stars, but not quite enough for five.

I came here with my friend for a Sunday Funday type deal. The mimosas are unlimited from open until around 2:00pm for only $ 10.00. They are generous with the portions and they’ll be sure to keep your glass full. It was a beautiful day outside, sun was shining about about 60 degrees F. They had the extension to the patio opened so the fresh air was circulating. The DJ was playing great music and the crowd was awesome. We did have reservations that took an additional 20 minutes to get us sat. Also, the food was okay. I mean I only had has browns with salmon, crème cheese and green onions, but they were okay. The has browns were overcooked and I felt the whole menu to be a bit overpriced. Other than that I really enjoyed my time at Union Rooftop and I would surely go back again.

We had trouble finding a restaurant in the vicinity that was open on Sunday before our theatre date. The menu is small and I wasn’t too keen but made a reservation thinking my husband would love the food.
Well he really disliked his classic breakfast. The fingerling potatoes were hard and cold. He also never received a beverage refill.
I ordered eggs Benedict with sausage, instead of the ham, and it was fantastic. The side of hashbrowns (enough for two) was very good but a little cold.
Bottomless mimosas are $ 10 and have a slightly off taste — not sure if it was the juice or alcohol. But they have more alcohol then you think. You wear a wristband and they keep them flowing.
Our server, Samantha, was not very attentive and didn’t check back with us. We also waited for our check.

Union has a nice rooftop area with great views of the city. There is a retractable roof so you can stay warm up there during the winter months. The food was OK but not mind-​blowing. I’d definitely recommend it as a fun spot to grab cocktails with friends.

This place is ridiculous! Unless you are 25 and younger and like blaring techno music, skip it. When did Sunday brunch turn into over-​the-​top music with a DJ? I could not even have a conversation with my friend without shouting and as time went on the music got LOUDER. We just sat there staring at each other in disbelief. I asked the server if it was always this loud and she said yes and that she has a hard time hearing people when she is taking their order. I had the misfortune of sitting at a table by the bar and was bumped into nonstop by servers and groups of people standing around. There had to be more people in there than legally posted. The food wasn’t any better than you can get a Perkins and at least there you can speak to each other without losing your voice and getting ear damage. Just awful. I would never go back and never recommend it.

What the heck. I came here with my friend, her infant and her pre-​schooler for a Sunday brunch on the rooftop.
There was a DJ pumpin’ beats.
Huh? Yeah, it was the weirdest Sunday morning vibe. Bottomless mimosas were hittin’ the spot, the food was good (albeit overpriced for what it was). I can’t say I’d come back unless it was a happy hour on the rooftop (which is really cool, btw).
Just prepare your heart for a Sunday morning, loud, DJ. That’s all.

So, my girlfriend and I went here for our first dinner experience last Saturday evening. She made an 8:15pm reservation. I understand that Saturdays are busy times, but the planning of the reservations should be managed properly. We checked in, and waited, and waited, and waited. At 8:45 we were seated. This is completely unacceptable. Me being impatient, started checking other restaurants’ availability in the area after 15 minutes.
I guess, to me, it was rude. I already was jaded for the rest of the evening. Seated at the smallest 2 person table in the middle of the restaurant, my girlfriend and I order 2 glasses of wine. First, the waitress tells my girlfriend they don’t have her choice, then she brings one out afterwards. That’s great and all that they had it, but the reason why she said they didn’t was because a bachelorette party was ordering the same thing behind us and didn’t want them to miss their toast (or that was what we assumed) since she was happy when she found out one of the girls wasn’t drinking this particular wine.
The second pitfall came when we ordered dinner. I was in a chicken mood and asked for the chicken cordon bleu but without cheese. Me plus cheese equals a very bad night alone in a bathroom. Her response was that this entrée is pre-​made, is frozen, and that she can’t do anything about the cheese. Well, that’s awesome. Frozen food is disgusting, so I opted for the roasted chicken and mashed potatoes. I just felt that this was mediocre and not the response I was looking for. When I go to a restaurant, I expect fresh, hand made options that are not frozen, not pre-​made, and can be made with substitutions for dietary purposes. If I wanted freezer chicken, I would go to Target and get freezer meals, but I don’t even do that, so why would I want to pay $$ for that at a restaurant.
So, that’s my stink with this place. Frozen food, horrible reservation timings, and overall mediocre service. I just didn’t care for the «ambiance» either. If I am going to pay $ 50+ for dinner and drinks for just myself, I don’t want to sit on patio furniture and eat frozen meals.

Not much to say other than really bad food and cocktails. VERY nice waitstaff and good service. Too bad their effort is wasted serving bad food and drinks. This place could have great potential to be a showplace for dreary Hennepin Ave.

Friendly service but horribly loud. And the food was awful. But they comped our whole bill so we will give them another try.

This place was amazing, the food was delicious, u had the Cajun Chicken Alfredo, was slightly spicy but so favorable and just the right amount of food. Filled me up but I didn’t feel grossly stuffed when leaving. We had great service, waiters was super friendly and gave us great suggestions. Thanks Union for having us! If your visiting, then j definitely recommend giving this place a shot!

The menu was plain, boring, nothing spectacular; you have it at every other sports bad you have been to. Dad had the ribs which appeared over cooked, I suppose it was far too much sauce burnt on them. I had the Asian chicken salad which was about as regular as you could guess. Pricy for food quality. Bar atmosphere with loud music. It is just not what they advertise it to be.

Very very noisy. The waitress didn’t hear us correctly so both couples «shared» their meals, though we did not order shared meals. We just wanted the same meals as our partners. So, we each got very tiny dinner portions. Thankfully, we had ordered a couple appetizers so we weren’t still starving after dinner.
One couple «shared» the pesto pasta w/​chicken. Tasted good. Only one of the plates had all the ingredients on it, some tiny tomato things.
I and my man, of course, had the Sea Bass. Our pre-​split plates gave us each about a golf ball sized portion of Sea Bass to taste. Was a very good taste. I did not know what is in Succotash. She said it’s grilled corn with some veggies, but failed to mention it’s a red sauce with tomatoes and onions. This, neither of us touched. So, thankfully we only paid full price for half of one split meal eaten. ($ 33 little Sea Bass filet, no side dish, for 2) I had ordered asparagus with my meal being uncertain of Succotash. This was forgotten and brought at the end. Asparagus desert.
It was on a busy Friday night. We were there for the DJ show at the Rev downstairs. We were seated at the edge of the bar top floor where people come in to take off their coats and get a drink. Very loud bustling bodies pushing by our table.
Be 21 – 25. Come together with a huge loud group for drinks. You might love it.

For our last night in Minneapolis, we walked into this place. While I admit the rooftop has an amazing view, the sea bass I ordered was mediocre.

Been here for happy hour, dinner and drinks on various occasions so thought it was time to write a review!
Drink menu: I love their cocktails. We pops champagne is my favorite.
Rooftop: The view from the rooftop is killer and it’s really neat up there. They sell neat colorful sunglasses which is handy if you don’t have any with you. I love my new pink ones!
Food: Tasty salmon entrée and their burgers are amazing! The Caesar salad was subpar.
Downstairs nightclub: Pretty good for dancing, no where to sit unless you buy a VIP booth and limited drink options.
Overall this is a cool place with an amazing rooftop and decent food. I’ll hopefully be back soon!

The ambiance is awesome! A cozy setting on the roof top. The seating is spacious and the bar is long enough to fit many. I dined at the bar. The bar tender consistently refilled my iced tea. The appetizer (firecracker shrimp) was excellent! The main entrée lacked taste. I had the filet Mignon (filet Oscar), and although the crab meat was tasty, the steak was sort of tasteless. I believe better seasoning is required to serve a tastier steak.

The food was really bad here. My friend’s salad was the saddest looking salad I’ve ever seen. The chicken looked like rubber, the lettuce was close to white, and the dressing was super thick and on the side. There was nothing good going on in there. AND it was $ 17. My margarita flatbread pizza was not good. The crust sucked. The cheese sucked. There’s not much else to a margarita pizza, so it was just all around not good.

I was torn between giving 3 and 4 stars. I’d go for the 3.5 if possible.
Our first impression got off to a bad start. Website stated they opened at 3:00 for dinner but it was a holiday so I called to double check. Employee confirmed they were opening at 3:00.
Arrived at 3:05 to locked doors. Could see employees inside. Called from my cell phone and was told they were still resetting from the night before and they weren’t going to open until 4:00 now, sorry.
Ugh. Went and had appetizers and drinks elsewhere because we were famished but then returned.
Service started out rocky. Host sat us at a table on the outer edge of the rooftop right in the blazing sun. We asked our server if we could sit at a table with an umbrella and were told yes, just choose one.
Most of the umbrellas weren’t situated to actually provide shade to the tables, so a busser helped us move one. The host came over and asked, as if it were a big deal on the nearly empty rooftop, if we’d chosen our own table or if a server had told us we could sit there. Then someone told us the umbrellas were supposed to only be at certain spots which doesn’t work well 100% of the time because, hello, the position of the sun isn’t fixed.
Anyway. From there the dinner improved quite a bit. Our server came across as a little grouchy on first greeting us but we ended up liking him very much and he was laid back, friendly and helpful. Food was excellent, which was a nice surprise given my expectations had been lowered.
We started with the Caprese salad which came with beautiful ripe tomatoes and creamy burrata. I’m a sucker for burrata and Union’s did not disappoint.
Then we shared the Garganelli pasta, which I thought was fantastic. Pasta might seem odd for a hot day in the sun but the sauce wasn’t too heavy, the fennel sausage was excellent and there was a nicely textured topping that gave the dish a good balance of soft and a tiny bit of crunch. I’d definitely order it again.

There are some crazy mixed reviews for this place so I will throw in my two cents if it will help someone decide to try this place out or not. It appears as though a lot of the 1 – 2 star reviews are for brunch… so just wanted to let it be known that this one is for a Friday night patio experience.
I was pleasantly surprised by my experience here. I didn’t come with too many expectations but I think making reservations for this place was the smartest thing I could have done because it took away a lot of potential stress that would have killed the vibe for the night. My friends and I were seated right away around 9pm on a Friday and the wait staff were very attentive. They got us drinks and kept them full the rest of the night.
The food was OK – I think the wings were my favorite. They were a dry rub and had coffee grounds and lime on them with some kind of sweet and spicy situation going on. We also ordered the ceviche (meh), pepperoni flatbread (a little on the soggy side), bang bang shrimp aka teriyaki shrimp, and calamari – which was actually great with the avocado sauce. I think we paid like $ 100 for everything which is just way too expensive for the types of apps we were ordering.
The atmosphere is mostly why I gave Union four stars. We were there on a perfect Minnesota night… so there was a light breeze, not too hot, not too cold and the sun was setting so everything was beautiful. They had a guest DJ that night from Chi-​town and he was ON POINT. His music selection was ridiculously good and put us in the best mood. He pretty much did mashups of stuff from the 90’s and today. He was so good that I fan girled when I talked to him and asked for his card lol.
If you are trying to find a cool rooftop when the weather is nice and want to grab some drinks and chill to great music… go here ASAP.
If you are super hungry and want to go hard on some apps and still be able to afford next month’s rent and prefer to not witness a lot of drunken, yet hilarious, bachelorette parties… this might not be the best place for you.

Union Restaurant is a rooftop bar in the middle of downtown Minneapolis. The best part about it is the view of the Target buildings freaky light show.
I popped in here with a couple fine dime brizzles to quaff a few drinks before a raucous electropop show at First Avenue down the street.
We were greeted and seated by a very cool lady who found a spot for three immediately and broke us off with drink menus for perusal. She was a true beacon, because after she left the experience spiraled violently into the abyss of bullshit.
By the time a dude came by to take our order, my plump, vibrant afro had wilted into a baldy. My skin was sagging and soft, like a paper bag crumpled a thousand times. I directed my glassy, ancient eyes to meet the waiter’s and used every ounce of my geriatric strength to order a Jameson and ginger beer. The dime brizzles I had shown up with, who had now become regal, Red Hat type grandmotherly brizzles, then placed their orders. The waiter smiled and vanished.
By the time someone came back around to deliver the drinks we had all died and been reborn as a butterfly, a tortoise and a pineapple. We sipped on our respective drinks and tried each others’ out; they were pretty good and true to their menu descriptions!
Then, anxious about arriving at the electropop show on time (missing the opener because WE REAL COOL), we indicated that we would like a check in the only way a butterfly, tortoise and pineapple could. Google it.
Sadly, our original waiter was celebrating his 110^th birthday with loving family and friends in Sonora, Mexico so we approached the host’s stand to pay. The woman there was gleeful and understanding. The pineapple rotted before she returned with the cards and receipts, but the butterfly and tortoise covered for him.
Protip: if you walk in on street level and the downstairs has been abandoned for the rooftop, just remove the paper cup from your favorite bottle of liquor and take a long swig, then live the rest of your life with no regrets.
TL;DR: It took a lifetime and a half to order and pay for three drinks. They tasted good though and the ambiance was very pleasant.

Union Rooftop is your best bet for a rooftop bar in DTM.
If you are looking for a review on the cuisine, look elsewhere as I used the Union as my go to watering hole while spending several days downtown. Featuring a glass encased indoor rooftop bar the Union Rooftop offers unique views of the Minneapolis skyline and is steps away from Target Field, Target Center, First Avenue and the Nicollet Mall. The prices were very reasonable in my SoCal opinion considering the area ($ 8.00 craft beer and a cocktail starts in the $ 10.00 range). It is also a great spot to people watch, party and from what I saw several times, hook up with the opposite sex.
I somehow made it back to the Union Rooftop no less than 3 times during my stay (granted, it was 2 blocks from my hotel) so anything less than 4 stars would be criminal.

I had been to Union once before (for NYE party #coatcheckgate) and had heard plenty of great things on food, brunch and happy hour; so, being the foodie that I am, I dined here for HH/​dinner.
It’s located in downtown Minneapolis, which means parking can be tricky. Your options for Union are valet ($ 15-​$ 20) or the parking ramp right next door ($ 5 after 4pm/wknds)…I voted for the parking ramp.
Union is a large, multi-​level space — great for party’s and roof top happy hours. We started the night off on the roof top, more like the covered/​heated space… and were seated right in the middle of all the action. It’s a great space, with windowed walls/​ceilings, providing an amazing view of downtown Minneapolis (cool sunset between the buildings!). Happy hour started at 6pm and ran until 10pm, which was great, until our server made a mistake and told us it was for the bar ONLY — he gave us the first round at HH pricing (great), but would’ve been nice to know before seating for dinner.
The dinner menu was fairly extensive, including salads, burgers, pastas, flat breads and seafood — something for everyone! We weren’t super hungry (already ate before, #fail); so we decided to split a burger (hey…I was 3 drinks deep already!). We landed on the Gourmet Burger… yeah, that was the name — mustard anise sauce, onion marmalade and braised ropa vieja… how could you go wrong with braised pork on beef!!!
Our burger arrived, already split (nice touch), and was a bit surprised as the size — smaller than what I expected (for $ 16) — flavor wise, it was ‘okay’, I had built perhaps an expectation of amazingness given the ropa vieja and everything I had heard about the food… but it simply didn’t do it for me. The burger was cooked right (medium) and the onion marmalade added a nice flavor touch — but I wasn’t impressed, knowing I could get an amazing burger for half the price.
At the end of the day, if you like average fare, loud space where you can’t hear the person across from you and potentially complicated parking — then go to Union — otherwise, there are plenty of better places to dine in downtown Minneapolis :-)

Was pretty excited to go to the Union and sit on their enclosed rooftop (during winter). My group of 10 people made a reservation at 7:00pm on a Saturday night and we were told if everybody wasn’t there within 15 minutes after our reservation that they would give up our tables so we made sure everyone was ready and on time. Went up to the rooftop and immediately thought it was a pretty cool spot. You can see out through all the windows, which is cool except that fact you are only on the 3^rd-​ish level so all you can see are the sides of buildings around you.
We ended up waiting for ONE HOUR even though we had our whole group there at 7pm/​the time of our reservation. We sat on the couches and ordered drinks and had to close out that tab before moving to our table, which was kind of a bother. While seated we all figured out what to order so when we got our table we could order food right away. Once we got to our table the waiter went over the drink menu and asked if we wanted anything — we had been waiting for one hour and all had drinks already so it would have been nice if he had just cut to the chase and got our food orders in.
I ordered the Margherita Flatbread which was pretty good and I felt the prices were pretty fair. (Shown in picture)
Overall — the space is pretty cool with the glass rooftop and sleek design and my food was very good BUT the fact we had to wait over an hour when we made our reservation made my experience less enjoyable — especially when they were so strict about our whole group being on time.

Commençons par le cadre. Avec les températures agréables du mois de Mai, la terrasse sur le toit est vraiment appréciable.
Les appetizers commandés, en l’occurence des boulettes de mouton et de la mousse de foie de volaille étaient corrects, mais sans plus. Oserais-​je écrire que les boulettes étaient quelconques, que cela serait probablement encore trop convenu…
Les egg noodles commandées ensuite étaient particulièrement pimentées (la Chili Oil a fait son office la bougresse!) et les petits lambeaux de panse d’agneau étaient malheureusement trop rares pour pouvoir être appréciés…
Compte tenu de la qualité discutable du plat, c’était finalement une chance qu’il n’y en ait pas beaucoup dans l’assiette…(sic).
Pour les vins enfin, si le serveur vous conseille un vin blanc Espagnol qu’il aime beaucoup, refusez poliment, mais fermement!