Love this place. Delicious food, hearty portions, friendly staff. Perfect small town diner.

Interesting the two extremes in revews here of the Great Northern Cafe. The difference the way I see boils down to this. Many tourists come to the area and expect what you'd find in a big city or a chain eatery like Perkins etc. Sometimes at the Great Northern you may not be greated, you may get escorted to your table by a hostess, given menus and then get a separate waitress to take your order. Here a limited staff does it all because even in the off season locals absolutely cram this place every morning for breakfast, and lunch is just as busy. The prices are very resonable perhaps because they don't staff the place with positions that aren't needed. You come in, find a table that was probably vacated less than five minutes earlier and the waitresses, who are also hostess and bus staff may have not gotten over to clear it yet. At Perkin's this is inexcusable, in a small town it's confirmation the food is delicious home cooked, the portions large and the prices very reasonable so you feel lucky to get a table just off the street. There is no waiting area-- the Great Northern is not 'great' in size, it's great food and people. We moved to Park Rapids years ago now and have eaten at the Great Northern many times. If you want lake country decor we have those places here. If you want the staff to fawn over you we even have those places. If without exception you expect to be met with tables set, flowers in the middle waiting for you we have those too and you pay for the priveledge. We also have cookie cutter eateries that you can find in hundreds, if not thousands of other cities across America and name brand fast food under various familiar signs. Park Rapids is a tourist destination, but it's also a working town with a thriving medical community, large factory and many other employers large and small. If you want a place to eat that has earned it's reputation from both 'towns folk' and tourists alike who keep packing themselves in year after year based on great home cooking, plenty of it and for a very reasonable price then you want to eat here and you want to try and get here between rushes so you can get a place sit awhile and enjoy chatting with the friendly staff that otherwise can be so busy they don't know if they're coming or going to get customers their food fast, fresh and hot. During those times you also have more time to enjoy some of the excellent, generous desserts that don't come in styrofoam containers with the name stamped on top. My family has lived in the Twin Cities, the Northeast, just outside the beltway in DC and eastern Washington state. We moved back here because of the great, friendly people, wonderful local establishments like the Great Northern and others, excellent schools, medical community and the overall sense of community as well as, of course, the beautiful forests, rivers, lakes and the other difficult to match natural resources our little part of Minnesota is blessed with. If other folks have different tastes and are used to more commercial, standard offerings like I say we have those. Everybody's entitled as they say, to their own preferences (and we love having them all visit our area), but honestly many of we locals look at that as a golden opportunity, a better chance of us scoring a rare available table during tourist season or a spot during breakfast or-- and/or lunch rush any time of year. Maybe I helped explain the wide discrepancies in some of the reviews. If not, oh well, sorry. I was just say'in...

Can't make a full review as I walked in and walked out since I didn't feel comfortable and the place needed serious attention on cleaning the tables. Very hard place to find at night not well lit. Was never even greeted. Can't give a good rating because first impressions made me decide to leave.

Friendly staff, delicious food. Perfect small-town diner.

I've been eating at The Great Northern since I was born practically. It's a typical local diner with big servings and almost everything is cooked on the flat top. Tasty, a little greasy and very inexpensive. I've gone here for lunch up to four times in one week. The dinners here I think is where you get the most bang for you buck, though the vegetables are canned, you can't get a full meal for this price anywhere else in town (dinner salad, roll, a protein, a vegetable and a potato for as low as $6)