The Boardwalk Menu: Staff Picks, Favorite Dishes, Drinks, and Off-the-Menu Surprises

A varied menu is a good problem to have, until the table starts asking, "What should I get?" That's the moment the Boardwalk Kitchen and Bar menu shows its range. One person is eyeing oysters and salmon, another wants steak and fries, and someone else just wants a good burger and a cocktail. All three are right.

Boardwalk's kitchen, tucked into Shakopee near Canterbury Park, covers a lot of ground: scratch-made, harbor-style American cuisine with an East Coast lean, spanning seafood, wood-fired dishes, burgers, pasta, shareables, and salads. For anyone searching the Boardwalk menu Shakopee options before a visit, the range can feel like a lot to sort through at once. 

Among restaurants near Canterbury Park, Boardwalk is one of the few that can serve as both a pre-race stop and a destination meal. That range is exactly why "what's the best dish at Boardwalk" isn't the most useful question to ask about the menu. The better question is what kind of meal you're actually in the mood for. Anthony Bourdain put it simply: "I believe the best food is simple food."¹ Good recommendations don't need embellishment. The right dish should be explained plainly enough so that you can picture it on the plate. 

Quick Picks From the Boardwalk Menu

If you want a shortcut to what to eat at Boardwalk Shakopee, here's the fast version:

Start With Something the Whole Table Can Try

Live, Laugh, Loaf is a good opener because it says something about the Boardwalk Kitchen and Bar food philosophy right away. Instead of standard bread service, the kitchen sends out baked hoagie bread with three accompaniments – garlic herb butter, fig jam, and honey-cinnamon butter – which gives everyone at the table a different way in before the entrées even arrive.

If that's not quite what you're after, there are other directions depending on mood: Grilled Wings for something familiar and casual, Steamed Mussels for seafood with a richer sauce, Wood-Fired Grilled Oysters if oysters are the whole reason you're here, Hot Smoked Salmon for something shareable but lighter, or Calamari Fries when the table wants a fried seafood starter.

If You Came for Boardwalk Seafood, Start Here

As a seafood restaurant Shakopee locals already know, Boardwalk leans hard into its coastal influence. For a full entrée, Wood-Fired Salmon pairs roasted corn, heirloom tomatoes, red wine vinaigrette, and lemon aioli. Halibut Piccata goes richer, with caramelized gnocchi, spinach, and a lemon-caper beurre blanc finished with fried capers. And if you want seafood in a more casual format, the Fish Tacos use blackened mahi-mahi with citrus slaw and pineapple mayo.

It's clear that "I want seafood" leaves you with several real directions to choose between, depending on whether you want something entrée-sized, something richer, or something you can eat with your hands. As chef Marco Pierre White put it, "Gastronomy begins with ingredients, full stop." He's also argued for restraint on the plate: "Really intelligent people put two or three things on a plate."² Boardwalk's seafood dishes generally follow that instinct, including a protein, a sauce, and one or two things to round it out, rather than a pile of competing flavors.

When You Want Steakhouse Energy

For the table that wants something closer to a steakhouse dinner without committing the whole meal to it, Steak Frites is the move: a marinated hanger steak with bourbon-glazed shallots, truffle fries, and béarnaise. Boardwalk's version of wood-fired steak Shakopee diners keep coming back for is rich without being a production. If you want the feeling of a special-occasion order on an ordinary night, this is where to look. Boardwalk steak is built around a single strong cut rather than a full steakhouse-style chop list, which keeps the menu focused.

Do Not Overlook the Smashburger

Not every strong order needs to be the fanciest item on the page. The Boardwalk Smashburger – a custom beef blend with white American cheddar, caramelized onions, and special sauce – is proof of that. Bourdain's advice for finding good restaurants was to look for places with a "tightly focused" menu and a clear sense of what they do well. The same logic applies to ordering: choosing the dish that makes sense for the kitchen, rather than automatically reaching for the most elaborate thing on the page, tends to be the better bet. A well-built burger, done with care, is exactly that kind of choice.

The Sleeper Pick: Shrimp Fried Rice

Then there's the dish nobody expects to find on a Boardwalk Shakopee menu. Shrimp Fried Rice combines tempura shrimp with pineapple fried rice, sweet-and-sour sauce, and yum yum sauce – a combination that has nothing to do with harbor-style American cooking on paper, and everything to do with it in practice, since it shows a kitchen willing to go beyond the obvious. Call it a sleeper pick rather than a secret one; it's right there on Boardwalk's restaurant menu, just easy to skip past on the way to the steaks and salmon.

How to Pick the Best Food at Boardwalk

There's no single "best" item on the menu. The better question to ask is what kind of meal you want. Bon Appétit's advice for getting good recommendations is to tell a server what you enjoy rather than asking the vague "what's your favorite?" – servers can match a dish to your taste for rich, light, familiar, or new far better than they can answer a popularity contest.³ The same logic works as a self-guide:

Eater's approach to ordering as staff is to share across the table and order enough variety to get a real sense of the kitchen, rather than everyone choosing an isolated entrée.⁴ At Boardwalk, that might mean one familiar order and one dish nobody at the table would normally pick, which offers a way of covering more of the menu's range in a single visit.

Boardwalk Drinks and Cocktails

Boardwalk drinks cover signature cocktails, wine, craft and draft beer, spritzes, zero-proof options, and after-dinner drinks, but the pairing logic doesn't need to be complicated. With seafood, look for something lighter, crisper, or citrus-forward. With steak, go richer and more classic, choose a spirit-forward cocktail or a fuller-bodied wine. And if the food on the table already has a lot going on, the simplest move is to keep the drink simple too, rather than stacking one complex flavor profile on another.

Boardwalk cocktails are among the best craft cocktails Shakopee has to offer for the same reason as the food. The Espresso Martini, for instance, keeps its flavor profile tight: espresso, vodka, coffee liqueur, Licor 43, mole bitters, and chocolate orange.

The Things You Might Miss If You Only Read the Main Menu

These items tend to get skipped when people decide what they're ordering before they even sit down. We recommend reading the menu in full!

• Don't skip the dessert menu. Boardwalk's dessert selection includes Key Lime Crumble, Sticky Toffee Cake, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, S'mores Pie, and Peppermint Choco Taco, along with after-dinner drinks like the Boardwalk Espresso Martini.
• Happy hour has its own reason to visit. Boardwalk runs happy hour Monday through Friday, 2 to 5 p.m. This is worth knowing if you're planning around when, not just what, to order.
• Look beyond your usual order. This is where Bourdain's philosophy applies again: a good restaurant experience often comes from choosing something the kitchen is particularly suited to making, not from defaulting to the safest option on the page. 

Serious Eats makes a similar point — tell a server what you're in the mood for rather than asking a vague "what's good?" — and the same applies when you're reading the menu yourself.⁵

What Should a First-Time Guest Order?

If you want one sample meal to start from:

Consider this a starting point, not a ranking. A return visit could just as easily build around mussels, grilled oysters, fish tacos, pasta, or wings.

There's No Single Best Item on the Boardwalk Menu

The strongest order is the one that matches what you actually want to enjoy that day — seafood, something off the wood fire, comfort food, something shareable, or a dish you wouldn't normally choose. That's also why a menu like Boardwalk's works so well for groups, and why it's become a go-to among Shakopee restaurants for exactly that reason: nobody at the table needs to want the same dinner. Pull up the Boardwalk menu and order the first dish that makes you stop scrolling.

FAQs

What type of food is on Boardwalk Kitchen and Bar's menu? 

Scratch-made, harbor-style American cuisine with an East Coast influence, spanning seafood, wood-fired dishes, burgers, pasta, and shareables.

What should I order at Boardwalk Kitchen & Bar? 

What to order at Boardwalk depends on what you're in the mood for. Examples include Wood-Fired Salmon for seafood, Steak Frites for something richer, or the Smashburger for a casual favorite.

What are some of the best dishes at Boardwalk? 

Live, Laugh, Loaf, Wood-Fired Salmon, Steak Frites, the Boardwalk Smashburger, and Shrimp Fried Rice are all strong starting points.

Does Boardwalk serve seafood? 

Yes. Salmon, halibut, mussels, oysters, and fish tacos are all on the menu, making it one of the more complete seafood restaurants in Shakopee.

Does Boardwalk have wood-fired steaks? 

Yes, alongside other wood-fired dishes.

Does Boardwalk have burgers? 

Yes. The Boardwalk Smashburger is a menu staple.

Does Boardwalk have vegetarian options? 

Several shareables and sides can be built into a vegetarian meal.

Does Boardwalk have zero-proof drinks? 

Yes, alongside cocktails, wine, and beer.

Does Boardwalk have happy hour? 

Yes, weekdays from 2 to 5 p.m.

What should a first-time guest order at Boardwalk? 

Start with Live, Laugh, Loaf, then choose one seafood or steak entrée and one casual or unexpected pick to share.

Article Sources:

1. Anthony Bourdain's Recipe for a Good Life. March 28, 2010, https://www.webmd.com/men/features/chef-anthony-bourdain-dishes-on-food-health. Accessed September 17, 2026.
2. Exclusive: Marco Pierre White on why he's back behind the stove for TV's Hell's Kitchen. April 25, 2007, https://www.thecaterer.com/news/exclusive-marco-pierre-white-on-why-hes-back-behind-the-stove-for-tvs-hells-kitchen/. Accessed September 17, 2026. 
3. Stop Asking Servers 'What's Your Favorite Dish?.' May 16, 2025, https://www.bonappetit.com/story/how-to-ask-restaurant-servers-what-to-order. Accessed September 17, 2026.
4. How to Order Like an Eater Staffer. March 11, 2024, https://www.eater.com/24097136/how-to-order-at-a-restaurant-like-eater-staff. Accessed September 17, 2026.
5. Want a Better Restaurant Meal? Don't Ask Your Server This Question. July 14, 2026, https://www.seriouseats.com/restaurant-ordering-tips-11813206, accessed September 17, 2026.