Chef Yia Vang’s long-planned, long-awaited formal restaurant, Vinai finally opened in Minneapolis this summer. Along with Diane Moua’s Diane’s Place (which opened in the spring), it immediately became the standard-bearer for high-end Hmong food in the state. Vinai’s opening got a fair bit of positive press, both locally and nationally. Along with Oro, they were included in The New York Times’ 2024 list of 50 best restaurants in the US (or whatever that list is supposed to be about). Well, we’ve been disappointed before by Twin Cities restaurants that have received both local and national acclaim and so it was not without trepidation that I made a reservation in September for dinner at the end of October (by which point I figured the restaurant would have worked out any kinks). We descended on them for that dinner this past weekend. I am very happy to tell you that it was one of the most enjoyable meals we’ve had in the Twin Cities this year. Here are the details.

Before I get to the meal, a quick bit of context. Minnesota—and the Twin Cities in particular—as you probably know, has the largest Hmong population in the United States but until this year there hadn’t really been any Hmong restaurants outside the affordable end of the spectrum in the state. I will note that there’s very tasty Hmong food to be had at that affordable end of the spectrum—especially at the food courts at Hmongtown Marketplace and Hmong Village. That there have not been restaurants outside the affordable end of the spectrum until now doubtless has a lot to do with the fact that for a long time the Hmong community in Minnesota did not have very high per capita or per household incomes relative to other ethnic groups in the state. Census data shows, however, that both these numbers have risen markedly in the last decade or so (even as poverty levels have remained high). As to whether Vinai’s clientele is or will be drawn significantly or even just appreciably from this population remains to be seen. But at the very least it seems fitting, in a time when more and more formal restaurants have opened that feature the cuisines of a number of the Twin Cities’s immigrant communities, that the cuisine of one of the region’s largest immigrant communities also be represented at the high end of the market.

Of course one of the questions that always bedevils expensive restaurants that serve the cuisines of minority groups is that of to what degree the food has been passed through filters that make it more palatable or accessible to diners from outside those groups; and especially to people who may not have much exposure to the food in its more traditional avatars. This is an understandable concern as members of the “home” community may feel that when their food enters the high-end of the marketplace—a very white space in Minnesota—it stops being for them and/or stops being representative of them. Such views can be read on at least one Facebook food group that has a large number of younger Hmong people in it. As someone who is not Hmong, it is not my place to dismiss these views. And as someone who does not know very much about Hmong food, it is not my place to rule on where the articulation of Hmong food at Vinai falls on the continuum of tradition. I will note, however, that tradition is always a far more flexible and evolving thing than traditionalists allow and there’s more than one way of being Hmong or Indian or whatever. At any rate, we thought the food at Vinai was extremely tasty.

We were a party of four. We were originally supposed to dine there with friends but they had to pull out at the last moment on account of an emergency. Rather than ditch the restaurant on short notice we decided to take the boys with us instead. Southeast Asian food is always an easy sell with them, and so it proved to be on this occasion as well. We had a reservation for 7.15 pm on Saturday and arrived to find a larger restaurant than we’d expected and one that was packed to the gills—and it stayed that way throughout our meal. It is an attractive space (located less than a stone’s throw from Oro). As you enter the bar is to the right and it blends in with a long counter overlooking an open kitchen. The dining room proper is broken into two sections. In the center of the restaurant is a smaller section with a few smaller tables and one long table for larger groups. Raised a few steps above it is the main section with a bunch of two and four-tops.

We sat down at one of those four-tops and quickly got down to business. Drinks first. The boys asked for Cokes. The missus got a cocktail: the 50/50, which featured gin, watermelon juice, lime etc. I was a bit paralyzed by the cocktail list as I couldn’t figure out what most of the cocktails were likely to be like in the glass. I ended up getting a beer instead. The food was a much easier decision as our tastes as a family are very much aligned. By the way, you should order family-style at Vinai even if you’re not dining as a family. All the dishes are intended/designed to be shared.

What did we share? We began with a couple of smaller plates. First to arrive were the Dried Beef and the Shrimp+Pork Toast. The Dried Beef features shaved dried beef over sticky rice and we all enjoyed it very much. But we liked even more the shrimp-pork toast, especially when slathered with the accompanying green sauce which was highly reminiscent of Indian cilantro-mint chutneys (though with a funky kick). Next to arrive was the Grilled Lamb Heart, served on skewers with generous amounts of marinated and pickled veg plus lettuce and rice noodle bundles to wrap and eat everything in. This also came with a very nice green sauce. We’d also separately ordered two of their four hot sauces: the Mama Vang (a crushed chilli paste) and the rather pungent Fermented Shrimp Chilli; both of those were excellent as well.

The larger plates arrived next. At the meaty end of the spectrum we got the Hilltribe Grilled Chicken and the Braised Beef Rib. The former features mostly deboned and flattened chicken, served on a tasty coconut-ginger vinaigrette. The boys really enjoyed this; their parents both thought the chicken was a bit overcooked (though for all we know this was how it was intended to be served). The beef rib was another story. It’s actually a soup. What shows up is a small covered metal pot with a bone sticking out of it. You uncover to find a massive meaty rib in a lot of broth. The meat slides right of the bone and into the broth and you portion it out in bowls and slurp it up. This was just lovely and right in our galbi-tang loving Indo-Korean household’s wheelhouse. Alongside the meat we got some greens and some carbs. The Stir-Fried Greens featured largely mustard greens and were just excellent. Also excellent were the cool and tangy 802 Noodles (rice noodles) and especially the Crabby Fried Rice, which was very crabby and executed perfectly.

Dessert to end. There are currently only two desserts on the menu and it seemed rude to not get them both. Of the two the Mango Madness is more obviously Southeast Asian in flavour, featuring mango, coconut and pineapple. The Chocolate Lava Cake gestures halfheartedly in the direction of East Asia with some Sichuan peppercorn and chilli crisp involvement but the pleasures are mostly of molten chocolate and milk ice cream. Both were very tasty, however.

For a look at the restaurant, the current menu and everything we ate and drank, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service, on the larger experience and to see how much it all cost.

Service was very good, on the whole. Our server was very good at describing the dishes and was generally very on top of things for most of the meal (towards the end she disappeared for longer stretches). The food was coursed out nicely and came out paced and spaced well. A larger quibble I’ll note is that given that the food is meant to be shared, it would be nice to have the plates changed out at least once during the meal so as to keep flavours a little more distinct.

Price? With tax and tip (it’s a conventional tipping situation), the total came to just below $300 or $75/head. This would be very reasonable at this end of the market anyway but please keep in mind that we’d over-ordered like crazy (our server had tried to warn us about this) and that portion sizes are extremely generous across the board. We ate a lot and were totally stuffed even before dessert and still took a lot of leftovers home. So not only was it an excellent meal, it was a great value for the price. Of course if we’d been four adults the drinks would have been more expensive but still. The vibe of the place was very nice as well. It was busy and buzzing but the tables are not on top of each other and so it never felt too loud or cramped. I recommend them strongly. I’ve no idea if the menu turns over at all or often—or if it will down the road—but for now there’s still a lot on it that we did not try and odds are good we’ll be back before too long to try more of it.

Okay, what’s next on the food front? I promise I’ll have the last of my California reports from June out this week. I’m not sure what next week’s Twin Cities report will feature. Let’s see how the weekend goes.