Here is the last of my Twin Cities backlog from the start of the year. The federal government’s siege of Minnesota—and particularly the Twin Cities—during the first two months of the year had transformed life in the state. Hispanics were among the groups most targeted by ICE and if this meant that restaurants and other businesses that rely on Hispanic labour were among those hit hardest by this assault, it meant that Mexican and other Hispanic restaurants were hit really, really hard. Most shut down for most of that period as both employees and diners stayed away for fear of being caught up in ICE’s terroristic raids. As February came to an end things began to ease up and the restaurants began to re-open. Among the first to start back up was Homi, in St. Paul, one of our favourite Mexican restaurants in the state. I saw their announcement on Facebook of their reopening on March 1 with the Sunday lunch buffet they’d started last year and sent the call out to our usual dining crew. A large group of us showed up that day to welcome them back to operation and also to eat some very good food. Here’s a belated look.

This was our first time eating Homi’s Sunday buffet. It is rather extensive, drawing on all sections of their large menu. You can get tamales, tacos, tostadas and enchiladas; you can get pozole, menudo and birria (and birria tacos); you can get shrimp as well as a wide range of their chicken, pork and beef entrees. If, like us, you have many favourite dishes at Homi, odds are good that you will see several of them at the buffet (which presumably changes a little from weekend to weekend). And it’s very reasonably priced at $19.99/head for adults (I believe kids get a discount).

I am often skeptical about buffets as the care of preparation can be lower than when a restaurant is in a la carte mode. This is certainly true of most Indian restaurants in the US. But if our meal in March was any indication, Homi not only serves a wide range of dishes in their buffet, they’re also not cutting any corners in the kitchen. Everything I tried was delicious, from the pozole to the pork adobo. I would recommend it highly to anyone looking for a delicious brunch on Sundays—I don’t think most of the people in our group ate dinner that day! And though a little more hectic than at non-buffet times, the restaurant had the same pleasant atmosphere that it always does.

For a look at the buffet as it was on March 1 (and, again, it’s likely quite representative of the buffets right now as well), launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see what’s coming next on the restaurant report front.

There were rumours last year, by the way, that Homi was not doing very well. I’m not sure if that was true—or if it was, if it still is—but I do hope they and all other Hispanic restaurants in the Twin Cities metro (and beyond) have recovered from the wounds inflicted by ICE. Those of us who love Mexican and other Hispanic cuisines in the area owe them our support—I think we all know how diminished our food scene would be without their presence.

Alright, my Twin Cities report next week will be less retrospective—I’ll now be catching up on meals eaten since mid-June, which is when we got back to Minnesota. I’ll probably do them chronologically, which means my next Twin Cities report will be of an excellent Thai lunch, also eaten in St. Paul. Before that I’ll have restaurant reports from Seoul in May, New York last October and Bombay in April.