The end of the last week and the start of this one have together been a bit of a doozy. A lot of work came due at the same time, some expected, some unexpected, and I just didn’t have the time to sit down and write up the Seoul and Delhi reports I’d meant to put up last Friday and Sunday or the last Bombay report I’d meant to put up yesterday. Clearing my restaurant report backlogs is clearly going to take some time. But let me not fall behind on my Twin Cities reports in the meantime. Today I have a report on a restaurant I’d said last year that I would try to get to this year for sure: Gai Noi. Not only did I in fact get there this year, I went twice. The first was a weekday lunch eaten with a visiting friend back in early July. The second was lunch with the family this past Sunday before a trip to the Guthrie for a performance of Waiting for Godot. I’ll leave my thoughts on the Guthrie’s take on Beckett’s classic for another occasion. Here now is a quick  look at two lunches at Gai Noi, eaten just about three months apart.

Nobody paying attention to the Twin Cities fine dining scene needs to be told about Gai Noi. I’m coming very late to my first meals there. As you know, it’s another restaurant in Chef Ann Ahmed’s mini-empire. First there was Lat 14, then—to much greater acclaim, Khaluna—and most recently Gai Noi. All three restaurants present similar pan-Southeast Asian menus of dishes from the countries around the 14th parallel. Lao dishes are featured but so are Thai and Vietnamese dishes. Gai Noi differs from the others in both being less formal and not offering reservations. The latter is why we had not yet eaten there. Word on the street was that it was a very busy restaurant, and driving up from an hour away with the prospect of an unspecified wait did not appeal. What I had not realized was the size of the restaurant. It’s rather massive, spread over two floors with additional patio/balcony seating on the upper floor. I’m sure there are times when it is full and there is in fact a wait but it seems unlikely it would ever be a very long one.

At any rate, there was no wait at either of the two lunches I’m reporting on today. The first was eaten in the middle of the week. There were a number of tables occupied downstairs but the place was not full and we were seated right away. For the second we arrived right after they opened on a Sunday and we were the first to be seated downstairs. Only two other tables there were occupied by the time we left an hour later but there had been a lot more people seated upstairs. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get quite full at weekend lunch but you may be able to get around it by arriving early as we had. And the food came out very quickly on both occasions, so it’s a good place to go to if you have an appointment in the general vicinity with a firm start time.

What was eaten at these two lunches? It was just the two of us at the first meal and we got four dishes from the Lao Favorites section of the menu. Three of them came out together in fairly short order: Green Papaya; Tum Noodles; and Mok Paa. The Green Papaya is basically a papaya salad made with very broad strips of green papaya. Your server may warn you, as ours did, that it features quite heavy fish sauce funk. If you like that, as I do, you will likely enjoy this and aso the Tum Noodles, which is another cold salad with a lot of fish sauce action in the dressing. Both also brought a reasonable amount of heat. The Mok Paa or fish steamed in a banana leaf parcel with rice gravy and a lot of dill was milder and quite different from the others. How much you like this dish will probably depend on how much you like dill. The last dish to arrive was the Lao Sausage and that might have been both of our favourite dish at the meal. Sour-spicy sausage, perfectly fried and served with a spicy jeow.

The second lunch was eaten with the family. We didn’t do quite as much damage as we normally would have as we weren’t going to be home for almost five hours after the end of the meal. In other words, we ordered a normal amount of food for a party of four (though it still turned out to be a bit too much).

First out on this occasion was the Pad Thai. It was tasty enough but with the dressing mixed in it was a lot gloppier of a rendition than I prefer. This does not come with any protein options, by the way, though it includes a fair amount of egg. We did have plenty of protein elsewhere on the table. The Shrimp Skewers were listed in the Chef’s Pick section of the menu. I regret to inform that I thought they were rather anonymous. The Mee Tom Yum (also featuring shrimp) was much better (and quite rich—it would be a lot for one person to eat on their own, I think). The consensus favourite dish was probably the Pork Fried Rice. At least it was the one we finished first. The last to arrive was the Basil Wings. I remembered really liking Lat 14’s version of this dish when we ate there in 2019 but this version was done differently and we all thought the chicken wings themselves, though perfectly fried, were somewhat mid. We actually preferred the fried jalapeño slices they were topped with.

Dishes come out at set heat levels, by the way. Things that are meant to be hot cannot be ordered at a milder level. I will say that none of the dishes I ate that were marked as “Naturally Spicy” had remarkable levels of heat (though your tolerance may be lower). I don’t note this as a criticism—there’s no reason why dishes from Southeast Asian cuisines have to blow your head off with heat. If you do want to make things hotter than they are, you can always add the provided chilli flakes, chilli oil and so on. And dishes also come out as the kitchen prepares them so if you’re hoping to start with the Lao sausage or the wings that may not end up being possible.

For a look at the restaurant and everything eaten at the two meals, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much the meals cost and to see what’s coming next.

Service was friendly and present when needed. Cost? Our total at the first meal (plus a Diet Coke) was just about $87 with an included 18% service charge. I took leftovers home. At the second meal, with a couple of soft drinks and included service charge, the total was $121 or so. That’s just about $30/head with tax and tip and is pretty good value. We finished everything because we had to but this was probably enough food for five people.

Though I referred to fine dining above, Gai Noi is really a casual incarnation of Khaluna. In terms of genre it’s really in the same category as Hai Hai, both places with pan-Southeast Asian menus and some of the trappings of contemporary fine dining served up in a casual setting. What did I make of it after two outings? Well, only a few dishes across the two meals really did it for me and I don’t know that I’m in a rush to go back—but I’d happily eat here again if convenient or if somebody else wanted to. I’d be more inclined to go back to Khaluna (or Hai Hai) first—though I’m not sure if Khaluna’s menu has turned over much since my last meal there (which was actually eaten there in January this year, though I did not report on it).

Alright, next week’s Twin Cities report will take us back firmly into the zone of fine dining. The missus and I are scheduled to eat at Demi this weekend. Before that report goes up, however, you can expect some Seoul, Delhi and Bombay reports. I really do need to clear that backlog!