We ate in Minneapolis’ Lyn-Lake neighbourhood a few weeks ago—see my report on dim sum lunch at Jade Dynasty—and were back there again this past weekend. This time we were eating Japanese, not Chinese food, not dim sum but ramen. Tenka Ramen is located just a few doors down from Lake St.’s intersection with Hennepin, not very many blocks away from Jade Dynasty. I’m not sure when they opened; they only flashed on my radar when someone recommended them in a comment elsewhere on the blog. Having recently begun to check out the Twin Cities’ ramen scene in earnest—see my reviews of meals at Ramen Kazama in Minneapolis and at Tori in St. Paul—I’d made a note to check them out at some point. That point turned out to be for Mother’s Day lunch. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Category Archives: *Food
Myriel II (St. Paul, MN)
We ate at Myriel for the first time almost exactly three years ago. They had then been open for just about a year and had already received rave reviews locally. We liked our meal fine but it did not blow us away (and there were some aspects of the meal we found a little cloying). This, by the way, was also the experience of the friends we had originally been supposed to eat there with. Our original reservation had been scuppered on account of a positive covid test at the restaurant and we ended up eating instead at St. Genevieve. And then we ate separately at Myriel a couple of months apart. We had both independently set them aside in our minds as “decent enough but nothing we need to go back and try again in a hurry”. And when I posted the first edition of my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation last year, I put Myriel in the “Once Every Few Years” tier. Well, three years is certainly a few. In the intervening period their local reputation has become even stronger and they’ve also picked up a fair bit of national recognition, including a finalist nod for Chef Tomlinson in the “Best Chef: Midwest” category in the 2025 James Beard Awards (I guess results will be announced soon). We checked with our friends to see if they were available and interested to finally go back and eat there together. They were and so we did. Did we like this meal better? Read on to find out. Continue reading
NCC (Delhi, March 2025)
Here, in an effort to get done with my reports on meals eaten out in Delhi in March, is a quick look at another meal I ate on this trip in Humayunpur. If you’ve been following my Delhi reports over the years—or if you know Delhi well—you know that Humayunpur, a village incorporated into South Delhi, is one of the major hubs of North Eastern Indian life in Delhi. It is home to a large number of people from the North Eastern states and it also contains stores that serve them, and an ever-growing number of restaurants that serve their foods. It has become my very favourite part of Delhi to eat in. When I lived in India, I knew very little of the foods of North Eastern India beyond Assam, and now I feel like I am making up for lost time. I ate lunch by myself in Humayunpur in the first week of this trip. That was an excellent Naga lunch at a tiny restaurant named Shilloi. The next week, just a couple of days before my return to Minnesota, I was back to eat another Naga lunch, this time with a friend at NCC. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Jade Dynasty (Minneapolis)
I’d promised a review of another lunch at Grand Szechuan for last week but never got around to posting it. I’ve been terribly busy at work with early preparations for the second run of my Bombay-Seoul off-campus program and just did not have the time to resize all the pictures (this is also why I did not post any more reports from Delhi in March last week). And when it came time to post this week’s Twin Cities restaurant report, I decided to hold off a second Grand Szechuan report in less than a month—I’ll combine that report with that of our next visit (which will doubtless be before the summer). Here instead is my first-ever report on a new’ish Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis: Jade Dynasty. Specifically, it is a report on their dim sum offerings. Long-time readers know—and some take really personally—that I am not very high on dim sum in the Twin Cities. Did Jade Dynasty change my mind? Read on to find out. Continue reading
6 Ballygunge Place (Delhi, March 2025)
About two and a half decades ago a wave of high’ish end traditional Bengali restaurants opened in Calcutta/Kolkata. This was a significant development for a number of reasons. For one thing it was a marker of how regional Indian food was beginning to be marketed to wealthy Indians as they looked for more ways to spend the greater disposable income they had in the era of the liberalization of the economy. Rather than foreign or Mughlai or Chinese food, it was now regional food that began to become a viable market proposition. For another, it was also a sign of transformations in the domestic sphere for Bengalis in the middle class and above: more and more younger women were in the workplace, the grip of the joint family was loosening. Among the effects were breaks in the transmission of traditional cooking and recipes in the patriarchal household. The new restaurants increasingly became the places where the Bengali leisure class went to eat dishes that a generation prior would have been made at home, either on special occasions or more regularly. Continue reading
Restaurant Alma XV, Spring 2025 (Minneapolis)
In my post, The Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation, which ranked restaurants by how many times in a year we’re likely to eat there, Alma was the only restaurant I had in the “Several Times a Year” tier. And so it should be no surprise that with less than four months gone in the year, I am posting my second report on a meal eaten there in 2025. The first was of an excellent dinner in January. That meal featured a change in how Alma’s presentation of both pricing and the menu structure. Last year a meal cost $95/head with an obligatory 21% hospitality charge added to the bill. Now a meal costs $115/head but this is an all-inclusive price with no further expectation (or ask) of tipping. And while you’re still paying for a set number of courses, the opening course of “snacks for the table” and the closing dessert courses are now the only ones in which no choices are made by diners. The three larger intervening savoury courses feature a choice of two dishes. This is a distinction without a difference for the missus and I when dining there as we share everything anyway. Which means we ate the entire menu on this occasion as well and so I can tell you from direct experience that the current early spring menu—which we were told will continue for another 2-3 weeks—was excellent as well. Continue reading
Krungthep Thai V (St. Paul, MN)
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a Thai restaurant in the Twin Cities. Let’s get back into the swing of things with the restaurant that I once called the best Thai restaurant in the Twin Cities: Krungthep Thai. I wouldn’t give it that rank now but that’s not because our lunch there this past weekend was sub-par; it’s only because our hearts and tongues have since been won over by Hot Grainz. Indeed, our lunch on Saturday was as good as the best of our previous meals at Krungthep Thai—which is to say it was very good indeed. We were there with friends we’ve eaten there with before and we ordered a number of old favourites. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Cafe Lota VIII (Delhi, March 2025)
In December I broke my streak of eating at Cafe Lota on every trip to Delhi in the last decade or so. I didn’t have so much time on that brief visit, which included a sojourn to Coonoor for a few days, to eat at all my favourite restaurants; and since we’d eaten at Cafe Lota as a family last March, I gave it a miss. But when I returned this March for two weeks I made it a priority to get back there. I met a friend for lunch there who I/we usually meet for lunch there. As it was just the two of us, we couldn’t do a whole lot of damage. But that’s not to say that we did not have much to eat. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Grand Szechuan, March 2025 (Bloomington, MN)
What better way to mark your return to Minnesota than with a meal at Grand Szechuan? You’re right: there is none. I got back from Delhi on Friday evening, and at noon on Saturday we descended on Grand Szechuan for lunch. It had somehow been three months since our last meal there (this Christmas blowout). We made up at least partially for lost time with another large meal. We were a group of 10 regulars—the four of us plus a few friends we eat there with often. The only surprising thing about the meal was that we did not order the Triple Flavour Squid/Spicy Squid Roll. We did get some other dishes we order often but supplemented them with others we hadn’t had in a while. The absence of squiddy goodness notwithstanding, it was another excellent meal at our family’s favourite restaurant in Minnesota. Continue reading
Fort City (Delhi, March 2025)
Here’s something a little different from my normal Delhi reports. Last week I met up with some old high school friends and they suggested a brewpub in South Delhi to hang out at. To be specific, Fort City Brewing, which is located in the Hauz Khas market. Now, I don’t generally drink a lot of beer or hang out in brewpubs back in the US, but I do have an anthropological interest in these developments in Delhi, and so I agreed readily to the location. Named for the large number of medieval forts that iconically dot the landscape of Delhi, Fort City is apparently the only pub/bar in Delhi that brews their own beer. I believe they opened for business in 2023. In less than two years they’ve acquired a strong reputation and a faithful local following. They were named the best microbrewery in India for 2024 by some publication or the other, and have picked up a number of other plaudits as well. They serve a range of their own beers and a range of food besides. What did I make of it? Read on. Continue reading
Shilloi (Delhi, March 2025)
In my most recent report on meals at Matamaal—the Kashmiri restaurant in Gurgaon—I noted that eating there has become a ritual on my/our recent trips to Delhi. So too has eating in Humayunpur Market, one of the major centers of North East Indian life in Delhi, especially of North Indian cuisine. The market is dotted with restaurants, small and large, that serve the cuisines of most of the states east of Bangladesh (I’ve not yet come across any references to restaurants serving the food of Tripura), along with Tibetan, Nepali, Korean and various East Asian cuisines. On my visit to Delhi in December I ate a Nepali lunch at Bhansaghar and an Arunachali lunch at Arunachali Sajolang. Both were excellent. Away from Humayunpur, I also ate an excellent Naga lunch at Dzükou in Vasant Kunj. I was hellbent on eating Naga food again on this trip and this time I fulfilled that desire in Humayunpur, at a small restaurant named Shilloi. Continue reading
Ping’s Bia Hoi (Gurgaon, March 2025)
When I am in India, the only food I’m really very interested in eating is Indian food—including Indian Chinese. The primary reason for this is obvious: Indian food in India is far, far superior to that available anywhere in the US, with many regional cuisines and categories not even available there at all. The secondary reason is that, contrariwise, far superior versions of most non-Indian cuisines available in India exist in the US. And so I don’t really see much point in wasting my eating out slots on short trips home on Italian or (non-Indian) Chinese or Japanese or Vietnamese or Korean or Mexican food etc. etc. in India. This doesn’t always mesh well, however, with the preferences of my friends and family here. While they do go out to eat at Indian restaurants as well, they’re often more excited to visit non-Indian restaurants. This is how we ended up at Gung in January 2023, for example. And this is also how I ended up on this trip at Ping’s Bia Hoi, a nominally Vietnamese but really pan-Asian restaurant at the swanky One Horizon Center in Gurgaon. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Matamaal III & IV (Gurgaon, Dec ’24/Mar ’25)
Eating at Matamaal has become a ritual on my/our trips to Delhi. We first ate there (twice) in January 2023 and then in March 2024. When I was in Delhi by myself in December, I dutifully went and ate there again by myself. And now that I’m in Delhi again by myself, it’s no surprise that I was back there again. That was yesterday. Here is a combined report on that lunch and my meal there in December (which I’d forgotten to previously report on).
By the way, as I’ve noted before, I use the name “Delhi” in my restaurant reports to refer more broadly to the National Capital Region, which includes the contiguous cities of Gurgaon (in the state of Haryana) and Noida (in the state of Uttar Pradesh). Matamaal is located in Gurgaon in the City Court mall. Or rather, that’s where the flagship location that we visit is located. At some point in the period since our first visit they’ve opened locations in Greater Kailash I in Delhi, in Noida, and even one in Pune. As to whether these locations are branches or franchise operations, I’m not sure. My reports shouldn’t be seen as indicative of the quality of the food anywhere other than at the flagship location. At that location I’m yet to have a bad meal, as my recent lunches in the last three months demonstrate. Continue reading
Diane’s Place (Minneapolis, MN)
2024 was the year in which the Twin Cities went from having zero high-end Hmong restaurants to having not one, but two. The second of those to open was Chef Yia Vang’s Vinai. We ate there in late October and thoroughly enjoyed our meal. It was tempting to make plans to go back to Vinai very soon after that meal to try more of their menu but we decided to first try the other restaurant, Chef Diane Moua’s Diane’s Place, which had opened earlier in the year, serving brunch, and expanded to dinner in November. Those plans—and at one point, reservations—kept getting pushed back for one reason or another but we finally got there this past weekend. We’d taken our boys with us to Vinai and they joined us at this meal as well. We were all looking forward to the meal a lot. Did it live up to our hopes and expectations? Read on. Continue reading
Tori (St. Paul, MN)
Another month, another review of a ramen specialist in the Twin Cities. Though our lunch at Ramen Kazama in Minneapolis last month didn’t blow us away, it did make us interested to check the state of ramen offerings more generally in the Twin Cities metro. Here, accordingly, is a report on St. Paul’s premier ramen outlet: Tori. They first opened as Tori Ramen in 2016 on Victoria St. in St. Paul and later opened another location in Northeast Minneapolis. The “Ramen” was dropped from the name at some point when the menu expanded to include more cooked items. Both of those locations are now closed and the only remaining location is the one opened in early 2020 in a restored train car on West 7th St. in St. Paul. This location too is only called Tori, even though they currently only serve ramen. We descended on them for a quick lunch this weekend ahead of some grocery shopping at Dragon Star. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Legendary Spice 3 (Minneapolis, MN)
You have been disconsolate, wondering if I would ever post a Twin Cities restaurant report this week. I apologize: it’s been a very hectic week and a half and I just did not have time to get it ready to post on schedule on Wednesday, or even yesterday. But dry your eyes, tell your emotional support team they can go home: here I am now with my third report on a meal at Legendary Spice, probably Minneapolis’ best Sichuan restaurant. Now, you’re probably wondering how this can be my third review of Legendary Spice when there’s only one other review with its name in the title. That’s because when they opened, it was under the name Lao Sze Chuan and I first reviewed it as such. After a year or so the ownership split and what was Lao Sze Chuan became Legendary Spice—though the menu did not change. Meanwhile, a new restaurant named Lao Sze Chuan opened not too far away. We have not yet been to that new incarnation of Lao Sze Chuan (which, I believe, has the same menu as Legendary Spice). At some point I’ll redress that oversight; here now is my report on our dinner at Legendary Spice this past weekend. Continue reading
Biryani Stop (South St. Paul, MN)
In South St. Paul, in a truck stop off Highway 494 sits a Pakistani restaurant. I came across a reference to it in a Youtube Reel in mid-January and descended on them with friends almost exactly one month ago on an extremely cold Saturday morning. Only to find they were closed. Not forever but for two weeks for a holiday. That was the weekend we ended up eating at Mañana. That was a very nice meal but I had been denied nihari and paya and I was resolved to return not too long after they re-opened on Feb 4. As luck would have it, one of the friends who’d been thwarted alongside us was out of town the weekend after Feb 4 and since he really wanted to eat there, we agreed to wait another week (we went to Ramen Kazama instead that weekend). And so it was that we descended on them again this past weekend, on an extremely cold Sunday morning, this time having called ahead to confirm they were open. They were indeed open and I am very happy to say that I ate nihari and paya and more besides and that it was all very good. Details follow. Continue reading