We moved to Minnesota in 2007 and have been exploring the food scene in the Twin Cities metro area ever since. In the last few years we slowed down a bit with the birth of our kids (we live an hour south of the Cities and dinners out have become rare occasions); but as our kids become more and more adventurous eaters we’ve recently begun to pick up the pace again.

There are many Minnesotans who read this blog (some of my friends among them) who say/think that I am unduly harsh on the restaurant scene here. I don’t think that’s true. If you look at the reviews below the vast majority are positive. As with my whisky reviews, I like to maintain a sense of proportion, however, and am reluctant to use the word “great” unless I feel it’s really merited or to let excitement that a decent iteration of a cuisine is available override my evaluation of the restaurant serving it. This latter is particularly true of my takes on most Asian restaurants here, for which my frame of reference is Los Angeles. The situation is improving for some cuisines (Sichuan, in particular; Thai, maybe) but is still dire in some cases (sushi, Korean, Indian, other Chinese) and underdeveloped in others (Hmong, Vietnamese). Mexican food, however, is surprisingly robust (and I should review more of it).

Where there has been clear improvement since 2007 is in the fine/high end dining realm with lots of interesting restaurants that weren’t around when we first started eating out (Piccolo, Heyday, Brasserie Zentral, Borough etc.). Alas, these are the meals we can only eat once a month and so these reports will appear more slowly. Please keep in mind that with some exceptions these are mostly single meal reviews. Unlike a professional reviewer I cannot afford to go back to restaurants we did not enjoy very much and even the ones we do—with one exception (Piccolo)—we don’t go back to very quickly given the few dinners out we have and the number of restaurants to try. Some local favourites (112 Eatery, Heartland) don’t appear here because we ate there right before I started writing meals up on the blog and they haven’t come back in the rotation yet; others we had such disappointing experiences at pre-blog that we’re unlikely to go back on our own dime (La Belle Vie). Yet others should show up soon.

American

• Big Daddy’s Barbecue (Saint Paul) (3/16/2016)
• Grand Cafe (Minneapolis) (7/5/2016)
• Sandcastle (Minneapolis) (9/6/2016)

Chinese

• A&L Chinese: Dim Sum in Inver Grove Heights (Minnesota) (4/26/2015)
• Grand Szechuan (12/29/2013)
• Grand Szechuan Redux (4/27/2014)
• Grand Szechuan Yet Again (12/23/2014)
• Grand Szechuan, 2015 (11/3/2015)
• Grand Szechuan, 2016 (12/29/2016)
• Little Szechuan (Hot Pot), Saint Paul (6/17/2014)
• Little Szechuan, West End (7/15/2014)
• Szechuan (Roseville, MN) (7/14/2015)
• Szechuan Spice (1/9/2014)
• Szechuan Spice II (Minneapolis) (11/4/2014)
• Tea House (Minneapolis) (6/23/2015)
• Twin Cities Dim Sum (Yangtze Mostly) (6/30/2014)

Fine/High End Dining

• 112 Eatery…and Some Thoughts on La Belle Vie (Minneapolis) (10/13/2015)
• Bar La Grassa (6/25/2014)
• Borough (2/27/2014)
• Brasserie Zentral (5/30/2014)
• Brasserie Zentral, One Year On (6/5/2015)
• Corner Table (Minneapolis) (4/14/2015)
• Heirloom (St. Paul) (5/20/2016)
• Heyday (7/10/2014)
• Meritage (St. Paul) (5/10/2016)
• Piccolo (3/29/2014)
• Piccolo II: The Re-Piccoloning (7/27/2014)
• Piccolo III (10/14/2014)
• Piccolo IV: Fifth Anniversary Dinner (1/27/2015)
• Piccolo IX (1/17/2017)
• Piccolo V (6/16/2015)
• Piccolo VI & Some Complaining about the James Beard Awards (3/22/2016)
• Piccolo VII (8/16/2016)
• Piccolo VIII (12/20/2016)
• Piccolo X (2/24/2017)
• Piccolo XI (One Last Time with Feeling) (3/10/2017)
• Restaurant Alma, January 2014 (1/18/2014)
• Restaurant Alma, Summer 2015 (7/8/2015)
• Saffron (Minneapolis) (6/14/2016)
• Sea Change (4/24/2014)
• Spoon and Stable (Minneapolis) (9/15/2015)
• The Bachelor Farmer (10/13/2013)
• Tilia (12/26/2013)
• Tongue in Cheek (St. Paul) (10/4/2016)
• Travail (Robbinsdale, MN) (8/7/2015)

Indian/South Asian

• Bawarchi (Plymouth, Minnesota) (9/3/2014)
• Dosa King (Spring Lake Park, Minnesota) (9/9/2014)
• House of Curry (Rosemount) (11/11/2014)
• Malabari Kitchen (Minneapolis) (10/7/2014)

Japanese

• Kyatchi (Minneapolis) (9/10/2015)
• Origami (Minneapolis) (10/21/2014)
• Sushi Fix (Wayzata, MN) (8/25/2015)

Malaysian, Hmong, Other Asian

• Hmong Village (St. Paul) (9/20/2016)
• Hmongtown Marketplace (10/28/2014)
• Peninsula (Minneapolis) (9/23/2014)
• Pinoy Fusion (Saint Paul) (4/19/2016)
• Satay 2 Go (Apple Valley, Minnesota) (12/2/2014)
• Singapore (Minneapolis) (10/20/2015)
• The Rabbit Hole (Minneapolis) (12/16/2016)

Mexican and Other Latin American

• Chimborazo (Minneapolis) (4/15/2014)
• El Triunfo (Northfield) (5/25/2014)
• El Triunfo, Three Years On (Northfield, MN) (3/7/2017)
• Homi (St. Paul) (9/13/2016)
• La Huasteca (Minneapolis) (11/17/2015)
• Maya Cuisine (Minneapolis) (10/27/2015)
• Tacos etc. at Los Ocampo (Minneapolis) (6/9/2016)

Somali, North African and Middle Eastern

• Moroccan Flavors (Minneapolis) (2/7/2017)
• Nawal (Burnsville, MN) (1/31/2017)
• Saffron (Minneapolis) (6/14/2016)
• Tawakal (Burnsville, MN) (3/3/2017)

Thai

• Bangkok Thai Deli (3/20/2014)
• Bangkok Thai Deli II (Saint Paul, MN) (12/9/2014)
• Bangkok Thai Deli III (11/10/2015)
• Karta Thai (3/19/2015)
• Krungthep Thai (3/14/2014)
• On’s Kitchen (11/24/2013)
• On’s Kitchen 2 (5/5/2015)
• Sen Yai Sen Lek (Minneapolis) (11/18/2014)
• Spice (Savage, MN) (2/15/2017)
• Supatra Thai (7/6/2014)
• Taste of Thai Yai (Apple Valley, MN) (12/22/2015)
• Thai Curry House (Burnsville, MN) (12/27/2016)

Vietnamese

• Cam Ranh Bay (Burnsville, MN) (10/28/2016)
• Pho 79 (Minneapolis) (11/23/2016)
• Pho Everest (Lakeville, MN) (12/17/2015)
• Pho Hoa (Minneapolis) (12/6/2016)

Here be Lutefisk

• “Scandinavian Buffet” (Northfield, MN) (12/4/2015)