A number of my readers have written in over the past few years to ask if I’m ever going to update my Twin Cities South Asian Restaurant Rankings, the first version of which I’d posted in 2020, followed by updates in 2021 and 2022. The answer, unfortunately, is that I’m not likely to do anytime soon. The reason for that is not a lowered opinion of the Twin Cities South Asian restaurant scene in the intervening years. I’d begun the rankings precisely because that scene had improved so much in the years leading into the pandemic, with the opening of more and more restaurants aimed at Indian diners in the suburbs; and I have no reason to believe that quality has dipped since 2022. It’s just that since 2022 I have begun to go back to Delhi (and elsewhere in India) several times a year—and will be doing so for the foreseeable future. Between all the eating out while I’m there and the mostly Indian cooking I do when I’m home, going out to eat at Indian restaurants more than occasionally in Minnesota is not really a priority. But I have been eating at Godavari—the restaurant that was atop my rankings in 2020, 2021 and 2022—once every year, as I have an annual appointment down the road from them in Eden Prairie. Last year I was there on a Friday and ate from their rather large weekend lunch buffet. This year I was there mid-week. There is no buffet offered Monday through Thursday but you can on those days get their lunch thali. I was very happy to do so—here’s a quick look at it. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Godavari
Godavari, Summer 2025 (Eden Prairie, MN)
I’d said last week that if our weekend plans held I’d have another review from St. Paul this week (following last week’s look at lunch at Zao Bakery + Cafe). But our plans didn’t hold. The rainy weather on Saturday had us feeling too lazy to go out and the place we’d wanted to go to is not open for lunch on Sundays. But I do have a Twin Cities meal report for you anyway. I had an annual appointment in Eden Prairie last Friday and what is becoming a bit of a tradition, I ate lunch after at Godavari—currently my favourite Indian restaurant in the Twin Cities Metro. I was hoping to eat another lunch thali (having enjoyed it last year) but it turns out they don’t do lunch thalis on Fridays. No, on Fridays it’s a lunch buffet. I swallowed my disappointment and picked up a plate. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Godavari, Summer 2024 (Eden Prairie, MN)
It appears that it has been more than a year since I last reported on an Indian or other South Asian restaurant meal in the Twin Cities. And that was a review of lunch at Pizza Karma in Apple Valley—not exactly the kind of thing most people think of when they think of Indian food. What can I say? We don’t go out to eat Indian food in the Twin Cities very much more than we go out to eat Korean food. Given how much I cook at home, it’s just not a priority, even though—as I have noted on many occasions in the past—the Indian food scene in the metro has improved dramatically in the last 5-6 years as more South Indian restaurants have opened to feed the new population of South Indian immigrants in the area. Anyway, let’s address my neglect of my people’s restaurants with a look at a couple of lunches eaten this summer at the place that has topped my previous rankings of Indian/South Asian restaurants in the Twin Cities metro: Godavari. Continue reading
Godavari, Finally in Person (Eden Prairie, MN)
I had Godavari at the top of my Twin Cities South Asian/Indian restaurant rankings in both 2020 and 2021. And that was based only on takeout meals brought home and reheated during the height of the pandemic. We’ve been looking forward to eating in there for a while and a week ago Saturday we finally managed it. It was just the four of us and one friend but we still managed to do quite a bit of damage. We mostly ordered things we hadn’t got from them before, including some things we hadn’t ordered because they hadn’t seemed like good bets to survive a long drive and reheating. I am pleased to say that if Indian Masala’s weekend buffet a week earlier had not impressed overmuch, this meal validated our already high opinion of Godavari. Herewith the details. Continue reading
Pandemic Takeout 47: Back to Godavari (Eden Prairie, MN)
Godavari opened in Eden Prairie last fall—the first and so far only Minnesota franchise of the broadly South Indian, more specifically Andhra chain that has locations outside major metros mostly on the east coast and increasingly in the midwest. I first reviewed a takeout meal from them last September. We really liked the food at that meal and when I posted my rankings of Indian restaurants in the Twin Cities metro later in the year I had them in the top tier (along with Indian Masala in Maplewood). We’ve been wanting to go back and try more of their capacious menu; and this past weekend we did just that. Herewith the details. Continue reading
Pandemic Takeout 25: Godavari (Eden Prairie, MN)
In my review of meals at Kumar’s last fall, I noted the huge blind spot in the mainstream (read: white) press when it comes to coverage or indeed awareness of the Indian food scene in the Twin Cities metro. Their focus remains on places in the Twin Cities proper: North Indian curry houses and the occasional upscale place with a p.r push. Meanwhile the real action, along with most of the region’s growing South Asian population, is in the suburbs. The opening of the local franchise of Kumar’s in Apple Valley—at the top of the Cedar Avenue corridor that is being filled in with new residential developments seemingly every month—was one (more) sign of this. Here now is another: a local franchise of Godavari which opened in Eden Prairie just about a month ago, pandemic be damned. We picked up a large amount of food from them last weekend and ate it on our deck with some friends. Here’s what we thought of it. Continue reading