We left home on Saturday with the intention of meeting friends for lunch at a new(ish) Lao restaurant in St. Paul. Alas, we arrived to find they were randomly closed that day. To salvage the situation we headed to Hot Grainz, a mere 10 minutes drive away, down the other end of W. 7th St. We arrived to find some sort of art extravaganza in progress in the larger Schmidt’s complex. This meant we had to park quite a bit further away in the complex than we had on our first visit to their new location; but we did find parking easily enough. As we walked up to the restaurant, our hearts sank: there was yellow construction tape across the windows! Were they shut too? Thankfully, no: it turned out to be part of their Halloween decorations. Having been properly frightened we needed some good, hot food to restore us. And so it came to pass. Herewith the details. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Thai Food
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
Hot Grainz II (St. Paul, MN)
Back in early June I posted a quick write-up of lunch eaten with friends at Hot Grainz, the (relatively) new Northern Thai restaurant in the Sunrise Plaza on University Ave. (where else?) in St. Paul. At the end of that review I noted that we’d be back soon. For a change, I am not a liar. We’ve actually been back for lunch twice this summer, most recently late last week. Here is a quick writeup of both meals. Spoiler alert: we loved both of them and I think I am ready to pronounce Hot Grainz the best Thai restaurant in the Twin Cities, even though we just also ate a very good lunch at Bangkok Thai Deli in July. Is this too high praise? Should I wait till we’ve gone back again to On’s and Krungthep Thai? Probably; but I didn’t get where I am today (nowhere) by being temperate. Continue reading
Bangkok Thai Deli, July 2024 (St. Paul, MN)
It’s been two months since my last writeup of a meal in St. Paul and somehow it’s been more than two years since my last writeup of a meal at Bangkok Thai Deli. I am happy to fix both oversights in one go. Since my last report of lunch there in May 2022 we’ve eaten Thai meals in St. Paul at On’s Kitchen, Friends Cafe (okay, that was really a Burmese meal), Krungthep Thai, Thai Cafe and most recently at Hot Grainz. I have in the intervening period proclaimed both Krungthep Thai (Bangkok Thai Deli’s satellite location) and then Hot Grainz to be perhaps the current best Thai restaurant in the Twin Cities. Well, after a belated return to Bangkok Thai Deli I can only say that it would be a mistake to pass them over too quickly. Here’s how our lunch there this past weekend went. Continue reading
Hot Grainz (St. Paul, MN)
I am simultaneously mystified by the name Hot Grainz and irrationally pleased to see an immigrant restaurant not mark its cultural/national origin in its name. In an area where it seems to be almost required for every Thai restaurant to put either the word “Thai” or at least a Thai word in its name, Hot Grainz is named for…god knows what. I’m sure there’s a good reason for the name—I’m just saying it’s not obviously the name of a Thai restaurant. I wonder if this is why, almost two years since they opened, not too many aficionados of Thai food in the Twin Cities have probably heard of Hot Grainz. The fact that they are hidden away in the back of the Sunrise Plaza on University Ave. (where else?)—with no signage on the exterior indicating that they’re in there—probably does not help. But if you like Thai food and haven’t been there yet, you’d better get there soon. We ate there this past weekend and it was easily the best Thai food we’ve had in the Twin Cities in a while. Here are the details. Continue reading
Thai Cafe, April 2024 (St. Paul, MN)
In reviewing our recent meal at Grand Szechuan a couple of weeks ago I noted that we hadn’t eaten much Chinese food during our three months away in Bombay and Seoul. Well, we didn’t eat any Thai food at all. As such, going out for a good Thai meal was high on our list of priorities when we got back. We got around to scratching that itch last weekend. Against all odds, we didn’t go to any of our usual top three: Krungthep Thai, On’s Kitchen or Bangkok Thai Deli. Instead we went back to the small restaurant that I once put almost on the same level as its bigger University Avenue (where else?) peers: Thai Cafe. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
On’s Kitchen VIII (St. Paul, MN)
If Grand Szechuan is our family’s favourite restaurant in the Twin Cities, On’s Kitchen is a close second. We’ve been eating here since it opened and it has very rarely let us down. One of those occasions was our last dine-in meal there in late 2019. Later I learned that On had retired from the kitchen earlier that year—significant news that you might think the local food media would have shared loudly while honouring her. We nonetheless ordered takeout from On’s on multiple occasions during the height of the pandemic and it seemed to us that the quality had once again gone back up. This past weekend we finally ate there in person for the first time since that 2019 meal. And I am very happy to say that it was a rather excellent meal. I don’t know who is running the kitchen now but they’re putting out very good food. Continue reading