Alrighty...list the names of your favorite restaurant, location, and price level i.e. under $20 for 2, $40 for 2, $60....etc...give or take a few...u get the picture... I'll start off... For Pho- "Quang Deli" in Nicollet Ave. (Eat Street) $6.50 S3 on the menu...huge Bowl...stuffed for $20 or less for a couple. Chinese Food/Dim Sum- By far "Mandarin Kitchen" Bloomington/Lyndale Ave. Live seafood, weekend Dim Sum...price can vary from $30-$200 for a couple depending on what u order... Noodle House- "Hong Kong Noodle" Downtown MPLS by the U...Cheap eats...Wonton soup *awesome* Chow fun, curry satay beef brisket & tendon hotpot, Garlic fried Sole or Shrimp, and much more...You can get away for $20-$30 a couple...
Cosi in downtown wayzata- awesome natural lunch/dinner sandwiches at 7 bucks a pop two thumbs way up, cool hip seating and style too
Benihana - 394 & Louisiana / Plan to spend $50+ for two people without drinks. Best food in town IMO. http://www.benihana.com/ Kind and I Thai - 1346 Lasalle Ave, MPLS / Plan to spend around $40 for 2 people without drinks. Great thai food, nice atmophere. http://www.kingandithai.com/
Cosi is all over the place where I came from. They have one in my wife's office building now so we'll see if it catches on here. As for asian, Pho Tau Bay is hands down the best vietnamese, little szechuan (next to mai village on university) is the best for chinese. Quang's aint got nothing on pho tau bay...
Your mom, not suprisingly, she's also the cheapest in town! Location - The corner of Lake and Hennipin
Best indian food - India Palace on County C and cleveland. Couple would be about $25. Used to be Udupi, but since they changed to nalapak, it's been kind of poo poo. Best breakfast - Victors Cafe on 38th and Grand S. Long wait but worth it. Cuban breakfast done right. Their dinners are pretty bomb as well. $20 for a couple. Best romantic diner - Pane Vino Dolce on 50th just off Lyndale S. This place can be spendy ($60 for a couple if you have wine) but the food and service is AMAIZING. Menu changes weekly (maybe even daily). The mood and lighting is dark and sexy. Take the lady here and you will get laid! haha. Best thai - on the cheap: True Thai on 24th(?) and riverside across the street from zipps liquor. Probably about $20 for a couple. On the expensive: King & I Thai on LaSalle and Grant just outside downtown. Looking at $30-40 for a couple. Drinks are especially spendy here. Sit in the lounge area and here an eclectic mix of music since they have djs spinning nightly (for the most part). I know nothing of st paul though so someone hook it up!
Redstone Grill. Great food, great atmosphere. It's not hard to spend between $75 and $100 for two. But so worth it.
Bayrischer Hof is good for authentic German food, music, fraulein's, schnapps and drinking boots of good beer. Even get a slap of complimentary snuff up your nose. Only problem is its in Montrose. But I love it there. Always come home with nice beer mugs(no they don't give them away
Best middle of the night food: Mickeys Diner in downtown St Paul. 20ish for 2 Best burger: Flameburger (one in Columbia Heights off Central Ave, one in Roseville off Rice/Cty Rd B2ish area) 20ish for 2 Thai: Chang Mai Thai, try the Penang Curry with chicken. Also, try Fong and Ray's favorite dessert, the Midnight Cowboy. 40ish for 2 +1 for Victors on breakfasts...Their Pancakes are the best and they're dirt cheap. German: Gasthaus Gemeinschaft...just awesome food and a great atmosphere.
Hands down Mannys for the win. For two people expect to spend between 150-250 bucks tho depending on wine and drinks.
+1 for steaks and that sort looking for good middle eastern food, small shop on university in columbia heights called Ali Baba's great food and cheap.
Two of my favorites are next to each other - PF Changs :yumyum: and Maggiano's :yumyum::yumyum: at Southdale (in Edina) Best burgers - Lion's Tap in EP !!!
I am going to have to disagree on the Chiang Mai Thai choice... As for best Thai food? Spice, it is in Savage on Co Rd 42. I bring all our Thai visitors (for work) there and they give it the thumbs up (including my wife). Of the 3 Thais I have brought to Chiang Mai Thai, nobody cared for it. I also enjoy King and I Thai, but that gets real spendy, quick. We went there for Valentine's Day and after dinner for 2 (including an Ice Coffee and 2 Heinekens) I was slapped with a check for ~$80. Good food, but not $80 good....especially when we can make it ourselves. Best burgers? I prefer Fudruckers when I can get to one... ....other than that, we just go where we feel like that nght.
And I don't know how I forgot this... Best Breakfast: Fat Nat's Eggs, 36th and Winnetka. Great food and lots of variety. Runner up: Crystal Cafe in Crystal (Douglas Dr/Medicine Lake Rd). Both are 20ish for 2.
BUT they are closed on Thursdays and Sundays! :crazy: (this is the problem we always run into with the CH one ... )
Breakfast: Al's Breakfast in Dinkytown - Tiny place with great atmosphere, and the best pancakes in the city Burgers: Lions Tap in EP - Cheap greasy burgers...which is the only thing on the menu...well plus fries. Oriental: King and I Thai - still phenomenal, even after they moved location, renovated, and jacked up the prices.
:laugh: @ oriental... Isn't that technically somewhat of a slur (or at best not PC)? Either way, not very descriptive of food styles (ie vietnamese, thai, chinese, etc.) unless you're comparing all the different styles against each other. Which I guess that makes sense. Not a digger, just sounds old-timey to me I guess. Where did they used to be? I've only lived here since 2000 and never seen it in any other location. Also, I'd like to throw out some love for jazmine cafe on nicollet. Spring rolls on the cheap! :yumyum:
Pricy: Zander in St. paul, Zelo in Minneapolis Steaks: Kincaids Cheap Pho: Pho 79 Eat Street Breakfast: Victor's or The Egg and I
Best pho: Kimson's Lyndale/Bloomington Best Vietnamese (except pho): Quang Restaurant Best Burger (besides mine): Ox Yoke Inn (Independence) Great Chinese: Beijing restaurant Hwy 7 & 101 (Minnetonka?) Thai: Na's Thai (Chanhassen), Taste of Thailand (St. Paul?), Sawatdee Pizza: Red Savoy (St. Paul), Gina Maria's (Chanhassen) +1 for Chipotle ... Still searching for good Sonoran Mexican place... Honorable mention: -Wildfire Grill (EP mall) -Buca di Beppo -Sidney's (still p/o'd they closed)
Best Pizza/Italian not $$$: Cossetta's (St Paul) and Fat Lorenzos (Richfield) and Savoy's (St Paul) Best Mexican: Boca Chica (St Paul)
Hmmm where to start.... Breakfast, Original Pancake house edina, $20-30 for 2 depending on how hungry you are, expect a wait, anyday, anytime, call ahead save yourself some time, no reservations just call ahead seating. Sushi, hands down Origami, time and time again just the best, eat at any other sushi place then eat at origami the next day, you'll see the difference, I eat at lots of sushi places, I like a them all, origami is still the best. Price wise they are probably on the higher end of prices, quailty wise it's a bargin. "Asian" food Azia is awesome which I'll give you is using the tern asian loosely, more of an asian influence, their food is always amazing, prices reflect it too, hands down best steak and sauteed(sp?) potatoes ever, and to top that off they have a sushi retaurant next door same place really, sushi again is very good, but probably the most expensive in town. Dinners are in the 15-$20 range, portions are good sized, average bill with 2 people some drinks, appetisers and dinner will run you in the $75+ range. Pizza, I'll give you punch pizza is good, I like punch a whole lot, but I think Red Savoy's in St.Paul is hands down the very best pizza ever, expect long wait times, fri,sat nights if you want a takeout pizza expect to call atleast an hour and a half in advance, overall they move move pizza then you can believe, and the prices I think are very good, sausage with extra cheese, $14 or so. Limited seating, limited parking, kind of a pain in the ass overall, but the pizza is amazing, no really. They do have a couple locations, I've never met anyone that said any other location was even nearly as good for whatever reason. Italian There is a little place downtown Prior lake Perron's Sul lago, Small place parking kind of sucks, reservations are pretty much a must, the food? Amazing, prices are on the higher side, $15-$35 depending on what you want, I've had $15 dollar dishes that were amazing, I've had the $35 just as amazing, expensive but when the food is that good its worth it, a great place for a special occasion. $75+ again for a couple. Used to really, really, really love Chino Lation amazing food creations, jerk chicken was amazing, haven't been back for quite some time, prices were outragous last time we were there, they also constantly change their menu, so beware you may really, really like something and one day it'll be gone. They used to have oyster shooters too, those rocked, sushi was ok. A great place for a wild adventurous group to go to dinner, portions can be down right huge, amazing flavor combinations. Larger groups could maybe make the prices more bearable, the food is awesome, but I do have my limits on spending, sadly last visit they surpassed them, we do have to go back and try there again. Their chocolate volcano cake dessert is out of this world, hands down the best dessert I've ever had, sure to get you laid. $75+ again. BBQ A little joint in St.Paul 2 tables in the place, most people take out, "bbq" rottererie chicken is awesome, sauce is spicy thin and different the most BBQ sauces. $20 for 2 people. Market BBQ Minneapolis overall the best BBQ in town not everything is the very best overall everything is great. $30 for 2 people Rotiseria (sp?? Hennipin and lake, east of filgio's, basically next door) Looks like a hole in the wall pizza joint, but what they have is a wood burning rotisserie for chicken, you order the chicken they take it off the rack, and put it skin side down on a metal grate and finish the chicken off over a more direct wook fire, crispy juicy chicken, order some yucca with the spicy green sauce and some plantains too, never had the pizza there. $20 for 2. Yeah well we kind of went on a food kick there for a couple years, Sometimes it's a bbq month sometimes we try new places with good reviews, we don't get the chance to visit all these places much, but these are the best of the best for us, I can suggest any one of these places to the wife and know I'll get instant approval, any day, anytime, they are all that good IMHO. My friends always call me for restaurant suggestions, I always get calls of approval back. As you can see a lot of these are more a nice night out type of place, I'd venture to say we may eat at one of the spendy ones once a month if we are lucky.
Oriental was the best word I could think of to cover Chinese, Thai, Viet, Indian, ect...hope I didn't offend anyone! King and I used to be where the Target Center is, in some little hole in the wall unit (yeah, that was a long time ago).
Ray, Victors is on 38th and Grand right next to Petersons Flowers (the one that got robbed and torched). Little yellow and green building.
Some of my favorites... Thai: Raum Mit (7th & St. Peter, St. Paul). This is like the thai version of the soup nazi -- ****ty service, ****ty atmosphere.....but you are more than willing to put up with it because it is the freaking bomb. It's probably the best asian food I've ever had. Burgers: Fuddruckers. I could eat there everyday, lol. For some reason I can't get sick of them. Major's also has pretty good burgers. Itallian: Maggiano's (southdale). Their rigatoni d is killer. Buca di Peppo is also another one of my favs. Breakfast: The Uptown (uptown obviously, lol). If you can finish one of their skillets or omlets, you are a fatass. Good 'n greasy and super tasty. A close second would be Panenkoeken in St. Lous Park.
