chic11gal's Profile
Mandarin Kitchen Dim Sum: LOUSY
Completely agree; Mandarin Kitchen seemed to have much better food a few years ago. Went there twice in a the past couple of months and both times have been disappointed (especially after the 45 minute wait). I'll admit that I tried Thom Pham's new(ish) restaurant downtown a month ago for its dim sum menu and was pleasantly surprised. Probably the best pork bun I've had in MPLS area.
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Mandarin Kitchen
8766 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55420
Need A MSP dim sum Round Up
Mandarin Kitchen is very good, but the wait (at least 45 minutes to an hour every time I go) and the drive tends to make this a once every few months trip. I'm sure I'll probably get a little grief for this, but we tried the dim sum at Thom Pham's new restaurant last weekend and it was surprisingly good. My favorites were the shark fin dumplings, the BBQ pork bun and the cilantro dumplings. I would definitely go back - the prices are in line with Mandarin and there was no wait (but the restaurant was busy when we were there around 11 am).
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Mandarin Kitchen
8766 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55420
Need Two Places in Stillwater
I would definitely recommend Marx and Phil's; both have consistenly good food and service. One of the worst food experiences I had this past year was at The Kitchen - horrible service and inedible food (we both ordered the prime rib, which came to the table lukewarm at best and super fatty). When we mentioned this (politely - we both worked in the restaurant industry) he basically looked at us like we were ingrates. He brought back our food a few minutes later and it was warmer, but at this point, our experience there was ruined. I will never go there again, nor can I in good conscious, recommend this place.
Dinner at Cosmos--bad experience
Unfortunately, I had a similiar experience on Friday evening. We went to Cosmos after Glamarama and had reservations for 9:30. It was nice to see the restaurant still pretty busy, but we had to wait about 15 minutes for our table, and similiar to baa's experience, I had to go to the hostess stand to seen when we would be seated. We both ordered from the restaurant week menu. The crabcake was fine, nothing special, but the tuna tartare was incredible! The tuna was fresh, the avocado ice cream and sriracha mayo really added great flavors to the tuna, without overpowering it. Moving on to the entrees, we both ordered the steaks (mine medium and his medium rare). My steak came out fine - but my boyfriend's was a different matter. Not only was his steak overcooked, it was cold! Not warm, but literally cold! We should have just said something to the server, but therein was another problem - although the server was pleasant when greeting us, he pretty much disappeared for the rest of the meal. We had to stop another server to place our drink order and to get our bill. I've eaten at Cosmos before and have had great service with no food issues and this last experience was very disappointing. With all of the other great restaurants in town, I just don't know if I'll be back to Cosmos anytime soon because of this experience.
Twin Cities street food
Completely agree with kriminalrat. My colleagues and I waited for almost 40 minutes today for our food. But once it came - wow - delicious! The lobster is fresh, the bread is deliciously toasty and the sauce is light and complements the meat well. Definitely worth the $8.50 (and the po'boys looked fantastic too). But since our office is right across the street from the Smack Shack, we're just going to be more strategic in when we go there to avoid the lunch rush. Dara just tweeted about the lobster roll yesterday so I wonder if they're busier because of her positive review, but in any case, they need to work out the kinks in their service.
Sushi: Top 3 in TC
I'm suprised that Yumi's hasn't been mentioned yet. It's a little further of a drive, but hands down the best sushi in the TC (and I've pretty much tried them all). The fish is incredibly fresh, the sushi chefs are inventive and the portions of the generous sashimi pieces are not comparable to any other sushi place in the area. Tip - try the wasabi tobiki if you go there - not to be missed! Prices are similiar to what you'd pay at Origami/Fuji Ya.
Nami would be next on my list followed closely by Fuji-Ya. The aesthetics at both of those restaurants are better than Yumi's but, the sushi quality, although good, is not as high as Yumi's.
I agree with @astadtler - Crave is forgettable and for people who want very americanized versions of sushi. I also think I also think Tiger Sushi is pretty awful, unless you like massive amounts of mayo in your rolls. Wasabi was one step above grocery store sushi - OK, but the fish portions are poor (and not as fresh) - but prices are cheaper, so I guess you get what you pay for.
Origami is meh for me - I've just never been blown away by their sushi, although I know a lot of people will completely disagree with me. Saji Ya is also OK, but nothing out of the ordinary.
I definitely would like to try Midori's, since I've heard good things about the sushi there.
Mandalay Bay Dining
I would recommend Mix as well. The dining room is spectacular and I really think Ducasse's food is incredible. I took my boyfriend there for his birthday and we both had the tasting menus, which we both thought was well worth the money. The lobster curry was fabulous as well as the scallops and we've already said that the next time we're in Vegas, we're going to Mix. We liked that the service was a little more casual than a typical fine dining restaurant (we also ate at Alex and although the service was great, it was a bit stuffy for our liking).
Panera Bread Tuna Salad - does anyone know the recipe?
I know it's a little on the lowbrow side, but I absolutely LOVE the tuna salad at Panera Bread and would love to replicate it at home. Does anyone know the recipe? I've tried searching for it and have the approx. list of ingredients from the Panera Bread website but I don't have any of the measurement details, which would help me tremendously. Any help would be appreciated!
Lunch/dinner recs for solo diner staying in Midtown East
I'll be staying at the Chambers hotel in a few weeks and would love to get some recommendations for places to eat in and around that area as well as one nice dinner option, which doesn't have to be in the area. I've been reviewing a lot of the posts on the board and have the following ideas (I'm only going to be in town for two days, so alas, my eating days are limited):
Ma Peche grab one of their famous cookies (especially since it's in the hotel I'm staying)
Bouchon - lunch (seems to be in close walking distance) I don't have to eat at Bouchon, but I loved the pastries I had when I visted the one in Vegas, so thought it wouldn't hurt to check out the restaurant)
Eleven Madison Park - saw a lot of posts recommending the lunch prix fixe, which looks interesting. My question is - is this a good place for solo dining? I'm always a little anxious when dining alone for some reason and just want to make sure I won't be completely out of my element while there. If you have any particular dishes that you'd recommend while I'm there, I'm definitely open to options.
And now for dinner. I'll actually be meeting with a colleague one evening who loves food as well and we probably have about $200 to spend at dinner, including drinks, but not tip. Some of the options that looked interesting included Gramercy Tavern, Union Square, Nobu 57, etc.
For dinner, modern American, French, steaks, Italian and Japanese would be the preferred options.
I'm not married to any of the above options so if you have any recommendations, I'm open to them!
Thank you in advance!
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Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10010
Gramercy Tavern
42 E 20th St, New York, NY 10003
Nobu 57
40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
Ma Peche
15 W 56th St, New York, NY 10019
Upcoming Week in Vegas - My List Needs Finetuning
I've been salivating reading all of the amazing Las Vegas restaurant threads and am trying my best to compile a good restaurant mix for our upcoming week visit to Vegas (we'll be there from November 16 - 21). I've been to Vegas several times and have a couple places that I'd like to revisit (LOS, In & Out, Joe's Stone Crab), but more importantly, would like to branch out and try a few new restaurants. A couple things to note: My boyfriend and I will be staying at the Venetian, will be celebrating both of our birthdays and we both love food (be it a hole in the wall to fine dining). We're open to any food genre and as much as I would love to say that price is no object, neither of us can really afford more than $150/per person a meal, especially since we'll be there for a week.
- Bouchon (was going to try breakfast, unless you think dinner would also be a good choice)
- Enoteca (have a restaurant.com certificate I have to use and felt better about the restaurant after reading Uhockey's review
- Alex - would love to try the Taste of Wynn menus (because the prix fixe is out of our budget); do you think it's too late to make a reservation? We're also not huge wine drinkers - will this pose a problem at all? BF tends to drink scotch and I tend to be partial to martinis.
- Mix (another restaurant.com cert, but the menu actually looks pretty robust from the Web site)
- Cafe Ba Ba Reeba
- Raku sounded really interesting (we don't have anything similar in MPLS)
- Mon Ami Gabi - I realize this is not a popular choice, but my BF has never seen the Bellagio fountains and I was thinking this might be a good place for him to be able to see them; I'm definitely open to suggestions if you have a better recommendation.
- Any suggestions for a restaurant with a good scotch menu? I'd like to surprise my BF with a birthday meal and haven't seen too many references to scotch in Vegas.
- Any other lunch/dinner recommendations?
Any thoughts on my list would definitely be appreciated as well as if you have any other recommendations.
Thank you in advance, LV chowhounds!
Has anyone tried the new Loring Kitchen in the Eitel? (msp)
Just wanted to provide a quick update. Decided to go there last Friday evening and I will have to say I was completely disappointed. The place is beautiful and we sat on the patio - great ambiance. But besides that, I will never go there again, nor would I recommend the restaurant. My martini was awful (I always order a vodka martini straight -up, with Ketel One) tasted like sanitizer (the martini was re-made, but still had a hint of sanitizer smell).
We ordered the beef short rib appetizer, which was OK, but the portion of meat was meager for the $8 charge and came out slightly tepid.
I had the walleye, which was actually done quite well (the tartar sauce was also quite good), but the potatoes that accompanied the dish, tasted like the it came out of a box.
My boyfriend had the shrimp casserole (which was recommended to us) and it was extremely heavy on the cream with small, salad-like shrimp.
We then ordered the strawberry cake and it definitely came out of the box. To our server's credit, he did remove it from our check. However, our bill still came to $110 with three drinks, our entrees and our appetizer. Maybe it's still working out the growing pains, but when it's so closely situated to Lurcat (which I think always has consistently good food), I don't know how it's going to survive there.
Just my two cents.
Has anyone tried the new Loring Kitchen in the Eitel? (msp)
Was thinking about trying it out for dinner this evening and wanted to see if anyone has had a chance to eat there yet and get their thoughts. The entress kind of look pricey, so would love some opinions.
Here's their Web site:
http://loringkitchen.com/menus.html
Las Vegas - Recs for wide-range of tastes
That was my concern as well. I've only been to Joe's in Miami and my experience there was one of the best I've had while dining out - food wise.
How much taste difference is there between fresh and frozen? Probably a stupid question, but stone crabs just sound so good, and my family loves seafood.
Las Vegas - Recs for wide-range of tastes
Hello,
I'm planning a Las Vegas trip (along with my family) to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday from July 6 - 10. We're staying at the Wynn and this is where the trouble lies...besides myself, the rest of my family doesn't really care much for fancier food and I'd like to get some recommendations for restaurants that appeal to a broad range of taste, but not chains (minus the In-&Out because we've all agreed we need to go there). Preferably, we'd like to stay on the strip and like to stay around $30 per person (not counting wine, etc.). We're pretty adventurous and like all cuisines (particularly Asian, but since my mom is an amazing cook, it needs to be good, otherwise it's not worth it).
Here are some of our original thoughts:
Lotus of Siam (we've all eaten here before and enjoyed it)
Red 8 (Dim Sum at Wynn)
Wynn Buffet (the champagne version on Sunday)
Joe's Seafood (only going for the stone crab claws)
I'd appreciate any advice - thank you!
Wish vs. Bond Street vs. Blue Door vs. Maison d'Azur
I will report back on Wish and I'm definitely looking forward my visit to Miami next week!
Thanks again!
Wish vs. Bond Street vs. Blue Door vs. Maison d'Azur
I'm from Minneapolis and we have a couple of decent local sushi joints in town, but it seems like Nobu would be a better choice than Bond St.
Thanks so much for all your advice - we're going to try out Wish Friday evening, and have lunch at Talula on Saturday since we really enjoyed our food the last time we were there and am interested to check out the new menu items!
Wish vs. Bond Street vs. Blue Door vs. Maison d'Azur
I've read through many of the South Beach/Miami threads and although I have the options narrowed, I wondered if I can get the final opinion from you all.
I know that all of these are very different cuisines (I like to mix it up) but unfortunately have to cut the trip short one day so I will only be in South Beach for one evening. We're going to catch lunch on Friday at Joe's Stone Crab (very excited!) and need a dinner recommendation. I loved Talula and Table 8 based on Chowhound recommendations during my last trip and am hoping your expertise to help narrow the decision again.
The menu at Wish looks really interesting and I love sushi which is why Bond St. is listed (let me know if it's only OK...then I can easily cross it off). Blue Door's menu looks good, but was wondering if it was worth the price. I love French food and wondered is Maison's menu lives up to the descriptions. Or should I just re-visit Talulah?
Thank you all so much!
MSP Chowhounds - have you tried the new R. Norman's
I booked a table for R. Normans for Restaurant Week and was wondering if anyone has eaten there and if there was anything of note. I'm slightly wary because I've had at best, OK food at Bellanotte, but I have higher hopes for the new venture.
Thanks!
Need SOBE/Miami recommendations!
Thank you so much Frodnesor - this is exactly what I was looking for!
Need SOBE/Miami recommendations!
Hello Florida chowhounds!
I will be in Miami next weekend and was wondering if you had any recommendations for lunch/dinner. I was in Miami last July and we went to Table 8, Tantra, Joe's Stone Crab and an incredible Italian restaurant that for the life of me I can't remember the name of.
I loved Joes (is it stone crab season now - if yes, then I will definitely be making a stop) and would like to try some new places. Budget is not an issue and we both love great food (whether from a street vendor or a high-end restaurant).
Thank you!
Any opinions on Kowalski's party trays?
Hello,
I was checking out their Web site and their deli trays look pretty good...but I don't know anyone who's actually tried them. I received such great advice yesterday about sushi caterers that I was hoping someone could help me with this.
Thank you!
Recommendations for sushi catering (or other ideas) in MSP/St. Paul area
Wow - you all are the greatest! I will definitely give Obento-Ya a call tomorrow! Thanks so much!
Recommendations for sushi catering (or other ideas) in MSP/St. Paul area
I've been lurking around on the boards for awhile and finally have decided to post. My 30th b-day is coming up and I'm would love to have sushi, but I do not want to resort to buying it at the grocery store. Does anyone have recommendations of places that will prepare (I can pick up) a sushi roll assortment in the area of $150-$300?
I'm also not completely married to this idea; so if you have any ideas for food for about 12 people (I'll have the typical cheese, fruit trays, etc) but wanted to try something else.
Thanks so much in advance!
