discus's Profile
Sezchuan Spice
We read this thread and went out for an early dinner. Overall Impression: Great food, great prices, very sophisticated cooking.
The dan dan noodles and the soup dumplings were on par, or slightly behind, the TeaHouse. TH introduced both dishes into the Twin Cities area and have relied on them as signature dishes to draw in the crowds. TH's dan dan noodles were more flavorful, but Szechuan Spice's version was a lot more authentic.
Then we had the three cold dish platter, where you get to mix and match. The beef tendon was wonderfully done, sliced paper thin and perfectly spiced. The sliced pork with the sinful section of fat, prepared dry and just a little sweet, was also perfect. The sauteed cucumbers, very lightly sauteed, served as the perfect contrast.
We also ordered the eggplant in garlic sauce. Although we were already full when it arrived, the dish was clearly the highlight of the meal. Presentation of this dish, like the others, was exquisite. By quickly frying the eggplant before stir fry, the skin stayed gorgeously purple and crisp to the tongue.
If it seems like I'm raving about Szechuan Spice, it's because I am. I spoke to the owner, who pointed out that the two chefs in their kitchen are professionally trained. Many of the Chinese restaurants have very good cooks, but they are not professionally trained. The training comes through in the way the meat and vegetables were sliced, the delicacy of the flavoring and particularly in the presentation.
The bill for two of us, including most of the eggplant dish, was under $40. We eat out a lot and most of the Chinese restaurants in this class would have cost $6 - 10 more.
Finally, a restaurant good enough to take my presents!
roasted pig for reception
You can do a whole roasted pig at House of Wu in Burnsville.
What's the best Korean restaurant?
I like Hoban in Eagan the best. Some of my Korean friends like it, others don't. But it's by far the cleanest Korean restaurant in the Twin Cities...
Puerto Rican Food in Twin Cities or anywhere in the State
My wife and I drove right over after reading this thread. We had spent a month on the southwest side of the island, away from all the cruise ships and tourist trips of San Juan about 25 years ago as newly weds.
The bride had the roast chicken and I ordered the pork mofongo. Alas, both were significantly overcooked. The thigh meat was dry and the pork was equally overcooked. So was the yellow rice. Nostalgia alone could not overcome food quality.
We'll have to keep looking.
How Do MSP restaurants compare to Chicago, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco Rests??
Hopes springs eternal!
Just got back from a long weekend in Philadelphia and New York City. While noshing a pizza in Queens, I looked across the street and ticked off two Chinese takeouts, two Kosher restaurants, one deli, one Korean restaurant and two fruit/vegetable stands. Two days later, my wife and I counted 10 high end restaurants during a 20 minute after dinner stroll through our old South Philly neighborhood.
It'll be like the last playoffs against the Yankees. Sorry.
What's missing from MSP's culinary landscape?
With regard to Italian beef places, my issue is with the lack of good condiment. I can't find a place with freshly ground horseradish, just some bland white stuff diluted with mayonnaise or something equally horrendous. Horseradish makes for good beef, and will make not so good beef much more acceptable.
I want to eat a whole fish
I don't know if these two restaurants are related, but Pancho Villa on Nicollet and 26th has delicious whole red snapper. It's my favorite Mexican haunt.
I want to eat a whole fish
Not just a whole fish, you should eat a freshly prepared fish that was still swimming while you were driving to the restaurant! My wife and I indulge occasionally at Mandarin Kitchen, where you greet your dinner coming through the front door.
Have it steamed lightly, since it's totally fresh. Costs around $50, but will feed two easy! Lots of Asian and upscale places have whole fish, but the Chinese refer to this as "swimming fish". The difference is night and day.
Great place to eat in Eden Prairie
As I'm read this thread, my wife decides we should go to Costco in Eden Prairie. So I gave her a choice of various recommendations and she chose Kabuki.
We had the following Japanese items off the menu:
green tea
miso soup
salad
vegetable tempura
sashimi
sushi
all of which were distinguished by having no discernible flavor at all. Even the wasabi that came with the raw fish seems bland. Can't comment on their Korean dishes at all, but my wife probably made a bad choice. In their defense, the sushi and sashimi were very artfully displayed. But I can't forgive them for serving long grain rice.
Next time, we'll try the India Spice place.
-----
Kabuki Restaurant
6534 Flying Cloud Dr, Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Return trip suggestions
Consider Hoban, a family style Korean restaurant in Eagan, right off 77 South. It's our preferred Korean restaurant in the Twin Cities and always full of Koreans when we go.
Moving to Minneapolis
The way the restaurant business works, if one establishment gets fresh fish, then it's available to everyone. There are a large number of specialty fish distributors that bring in live fish (packed in ice) nightly. These are cut into steaks and available for sale every morning (except Monday, no Sunday night shipments). So all restaurants can get access to high quality fish, if that's what they want on the menu. Distance from an ocean is not an issue with a major airport in town. I was able to get high end, fresh seafood in Des Moines recently.
The freshest fish, of course, is available in Asian restaurants. If Mandarin Kitchen can have live fish in tanks (also shrimp, clams, crabs, eel, etc.) at the front of their restaurant, there's no reason not to settle for seafood that has been frozen for a couple of months.
What's missing from MSP's culinary landscape?
At the risk of reigniting the NY pizza and Philly cheese steak discussion, I really would like to see the following:
Ice Cream Parlor - I'm into all the knick knacks, like toppings, nuts, thick gooey sauces, rather than just ice cream. Cream sodas would be real special.
Soul Food - I'm bereft since Tahitianna's opened and closed.
Italian Bakery - Rum cake, freshly filled cannolli, with strong coffee
Central American Baked Chicken - Had a great time in Washington, D.C. last Summer trying out all the Salvadorean, Guatemalan holes in the walls with great chicken.
Authentic Chinese?
Most authentic egg rolls are served during dim sum hours at Mandarin Kitchen. They are small, lots of vegetables in the filling and extremely crispy. People don't like MK because they are packed (with Asian families). Show up at 10 am Saturdays and Sundays unless you don't mind waiting on line.
My favorite Cantonese restaurant in TC used to be Seafood Palace, but they closed in the Fall (I'm still in mourning). MK is authentically Cantonese, with live seafood in the tanks up front. Lightly steam fish taken right out of the tank is pricy (~$30), but always an experience.
-----
Mandarin Kitchen
8766 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55420
Authentic Chinese?
After reading all this, I took the missus for dinner at Red Moon. I would agree with scoopG that authentic would not be a suitable adjective for Red Moon. Its Chinese American food that native Chinese who have not traveled would not necessarily recognize. All the seafood is battered and deep fried, which is something that is simply not done in China or overseas Chinese communities. The chicken dishes are made with breast meat. The 'dry' chow fun with beef, a Cantonese staple, was wet. Giant, stuffed, deep fried egg rolls were the coup de grace.
What constitutes Cantonese food? Not Cantonese myself (but married to one), it's the Chinese version of northern Italian cooking. Everything is fresh, fresh, fresh, lightly cooked (never spicy). In contrast, roughly 1/3 of the dishes on the Red Moon menu were spicy. Seafood is mostly steamed and occasionally stir fried in Cantonese cuisine, but never battered and fried.
I don't want to trash the restaurant, since they're not claiming to be authentic Chinese. The food on the small buffet table was pretty good, with better quality meats than I've seen elsewhere. At $9.95 for Friday, Saturday meals, it's probably the best deal in town.
-----
Red Moon Chinese Cafe
582 Prairie Center Dr, Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Live Lobsters?
Looking for retail. The Coastal Seafood off Hiawatha does not have live lobsters. Is there another location in St. Paul?
Live Lobsters?
Anyone know who sells them in the Twin Cities? We like to kill our own!
True Thai needs a face lift and it is not alone
My observations have been the same. Bad management is bad management. If no one pays attention to the bathroom, then there's likely no supervision over the kitchen either.
Note that the economy is recovering and foodservice is typically a leading indicator. Restaurant business is either firm or increasing. The economy is a poor excuse for a lack of customer service.
Breakfast places in Twin Cities
Based on this thread, my wife and I went to Hell's Kitchen for breakfast on a weekday.
Living in South Minneapolis, we're already great fans of Colossal and Marie's. To be direct, Hell's Kitchen blew us away. Everything was so fresh. Compared to everyone else, it's immediately clear what freshly made home fries taste like! The rosti was also wonderful, as was the corn meal pancake. No breakfast is right without good coffee and I usually order orange juice at both Colossal and Marie's rather than drink weak coffee. Well, the coffee at HK was wonderful. No dark roast to hide crappy beans. This is high quality beans freshly roasted. Even the ketchup was home made.
Undoubtedly, the entrees at Hell's Kitchen is $3 - 4 higher than other places. Also, it costed us $5 to park. But the stuff is home made, from high quality ingredients. Enough talk. We now have a new favorite for breakfast.
New Dim Sum Place
I don't think the dim sum has any relationship to the luncheon buffet. One's made by a chef, the other one ... who knows. The dim sum came to us in a cart and everything was steaming hot.
Totally agree on the soup dumplings. Note that the soup dumplings are a Shanghainese dish, while dim sum is Cantonese. I like to think that with steady business, the food would turn over more frequently, resulting in higher quality.
While MK is classic Hong Kong style, noisy, frantic, long lines, etc., WG is a refreshing change of pace. I was able to enjoy a quiet brunch with my wife and could hold a pleasant conversation without having to raise my voice.
New York-style pizza in the south metro?
I live in the Nokomis neighborhood and Fat Lorenzo is within walking distance. And I don't go. The food is really terrible. They have a great location, so there's good traffic. But I limit myself to the gelato.
Having grown up in NYC, I go to Galactic Pizza for my fix. Theirs have a reasonably good crust, not overloaded with cheese, and you can get anchovies! In the Summer, I always enjoy watching the delivery guy in the superhero costume.
Seafood Palace is Closed!
My daughter came back from college during Christmas break craving good Chinese food so the family tumbles into the car to go to Seafood Palace. It wasn't after we sat down and saw the menu that we noticed it's now Krungthep Thai.
I've been going to Seafood Palace for ~15 years now. Originally they had the best quail I've ever had. The other dishes were well prepared also. Then they had a change of ownership and the quail also changed. It was spicier, but still good. (The original owners opened up Jade in the Midtown Exchange, but that closed as well.)
I'll miss them, especially the quail. The dishes at Krungthep Thai were okay, but nothing that makes me want to go back.
New Dim Sum Place
Well, it's new to me anyway. I saw their ad in a Chinese journal and tried out the dim sum this weekend. They're in one of the strip malls in the Ridgedale complex.
The dim sum was mostly good. The chef does a very good job with the dumpling wrapper. It's nice and thin, so you can see the food through it. All the usual shrimp dumpling, pork dumpling, etc. were very tasty. The chicken feet was scrumptious, although the tripe was a little dried out. They also have freshly made soy milk, vs a lot of the packaged soy milk I've tasted recently.
I'm a fan of Mandarin Kitchen dim sum and this as comparable. Frankly, it's a lot better than many of the other dim sum places out there. The Wanderer's food is less spicy, so you taste more of the meat flavor. For those who don't like the crowds at MK, at 10 am on Saturday we were one of three tables. The husband and wife team came from LA and opened this place up in September.
-----
Wanderer's Garden
13059 Ridgedale Dr, Minnetonka, MN 55305
Best Chinese fried/steamed dumplings?
You're not getting any responses because there are no standouts in the Twin Cities. Everyone is using the same frozen dumplings from the local distributor. No one is making them from scratch. If so, I'd be first in line.
Mandarin Kitchen: Don't Get It.
Mandarin Kitchen serves dim sum beginning at 10 am on weekends and Monday holidays. Every single item is served fresh and they run out around 12:30 pm. If you want fresh dim sum, you need to be there before then. If you wanted to be seated right away, then you need to be there by 10:15 am at the latest.
Note that they're not out of food. You can order lunch off the menu. Jun Bo and many other places in town serve dim sum throughout the day. That works if you have frozen dim sum that get steamed prior to serving. Authentic dim sum is never reheated, so that's not possible at Mandarin Kitchen. The "zoo" reflects appreciation of freshly cooked cuisine by the cognoscenti.
I'm not associated with the restaurant in any way, other than as a frequent diner. I'm constantly puzzled by comparisons between Mandarin Kitchen and Jun Bo (did not happen here). Mandarin Kitchen is not always the best, but the food is always fresh and authentically cooked. Jun Bo's approach to cooking is the same as their approach to building maintenance.
-----
Jun Bo
7717 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55423
Mandarin Kitchen
8766 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55420
Fish with ginger and scallion? Not for me, but for my bride ...
Go to Mandarin Kitchen and get it freshly cooked. When Asians want fish, it needs to be "swimming" fresh.
-----
Mandarin Kitchen
8766 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55420
MSP Review: Keefer Court Bakery & Cafe
Best roast duck, hands down, is at the House of Wu in Burnsville. They have, IMHO, also the best roast pork. But, and it's a big but, get the roast duck and roast pork as take out. The rest of their menu is ridiculous.
-----
House of Wu
1250 Highway 13 W, Burnsville, MN 55337
Chinese take-out in South Minneapolis
I live on Lake Nokomis myself and we're devotees of Fresh Wok. Try the Seafood Delight, it's a repeat winner in my household.
-----
Fresh Wok
4610 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55419
MSP Review: Keefer Court Bakery & Cafe
I think the roast duck at Keefer Court is above average, but not nearly the best in TC. However, their soy sauce chicken (I think they call ii wine soy chicken or something) is absolutely terrific. Their wontons are probably best in TC, except that they are 3X the size they need to be.
Still a favorite for me. We must stop by twice a week.
Discus
Mandarin Kitchen Dim Sum: LOUSY
So I've asked exactly what was wrong and nothing specific was ever mentioned. Some of what I've read here may be a matter of perspective. Perhaps that's why opinions differ.
Mandarin Kitchen opens at 10 am on Saturdays, Sundays and Monday holidays. Large Asian families show up about 10 minutes before opening and wait patiently in their minivans for the open. These are mostly immigrant families, people who have very high expectations that the food is fresh and meticulously prepared. Between 10 and 10:10 am, you can sit down anywhere. By 10:15 am, there's a 45 minute wait. The food comes to you in waves of carts and they run out around 12:30 pm. As an immigrant myself, this means that there's never any leftover to be served another day.
Compared to JunBo, Yangtze, Pagoda and others that have since shut down, the dim sum at MK is always fresh, hot and mostly tasty. If you try all the different dishes, it's clear that they have more than one dim sum chef in the kitchen. The person making turnip cake is different from the one making all the dumplings. Someone else is making all the baked good. It's also an exceptionally good deal given the crowd of people waiting for a table.
I grew up in New York, met my wife when we both lived in San Francisco and have enjoyed dim sum in Hong Kong. It doesn't make my opinion more important than anyone else, but I have a measure of expertise about this. I've never tasted anything resembling factory made dim sum at Mandarin Kitchen. The fact that they run out after 2 hours also indicates its not frozen stuff.
Going to have dim sum at 10 am vs 12:30 pm means that there are two distinct dining experiences. I recommend everyone try the 10 am experience. By the way, I have no family, friendly or fiduciary relationship with Mandarin Kitchen.
Discus
-----
Mandarin Kitchen
8766 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55420
Hong Kong Restaurant
7828 Portland Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55420
