mnxd9's Profile
Jfood returns to Heartland (MSP) - Food a 10; Management/Owner a Zero
We are very careful about nuts because my wife is allergic to them too.
In general we trust no one, and make certain to notify wait staff of the allergy, some place are really good, some very poor, we usually make a point to have it listed on our order slip.
I can fully empathize with you on your feeling, reason alone for us to never step foot in that establishment, or one overseen by that chef. I don' t tolerate being lied to well either.
Thanks for the headsup, came here tonight looking for a nice place to bring the wife, and heartland will never be it.
Last minute anniversary idea... want to try something new - MSP
I always like Jensen's Supper club in Eagan, have many great anniversary dinners and special dinners there. Service is always good. They also offer some deal of some sort for an anniversary or birthday, always best to call ahead and make a reservation if you think about going there.
MSP - Help me save this new Apple Valley restaurant!
Well we visited again today, I think we can make this a regular place to stop in for us, I got the same thing, and the wife also got the mixed grill Kabobs, Kids ate off our plates, we both enjoyed it and everything came in a good timely fashion. I wouldn't call it spectacular, but it seems to be solid. Again the proved to stay pretty constant and busy even at the 1:30-2pm time slot.
MSP - Help me save this new Apple Valley restaurant!
Overall the food was reaally good. Service seems a little disorganized and partly frantic, we also had to go back and ask them for the pita that was suppose to come with my kabobs and the extra fries we ordered, and everything came out as it was done which I kind of like, but I think it could've been a bit more organized, we went about 1:30-2:00 and they were actually pretty busy. I ordered the mixed kabob's they were all outstanding, I'm not sure I'd be able to order just one of them they were all very good. Came with a nice salad and some rice. The wife ordered the chicken philiy she said it was really good, it did come with mayo, which wasn't on the menu, and the wife doesn't like mayo, but it was very good and she said she'd order it again, without mayo. We got an order of baked Ziti for the kids and there both under 3, but they ate it no problems, I thought the sauce was a little sweet for my taste but still good. We spent $27 and change for our order and I felt it the prices were fine.
We plan on heading back, it certainly appears to be a good new place in AV.
Paella in Mpls / St. Paul
I'm not sure how really traditional it is, nor is it really "in" the twin cities, but the best I've had came from Nosh in Lake city. I thought it was very good.
Has anyone been to the Blue Door in St. Paul?
I have to admit the bacon cheese was the worst of their burger's I've had there... I had them make me another after they served me the first one without any cheese, of course at some point it had cheese in it, after looking at the burger I noticed a large hole where the cheese leaked out, I hardly believe the cook didn't notice.... Then to top that off the said it happens "quite often" ... highly unamused.... (the second wasn't much better, but better, wouldn't order it again)
But their regular juicy Lucy, when cooked to maintain a bit of pinkness was indeed in the best of the burger's I had.
I guess I'm kind of a fan of the minimalist approach myself, if you take some good meat and cheese and cook it perfectly, It shouldn't need to be a flavor explosion in my mouth. I do expect at least proper salt and pepper.
Not to discount your experience...
Best Mac and Cheese in MSP
I think the best we had was at Crave (Edina location) we ordered it for our daughter, I think it was on the kids menu, it was quite some time ago, I remember thinking it was the best I've had. Worth looking into.
pho 83 in shakopee [MN]
Guess where we went to lunch? :)
Saigon, it was really good, overall we both agree the soup (pho) was great and the Banh Mi's were also good, the bread does seem to be different than Pho 83's, overall I say Pho 83 I think was a denser roll, Saigon's were lighter and airier, that being said I still wouldn't over rule that they aren't the same... I Don't know enough and haven't eaten enough to know for sure. We tried a Grilled Pork and a Grilled chicken along with something like a b4 and a b11. Now I can't say the grilled pork or chicken were bad, but in both my wife's and my opinion Pho 83 has better (tastier) meat on their respective sandwiches, but I find no flaws. I just finished off one of my either b4 or b11 Banh mi's ( really they are about the same either way) and it was outstanding, I was going to only eat half, as I finished my last bite I was already heading to grab the other half. Honestly we've only ever had the grilled pork or chicken at Pho 83, so I can't fairly compare the b4/b11 to a similar item at Pho 83, I'll make note to try something similar next time.I can't say for Saigon, but I have noticed Pho 83 to be somewhat inconsistent on their Banh mi's where they go from the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my life to a good sandwich.
IMHO the Banh mi's we've had at Pho 83, are still our favorites (providing we can actually get them), but we're far from experts or anything, we've probably only consumed around a total of 20 Banh mi's from various locations. It also might just be that we've had more from Pho 83 than anywhere else and have grown accustom to theirs....
I preferred the Pho at Saigon to the pho at Pho 83 the wife's seems equally happy between Jasmine deli, and Saigon. The only downside for us to Pho 83 is they use a little more anise than we prefer, neither of us like black licorice, and can only take anise in light moderation, though I find it bothers me less the more I eat it.
Couple years ago the wife and I kind of did a Twin cities BBQ comparison, I think we on a mission to compare local Banh Mi's
pho 83 in shakopee [MN]
Well I would have to say to stick with what rjayasuriya says at this point, I need to find me some sandwiches from Saigon's (Haven't been there yet). Still personally I find I like them much better than the Bahn Mi's from both Jasmine's or Quang's. Then again I'm far from an expert, I'm pretty new to these tasty sandwiches.
Saigon's I suspect is the one on university? I'm sure If I happened to mention it to the wife, it would be our next trip out, Kid friendly?
Yeah I butchered the spelling LOL, I probably should've looked it up... :)
pho 83 in shakopee [MN]
So, I have decided their Bin mah (sp?) are indeed the best sandwiches in cities, possibly this world, recently compared them to Jasmine's deli's and the are much better at PHO 83.
On the other hand they are rather stupid about how they go about things, they run out of buns for the sandwiches all the time, yet they refuse to order more of the buns (from a French bakery in St.Paul, don't know exactly where) So they ran out of buns last Saturday, and didn't get more in until today, we being addicted to them have called everyday since sat....
Very dissapointing, but the sandwiches were fantastic today.
Spearfish, Deadwood, Rapid City
Wow cool, were out the in '03 and Sage Creek Grill was awesome back then, the wife suggest we go visit the Black Hills again and 90% of the reason (I say...) is sage creek grill.
Awesome wondering if they were still around, sounds like they are jut as good as they were years ago.
Any good eats in Omaha?
First off I would suggest making a day of the Zoo if you don't know anything about the Omaha zoo, We ended up doing it in two days (our kids are young)
We went to a burger joint pretty much down the road south of the Zoo called Stella's for a darn good burger, from a place with some history.
We also had breakfast at a place called Wheatfield's (IIRC) that had a huge menu, everything we sampled was awesome, they were IMHO worth the trip, reported to be amongst the best in town.
There was a place that they featured on Diner drive inns and dives that didn't have a sign for the restaurant out front so you kind of needed the adderes (can't remember the name) sounded like they had an interesting mix of food. We"ll look that place up next time we're visiting.
Oysters in Minneapolis
Stella's Friday 3-6pm .50 oysters, rockin deal!!! Plus other great happy hour deals, any other day I believe they are a $1 during Happy hour, you can expect bluepoint, I thought they were great even for bluepoints (not my favorite for say...) Check out Stella's website for more details.
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Stella's Fish Cafe
1402 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Good french fries in MSP?
I agree the fries at five guys were the some of the best I've had, though I don't eat at all the fancier reccomendations so I can't help you there.
MSP- Lakeville/Apple Valley- Ronin Sushi
We think it's pretty good too, the menu is a bit on the small side for my picky wife, but the sushi has been good the couple times we've been there, I agree it's a solid place here in the south metro.
Escolar is good, I usually avoid it, or limit it to small portions.... Hint google escolar....
MSP Rotisseria Chicken-Man to resurface in Deephaven
Soon, we are headed out to get us some chicken, WOOT!
MSP Rotisseria Chicken-Man to resurface in Deephaven
Little confused, do they open today or tomorrow? I'm sure well be making a trip this weekend for sure. Thanks for the headsup.
Nut-free restaurants? [MSP]
For our Asian fix we go for Japaneses food, they seem to use very little for nuts overall, talk with the servers, lots of places do good job of watching allergies, so places don't. Brasa used to use peanut oil exclusively, due to the complaints they have reportedly switched to vegitable oil, sister in law ate there recently and she said it was very good and she was fine. The biggest thing we watch for in hidden nuts, like nut oils and lots of desserts (pretty much all desserts have nuts) have crust that include nuts "hidden" almonds are in lots and lots of foods.
Generally speaking we're up front with the servers, and thus far no problems.
Don't think I've found many mexican places that use nuts much either.
Good food near Burnsville, MN
Gotta admit we've huge fans of Sul Lago, every meal has been perfect (3) Sadly we don't get there often.
pho 83 in shakopee [MN]
Vietnamese egg rolls, sorry should have specified...
The french rolls I had I thought were very good, I didn't get and oven dried one.... maybe luck of the draw maybe they forgot about yours a bit, can't say for sure. We'll probably head back again in the next couple weeks.
pho 83 in shakopee [MN]
We just ate there for the first time yesterday, overall it was solid, I had the beef and meatball Pho, and the Pork sandwich (AWESOME!!!!) we also shared the Vietnamese Egg rolls(on par with the best I've had). The wife had the chicken rice noodle soup, after she had doctored it up, it was pretty darn good. We've eaten at Jamine deli a bit, IMHO Jamine's soup is better (is anyone chicken broth/soup better???), but we agree this is an acceptable option in place of Jasmine, good parking, and easy to get to. We didn't order any chinese food, I've seen some mixed reports on that, not that it's bad, just not great. Value wise I thought it was decent. They do have a website and menu online. http://happygarden.us/
We would eat here before going to Quang's for soup and Banh mi . The wife seen me posting this and suggested we go back for dinner... lol
Service wasn't great it wasn't bad either, I just don't think they feel the need to be attentive, They were great to answer questions, and suggest items, though you may have to catch their attention if you wanted something. I guess I don't totally know how to say it, other than we left 20% tip as we normally would for respectable service.
I forgot my Inlaws also visited the place on our suggestion, they got different egg rolls (we think), potstickers and chicken Pho ( I think) , and they weren't impressed, but they didn't listen to our suggestions either...
Has anyone been to the Blue Door in St. Paul?
We had a chance to stop in yesterday, we ended up waiting a good 20 minutes for a table for 4. Meanwhile we had the chance to notice a couple things that really need improvement. We watched several couples with their bills in hand and their cards ready wait up to 5 minutes for someone to come back and run thier cards, we also watched one table sit for a good 5 minutes menus down waiting to order thier food. It's obvious the place was crazy busy, (though the servers weren't THAT busy) I wonder if the could move a few more people and expedite the service with little more than just paying some attention to your tables. I personally hate nothing more than wait to pay so we can leave, more than a couple servers in their day have seen significant reduction in their tips.
Alright all that being said it was totally worth the wait ( I expected a wait, and it was perfectly acceptable), the burgers were perfect We got a blucy, a classic lucy and kids chicken fingers, the burgers were well cooked and very good, I'd put the on par with the nook. The fries were also good, the grenn beans were good, but lacked salt, we were able to add it ourselves. The chicken fingers are real chicken battered and fried, not store bought stuff, nice especially for $4. Overall we experinced good service, and did not end up waiting to order or for our check.
Parking is a bit of a challenge, but there is parking, something both the nook and now shamrock both have issues with.
We talked about it, overall we go here to bluedoor over the nook, by the slimest margin.
Great place thanks Hounds for sniffing this one out for us.
MSP- MSP Mag Best BBQ
I'd fully disagree on avoiding Roosters, and in Fact I've got a lot of people hooked on their food, we had a lot of food catered from the in the last couple years, they always did a great job, never a bad dish IMHO, never heard a single complaint from the people eating it , yeah we had roosters a lot, people looked forward to Rooster's days.
I like thier ribs, love their chicken, both the fried and the BBQ chicked, normally I just go with the BBQ chicken and I need a side of thier sauce, honestly it was love at first taste for me, totally different than a lot of the heavy sweet sauces you see so common in the BBQ here in mn.
I will however admit their sides are pretty weak, their coleslaw is so bland, I think even a little horseradish would wake it up and it would be pretty solid. Their beans IMHO are pretty weak too. Their fries are very good though. It's a good take out place.
We pretty much did a BBQ crawl after that last MSP BBQ article came out, Been to redstone and it's solid, been to caps, The wife really likes caps, something about the place and food doesn't do it for me.
But overall Market BBQ was the best overall experince we thought, not the *best* ribs or chicken though it was very good, top that off with some solid sides, beans and coles slaw rocked.
I also like Famous dave's I've also found that even though they are all suppose to be the same and such, there are certainly better ones out there, Apple Valley has been excelent the for the last couple years, whatever they do they seem to do it right. Overall ever being a big chain Famous dave's on a good day kicks a lot of BBQ places butt.
romantic restaurant near MSP airport?
Axel's
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Axel's River Grille
1318 Highway 13, Mendota, MN 55150
romantic restaurant near MSP airport?
I'd say Axel's or I nonni
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I Nonni
981 sibley memorial hwy, Lilydale, MN 55118
Tiger Sushi [Minneapolis]
Well I don't think they are the best around, I'd much prefer Origami, fuji-ya to tiger sushi. But I do have to say I really do like tiger sushi, and I eat a good amount of sushi. Sometimes I think they try to Americanize the sushi a little too much for my taste, I don't need 3 different sauces nor do i need everything covered in sauce, sometimes I want just fish. Overall I wouldn't hesitate to eat there.
I really like their MOA version too, one of the few sushi places open between 2:30pm and 5pm, they don't close down. I'm also a bit puzzled about you saying they weren't busy, the MOA location always seems to be busy, Not always is there a line, but I think it's pretty common to wait 5 minutes for a place to sit.
I think their gyoza and salad are amongst the best I've had.
I also tend to avoid white toro, google "escolar', and you'll find out why I prefer to avoid it, though it tastes good, and I wouldn't turn it down, I don't opt for it.
MSP: Stella's Fish Cafe
Thanks!
I should note normal (non friday 3-6) Happy hour Oysters are $1, You can pull up the HH specials on their website.
MSP: Stella's Fish Cafe
Seeing that a search didn't pull up a semi current thread, nor one spefically on Stella's, here's a new one.
Well it's actually been a couple years since our last visit, mostly because it's not the friendliest place for little kids (infants). But being it was my 30th birsthday, I wanted a date with just my wife and some oysters.
Just so happens they have a happy hour between 3-6pm, and Friday's they have what they call Oyster Orgy during that happy hour. $.50 an oyster is a rocking deal, anywhere, I ended up eating 4 dozen and they were very good, and high quality, overall I noticed a couple things, First off they only had one person shucking when we got there, you had to wait a little bit probably a good 10 minutes per dozen, and you could only order one dozen a time. I can handle that. The did eventually get another person shucking, but it still took just as long, not that I expected it to be a fast process, I'm just saying. Secondly I noticed some places I've been to will losen the oyster from the adductor muscle, they didn't, haven't been albe to eat premimum oyster much in the past couple years. I also noticed they did a great job of opening them, there wasn't broken shell or "dirt" with the oysters, they were all very clean, I really like that. I know when I've shucked them myself in the past, I'm nearly that perfect. Overall I'd give the oyster experince an 9. I'm pretty confident they were all blue point oyster, though maybe not my favorite of favorites, they were great blue points. (I never did ask, but I've eaten enough to be pretty sure) I still can't get over the fact in the stores to buy them in the shell they are atleast a $1, cheapest I've seen them lately (not that I really keep tabs) is $1.25, and then you have to shuck 'em yourself, outstanding deal.
We also got a pound of peel and eat shrimp, it was very good, and it was easy peel shrimp, already split and devained, it was also only $4! Can't complain one bit it was really good.
The wife also ordered the Lake Street Sandwich, one of the best chicken sandwiches I've had in quite some time, though she opted to get the Siracha Aioli on the side (she doesn't care for spicy food, I'm working on her)
And if that wasn't enough we also got a Stella’s Jalapeno Skillet Corn Bread, it was really good, although not the best cornbread I've had, it's up there. Way, way too much for 2 people, I caught a glimpse of the table next to us checking it out, I just about offered them some, but feeling a bit shy for whatever reason, a short while later they asked us about the corn bread noticing that we had only eaten 3 pieces between the 2 of us, they wondered it if was any good, and I offered them a piece ( or the rest of the pan) and they accepted and agreed it was very good.
The fish tacos also looked outstanding, good size appeared to have lots of meat, never did order one, at $1, I think you could hurt youself badly with $5.
Being my Birthday they offered us a free dessert, which happened to be a Red Velvet cake (cupcake) Overall I though that was pretty average, the wife liked it a lot.
Wife also had a very well made Dirty Matini, (I had a coke) They had a bunch of 2 for 1 deals and such on drinks, since I was driving I didn't pay much attention.
On top of the food experince, service was top notch, Nick was his name and did a great job, taking care of a busy section, keeping my drinks full, and never once leaving us with the impression he had to hurry up and move on to the next table, took the time to answer questions offer opinions, He was working hard to keep everything flowing, alI while constantly check to see if my oysters were the one up at the bar. Left a well deserved 30% tip on our $55 bill, and yup that's it $55, I thought that was Darn good.
We may just have to Visit next friday. I'll end with a few words of advice, get there early, since I work weird hours and the wife is currently a stay at home mom, we were able to walk in the door Shortly after 3pm and get a seat right away in the bar. Order Your next order of Oysters right away, they aren't really slow, they are busy, really busy. I've heard if you are there near the end at times they run out of the "cheaper" oysters and start sending out even better ones. Also the bar is no place for Kids under I'd say 14, but if you were to come in with kids, they said they could seat you in a normal table, and still give you the bar specials. Tis a very rare day we ever have anyone else watch our kids, so this was really nice to know.
Overall a very good trip, awesome good prices, excelent service.
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Stella's Fish Cafe
1402 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
[MSP] La Gran Colombia
I have to echo everything, I had the La Gran Colombia, it was huge and perfect, loved it, I swore I could eat it all, before I saw it, then I thought I could maybe do it after I saw it, and I got about 1/2 way and I was totally done for. Wife had the chicken, perchuga de pollo al grill, it was very good, the rice and beans were excelent. We brought home a seafood soup for my father in law and he said is was very good, and the mother in law approved of the Sobrebrarriga a la criolla.
The big suprise to use is when we got the Arepas con queso, didn't know what to expect, we were both thinking yellow corn cake type of thing, sweet and such, and it was really nothing like that, they are basically little tortillas with cheese, and they were execelent, I am starting to crave them just talking about them, nothing special really, but they just hit the spot for us.
We're certainly going to visit again, soon. Overall I (personally) wouldn't compare it to macho pichu, though the cuisine is similar. First trip there, and I know we can chalk it up to a place we will visit often. This place is in our top ten places to go.
MSP - Help, I need a .......
I got a good turkey from Von Hansen's last year, free range, all natural. Price was good, walked right and and picked it up, though you'd be best to call ahead.
