KyleThomas's Profile
Com Thang in Minneapolis?
So I was listening to NPR yesterday, and they were describing the concept of com thang (monthly rice) in Vietnamese culture where you basically pay for a meal service that brings you one meal per month. It appears this is offered in most large cities on the west coast.
This sounded like a good thing.
Does anyone know if anyone in the Twin Cities offers this service?
Dining around St. Cloud
My sympathies on finding non-chain dining in St. Cloud. Having lived there for years, I can tell you that good food not from Sysco is very difficult to come by. Nonetheless, I do recommend several places:
1) Bravo Burrito: Delicious, large burritos with a variety of toppings.
2) Val's Hamburgers: Like no place else. Good, not great, but for a greasy burger and 5 pounds of french fries, you could do much worse.
3) Anton's Fish and Whiskey: Sounds like a dive, but is actually your best option for "fine" dining in St. Cloud. Enjoy the popovers which are served complimentary, and are delicious.
4) Jimmy's Pour House: I like this place for pub grub. Again, good, not great, but they use bakery fresh buns on their burgers, and that counts for something.
Maybe there are people who live there now who can give more current recs, but that is a start.
cheese plates in St Paul or Minneapolis
I know this is past your dinner, but I love cheese. Having tried the cheese at the aforementioned places except for Meritage and Frost, my experience is that Heidi's has the best cheese service in town (or at least did at their previous incarnation).
Looking for a good Kansas City Steak
I realize this topic has been covered before on this board, but perhaps it can be more fully explored.
Five guys from Minneapolis coming to KC at the end of the month. We would like to have a good steak at a restaurant with some local flavor [note: this excludes capital grille and other chain restaurants]. I'd prefer an actual midwestern steakhouse, as opposed to a chef driven restaurant or even an ethnic steak house. (I really love argentinian steak as well as a recent steak I had at Wolfgang Puck's place, but this is outside my parameters).
Places similar to what I am looking for in other locales would be Keefer's in Chicago, St. Elmo's in Indianapolis, Murray's in Minneapolis.
Does KC have a place like this?
Twins Stadium Food?
I paid the $12 (ouch!) for the Vincent Burger. To judge it, I'm not sure whether to use restaurant standards or ball park standards. So, I'll use ball park standards.... The burger was quite good. It was crispy on the outside with a fresh bun. The center of the burger had pulled pork and cheese. The cheese disappeared however. The flavor was robust, and I thought the pork kept enough juicyness to make for a nice snack. Also, the burger did not come with anything else- for the price, I would have like a few potato chips as well.
Also, Mtullius, there are Wild Acres Turkey legs available from the State Fair stand, I believe. I haven't tried them yet, but it is high on my priority list.
Restaurants everyone loves--except you
Masa. For me contemporary mexican can be a revalation. However, this place leaves me sorrowly disappointed.
Awesome Fried Chicken MSP?
I recently had the Sunday Supper fried chicken, and I would give it thumbs down. It was an excellent value, with a large breast piece, leg, and thigh for like $8.99. However, the chicken was particularly dry, and it suffered the tell tale sign of poor preparation- the skin/breading pulled away in large sheets. I gave it a healthy dose of salt, and called it a lesson learned.
MSP Victory 44 - A New Beginning?
I must agree with the original post. My wife and I ate there on Friday and were truly impressed.
Our appetizer was the steak tartar. Mixed with soft poached egg, mustard, and infused with truffle. Simply delicious.
I wish I could describe the dessert that we had as well, but I don't know how to describe it. I can simply say it a amazing. Some type of of deconstructed plate with sugar crystalized herb, ginger infused ice, and cookie.
I think the comparison to 112 eatery is fair, and will definitely be returning asap.
We had the seared pork belly and sirloin with parpardel. The steak was well sized and cooked with the homemade pasta. The pork belly tasted equally delicious.
Is there really GOOD pizza in MSP???
To be clear, your question is actually "is there good NJ style pizza in MSP?" The answer to whether there is good pizza would be yes. I'd also suggest you try what has been called MN style pizza (thin crust, lots of chese, cut into squares) at places such as Pizza Magic or Stadium Pizza.
Personally, I have limited knowledge of NJ pizza, other than a a pie I ate in Newark which resembled a basic NY style pizza.
I think that Psycho Suzies has the best local pizza, followed by Pizza Nea and Black Sheep. This topic has been covered ad nauseum in other posts, however, so I won't go on.
Minneapolis Scotch
As the weather cools, I'm making my seasonal switch from gin and tonic to scotch. I'd also like to try some new malts. So, imbibing chowhounders, which liquor stores do you recommend going for:
1) Price and
2) Selection
I've found quite often that the best prices are at small liquor stores that don't sell much scotch, and therefore discount it (while not having much selection). I've also found that larger liquor stores, such as Surdyks and Hennepin Lake carry the same series of 10-15 brands.
MSP - NorthEast Neighborhood good eats
Welcome to NE Mpls!
You will find a lot of different options in NE, most of which are at least better than average, and a few are supurb.
Fine Dining:
Sample Room: My personal favorite- small plates, bistro type atmosphere
Erte: trendy supper club vibe, good prices, decent food
NE Social Club: new place, cool vibe
Jax: Old School Mpls institution. Celebrate your important life events at this 70 year old supper club.
Red Stag: Very good food, music, service- all top notch.
Ethnic:
Emilys lebanise deli: Excellent tabouli
Holy Land Deli: Excellent hummus
Cresent Moon: Excellent spinich pie
Sen Yei Sen Lek: Very good thai (at least for mpls)
Casual: Pizza Nea:
Bulldog: If there burgers are on, they are the best in town.
Brasa: Eat on the patio
Psycho Suzies: Pizza, tiki drinks
Modern Cafe: Quirky, good quality cafe/bistro hybrid
Wisconsin Cheesemakers- Route 94
Agree with everything posted here. I would add that you should avoid many of the roadside cheese shops which carry all kinds of ill-advised flavored cheddar (cranberry cheddar, for example). I make the trip to visit in-laws from Mpls to Milwaukee frequently, and have tried all of the places. Carr Valley in Mauston is by far the best.
I would also suggest purchasing some Fancy Cheese (specifically pepperjack) if you see it.
St. Cloud Fine Dining- an Oxymoron?
Looking for a nice restaurant to take my mother for mother's day in St. Cloud.
Something chef driven with good quality ingredients like Minneapolis restaurants Alma or Lucia's would be wonderful.
Years ago, I remember making this search, and finding nothing decent. I believe Anton's Fish and Whiskey was my selection and it was marginal (with good popovers). Any suggestions?
MSP- MSP Mag Best BBQ
On the advice of this board, and my general curiosity going back several years, I tried Capps. My take is this:
The menus said "best ribs" and "best pork chop" in town, so I ordered a combo platter with both. The ribs were definitely passable, as they had a nice char on the outside with a very light smokey flavor within. The sauce on the side was more tangy than sweet, which is my preference.
The pork chop was dry. Pork chops are often dry, and rarely well executed at any restaurant in my experience, except higher end chop houses. Well, these were no exception. The outside of the porkchop had light grill marks, and then was covered in sauce. I believe this was a different/sweeter sauce than that placed at the table. I did not like the sauce on the chop. Combined with the dry texture, the chop was a complete miss.
My wife had the pulled pork sandwich. This was a good looking dish. The pork was clearly hand pulled, presumably from a shoulder roast, as I believe it should be. It also had a light smokey flavor, and was really a lot of meat. The fries were excellent, as they potato wedge style, crispy with a little salt.
Unfortuneately, they did not have any beer or booze. Call me crazy, but bbq just doesn't taste right without tall cool beer to accompany.
Overall, I give this place a C+. Perhaps its just personal preference, but I prefer a low and slow bbq, with more smoke flavor. Also, also prefer a thicker seasoning/sauce crust on the meat. While I realize that there are many different styles of bbq, and that different people have different expectiations when it comes to the dish, this one simply did not do it for me.
Romantic in MPLS
IMHO, Nicollet Island Inn, a short cab ride away, is the most romantic restaurant in town. The food can be very good to average, but the quaint, dimly lit dining room is perfect for anniversery dinners.
If prioritizing food over atmosphere, I'd recommend Vincent or Chambers.
Good Places To Eat in MSP
My two cents:
Brasa- Relatively inexpensive, locally sourced pork and chicken, made southern style, delicious and kid friendly, located on East Hennepin in Minneapolis.
Loring Pasta Bar- Very good atmosphere, often live music, fresh pasta, located in Dinkytown.
Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza: MSP
Black Sheep is open now. I went to eat there last night with my wife. I'll say that it was good. We ordered a half flight of house wine - $10. We ordered two pizzas-
1) Fennel sausage with salami. $12 or so. Great sausage and salami, needed more cheese.
2) Oyster mushroom with gorgonzola and Rosemary. Very delicious. The pizza tasted like fall- hearty, smokey, and whatever that yummy rosemary flavor is.
I've never had coal fired pizza, and frankly could not differentiate between it and the california pizza kitchen stove. The pizza was good though. The ingrediets were fresh, and the crust was crispy.
Compared to Pizza Nea (may favorite local pie) and Punch (a very good pie for a tasty price), I'd rate this as third best of the three. The pizza simply did not differentiate itself in terms of ingredients. That doesn't mean it is bad though. This is my neighborhood, and I'm thrilled to have good quality pizzas next door, and I am sure to be regular customer in the time to come.
