Dasha's Profile
Lynden's Soda Fountain in St. Paul
Well, that's a shame. I went to college in Madison and the Chocolate Shoppe ice cream was just terrible. Made Blue Bunny seem like Izzy's. Although maybe it's improved since the mid-90s?
Playa del Carmen
Have you ever tried H.C. de Monterrey (great arrachera) or El Fogon (tacos el pastor and charro beans), both with outposts on the same block of Constituyentes and 30th Ave? If not, go go go! El Jurado is also on the same block and has delicious huraches, too. I also really like Util Pasta Factory. Very tasty pasta prepared by Italian-Argentinians. They're on 25th Avenue between Calle 30 & 32.
Playa Del Carmen with Kids at the Ferry
I'd recommend Playa Maya for lunch. It's a beachside restaurant, between 6th and 8th streets. It's a nice 5 minute walk from the ferry. For the adults, they have great ceviche, coconut shrimp, shrimp tacos and delicious margaritas. For the kids, they have club sandwiches and burgers. They're pretty reasonably priced, too. Plus, you get to eat with your toes in the sand!
happy hour at Faces Mears Park
Same here. Before Faces opened, I was hoping the space would be sold to someone else. We live mere seconds away and it's frustrating that such a disappointing restaurant occupies (in my mind) prime real estate.
Meritage vs Heartland
We had dinner at Heartland last night and while I can't speak to how the cassoulet was a year ago, it was wonderful last night. As was the rest of the meal. Meritage has always been our "go-to" special occasion restaurant (we live downtown and like to patronize its restaurants) but it now has some pretty stiff competition from Heartland.
ETA: I was pleasantly surprised to see how many reasonably-priced wines were on the Heartland list.
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Meritage
410 Saint Peter St, Saint Paul, MN 55102
Your Help is Needed - Homi Restaurante - St. Paul
Thanks for the heads up! I'm always on the hunt for good Mexican in St. Paul, so this place will rocket to the top of the must-try list. You had me at chilaquiles.
Los Ocampo in the East Metro
We had a not-so-great experience at Los Ocampo last Friday night. We went there after work. It was fairly busy, as Friday nights often are, but it wasn't crazy. We were seated in the booth area and then we waited. And waited some more. Eventually a busboy brought us chips and salsa, but no one came by to take a drink order. We kept waiting. We tried to catch the eye of waitstaff but it was like we were invisible. We noticed that the women sitting across from us weren't waited on, either.
Finally, after 25 minutes of doing everything besides waving semaphore flags and setting fires to get someone's attention, we got up to leave. No one noticed that we walked out without ever having been served anything.
Very disappointing because I'm a big, big fan of this restaurant. I'll go back because I love the food too much to stay away for good, but they're on probation with me. I was a waitress and bartender for years and it's a HUGE no-no to not even acknowledge a table, no matter how busy you are.
Rusty Taco
I needed to go to Trader Joe's last night so I grabbed the husband and made a taco night of it.
We pretty much wanted to try everything, so we ended up ordering 7 tacos. I'll review them one by one.
#1 Picadillo: This was probably our collective least favorite taco. It was basically ground beef and potato and had no discernible spice to it. The filling was really wet and soaked the tortilla. This is where the typical Mexican double tortilla wrapping of tacos would have come in handy.
#2 Roasted Pork: I wasn't overly nuts about this one, either. The primary taste was salt.
#5 Brisket: I really liked the brisket. It had a nice beefy, slightly smoky taste to it.
#7 and #8: Fish and Baja Shrimp: These were my favorites of the night. Both had a lovely, crispy batter coating and were served with the typical topping of crema, cabbage and cilantro. The only thing that would have improved them would be the amazing tamarind sauce that's served with shrimp tacos in Playa del Carmen.
#9 Rusty Taco: I didn't care for this one at all but my husband loved it. I think they're trying to go for a taco al pastor flavor here but I thought the pork had an artificial spice taste to it and there was way too much pineapple in there for my taste. I guess there's no substitute for tacos al pastor.
#11 BBQ Brisket: I liked this one quite a lot. It wasn't overly sweet and gloppy, as I feared it might be.
They have 3 kinds of salsa available for topping tacos: typical red, verde and an orange habanero. The red was rather boring, the verde was nice and I liked the orange a whole lot. It was hot, but not punishingly so, and flavorful.
Service was the typical "we just opened a few days ago and are kind of in a panic" mode. Quite a bit of confusion over the cash register. But the food arrived quickly. The guy bussing tables was a little over-eager. He tried to take away our taco tray before we'd finished.
The beer list looks good but we weren't in a drinking mood and chose Mexican Coke instead. I wish they stocked better flavors of Jarritos soda. Right now they have orange, lime and fruit punch. Boring. How about some mango or tamarind?
Our tacos were kind of a mixed bag. Some very good and some pretty dull. For my money, I'd rather go somewhere more authentic like Los Ocampo. I don't think I'd make a special trip to Rusty Taco again, but I might stop by if I'm in the neighborhood and hungry.
Which all-inclusive resorts in Cancun, and the surrounding areas, have the best food?
Definitely give HCdM a try. Last time we were in Playa we had to go there twice, it was so good.
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I've heard that Ajua Maya has closed. Bummer, I wanted to try it.
Another rec is Cocteleria Veracruz for great ceviche and seafood cocktails. And the food carts for breakfast tacos! Mmm.
Upcoming Yucatan trip - Tulum, Piste, Chichen Itza, PDC - questiones?!
PDC *is* touristy and it's not exactly teeming with culture, but it's still pretty darn cool. The people-watching is incredible and you can hear about a dozen languages being spoken on the beach.
If you're looking for good food, the trick is to get away (for the most part) from 5th Avenue. Walk just a few blocks off the grid and you'll find delicious, authentic and cheap food. Seafood at La Pesca, tacos al pastor at El Fogon, melt-in-your-mouth arrachera at H.C. de Monterrey, amazing breakfast at La Cueva del Chango and Nativo, roast chicken at Asadero el Pollo Estillo Sinaloa, etc. There's also a lot of very good Italian on the north end of 5th Avenue, which is known as "Little Italy" due to the large number of Italian and Argentian-Italian expats there. I could go on for hours.
Playa probably isn't for everyone but if you avoid the end of 5th near the ferry dock and enjoy chilling on the beach, eating great food and a lively bar scene, it's loads of fun. It's one of my favorite places in the world.
Which all-inclusive resorts in Cancun, and the surrounding areas, have the best food?
I've been to the Riviera Maya area 4 times - twice at all-inclusives and twice staying in Playa del Carmen. While I enjoyed the all-inclusive resorts (El Dorado Royale and El Dorado Maroma), the food was just so-so most of the time. If you're looking for authentic Mexican food, all-inclusives are not your place.
On the other hand, the food in Playa (if you choose wisely and try to eat off of 5th Avenue most of the time) is to die for. There are loads of charming hotels in town. I recommend the Playa Maya, which is beachside.
If you want to split the difference, you could think about booking into the Royal Playa del Carmen, which is an all-inclusive right in Playa, and very nice. You could sneak off a couple of nights to El Fogon for tacos al pastor and charro beans, and to H.C. de Monterrey for the fabulous arrachera.
Los Ocampo in the East Metro
We've now been there 3 times in one week. I woke up with a cold and an insatiable desire for red pork pozole. It was just what I needed, although it's so big you could launch the Sixth Fleet in the bowl (and it took two people to deliver all the food involved in my order). The tostadas on the side were really tasty, too. And now I have lunch covered for tomorrow!
The new Los Ocampo almost, but not quite, makes up for not being able to go to Playa del Carmen this winter.
Los Ocampo in the East Metro
The pastor is very, very good. As good as the pastor at El Fogon? (OMG, I LOVE EL FOGON IN PLAYA WITH MY HEART AND SOUL.) Not in my opinion, but it's still delicious and totally worth the trip. Being that we went back to the new Los Ocampo AGAIN tonight, it's clearly pretty darn tasty.
Los Ocampo in the East Metro
On the spur of the moment we went to Los Ocampo for lunch today. I was happy to see that they were really busy!
It was great. Just great. I had the huarachazo with pastor and my husband had 3 tacos - pastor, chorizo and tongue - with rice and beans. Everything was fresh, tasty and perfectly done. We'll definitely be coming back for dinner soon so we can have some margaritas. Very cool that they have a full bar. It's also cheap as always. Our meal, with 2 sodas, only cost $21.00. Not much more than lunch at Chipotle, and tons better.
The only down side, and this wasn't a big deal at all, was that our waitress wasn't Mexican and didn't seem familiar with Mexican food at all. When I ordered the huarachazo she didn't seem to have any idea what I was talking about and I had to point it out to her on the menu. When my husband ordered the tongue taco she made a face and asked him if he really wanted tongue. Um, yeah. Tongue is good!
Support Tampopo Now!
Thanks for that heads-up. I live in the neighborhood, so parking isn't a problem. We'll go this week.
While I'm generally in support of the light rail, I'm a bit heartsick over the effect this could have on downtown restaurants, just as we were finding our groove!
Twisted Fork Grille -St Paul
We went to Twisted Fork last Saturday night. It probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but my mother was treating my husband and I, so hey.
For starters we ordered the tuna poke and a shrimp scampi special. The poke portion was ENORMOUS - enough tuna for eight people. Unfortunately, it was drowned in soy sauce and the tuna had no taste except for the soy. The shrimp scamp was very nice - four large shrimp in a very tasty garlic and tomato sauce.
My husband ordered the scallops with polenta. No complaints from him and the scallops weren't overcooked. My mother had the lamp shank with citrus lentils. The shank was positively Flinstonian. There was probably enough lamb there for four. The lamb was very good and she liked the lentils, too.
I ordered the roast chicken with mushroom risotto. I normally don't order chicken in restaurants (it's usually so blah) but I just wanted to get my grubby hands on the risotto. The risotto looked overcooked (and it was a bit soupy) but it was really delicious, especially with the tomato-garlic broth that came with it. The chicken, on the other hand, was as dry as the Sahara. Dry and bland. Now I really know better than to order chicken out. We didn't order dessert since none of it sounded good to us at the time.
The decor was really late-90s and kind of high-end chain restaurantesque (no surprise since Twisted Fork is part of a chain, really). Service was a little bumbling but well-meaning. In the end, I'm not sure I'd go back. Maybe after the kitchen has had more of a chance to settle in (although it's been a couple of months - how much longer do they need?).
[MSP] Bulldog Lowertown Review
Like a lot of other St. Paul folks, we've been terribly excited about Bulldog opening in Lowertown, especially since we live just blocks away. Last night was our first opportunity to go since they opened on Wednesday.
It was very crowded but we found a table right away. The room itself is very pleasant and I was happy to see that they have table shuffleboard, a game I was addicted to in college. The noise level was incredible, especially when we first arrived and the music was blasting. It was turned down later on, which was a relief. I've never really understood the need for bars to play their music so ridiculously loud. Don't people actually want to talk to each other?
The beer menu is amazing, the size of a novel. Yet the prices on all the beers are quite reasonable. My husband got a tasting flight of six hoppy beers. We both liked the Bluebird Bitter the best of the bunch. I tried a pint of the Saison Dupont Farmhouse Ale and loved it.
We were a bit disappointed by the menu, which seemed a little dumbed-down for the St. Paul customers. I know that each Bulldog menu differs somewhat, but we had really wanted to get truffle fries and they weren't on the menu. Nor was the truffle burger or the togarashi burger. Perhaps I'm a little sensitive, being an almost lifelong St. Paul resident, but sometimes I think that some restaurant owners think that everyone in St. Paul is a yokel and they'd better aim their menus strictly for the yokel crowd.
Still, the food was quite good. I ordered a patty melt and the onions came nicely caramelized and it was cooked perfectly medium rare. My husband got a Humpty Dumpty burger, which came with a fried egg and Canadian bacon, and he really liked it. The fries were great, too.
We had a great time and we'll definitely be back to Bulldog, especially since it's so close to home for us. It's wonderful to have a nice bar in the neighborhood (especially since LoTo has been such a massive disappointment). But I do hope the owners will consider the fact that one of the things that makes Bulldog stand out from the hundreds of bars in the Twin Cities that serve beer and burgers is their creative twist on traditional bar food. Some of us really want those creative twists. In other words, please put truffle fries on the menu!
Bulldog in Lowertown? (St. Paul MN)
I work at City Hall and bumped into Mayor Coleman on the street and asked him about Bulldog. He said he didn't know when the official opening was but hoped it was soon because he could use a good hamburger. And then he said it was unfortunate that it wasn't ready to open this weekend for St. Paul Art Crawl. I so agree. It would have been great exposure for them.
MSP- Splurgy celebration!
Oh drooooool, I'd have to wait for May, too. We were there in January for the truffle menu and (with the exception of the deeply weird truffle creme brulee) the meal was insanely good.
MSP - looking for quaint place w/good food
Did you find it strange in an "it's not really authentic Russian" or an "I'm not really used to Russian food" way? Just curious...
I lived in Moscow and have been to Moscow on the Hill many times. I find the Russian/former Soviet republic homestyle dishes to be very authentic, such as borshch, stroganoff, pelmeni, and chebureki. They always make me miss the terrific food I got in friends' homes (when I was in Moscow, restaurant dining wasn't the best). What I don't care for much there are the more non-Russian dishes (or fancier restaurant-style Russian dishes), such as czar's medallions and walleye "baikal."
What drives me nuts is that Moscow on the Hill lists piroshki as pierogis. They are not the same thing. Piroshki are little baked or fried flaky pastries stuffed with meat, cabbage or other savory things (and sometimes sweet--I used to buy jam piroshki on the street in Moscow). Pierogis are Polish boiled dumplings. In Russian/Ukrainian they're normally called vareniki. I know this won't bother most people, but I find it confusing, especially since I'm Polish-American and grew up eating pierogis.
St Paul excel area food
If you wanted to expand his horizons a bit, you could take him to Sakura. They have first-class sushi, but also offer less adventurous options that are still delicious, like tempura and tonkatsu.
The Liffey also has nice bar food. I'm rather fond of their reuben.
What's new in the power and light district? (KC)
What city is the Power and Light District in, if you don't mind my asking?
Meritage (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
Too funny tex.s.toast! What time were you there? We had an 8:30 pm reservation. We should have just pushed our tables together!
Now I'm regretting not saving room for dessert... Oh well, there's always next time (and I'll order the gnocci next time, if it's still on the menu).
Where do you eat in Madison, WI?
Harvest. We were there last summer and had the chef's tasting menu. It was spot-on and worth every penny.
Meritage (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
We went to Meritage last night for the second time. The place was PACKED, no doubt thanks to the recent Strib review. It can get a bit noisy in there, but it's kind of a fun noisy, if that makes sense. And as a Lowertown resident, it does my heart good to see a downtown St. Paul restaurant succeed. Service was great, seemed tighter than our first visit.
Once again, we had an excellent meal. We began with a few of the amuses--tuna tartare taco, beef strudel (truly delicious), and oyster shooter for my husband. Next, we split the beet salad. I can't believe beets get such a bad rap, they're so delicious and the salad was a nice mix of red and gold beets, greens, goat cheese and caraway. It made my Eastern European heart glad. For main courses, I had the short ribs and my husband had the bass. I loved the short ribs and ate every bite. My husband thought the bass was good but not outstanding. He's not the biggest cauliflower fan on the planet and he thought the plate could use some color.
If you read Jeremy Iggers' review you probably saw that you can buy Izzy's salted caramel ice cream BY THE PINT at Meritage. WOO HOO! We were a bit too full for dessert but bought the ice cream and ate some at home later. I had to hide the leftovers in the freezer from my husband. That ice cream is sooooo goooood, completely worth the hype. It's funny how it's become such a cult favorite. Everyone was talking about the ice cream around us--our waitress was rhapsodizing about it, the bread guy was going on about how much he loves it, even Desta Klein came by to chat about the ice cream. My life would be complete if Izzy's would make the salted caramel for retail sales, but then would it seem so special?
Muffins in MSP
Whoops, I meant sanding sugar, not caster sugar. You know, the sugar that stays crunchy and crystallized even after being sprinkled on a hot muffin or a cookie.
Muffins in MSP
Don't laugh at me when I say this: I think the Holiday convenience stores have really good muffins. They're from the Lund's/Byerly's bakeries and are nice and soft with yummy crunchy tops made even crunchier with caster sugar. When they're nice and fresh, they're a real treat. The blueberry ones are my favorites but my coworkers swoon over the cranberry orange.
Recommendations on Tea House in St. Paul?
Even though their main site is down, you can still find the PDF of their menu: http://www.ourteahouse.com/Menus/Menu2007A_T2_Web.pdf.
It's definitely worth it to order off the more authentic menu. Much better dishes. The first time I went to Tea House, I went with a friend who isn't a very adventurous eater. She got lo mein and it was just "eh." It's much more fun to go with someone who will order off the authentic dish and will want to share multiple dishes.
I agree with Baxter08, the Shanghai Juicy Mini Buns are wonderful. Just be VERY careful eating them. I splotched the front of my shirt. The trick is to take a tiny bite in the corner, suck out most of the broth, and then chew. Also from the appetizers, the Shanghai pancake is also delicious as are any of the dumplings. I also really like the shredded pork in garlic sauce and the gui chow beef. The Szechuan green beans are very nice, too.
Meritage (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
Perhaps we should start a "We want Salted Caramel" protest outside of Izzy's! I wish they sold it at Kowalski's, instead of the rather boring flavors they do sell.
Meritage (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
We went to Meritage last night to celebrate my husband's birthday. It was a fabulous meal and if we could afford it, we'd be eating there every night!
The atmosphere was lovely and very old St. Paul (I hear it hasn't changed much from when it was Au Rebours), with my only complaint being that it can get a bit noisy when the room is full.
We each started with an "amusement": oyster-bloody mary shooter for him and tiny tuna tartare taco for me. Both delicious and made us joke that we'd come back some time and ask for 10 of both for dinner. Next, we shared the marinated scallop appetizer. It was incredibly fresh and tasty, with just the right amount of Meyer lemon and apple.
For the main course I had the trio of pork and my husband had the ribeye steak frites. The pork was heavenly--pork cheek, tenderloin, and rib. The braised apples and leeks were a nice complement. My husband very much enjoyed the steak (and the bearnaise sauce--what doesn't taste good with bearnaise?).
We shared the warm chocolate hazelnut cake with the salty caramel ice cream for dessert. Loved it, especially the ice cream. It was mentioned on the dessert menu that one could order ice cream from Izzy's so I'm assuming the ice cream was from there. I'm hoping so, so that I can go to Izzy's and get some more some time.
Service was generally pretty good. We had to wait a bit for our table when we arrived, which always annoys me, but the wait turned out to be very short. Other than that, there was a nice flow to the evening.
We live downtown St. Paul and always like to see a good restaurant succeed in this rather challenging area. (A bit off topic, but what really annoys me as a downtown resident is that some skyways are closed at night and entrance to certain buildings with skyway access is closed. While I can appreciate the security issues, it can make it a logistical challenge for downtown residents to go out in the winter.) I'm glad Meritage is so good and I'm crossing my fingers for them!
