I've always liked The Barbary Fig on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. It may not be the gastronomic pinnacle that Alma or Meritage are, but the place is attractive, the patio is a fun place to dine (when it's not 93 degrees out), it's fairly quiet and not crowded, and apps and dinner for two and wine should come in well under $100.

Just on the borderline of necroposting, but we finally got to Homi last night. What on earth took us so long?? Living so close to West St. Paul, I guess...

Anyway, I will echo Mr. Grinsfelder's comments on the guacamole -- the best any of the three of us have ever eaten. I *loved* my Tinga de Pollo and the Chilis Rellenos and Empanadas were well-received. Good good stuff and we'll be back.

Hortensia did say they would be offering a Cinco de Mayo buffet this weekend; she didn't specify the exact menu, but apparently there will be two "seatings" for each meal on Saturday and Sunday: lunch 11:00 am & 1:30 pm and dinner 5:30 pm & 7:00 pm. We may be back there by then, depending on weekend plans....

Definitely give it another chance. Or two. That whole checkout thing was an aberration, given my experience.

One hint if you forget the bags -- grab an empty cut-down box or two from the "shelves" and take it with you to the checkout. Make sure the cashier sees it first and most of them will put it in the extra cart and fill that rather than just tossing items into the cart. I've been known to move a couple of items out of a shelf box onto the remaining items if I'm truly desperate; sometimes there's a wire cage full of empty boxes in the store.

Snarky much? Not at all. Just being objective.

Chowhound has discussed the issue of judging restaurants after a bad visit. The facts that you read Chowhound and that you went expecting a positive experience tells me that most readers here who've gone to the Lex have enjoyed their visits (or have simply failed to relay their disappointment).

*My* real experience is that I have enjoyed all of my meals at the Lexington. Based on my real experience, I would recommend the Lex to the OP.

I don't have any problem with someone stating that they had a lousy experience at a restaurant (even at one of my favorites, which the Lexington is not). I simply don't believe that one bad experience negates the thousands of enjoyable meals people have had there. And your emphatic response ("NO!") and your later post suggest I need to temper what I'm reading.

Odd. I don't believe I've ever given them my PIN or had to punch it in on the machine. Minnesota.

A friend of mine has invited me to go repeatedly. I have always refused. I don't think I would enjoy my breakfast if someone were standing behind me, waiting for my seat.

IMO, it's just eggs, breakfast meat, toast, and pancakes. The room isn't gorgeous and the limited seating kills much of the social aspect of dining out. Al's can't make eggs, breakfast meat, toast, and pancakes *that* much better than places in town that don't have those drawbacks.

I remember seeing one along Brooklyn Boulevard in Brooklyn Park or maybe Brooklyn Center, maybe 30 years ago. There were nowhere near as many ATs here as there were back East. I do remember much preferring AT to Long John Silver's, which just struck me as a greasy parade of fried *everything*.

OK. Sample size of one noted. Thank you.

Hmm. I've never had a problem using my "treat it like a credit card" debit card at ALDI. They do ask if I have to punch in the PIN (I don't). And away I go.

I buy their solid white tuna.

My perception is that there has been a gradual deterioration of canned tuna over the years. Used to be you could count on "chunk light" tuna being mostly chunks. When the name brand chunk light tuna I bought started looking like cat food, I moved to solid tuna, but not often because of the price. But ALDI can bring in non-Chinese (Thai, I think) solid white tuna for a little over a buck for a can. That seems like a good deal to me.

>>you can't call ahead and ask to see if they have available what you are looking for. <<

That runs completely in the face of running the place as efficiently as possible. I understand the complaint -- I've gone to multiple ALDIs on occasion to find something I really wanted. But, like cart "rental", not bagging, and not placing most goods on shelves, it's one more reason why ALDI can be way cheaper than any other grocery store. I've never gotten the "we don't want you here" vibe from them, but I sense they're not losing much sleep over customers whose wants don't fit their sales model.

I posted to the Chains thread, but I'll just post the question because it came up here: what makes a particular ALDI a "dump"?

I've shopped the University Ave. ALDI several times (as well as the one near 36 and Rice) and, honestly, I can't tell the difference. Both have always appeared clean to me -- no filthy floors, no broken packages on the "shelves", no rotting produce, no smells. Sometimes it's even hard to find an empty box to use for packaging. Have I just been lucky? Or have I spent enough time at tiny ethnic groceries that my standards are very different?

The Lexington, on Grand Avenue?

I have shopped at three or four ALDIs in the St. Paul, Minnesota, area, and have not yet found one that was dirty or that had surly staff. The staff works very quickly and efficiently, which I guess can translate into "throwing food around". And the "just-in-time" staffing sometimes means a wait at the checkout, but it's rarely very long.

The organics selection, IME, is *very* hit or miss. They did make a splash a couple of months ago with their new line of packaged organic products but I haven't seen much of them since. Maybe they just didn't sell at the ALDIs I shop at most. The products I tried were not bad, but most of them were products I just don't buy often -- more processed and starchy.

The ALDIs I've shopped have always carried random organic produce at random times. I'm not used to finding organic produce at ALDI, so I don't usually need to buy it when I get there, but what I have purchased was of good quality. The conventional produce has been decent, too -- I've seen far worse in far more expensive supermarkets. I just wish they did not shrinkwrap almost everything.

I have never purchased fresh meat at ALDI. I don't want to support what I'm sure is factory farming and a lot of it is injected with water that adds up to 15% to the price. No, thanks. I have purchased some of the frozen specials and they've all been of good quality at a decent price. The frozen seafood has been good, too -- the stuff that's not from China -- and it's obvious it's cared for in transit. It's not all full of ice crystals and freezer burn. Cheese has been just fine, considering what you're buying. I read in a couple of places that their house brand cheeses were from Sargento; I don't know that that's true, but it would not surprise me.

Middle-aisle stuff has rarely disappointed. Their regular coffee was a loser, but I'll echo the thumbs up for their "Donut Store" coffee -- it has taken over from Eight O'Clock as my favorite coffee for the buck. Tuna is at unbeatable prices. Dry goods (there's no bulk anywhere in the store) are good, though there's not much for whole-grains/whole foods. There's more of that in the frozen aisle, which usually is a stock-up stop for me. Specials/limited-time products have always been of good quality, IME. I've never tried their cleaning products.

All in all, I'm an ALDI fan. I'm fortunate in that I have somewhere easy to get to for organic meat and produce. But for staples -- and, probably, for the way most Americans eat -- the nuisances, like the shopping-cart quarter and the limited selection -- are more than made up for by the *low* prices and the get-in-get-out experience.

Agreed. Just check the dates on the grocery packages. My experience is that frozen, particularly, can sometimes go several weeks past the best-by date. The deli food, however, has always been fresh and tasty.

Novelty, I think, is part of it. There were big lines at Krispy Kreme and Sonic when they first arrived, and look at them now.

And as I measure it, it's at least 20 minutes from BP to Lake Street, maybe longer during dinner/rush hour. Popeye's is not worth a 40-50 minute round trip, IMHO.

I'm pretty sure Mississippi Market carries it. I know they carry two La Quercia products; I want to say the pancetta and the guanciale. A quick phone call would confirm. If you're on the other side of town, I'd try Lakewinds or Linden Hills.

The thing that bugs me about the CP list (not so much this "official" restaurant guide, but the one they maintain under "Find a restaurant" on-line) is that nobody keeps it up. Sure, they're fairly quick to *add* restaurants. But there must be a couple dozen plus rooms that are closed (some for a long time) yet which are still on the list.

What good is it to scan the list, think Abu Nader is a good idea (it was, for some items), and drive up there only to find it's been boarded up for months? A sad case of letting something good die from neglect.

I haven't been up that way in a couple of months, but IIRC Shilla has been long gone, replaced by a couple of nominally-Korean restaurants with lousy signage that serve Chinese food and supermarket-grade sushi (not kimbap). IME the "grand opening" signs on some of these places are up for months at a time, making truly-new places harder to spot.

I went to one of those incarnations out of novelty. Meh. Maybe it's better now, but with Sole just across the street, it wasn't worth a return trip to me.

A bunch of sites all over the Web carry content from a marketing site that was hacked with malware. Some security Web sites that look for that kind of thing have marked those sites in such a way that many browsers will display that warning. If the site providers are up on things, that should have been cleared up. But it does take the monitoring Web sites some time to verify that the malware is gone and to remove the warning.

Love that idea! Maybe they could help the illusion along with an appropriate noodle/satay place.

I agree that MGM needs better marketing and maybe the addition of some more non-restaurant vendors. I'm thinking something more like the Hmong Marketplace in St. Paul (another destination market with a less-than-beautiful building), but maybe keep the number of non-food vendors to a smaller percentage than HM.

I'm in no position to do this, not being in the field or anything, but I think publicizing/marketing MGM could make a great cooperative project on a continuing basis with some college interns. Hook up with the U or St. Thomas or such and get the word out.

Maybe get the word out about the neighborhood, too. it scares people operating on old information.

Right. It's probably worth a stop next time I'm by the lake just to see what it's like now. Not a place I'd drive to from anywhere, but better than a convenience store.

Well, Black Bear probably tends more to the family-friendly end of things than the foodie end of things. But I think it's better than most parks get for concessions.

I'll admit I've been there only a few times in the past several years, but I do not recall seeing a lot of packaged sandwiches -- the items I recall were not really fancy but were prepared on order and there was an attempt to get beyond dipping into a tub of "Mrs. Whozies Commercial Tuna Salad" and slapping it on bread. Better ice cream than Kemps/Blue Bunny, too.

But it's been a while for me, too. It may not be the same as it was. Still not bad for families, though. Maybe better logistically than piling everyone in the car at lunchtime and heading to Maverick's up Lexington.

I'm not familiar with the food coops in your area, but many of the coops closer to the cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul carry Saint Agnes bakery's sourdough loaves. There is Grass Roots Coop in Anoka. Might be worth calling them.

Well, there's South Minneapolis and there's South Minneapolis. We can be talking anywhere from the east end of Franklin and Grand Rounds to just this side of 50th and Penn. I've traveled during dinner hour on Lake and 46th and would not consider Mac/Groveland or University in St. Paul "easy to access" at that time. It might be a straight line or two, but it's busy and full of traffic lights. And if it's easy to get to Como/Roseville quickly from South Minneapolis, then, by definition, it's as easy to get from Como/Roseville to South Minneapolis.

Posters here have provided some great restaurants on both sides of the river. But I would not consider its proximity to the good-eating neighborhoods of St. Paul a point in favor of South Minne.

Roseville also includes Szechuan, Maverick's, Black Bear Crossings (at Como Park), and Key's, and you're just a short car ride from University Avenue/Little Mekong, with Bangkok Thai Deli, Cheng Heng, Homi. It's not all chains or at least not all huge national chains.

Roseville isn't yet under any MSP flight paths, either. :-)

Origami if you're on the west side of town; Sakura if you're on the east side. Just check the Xcel Center schedule first; Sakura can get crowded if the right event is going on at the X.

Forgot to post a couple of weeks ago about another visit. Great wings, as usual. Great fries, as usual. However, the air actually was pretty clear. I don't know if it was the lunchtime visit or a certain sauce ingredient was off the menu, but the air was more than tolerable in the room.

You've tried Lund's/Byerly's?