Initial Impression of the Minneapolis Food Scene

It’s been a semester now since moving to Minneapolis, and man have I fallen short of my writing goals (I do try not to give myself too much of a hard time with these sorts of things since I recognize that there are always growing pains). I’ve learned in the past that I need to actively carve out time for specific things that I enjoy doing but may not feel like I have the time to do, such as soccer, and I realize now that writing blog posts is something I need to explicitly carve out time for as well.

Let’s talk about some food. My kitchen in Minneapolis is a dream compared to everywhere else that I’ve lived, and I’ve already experimented a lot more than I have before; from making my own fermented pickles to growing a sourdough starter from scratch. This was to be expected, however, since I knew that moving to Minneapolis would mean that I would have a lot more space (and access to a remarkable farmer’s market), but one aspect of life here that has been surprising is the restaurant scene. There’s some rumor going around about how Minneapolis has the highest number of James Beard winning chefs in the US after New York and Chicago, which although I have not been able to verify, definitely seems believable based on the experience I have had here so far; most of the mid-to-high range restaurants.

The main difference between NYC and Minneapolis seems to be that there although both places have a decent amount of high-quality restaurants, I very likely could go to the vast majority of high-quality restaurants in Minneapolis throughout my PhD. This would definitely not be possible in NYC.

• Colita (Upper-end Mexican) : I have been to two one-star Michelin Mexican restaurants in NYC and despite not having a star, Colita definitely takes the cake for me with respect to the qualities that I think the Michelin Guide usually looks for. The main standout dish that we got was an eggplant tostada which perfectly threaded the line between being clearly a Mexican dish with Mexican-inspired flavors while simultaneously showcasing something thoroughly new.
• Rosalia (Upper-end Pizza) : I have definitely had better pizza before, but Rosalia was quite satisfying. If I were to nitpick, the cheese to crust/sauce ratio was perhaps a bit too high for my liking, but I still appreciated the pizza quite a bit and know that these are small preference details that shouldn’t take away from the experience. Anouska and I got the “Funghi” and “Aglio” pizzas; the Funghi was pretty standard of what you would expect but the Aglio pizza was very different from most other pizzas I have had before. It had this sharp acidity to certain bites that was very refreshing. I later got the “Verde” pizza and ricotta cake for takeout, both of which were honestly very well done.
• All Saints (Contemporary American) : This was the restaurant that Anouska and I went to for my birthday, so we went a bit more all out than usual. It’s on the Eater best restaurants of Minneapolis list and did not disappoint. To me, they are the exact image of a restaurant that knows what they are about and delivers on good tasting food that is thoughtful and creative without being too pretentious and alienating of the average person. We have been multiple times since September and have tried a significant portion of the menu so will likely be taking a break from All Saints for a while.
• Gai Noi (Laotian) : Minneapolis has a surprising amount of Laotians and the restaurant scene reflects that as well. I have never ordered a fish dish at a non-seafood restaurant and this was definitely a good place to try that for the first time. I really want to hit up Hai Hai and Vinai next.
• Red Rabbit (Pizza / Pasta) : I’ve been here twice now. The first time I was alone and got a meaty pizza that had the exact ratio of crust to sauce to cheese to toppings and cookage that I like. I also got some cheese curds but that was pretty average. The second time I came here, I got the exact same pizza as I got before but also shared a sticky toffee pudding which was average (an average sticky toffee pudding is still pretty gas though).

The restaurants that do seem lacking in Minneapolis, however, lie in the low-to-mid range. The places you would normally get takeout from have been under par compared to both NYC and Pittsburgh. I do want to be clear, there are a handful of low-to-mid range restaurants that don’t take themselves too seriously but are still pretty good at what they do such as Centro and Andale Taqueria and Kramarczuks, and there are still a lot more restaurants in a similar vein on my list of places to experience but the places I have eaten at in this echelon so far have not hit the mark

Note: My ranking of low-mid-high level restaurants is a very subjective scale based on various factors such as how serious a restaurant takes themselves, the relative price points, the attention that the kitchen pays to the food, and the expectations of the front house staff.