RESTAURANTS >>

• Best Place To Eat Out With Your Kids (1 Comment)
  Quang Restaurant
  Guest Best: Stewart Woodman When a family dines out as a team, simplicity is essential. Here are foolproof instructions for feeding your clan by the most direct route possible. First, go to Quang. Order a strawberry bubble tea for each child, a pho (number 506 is preferred) to... More >>
• Best Restaurant (Minneapolis)
  Heidi's
  Here's why Heidi's is the best restaurant in Minneapolis right now: Where else can you have a meal cooked by a nationally esteemed chef at a place where nothing on the menu costs more than $20? And when we say cooked, we don't mean quote-unquote cooked, like he created the concept but faxes... More >>
• Best Restaurant (St. Paul)
  Heartland
  If you want a sense of chef Lenny Russo's fastidious nature, just read his menu: "Wildflower honey-hazelnut-pumpkin seed gâteau marjolaine with passion fruit sauce, hazelnut praline, high bush cranberry-apricot jelly, and passion fruit-cherry sorbet." Whew! And that's just one dessert. If... More >>
• Best New Restaurant
  Barrio
  Tequila has a reputation for creating evenings that don't end well. (By the way, we're not discussing the assless chaps incident. Ever.) But in the hands of a couple of noted real estate developers (including Ryan Burnet, who worked on the Chambers and W hotels) and restaurateurs Tim McKee and... More >>
• Best Chef
  Tim McKee, La Belle Vie
  It's been a big year for Tim McKee. The executive chef of La Belle Vie and Solera opened not one but two new eateries—Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque and Barrio (which, by the way, is this year's Best New Restaurant). McKee proved his prowess by creating a French-Mediterranean fine-dining... More >>
• Best Restaurant for a First Date
  Lucia's
  This may seem a bold statement, but we're ready to back it up: No matter what your first-date needs, this much-lauded restaurant trifecta has you covered. If you've scored a date with a serious foodie, a company president, or anyone else you want to impress but not overwhelm, make a reservation... More >>
• Best Restaurant for Romance
  King and I Thai
  In some ways, our ideas about romantic dining are a little baffling. Sitting at a table with a starched white tablecloth, fearing the moment you might drop a fork, just isn't very libidinous. Feeling comfortable is romantic, and so is putting a flower from your drink in your hair. And what could... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Cafe (St. Paul)
  The Strip Club
  A steak place might not seem like much of a neighborhood cafe, but, well, neither does a strip club. But when it's the Strip Club—capital S, capital C, and named after its premium, grass-fed strip steak—it qualifies. That's because the friendly eatery in the former home of a... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Cafe (Minneapolis)
  Corner Table
  You wouldn't expect a restaurant this tiny to draw the attention of New York City's James Beard Foundation, but Corner Table has proved both to its neighbors and big-city foodiephiles that good cuisine can come in small packages. Owner Scott Pampuch and his cohort Lisa Hanson are among the... More >>
• Best Restaurant Trend
  The mocktail
  Pregnant women, recovering addicts, and religious teetotalers unite! No longer must abstainers settle for a lame-o soda or a simple sparkling water. These days, our top bartenders have started mixing equally attractive non-alcoholic alternatives—so raise a glass for the mocktail. These... More >>
• Best French Restaurant
  Meritage
  What's the best way to start your meal at Meritage, the cute brasserie in downtown St. Paul that looks as if it belongs in the ninth arrondissement? The spicy tomato tingle of a bloody Mary shooter with a plump little oyster chaser? A doll-size blini topped with smoked salmon, crème... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant
  Broders' Pasta Bar
  Ever pick up the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain? Its main message is that art is taken to another level when the artist draws what her subject actually looks like, rather than what she thinks it looks like. Most people draw from memory—not faithful likenesses of apples in a... More >>
• Best Chinese Restaurant
  Little Szechuan
  If you're headed to Little Szechuan, the brightly painted, authentic Chinese restaurant on University Avenue in St. Paul, pick up some friends on your way. You're going to want to roll at least three deep to stage a multi-order attack on the menu, which offers more than 200 dishes. Where to... More >>
• Best Japanese Restaurant
  Moto-i
  There's so much sushi in Minneapolis these days they're practically selling it in gas stations and vending machines. That's why Moto-i's debut was all the more welcome. The izakaya-style eatery, or gastropub, showcases a different side of Japanese culture. The sleek, dark, Lyn-Lake watering hole... More >>
• Best Sushi
  Origami
  Origami makes the freshest, most elegant sushi in town—the kind you want to eat slowly, with your eyes closed. Sushi purists will be gratified by simple fresh preparations of nigiri and sashimi—buttery hamachi, sweet unagi, and tender maguro—all perfect and lovely in their... More >>
• Best Dim Sum
  Jun Bo
  When we think of authentic Chinese cuisine, Richfield is not the first place we expect to find it. But stepping into Jun Bo is like stepping into our own Chinatown. Jun Bo (meaning "precious treasure") is a massive room, seating 400-plus diners, and it's usually packed with families seated at... More >>
• Best Korean Restaurant
  King's Fine Korean
  Unless somebody just bought one of those inflatable airplane-evacuation slides at Ax-Man, the most happening thing going on in Fridley on a Friday or Saturday night is likely taking place at King's Fine Korean. The tables are all cluttered with small white bowls of panchan, a spread of side... More >>
• Best Thai Restaurant
  Bangkok Thai
  If you're tired of Twin Cities Thai restaurants that seem a little too tailored to American tastes—milquetoast curries and fruity cocktails priced to offset the costs of high-end lighting and stereo systems—you'll appreciate the no-frills authenticity of Bangkok Thai. Located inside... More >>
• Best Vietnamese Restaurant
  Quang Restaurant
  Walk into Quang, even at 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon, and the place will be bumping. The family-run Eat Street restaurant is a consistent hive of activity, and deservedly so. Quang is an institution, started by the Quang family in a smaller location across the street and eventually moved to their... More >>
• Best Mexican Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Taqueria Los Ocampo
  The best way to judge a Mexican restaurant is by its tacos. Are the tortillas small, pliable, and doubled up? Is there a harmonious amount of cilantro and onion? Enough limes? How's the salsa? If a place passes the taco test, you can pretty much order anything else with reckless abandon. Los... More >>
• Best Central/South American Restaurant
  Mañana Restaurant
  The cuisine of El Salvador is simple and lovely: corn, plantains, potatoes, carrots, seafood, meat—nothing too complicated, everything fresh and homey. This cozy spot on the East Side, filled with papier-mâché strands of fruits and vegetables and Central American flags hanging... More >>
• Best Tapas
  El Meson
  While Solera has positioned itself as the Twin Cities' tapas powerhouse, it's not always practical—economically or geographically—to hit the downtown hotspot for tapas the way they're meant to be enjoyed: as a casual late-afternoon snack, eaten with friends over a glass of wine.... More >>
• Best Indian Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Gandhi Mahal
  There are a lot of reasons to love Gandhi Mahal: the handmade, quilted tablecloths; the sitar player in the corner; the authentic, thoughtful decor; and the quietly courteous staff. But most of all it's the food. Gandhi Mahal's northern Indian cuisine hits all the right notes: expertly fried... More >>
• Best Middle Eastern Restaurant
  Saffron
  A La Belle Vie-trained chef armed himself with his mother's Palestinian recipes and created Saffron's elegant menu of Mediterranean-Middle Eastern fusion fare. Sameh Wadi's creative cooking—strip loin with Manchego cheese and romesco; fried mussels with preserved lemons and tahini; duck... More >>
• Best Ethiopian Restaurant
  Queen of Sheba
  Located in the Sibley Plaza shopping mall along the West Seventh Street corridor where many a treasured but unknown restaurant lives, Queen of Sheba makes you feel like you just discovered a secret gem. Bring all your friends to share traditional communal-style platters that allow you to sample... More >>
• Best Caribbean Restaurant
  Marla's Caribbean Cuisine
  Calypso singers preach that Carnival started at the beginning of time. If this is true, then the food that fuels this festival originated way before Julia Child and Rachael Ray took over the airwaves. And since calypso music originated on the island of Trinidad, their food has had centuries to... More >>
• Best Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurant
  Evergreen
  Too often vegetarians find themselves restricted to just a few items on a restaurant's menu, forced to satiate their hunger with salads, French fries, or the entire contents of the bread basket. But at Eat Street's hidden, basement gem, Evergreen Chinese Restaurant, the world is a vegetarian's... More >>
• Best Steak House
  Manny's
  Manny's must have cojones the size of those on the strapping bull in the painting next to its host's stand. The place thinks it can charge 19 bucks for a Caesar salad and nearly $100 for a massive, bone-in rib eye for two. And you know what, it can. Because even though that salad is utterly... More >>
• Best Seafood Restaurant
  Sea Salt Eatery
  In coastal country, boiling up big batches of sea creatures out on the beach is part of the culture: Louisiana has its crawfish, Maine its lobsters, and Maryland its crabs, for starters. New Englanders gather in large groups to bake clams or shuck oysters and tip back a beverage or two. This... More >>
• Best Sunday Brunch
  Grand Cafe
  For whatever reason, Sunday brunch doesn't seem to be as big a deal in the Twin Cities as it is in other metropolitan areas. Are our local culinary cognoscenti such wild weekend revelers that they can't get out of bed before two o'clock? Or too cocky to pay good money for a breakfast they think... More >>
• Best Breakfast
  Hell's Kitchen
  Hell's Kitchen is not the place to go when you wake up on a Sunday morning and feel like, well, hell. With a tongue numbed by an evening of cigarettes and a head clouded with the after-effects of too much booze, one can't properly appreciate a breakfast menu that is a far cry from greasy... More >>
• Best Desserts
  Forepaugh's
  Considering the wonders that pastry chef Carrie Summer works in her mobile trailer, Chef Shack, it's no surprise that the sweets she creates in a full-size kitchen are our favorite in the Twin Cities. Summer, formerly of Cue, Spoonriver, and several lauded coastal restaurants, designs all the... More >>
• Best Hangover Breakfast
  Uptown Bar & Cafe
  It's Sunday morning. You wake up on the floor of your apartment with the taste of Coors Light, vomit, and shame still fresh in your mouth. You look up and notice your friends are passed out around your apartment in just as bad of shape as you are. You've identified the problem; now you need a... More >>
• Best Delicatessen
  Be'wiched Sandwiches & Deli
  Gourmet sandwiches at Be'Wiched reflect the culinary résumés and foodie philosophy of owner-chefs Matthew Bickford and Mike Ryan. Bickford's past includes D'Amico & Sons, Zander Cafe in St. Paul, and a three-year stint as executive chef of Solera in Minneapolis. Ryan cooked at... More >>
• Best Takeout
  Brasa
  Question: What's a lot easier than importing the Creole grandmother you never had and chaining her to the stove? Answer: programming Brasa's number into your phone. The premium rotisserie restaurant that serves batch-roasted chicken, slow-roasted pork, and braised beef to dine-in guests also... More >>
• Best Soul Food
  West Indies Soul Food
  It's Sunday and you have a choice: go home and visit Mom, or head to the Midtown Global Market to catch Deep South Sundays at West Indies Soul Food. While Mom might do your laundry, she's also going to ask if you have a boyfriend. Again. That puts the win solidly with West Indies Soul Food,... More >>
• Best Street Food
  Chef Shack
  We're dreaming of spring for about a million reasons, and one of the main ones is Chef Shack. When the little white trailer pulls up to the market (Mill City in Minneapolis, Marketfest in White Bear Lake), it's time for a hand-pattied bison burger, a tongue taco, or a pulled pork sandwich made... More >>
• Best Restaurant for Dining Solo
  112 Eatery
  To evaluate a restaurant's ability to satisfy solo diners, put it to the ultimate test: Visit the place at 9 p.m. on a Friday night. That's the time when people who don't have plans are inclined to stay home—so nobody will find out that they're spending the evening alone. But then they'd... More >>
• Best Restaurant for Late-Night Dining
  Chino Latino
  Oh, the joys of springtime in Uptown! Melting snow reveals a yard full of dog crap and trash. Bars unleash their patrons on sidewalks and patios, and drunken revelers start shouting matches right outside your door. It's pointless to try to get any shut-eye before two in the morning, so you might... More >>
• Best Restaurant When Someone Else Is Paying
  Cosmos
  Making dinner plans for four to six people, and somebody else is picking up the tab? Book the chef's table at Cosmos in the Graves Hotel, which serves the most elaborate blowout in town. The kitchen charges an eye-popping $200 per person for nine wine-paired courses, which means, essentially,... More >>
• Best Wine List (1 Comment)
  Spasso
  Building a business by offering customers a good deal is a great way to stay afloat in today's bear market. Giving choice-loving Americans 1,600 different bottles of wine to pore over is another. Roll those two ideas together and you've got Spasso, a new restaurant in Minnetonka that owner Chris... More >>
• Best Service
  La Belle Vie
  While Minneapolis is slowly becoming known for its thriving culinary scene, we still have only a handful of lavish joints where the lack of a tie makes a dude feel, you know, uncomfortable. Why, then, with the need for neckware and all, would a guy want to fork over his last paycheck—or... More >>
• Best Diner
  Town Talk Diner
  The measure of a diner is not found in the records on its walls, the red pleather of its booths, or the chrome detailing on its jukeboxes, but rather in the quality and creativity of its menu. With its edgy twists on classic diner fare, Town Talk deserves the buzz that its name implies. For... More >>
• Best Drive-in Restaurant (1 Comment)
  The Dari-ette
  Many things on the East Side of St. Paul look like they haven't changed in 50 years—the old-guy bars, carpet shops, and "safety shoes" stores are the essence of old-school. And in the emerging Dayton's Bluff neighborhood is one prized piece of nostalgia—a genuine 1950s drive-in... More >>
• Best Patio
  Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge
  Driving by this tiki bar, one might not suspect that an awesome patio lurks behind the fence. Originally an A&W, Psycho Suzi's transformed the space into a tropical wonderland several years ago. The patio, open year-round (though not recommended in January), features all the amenities of a... More >>
• Best Cheap Eats
  Jasmine Deli
  It's hard to find a restaurant that serves filling food that actually tastes good for under $5. And no, the McDonald's dollar menu does not count. Jasmine Deli, a tiny Vietnamese restaurant with some of the best Asian food in town, easily fits the bill. The spring rolls come with mock duck,... More >>
• Best Coffee Shop
  Kopplin's Coffee
  Everyone loves the story of David versus Goliath. People love to see the little guy win. It's the reason we root for underdogs, watch Hoosiers, and support small businesses run by our neighbors. Kopplin's Coffee is such a business. This tiny cafe, nestled in a quiet section of St. Paul, can... More >>
• Best Barista
  Mariah Patzner
  A barista can change your day. Be it with a simple smile or by remembering your favorite drink, they help get your morning started. But a barista like Mariah Patzner at Kopplin's coffee in St. Paul can change your life. For reals. One sip will make you a believer. She honed her craft in the... More >>
• Best Wi-Fi Cafe
  Common Roots Cafe
  As anyone who saves $60 a month stealing their internet connection will tell you, Wi-Fi hot spots are a dime a dozen. However, for those of us still unable to crack into our neighbor's connection, Common Roots Cafe is a great place to enjoy the bounties of the internet. In the evenings, the... More >>
• Best Restaurant Bathroom
  Chino Latino
  It's actually not what's on the inside that counts for Chino Latino's restrooms. Within the halls of the mighty porcelain gods, their chrome and white-tile decor is pretty much what you'd expect to find at any modern water closet. It's the outside that captures the heart of a voyeur. The sinks... More >>