Good Earth – Edina, MN

Gerd and I went to the fancy mall (The Galleria) for some window shopping. We have walked by the Good Earth restaurant a few times in the past and it’s always looked really good. I know its some sort of dirty hippie vegetarian restaurant, but it’s a fancy version where the customers shower. And it’s in Edina where the equivalent of hippie is anyone who makes less than $150K per year.

We got seated and then proceeded to wait about 15 minutes to get acknowledged. Not a good start, but I’m patient and willing to let the food speak for itself. In actuality, the long wait time allowed me ample time to really investigate the menu – which I did numerous times. And by doing so, I changed my mind like 41 times. They have REALLY amazing sounding items on the menu and they’re not all vegetarian (the ones that aren’t have meat that was treated kindly before slaughtering - Ha ha ha). They have all kinds of Asian, Mexican, Italian, and American dishes. And ALL of them looked really good.

We got waited on and had orders taken and they brought out a yardsale of bread for us. All kinds of things. Flat breads, fluffy breads, breads with seeds and other bits, salty breads, healthy breads… you get the point. There was some sort of pink hummus they brought out for putting on the breads and that was good too. Not sure what made it pink, but that’s not the point.

Gerd decided on some Acorn Squash soup (sounds pretty hippie-ish doesn’t it?). It was a simple looking dish wish a couple of sunflower seeds thrown on the top. One of the best soups she’s ever had, she commented. And it was great – I would get it again in a heart beat. Gerd ordered the tuna melt for her meal, which was a tiny piece of bread (she actually said they could have used a bigger slice of bread), with some tuna on the bread, and then smothered in cheese. Gerd loved every bite of it (despite complaining about the tiny bread).

I went with the nachos with chicken (free range and coddled, of course). I should have gone with the original plan which was the spicy thai chicken noodles or the thai wrap or the black beans and rice. I always forget when you go to a “healthy” restaurant, you’re going to get the “nice” version of whatever you order. I’m used to straight up bar nachos with a Wisconsin portion of cheese, handfuls of meat, and other random unidentifiable bits you just power through. This had a nice sprinkling of cheese, a small layer of black beans, some guacamole, and a bit of salsa in a cup. Oh yes, and huge chunks of chicken. Honestly, the nachos were delicious, but they weren’t filling at all. I left about 25 chips on the plate which hadn’t been violated with toppings. Seriously a bunch of plain chips were left over. Governor’s in Moline IL would never have considered such a thing. Again, don’t get me wrong, they were good, but they were as close to healthy as you can get when you order nachos.

We’ll probably go back here, based no the variety of the menu items alone. But I won’t get the nachos. And if they have the squash soup, I may just ask for a bucket of that and be happy.

Top 5 things about The Good Earth
1. Acorn Squash soup
2. Bread basket was awesome
3. Tuna melt was ultra cheesy
4. Great wine list
5. They have a take-away portion which faces the mall – great idea

Bottom 5 things
1. Waited a long time to get helped
2. Nachos were missing toppings and bad-for-you stuff
3. A LOT of snooty people patronize this place
4. Tiny bread on the tuna melt
5. They’re big into drinking wheat grass – I don’t even know what that is

http://www.goodearthmn.com