Camdi Chinese and Vietnamese Restaurant – Minneapolis (Dinkytown), MN

GingerVitis and I had some stories to swap, so we decided to meet for lunch. She works at the U of MN, so we opted to meet in Dinkytown to make her life easier. I heard there were some decent Asian places around there, so I suggested Camdi. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was worth a shot, right?

The place is pretty small, but the menu has a lot of stuff on it, including a lunch menu. I saw they had fresh spring rolls on the menu, so I got an order of those. And then I decided on the Basil, eggplant, and tomato stir fry, but extra spicy. I also got chicken in it, just to add some flavor. Sometimes stir fry can cook out the flavor of vegetables instead of enhancing them.

The spring rolls came out quickly and much to my surprise, GingerVitis doesn’t eat them, so I got to eat both. SCORE! They were decent. A little floppy and the ingredients didn’t seem all that fresh, but they were edible and simply fine.

The food came out much quicker than I would have thought, and looked fine as well. No bright colors or anything like that. The dish I had had EXTREMELY large pieces of eggplant in it. Like large enough I could have cut them into three pieces (I didn’t because I’m not above shoving large chunks of food into my mouth in front of girls or anything). But sadly, I didn’t have a knife either, so it wasn’t going to happen. The eggplant was a bit soggy as well, so it wasn’t the best eggplant I’ve ever had. The rest was a tad greasy for my liking. I don’t mind a little bit, but it seemed more than usual. Big pieces of onion, and green pepper as well. I think the cook must have a giant mouth or something since nothing (except the carrot slices) was small enough to be considered an actual bite. It was kind of sub-par in my opinion as a whole.

Not sure if I’ll come back to Camdi for lunch again. It wasn’t terrible, but there are certainly MUCH better places to eat Asian food, especially in Dinkytown.

Top 5 things about Camdi
1. Friendly waiter
2. Good variety on menu
3. It’s close to campus (good, only if you live/work there)
4. Parking is cheap ($2?) right behind the place
5. GingerVitis has the most hilarious stories

Bottom 5 things
1. Stir fry was bland
2. Huge chunks of food and tough to eat without a knife on the table
3. Sub-par spring rolls
4. It just doesn’t feel clean inside
5. I should have gone to the new Uncle Franky’s location across the street

www.camdirestaurant.com