Lucky Cricket – St. Louis Park, MN

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of all things “tiki”, so when I heard Andrew Zimmern was going to open a tiki bar in the West End Shops, I was pretty excited. Full disclosure: I’ve never been a fan of Andrew Zimmern ,though I respect what he’s done to make people think outside of the box when it comes to food. So when he made some, at the least, culturally insensitive, and at worst, wildly racist, it didn’t thrill me to go to his new restaurant. But, everyone that knows me knows I like tiki bars, and were bound to ask me how it compared to other tiki bars, so I felt obligated to have some sort of reference point.

I went at lunch on a day I had off work during the week. It wasn’t packed, but I still grabbed a seat at the bar. I like to watch bartenders make tiki drink because there’s definitely a skill to it. I took a look at the menu at all the delicious-sounding tiki rinks and finally ordered Lucky’s Path – it’s got rums, apricot, ginger, cinnamon, pineapple, and lime. Sounds delicious, right? I was crushed to watch the guy turn around to the slurpee, pull a lever, throw a couple pineapple pieces in the cup, and hand it over. No mixing. No flare. No idle conversation. No skill demonstrated. Sigh. Disappointed.

But it tasted just fine.

I thought, since it was lunch time, I’d better grab some food. The menu has some fun items on it. But it also has a lot of plain things on it. I asked the bartender what the popular items were (since he clearly wasn’t busy slinging dranks, amiright?). Everything he said sounded pretty plain and boring. This is Andrew Zimmern’s place and he’s known for the crazy stuff. So I got a little adventurous and ordered the Hand-Cut Noodles. Then I decided that might not be enough, so I also ordered a bowl of pork fried rice. And then I also ordered another drink. One that didn’t appear to say anything about “frozen” on it.

The Tiki Reviver has rums, coconut, pineapple, lime, and some coffee liqueur. I’d love to see that being made. However, the bartender turned around, grabbed a cup, put it under a tap, pull the tap, fill the cup, throw in a couple of pineapple pieces, and set it down in front of me. Sigh. Disappointed.

But it tasted fine.

The noodles came out and looked pretty good. It was lamb with some cumin and bean sprouts  with noodles. Sadly, the cumin was really quite strong. Very strong. I ended up eating about half of it before I gave up. The noodles themselves were good, but the cumin drowned out everything else. Thankfully, the dish had some good spice to it, so I was thrilled with that, but the cumin did me in.

Fortunately, the fried rice was actually quite tasty. The best part of the entire lunch.

Overall, I was disappointed. I had really high hopes going in, especially about the tiki part of the place. But, the reviews that I’ve read were accurate: overpriced standard-tasting Chinese food with standard tiki drinks. The drinks either come from a tap or slurpee machine and the best food I ate was fried rice. Additionally, my lunch cost me $45.

I’d rather go to Psycho Suzi’s or Hunan Garden for my tiki experience in the Twin Cities.  Again, just my opinion.

Who knows? I may end up back there at some point if the owner’s comments don’t hurt business too much…

www.luckycricket.net

Pizza Karma – Eden Prairie, MN

I actually made it here on opening day. I’d been reading about this place for months now and a friend I was eating Indian food with (on Friday) reminded me it was opening the following Monday. I had the day off of work and convinced a few friends to join me – it wasn’t difficult. 

The place is in a strip mall three doors down from an Indian restaurant and grocery store. But it’s a completely different animal. It’s Tandoori-fired pizza topped with various Indian toppings. There are quite a few articles to read about this, so I won’t rehash all the details, but suffice it to say, the owner knows what he’s doing and intends to take this bigger than just a strip mall in Eden Prairie. It took us a while to decide what to eat, but we ended up splitting three appetizers and three pizzas to make sure we could get maximum coverage out of our visit. 

We ended up with the cayenne dusted crispy deep-fried okra fries (Served with a black salt and buttermilk sauce), stuffed potato cakes (served with golden raisin ginger sauce), and roasted smashed eggplant pate (served with naan) for our appetizers. Then, for our pizzas, we got a Chicken Kebab pizza, a Paneer pizza, and a Potato & Tandoor-Roasted Vegetable pizza.

A couple of us also got beers, since we weren’t going back to an office anywhere. The beer dispensing system is a thing of mystery. It’s got a magnet covering a hole in the bottom of the cup and when you set it on the dispenser, it pours the beer from the bottom-up. Magic.

The naan with the roasted smashed eggplant pate (which a certain unnamed member of our party referred to as “slurry”) was good. We all decided it needed a little more zing to the pate, but a lot of Minnesotans will be extremely happy with this – especially because it’s drizzled with clarified butter before it’s served. 

The Paneer pizza was quite good. The non-melting cheese cubes on top were really a treat when you bit into one, which is good because they were plentiful. There was a generous amount of peppers on the top of the pizza, as well. The tomato-fenugreek sauce on the top was different from any pizza sauces I’ve had, but definitely in a good way. A solid pizza overall. 

The cayenne dusted crispy deep-fried okra fries were one of the highlights of the meal. One of our guys doesn’t even like okra, but was ALL really liked these. They were almost hyper-fried. Like way past any fried okra I’ve had (and my family is from the south, so I’ve eaten my fair share of okra), but it made them little crispy chip-like things. Sooooo amazing, especially with the black salt and buttermilk sauce. And there’s a ton of them – just get these and thank me later.

The Chicken Kebab pizza was also good – and very similar to the paneer pizza (but with chicken instead of non-melting cheese). Lots of peppers and that delicious tomato-fenugreek sauce – like the paneer pizza. I’m not complaining, I assure you. I loved this pizza.

The stuffed potato cakes were stuffed with chili-spiced spinach green. I’ve had something this, somewhere else, but it wasn’t nearly as good as this one. Especially with this awesome ginger golden raisin sauce. A great appetizer. 

The winner of the day was the Potato & Tandoor-Roasted Vegetable pizza. It’s a good mix of roasted vegetables and has mango powder (which I can can’t even comprehend what that even is) and black salt. But the amazing part of this is actually TWO amazing parts: habanero harissa sauce and the fact that it’s served on potato-chili naan, instead of the plain naan that the other two pizzas were served on. It definitely had some zing to it and we all loved the heat. It might need a warning for Minnesotan’s who are spice-adverse. It was the best thing I’ve eaten in a while. I’ll be recommending this to tons of people.

Amazing job, Pizza Karma!! You’re nailing it!!!

www.pizzakarma.com

blk mrkt StP – St. Paul

D.Rough sent me an excited message about this BBQ place that was near our house.  This place is a giant custom grill on flatbed trailer. They’re open one day a week (Friday from 5-7pm) and take advanced orders (so they know how much to make and don’t waste anything). They also occasionally do guest appearances and cater events from time to time. You order from their website before Thursday night and the next day at 5, it’s ready to be picked up. It’s pretty ingenius!

During the summer months, it’s like a big party around their trailer (which I believe is parked in front of their house). People sitting in lawn chairs drinking beverages and eating picnic style all the things they’ve picked up from the BBQ trailer. During the winter months – which they say is actually one of their busy times since people want to pop by and grab something quick for the family on a Friday night – there’s less socializing, but the people working are still just as friendly and happy to see you.

The menu is pretty simple and set up on a website to purchase with a card online or pay in cash when you pick up your food. It’s a small menu with family sized portions, but it’s got all the really awesome items you’d expect:

• Baby Back Pork Ribs
• Beef Brisket
• Beef Short Ribs
• Pork Shoulder (both shredded and whole)
• Beef Brisket (both sliced and a whole giant one)
• Smoked Beans

I decided to get the Baby Back Pork Ribs and the Beef Short Ribs. Some people say it’s expensive, but it literally is the exact same amount you’d pay at a sit down restaurant – it just isn’t portion controlled for one person. It’s family style. It is very appropriately priced, in all honesty. Don’t listen to those complainers! Hahaha

The Baby Back Pork Ribs were delicious. Not falling off the bone (which means they’ve been steamed too long), but just the perfect amount of fight to them. You can get the bones clean on these ribs, but it chews like actual delicious well-prepared meat. There’s not really a sauce on them, although they’re juicy enough to make it look like a sauce. Just the perfect amount in my opinion. And a full rack looks really large when you see it up close and personal. Great work on these ribs!

The Beef Short Ribs were huge. We literally got two rib bones with a large amount of meat on them. The meat on these is crazy flavorful and the little fat that was on there was the melt-in-your-mouth kind, not the gristle-and-grease kind. Excellent bark on these, as well. These folks know what they’re doing. Immediately after D.Rough and I ate these things (well, ate half of them and saved the rest for the next day), I sent out a bunch of emails and FB messages about these things. They were really that good. I know people aren’t going to drive across town to pick up these ribs, but anyone in the Downtown St. Paul area, West St. Paul, South St. Paul, and even Mendota Heights could pick a Friday dinner up for the family and be reallllly happy with the results.

You won’t be sorry!

www.blackmarketstp.com

Kuma’s Corner (Original Location) – Chicago, IL

After a hard night of tiki-drinking, there’s no better place to go with a pounding headache than to a heavy metal bar. That bar also happens to serve the best burger in Chicago and one of my top 5 burger places I’ve ever been to. Let’s just say that between the black metal they were playing loudly over the bar speakers and the sitting-next-to-the-sun daylight streaming through the windows, it was a sunglasses-on sort of burger feast. I’m also amazed that I’ve never written about this place before. My apologies on not spreading the love. Sometimes you have to wait an hour or two to get a seat (literally), and other times, when you walk in right when they open, you get seated right away.

I could go on and on about Kuma’s Corner. It really is an incredible place. Don’t let the heavy metal part of this fool you. It’s an upscale burger place – Think caramelized pears, chicken strips, fried giardinera, crab cakes, whiskey soaked dill pickles, braised venison, or pork chops as toppings on a wonderful beef patty. THAT’s the kind of fancy stuff you get here. Most of the burgers and sandwiches are named after metal bands, which is fun for a guy like me. They also cater to vegans and vegetarians by offering substitutes to beef patties, like chicken breasts, and a few different non-meat substitutes that are apparently some of the best in the business. These folks support local bands and craft beers, and also give back to the communities they’re in. Each month, they have a new over-the-top burger that a portion of the profits go to some local charity picked by the staff. Really smart and HUMAN.

The menu always takes a while to go through, since everything looks incredible. They have mac and cheese, tons of burger options, other amazing sandwiches, and a few salad options. Then they have a large craft beer list. I’d always encourage you to check out the Burger of the Month, though. It’s sort of a thing there. This particular trip, I knew I needed to have it. It was called the Dillinger Escape Plan – a band I do NOT support for a number of reasons involving d-baggery on stage – and the proceeds were going to a good cause. This burger will blow your mind.

It’s a 10 oz beef patty on a bed of spicy potatoes O’Brien, monterey jack cheese, country fried steak, chorizo & poblano sausage gravy, a fried egg, and chives. It’s a wonderfully delicious mess.

D.Rough got the Sourvein – 10 oz beef patty covered in deep fried blackened chicken tenders, Applewood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, Belgian waffle strips, maple syrup, and raspberry aioli. Brilliant.

We didn’t realize that both of us basically ordered brunch-style burgers. Also, neither of us had beer.

On the DEP burger, the chorizo sausage gravy was simply killer. It went so well with the chicken fried steak that it was insane. The fried egg drizzled everything nicely and cheese was a nice surprise every once in a while. Well done on this very special burger plate.

The Sourvein burger was a challenge to eat, due to its height, but was basically chicken and waffles on top of a burger. The raspberry aioli was a really well thought out touch and everything was magical. Loved this burger!

If you’ve never been here, you need to go. It’s so good they had to open up three additional locations to keep the crowds manageable. I haven’t been to any of the new locations, but they look cleaner and less dive-bar-style than the original one. But I’m guessing the food is just as awesome. I’ve got friends that live in Chicago that post about Kuma’s all the time and I’m always jealous. I was long overdue for a visit here and I’m glad it happened…even though I was ready for a nap and still had 6.5 more hours to drive back to Minneapolis…

www.kumascorner.com

3 Dots & A Dash – Chicago, IL

Most of you know D.Rough and I have a deep love for tiki drinks – think rum and fruit juice on a Polynesian island. We’ve tried to find a way to get to Chicago’s 3 Dots & A Dash for a few years now. We finally made it happen!

A lot of tiki-lovers have issue with this place because it’s loud and expensive, but we didn’t care. We saw a few comments that said you should get a reservation if at all possible, so we did long ahead of time. Even so, we could only get a spot at 10:30pm, which was fine by us. 

It has a sort of speakeasy feel, with an entrance in an alley (although, it’s pretty well marked once you’re in the alley), and a dark staircase into the basement (once you get past the bouncer). If you don’t have reservations, be prepared to stand outside in a line about 200 people long waiting to get a standing spot near the bar – just letting you know. 

When you walk down the staircase, you’re facing a beautiful glowing wall of skulls, which is sort of a signature feature in the place. Very tasteful and fun, in my opinion. There’s a spot to stand near the hostess stand where we waited a couple of minutes for our table to be made ready. Everyone is so nice here!

As I said, if you don’t have a reservation, you don’t get a table. GET A RESERVATION. There is a long row of 4-person tables in the middle of the dining room and then larger booths and spaces for parties along the walls of the dining room. It’s very well decorated and definitely has a relatively authentic (but upscale) tiki feel to it. Yes, it IS loud, but it’s a combo of both music and talking energy, which we thought was enjoyable. Sorry, old people, it isn’t a quiet 1960’s Polynesian basement den with calming ukulele sounds in the background! The server we had was pretty fantastic and went through the layout of the impressive menu. Single person drinks on these pages, multi-person drinks on these pages, ridiculously expensive drinks (like $400 or served in a pirate ship with a full bottle of rum) on these pages, specific fancy sipping rums on these pages, food on these pages, and merchandise on these other pages.

D.Rough and I had intended to keep it tame and have one or two single-person drinks. That was the PLAN. Every drink on this menu sounds amazing, however. But we started tame. D.Rough got an Aloha Felicia and I got a Fat Bottom Mermaid. 

These drinks showed up VERY quickly, which was amazing. (Note: a lot of the drinks are made in the back of the house, since the bartenders serving non-reservation people can’t keep up with the crazy demand of the tables, so you won’t get to see your drink being made, if that’s your thing.) Both of these drinks seemed to be tailor-made to our tastes. Mine was rum and crazy fruit juices, and D.Rough’s was rum and crazy coconut and other juices. Completely different tasting drinks and we loved both of them. In fact, they were some of the best tiki drinks we’ve ever had.  They’re probably pricy for drinks at a tiki bar in say Omaha, but in Chicago, this is how much drinks cost – deal with it.

The night was going well. We were happy with our drinks, with our server, with the random people talking to us as they walked past, and with our entire situation. We looked at the single-person drinks, and then a little deeper into the menu and decided that since we were here and it was sort of a special destination for us, that we should possibly take advantage of the circumstance and get something special. We literally wanted every drink on the multi-person drink pages, but we finally decided on the Bali Bali – rum, Armagnac, gin, and various juices – but for 4-5 people. Also, the picture on the menu sold it, as well. 

It arrived just as fast as the other drinks, but it was bubbling and glowing and “smoking” all over the place from the dry ice. People from around the bar literally came over to our table to take photos and video of it – really one of the most impressive drinks I’ve ever had. AND, it was D-LISH-OUS! Sure we were getting a little crazy with our ordering, but we felt like this was worth it, even for the presentation alone – not to mention the taste was way better than we expected.

We polished that drink off and thought we had better order some food, since we didn’t appear to be slowing down. We ordered the Lanai Luau Chips. These seemed like they might soak up some booze! They’re like vegetable pork rinds (which I’m sure just horrified a bunch of my vegetarian friends), served with a delicious mango guacamole. There were more of them than I thought there would be, but we definitely finished them off. Really tasty snacks.

We weren’t sure the chips were going to be enough so we ordered the Thai Fried Chicken…. and then some more drinks. I got the Saturn & Negroni and D.Rough got the Idle Hands Do The Devil’s Work. Again, these drinks were perfectly suited to our regular drinking tastes, except they were monumentally better than what we normally drink. The Saturn & Negroni is gin, homemade orgeat, and tropical juices and the Idle Hands is like a classic non-blended daiquiri, but with banana rum. Both were killer. And the Thai Fried Chicken was much better than we thought it was going to be. Great fry on the outside of these chicken pieces and just a tiny bit of spice in the wonderful glaze that was on them. We’re really glad we got these! 

Somehow, I talked D.Rough into getting another drink with dry ice in it – I’m sure I’m SUPER smooth and convincing when I’ve had eleventeen drinks. So I ordered the Shotstopus. 

It’s basically shots of 151 rum and juices but served on an awesome octopus display with dry ice. D.Rough was ready to be done when it came out, so I basically drank both shots (slowly, so I could actually taste how amazing they were). And they were awesome, in case you were wondering.

At this point, I was feeling on top of the world. SO much so that I spoke German with our server – who was originally from Germany. Fact: I don’t speak German. (To be fair, I took German in college for a bit, but that was a hundred years ago and I’ve lost it all…until I get a “few” drinks in me”)

Thankfully, D.Rough talked me out of ordering any more delicious drinks. She’s the brains AND the looks of this operation. She asked if this is a regular occurrence when I find tiki bars with my friends while I travel around the country for roller derby tournaments. (She’s an actual athlete that takes care of her body while the rest of us schlubbs regularly request late check-out of hotels and eat Advil like M&Ms after tiki nights.) So I suppose I’m more “in practice” than she is. That being said, no one was surprised when I woke up the next morning in our hotel room (thankfully) fully clothed and cradling the TV remote like it tried to get away from me during the night. Worth it. Worth every penny of the most expensive tiki night we’ve ever had. So much fun!!! 

And then the following morning, D.Rough and I continued the tiki fest by putting fun tiki garnishes in the copious amounts of water that we needed to drink!

You will be amused to find out where we went for lunch the next day on our way out of town…… hahahaha

www.threedotschicago.com

Iron Range Eatery – Crosby, MN

D.Rough and I were "up north" at the family cabin and needed to find some food – mainly because we didn’t catch enough crappies to make dinner.  We had done some previous research on restaurants near the somewhat isolated cabin and found the Iron Range Eatery. The menu looked fantastic and the reviews are almost entirely raving (in a positive way). Reservations can be made for 5:00, 6:30, and 8:00 pm – very specific times, so they probably have some control over their workflow and such. It’s just a good idea to get a reservation, even though it’s a small town – this place fills up!

We decided to split the poutine, since someone else had it and it looked amazing. Battered fries with chicken gravy, cheese curds, and Applewood bacon. Yeah, it was crazy good.

We also got a caramelized pear and gorgonzola pizza – it just sounded right. It was! A really interesting – in a GOOD way – combination of flavors you don’t normally run across. The blue cheese wasn’t super overwhelming, and was balanced nicely with the sweetness of the pears. The walnuts also added some fun textures. A fantastic pizza!

I really “won” this dinner with my order, however – roasted sausage and chicken penne. It sounds like it could be blah, but it was some of the best pasta I’ve had recently. It’s their signature pasta and now I know why. It’s really quite spicy, so Minnesotans should steer clear of it, but the flavor was so incredible, I couldn’t stop eating it. The sausage was spicy and flavorful without being too fennel-y, and the chicken was moist and plentiful. The sauce was simply magic. I’d recommend this to anyone who can handle the heat. I will be hard-pressed to order anything else when I go back to this place, since it was so good.  Well done, Iron Range Eatery.

http://ironrange.3cheersmn.com

Crystal Garden – Minneapolis, MN

A-Wow and I had finished our work-based-biometric-screening-that-impacts-how-much-we-pay-for-health-insurance-premiums, so it is time again to let our bodies go for 11.5 more months. We usually hit up a buffet to really maximize our caloric intake and today was no different. We picked a spot neither of us had been, so we were really going into this with low expectations. I mean, one of our worst experiences was Wang’s, and they’ve since closed – so it couldn’t be worse than that.

The place is a challenge to get to, first off. You can only see the place from one direction on Hiawatha Ave, and if you SEE it, you’ve already driven past it and can’t get back to it. So, you have to circle behind a couple of buildings and a gas station to find it. Then, add on a bunch of construction to the mix and you consider yourself lucky to get to the business. However, A-Wow and I are tenacious, when it comes to food.

The inside is a pretty typical mom and pop Chinese restaurant, so not much to note here. A lot of older Caucasian folks in this particular lunch crowd. The buffet does have a decent spread, which was nice. However, many, if not most, of the name tags above them were scrambled in a pretty hilarious way, so you really didn’t know what you were getting. (Note: during our second trip to the buffet, there was an attempt made by the staff to correct this slightly)

As you can see, a lot of the food is friend and/or brown. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I like to point it out for my vegetarian friends who expect a little more color on the plate. The vegetables that DID exist were actually pretty good. The first plate ended up being more appetizer-y things than entrees, but that happens when I haven’t gotten a good feel for buffet items in relation to plate real estate. I’m not an egg foo yung guy, but the old people here were literally eating it up – it had to be replaced multiple times while we were there. The food was actually surprisingly delicious – better than expected, which was nice. They know their way around a fryer, clearly, and the food didn’t taste greasy. The cream cheese wontons were actually some sort of pork product packets, but whatever. The egg drop soup, which I know everyone likes different styles, is of the “snot” variety with lots of egg yolks and not much broth. It was tasty though.

Plate two – more of the same, but with more entrees. Delicious.

What? There’s more? Yes. Plate three. A-Wow is more polite than I am, so he stuck with only two plates. Will power: Something I don’t excel in.

This place is about average or slightly better than average in the grand scheme of Chinese food buffets. I’m not sorry I ate here, but I know there are other buffets to try before I end up back here. Not bad, though! Definitely worth a try if you fully intend to go there – you’re not going to swing past it and remember in time to make the turn to find it. Plus, the price is right - $7.75 during the week.

http://www.crystal-garden-mn.com

Café d’Marie – Davenport, IA

D.Rough and I were headed out of town and needed to grab some coffee and a snack for the road. The number one place from Trip Advisor was Café d’Marie – I’d never heard of it, but if everyone thinks it’s great, then we’d have to go there.

There’s a newspaper clipping just inside the door with the history of the place – Dr. DeAnna Walter operated a chiropractic office out of her home and would serve coffee, tea, and sometimes whatever she baked in her kitchen in the waiting area. People began asking for more food items, and within a few years, she hung up her chiropractor jacket and started a breakfast and lunch place – and is KILLING IT!

It’s not a big place, so you may have to wait in the hall way of her really beautiful house (literally) for a seat in the dining area, but there are all kinds of coffee and tea options, scones, cakes, cookies, and a bunch of amazing-looking quiches. We grabbed some coffees and a slice of quiche, and then while we waited, we caved and got a slice of this really attractive chocolate cake (somehow, I managed to talk myself out of the signature bread pudding, which I still regret).

The quiche was even better than we expected, and we wolfed that down pretty quickly, even though the slice was generous.

The chocolate cake was extremely moist and rich without being overwhelming.

Overall, the people at Café d’Marie know how to work magic. Give these folks a visit and you’ll be glad you did!

www.facebook.com/cafedmarie

Nally’s Kitchen – Davenport, IA

D.Rough and I were in the Quad Cities visiting some friends and we both stumbled across recommendations for this place independently – which meant we probably should go there. 

It’s a small little shop, but it does have plenty of room in the dining room for 15 tables or so. 

We checked out the menu behind the register and finally decided what we wanted – it wasn’t easy, since everything sounded delicious and there are photos of some of the dishes that kept making us change our minds.

We went with an order of empanadas – one of each of the dinner ones (meaning, not the dessert ones, which they are known for, as well), and the beef enchilada plate to split. We didn’t want to over-do it, so we kept the order small…. Or so we thought…

They brought out chips and salsa to the table, which was exactly what we needed (we were starving). Great homemade chips and the salsa had a little amount of heat to it, but great flavor. The server noticed we plowed through the first basket of chips and brought us another – super service!

The enchiladas came out and looked so tasty. A good amount of cheese on top, without being completely covered. The rice and beans were fine and I ended up eating all of those, since D.Rough didn’t want to waste her time on them – hahaha. The beef enchiladas were really awesome. Tons of meat in them, which great flavor and the enchilada sauce clearly was NOT from a can. Fantastic enchiladas!

The empanadas were where it’s at, though. Light and flaky crust and lots of filling inside each one. Also, molten lava. These were the best things we ate the whole trip! I think how we ordered them (one of each) is the best way to eat these, but some people like to really commit to one, so here is the order that I would place them in based on my own internal and random rating system:

1. Chicken
2. Cheese Steak
3. Spicy Ham
4. Cheesy Potato Bacon
5. Beef
6. Potato with Chorizo

Note: Nally's does have some dessert empanadas and stuffed churros, as well, but we were too stuffed to eat anything else - NEXT TIME!!!

The folks here at Nally’s Kitchen were really nice and helpful. They were rockin’ some awesome music from the kitchen (I’m a big fan of Jose Jose and I was singing along with it in the dining room). The food selection is pretty impressive and the quality and taste can back it all up. Just get here, if you’re passing through the area or if you live there. Really top-notch Mexican food.

www.nallyskitchen.com

Hai Hai – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I needed “treat-yo-self” night, so we headed to Hai Hai – a relatively new “modern Vietnamese” restaurant in Northeast. It’s actually in the former strip club known as the Deuce Deuce, but don’t let that scare you. they’ve done amazing work in side and it looks absolutely lovely inside. The bar area is fun and inviting and the dining room has plenty of room without being too crowded. There’s also a really nice patio out back for more summertime dining.

D.Rough had already been to this restaurant before, so she knew the ropes and suggested a few things. A couple of appetizers to share and then two entrees to share. And, of course, cocktails. They have an amazing cocktail menu, which I have a feeling I’ll be working my way through in its entirety, at some point. 

I got something called Topical Tradewinds, which is some rum with jackfruit, falernum, pineapple in lime, served in a nice looking bowl. It was delicious!! D.Rough got the Hotel Continental – multiple rums, pineapple, and some other things, served in an awesome tiki glass – yes, I was jealous. Hers was also extremely good.

For food we got the salt and pepper fried tofu and the Hai Hai Spring Rolls. The fried tofu is so good, that it hurts. It’s large pieces of fried tofu – large enough to cut into 2, 3, or 4 pieces – sitting in a delicious rice powder and lime leaf sauce, and a small amount of thai chilis on the side that you can add if you like. It’s REEEEEALY good.

The Hai Hai Spring Rolls were good, but very unusual. It’s like a standard/non-fried spring roll, but there’s a pork sausage inside it and a fried egg roll skin inside, as well. It’s got a lot of different textures going on, which is nice, but it’s unusual, to say the least. It’s served with this delicious sauce for dipping, as well, and you’re going to love that part especially. Not our favorite thing on the table, but we did still enjoy it!

For dinner, we got Beef Larb and Hanoi Sticky Rice. It was extremely difficult to determine which one we liked best. The Beef Larb was great. I mean really great. It was served with some cabbage leaves for scooping the ground and spiced beef into, and also a few sesame-shrimp chips. Both were great. This had plenty of spice in it, but the seasoning on it was wonderful.

The Hanoi Sticky Rice was a tasty bowl of multiple ingredients – ground pork, pork floss (which is my favorite thing ever), Chinese pork sausage, mung bean, fried shallot, pickled vegetable, and some cucumbers in a sauce that you dump on top. All of these ingredients are sitting on top of a fantastic bed of sticky rice. The idea is to mix the whole thing together (which is difficult since the bowl is full), and then chow down. It was great, especially when you got some of each ingredient all in one bite. It was magic in a bowl.

I almost forgot about dessert!! They have four desserts on a small menu, that I believe rotates weekly or monthly, and they all look great. D.Rough got the Racine cake last time, so this time, we got the Coffee Pots de Crème. It had these delicious little crispy wafer things in it that I won’t even begin to describe. And the layers of sugary dessert were much better than I expected. Just get this thing.

Honestly, the next time we go back here, it’s going to be difficult to NOT get one of these four things again, since I know how good all of them are. There are, however, a few more items on the menu that I want to try, so that will help. I’m already planning it out and looking forward to the next trip there! Amazing job, Hai Hai!

www.haihaimpls.com