Yum! - Minnetonka, MN

This will be short and sweet this time, I promise!

I love Pot Pies (actually most meat pies, in general, I would push people out of the way to get at). I was meeting a friend for lunch at Yum, and have never seen anyone order them from here. I asked about them and the counter person said they were fantastic. They were right.

These pot pies are super fluffy and delicious!!! I wondered if it was going to be a biscuit on top, but it wasn’t – it was absolutely a light fluffy poofed up pastry. The fillings, chicken, veggies, and sauce were delicious, and I’d order this thing anytime I go back, which sadly, isn’t often enough.

Time to put pot pies on my work calendar to make sure it fills the pot pie-shaped void in my life.

www.yumkitchen.com
 

Scoreboard Bar & Grill – Minnetonka, MN

Sometimes, you just need to leave the office for lunch. I rounded up JJ and we headed to Scoreboard for a business lunch. The place is decorated pretty plainly, but they do have a number of sports-filled televisions all over the walls and ceiling. The menu has pretty standard bar fare with burgers, sandwiches, salads, and fried appetizers.

I went with one of the specials for the day – a breaded pork sandwich. I made sure with the server that this was indeed a breaded pork tenderloin. I’m a bit of a Pork-T snob from my years in the central Midwest, where they truly are the best. See THIS post for the best in recent years. I also had the option for sweet potato tots, which I DID order, and also a side of buffalo sauce. JJ went with the salad bar, since he’s trying to cure his summer illness from the inside – sucker.

The food showed up and I was a little disappointed with the size. I know I’m spoiled by some of the biggest pork-T’s in the world, but I was expecting something bigger than what I got. There was a delicious sri racha mayo on top and generous helping of pickle slices, but the size was the biggest disappointment. The meat itself was just alright. Nothing to write home about, since there wasn’t a ton of flavor (the ketchup and buffalo sauce helped the sri racha mayo). The tots were equally disappointing as they were a little more potato puffs than shredded hash brown tots. Too small to even dip in the buffalo sauce without getting it all over your hands. I ended up using a fork to dip these gnocchi-like puffs in the sauce. Disappointing.

JJ was pretty happy with his salad bar decision, but mainly because he had access to unlimited saucy boneless wings no the salad bar. Those were actually pretty good, to be honest. I should have gone with the salad bar and pretended to be healthy while mounding chicken nuggets on my plate.

The end of the meal is topped with sprinkles since you get to get yourself a bowl of ice cream from the soft serve machine. Sadly there weren’t actually any sprinkles, much to my chagrin. I am beginning  to think I expect too much from some places. Hahahah..

Top 5 things about Scoreboard Bar & Grill

11. It’s really close to the office

22. They have beer – and SURLY, in fact

33. The lunch specials all sounded pretty good

44. You can get ice cream after your meal

55. Salad bar has boneless wings on it

Bottom 5 things

11. Pork-T was a little disappointing (size and flavor-wise)

22. Sweet potato tots were too small

33. Boring interior

44. It isn’t by anything else EXCEPT my office

55. No sprinkles on the ice cream after dinner

www.scoreboardmn.com

Yo-Yo Donuts and Coffee Bar – Minnetonka, MN

If you didn’t know, I love donuts. I’ll, of course, argue with you about whether cake donuts are real donuts (they’re NOT – they’re cake circles), but I love raised fried donuts with frosting, glaze, sprinkles, filling, cereal, or whatever you’ve got for me. I found out there was a donut place very close to my office in Eden Prairie that I hadn’t been to. If there’s any reason at ALL for me to get up early for work, it’s donuts.

The store is in a strip mall, sort of off the beaten path in Minnetonka. It’s actually quite a large space, especially compared to many donut places I’ve been to. They also roll a lot of business through here, which I was pleasantly surprised to see. People were ordering two and three dozen donuts for their offices and Yo-Yo never seemed to run out. They have quite a selection of donuts, rolls, twists, bear claws, and yes, those damn cake circles.

I ended up with a vanilla frosted donut with chocolate drizzle and a large cinnamon twist. I also ordered a white milk and a chocolate milk. I assumed the milks would be small cartons, or even small bottles. They weren’t. They were in huge 18 oz cups with lids poured out of a jug. Whoops! It’s a good thing I love milk. Hahahahaha

I know it’s difficult to do anything different with donuts, but these people have perfected the donut. TONs of glaze on the cinnamon twist and lots of cinnamon and sugar on the inside. The outside was crunchy and the inside was super soft. And the flavor of the dough itself was something special. I'm not even sure what it is about them, but they just have a "brighter" flavor to them. Maybe it's the fact you can actually TASTE the dough, as opposed to just sugar and/or grease, but it was fantastic. I was really surprised how much I liked this thing.

The same went for the vanilla frosted donut. Tons of frosting on it and the donut itself had the perfect texture. I think some donuts can be helped by heating up or making the outside moist. I disagree with that, in this case. They were perfect they was they were.

Uh… I think I have a new favorite donut place…

www.yoyodonuts.com

Wang’s Restaurant – Minnetonka, MN

My friend A-Wow got a job at the same company as me a few months back. Unfortunately, he’s in a completely different building across the Twin Cities from me. But that’s alright because now when we make lunch plans, we have many options between us that we can meet at. I found one of those places between us and, after IS topped giggling like a 12-year-old, I told him we’d be eating wangs. Er… rather… Wang’s Restaurant.


I met him there and walked past the smallest buffet I’ve ever seen. Seriously. D.Rough’s mother puts on a larger spread than this and that’s even when you show up unannounced at her house! We were both looking forward to chi-buf fare, so we rolled with it. Maybe those food items were carefully honed and going to be stellar, right? Well, maybe.

A-Wow is one of those curious people who judge a restaurant on its appetizers. I’ll never quite figure that out, since appetizers seem to be such little effort items in most places. (Another person I know who does this pre-judging is HotGirlsBrother – he judges Mexican restaurants on their free chips and salsa, which seems like judging how good someone is in bed by reading a name in a phonebook)(that’s just me though). A-Wow returned with a heaping pile of appetizers. Some of each, in fact. There were only two – cream cheese puffs and dumplings. Meanwhile, I took a large plateful. And in fact, got everything on the buffet in one trip.

Fried rice, cream cheese puffs, dumplings (with chicken on the inside), garlic chicken, sweet and sour chicken, chicken Lo Mein, chicken and mushrooms, and chicken wings (sense a theme here?).


The appetizers were actually quite good. Crispy cream cheese puffs with plenty of filling and the dumplings were good and full of insides (chicken) and not rubbery. Delicious. The rest of the food was just alright. Slightly over and under par. It’s a good thing I like chicken. The sweet and sour chicken was sort of what you’d expect (and A-Wow and I were both glad you could tell it was chicken). The Lo Mein was a bit flavorless. The chicken and mushrooms and garlic chicken were just alright. The fried chicken (literally just fried chicken) was really greasy, but actually had a great flavor. I was a little alarmed that all of the chicken drumsticks were bent at some unnatural angle. Seriously, look in both photos - the chicken has some crazy curve in it. Maybe bowlegged chickens or something. It was very weird, in fact.


For such a small buffet, it took a REALLY long time to refill the buffet items. In fact, I only got one round of dumplings since when they brought them out, they only brought out 8 and a couple of old guys stole them before I could get them. There were things that just never appeared again, so I heaped up on what I could – I was really more hungry than I thought I was. Note, that both A-Wow and I were clearing our throats after we ate from the commonly found “grease throat” at places with a LOT of grease on their food. It isn’t a complaint – unless you don’t like greasy food – then Wang’s may not be your go-to place. Just saying.


It is a sure sign of a low-expectation place when the only regulars in the place are really old white people. The server seemed to know many of their names – they must come in a lot. But the server was really nice and friendly, so maybe she’s just a super server with a good memory.

Neither A-Wow nor I hated the place, but there are definitely better places. However, the price can’t be beat. Both A-Wow and I double checked to see if the price on the ticket was EACH or TOTAL. Since it was total, I offered to pay (in return for him picking up our next fifty dollar lunch, of course).


Top 5 things about Wang’s Chinese Restaurant
1. Amazingly inexpensive
2. Dumplings
3. Cream Cheese Puffs
4. Fried Chicken flavor
5. Sweet and Sour Chicken

Bottom 5 things
1. Smallest buffet ever
2. Really long time to refill the food
3. Flavorless Lo Mein
4. Flavorless Garlic Chicken
5. Fried Chicken grease


Wang’s Chinese Restaurant
10928 Greenbrier Road
Minnetonka, MN 55305

Wanderer’s Garden – Minnetonka, MN

TheDoctor talked Smallz and I into going out to lunch today. As most of you know, that’s not terribly difficult and simply involves a txt message like “What’s for lunch?” and then we figure it out from there. I did some quick Internet-sleuthing to determine which places within a half-hour drive I needed to review (the list is getting smaller and smaller). I found one called Wanderer’s Garden – a Chinese food buffet up north a bit. Smallz had been there, and said it was passable, so we headed there.

It’s a fairly standard Chi-Buf, so nothing much to report on the inside of the place. Plenty of people inside, a good sign. We got a table and headed for the buffet. There’s a salad portion of the buffet (which we all skipped) and then there’s the main Chinese-food portion of the buffet. I grabbed as much food as I could handle on one plate, knowing I’d have to go back for more, and headed back to the table.

The appetizer parts were about 50/50. The cream cheese wonton was flat, almost devoid of cream cheese, and pretty overdone. However, the vegetarian egg roll wasn’t bad. A tad too much cinnamon (par for the course in the Twin Cities, apparently), but still pretty tasty and perfectly cooked.

The various entrees were less impressive, to be honest. It seemed like all of the brown sauces were the same and not very good. The sauces were a little gritty/gummy. The meat was chewy compared to most chi-bufs I’ve been to and I wasn’t really a big fan. I even had some of the egg-foo-yung, which ended up being less than stellar. The sweet and sour chicken looked fine, except for the neon yellow sauce that I think was the sweet and sour sauce. The chicken itself wasn't that great either - a bit rubbery for my taste.

I even went up a second time to try some things I hadn’t gotten the first time and to retry some things, just to make sure. It didn’t help. The second plate was just as unappealing as the first one. I had planned on this lunch being a three-plate lunch, but just wasn’t feeling a third plate.

The highlight of the buffet for me was the sesame chicken. I know this dish isn’t hard, so that’s a little less than impressive. It was decent though.

The place was doing really good business, but I was less than impressed. Disappointed, in fact. I can think of a ton of much better Chinese food buffets to go to before I’ll go back here. Sorry, Wanderer’s Garden, I’m not a fan.

Top 5 things about Wanderer’s Garden
1. Sesame Chicken
2. Egg rolls
3. Lo Mein noodles
4. Fried rice
5. It's less than $9 to eat the buffet for lunch

Bottom 5 things
1. Beef and Broccoli
2. Sweet and sour chicken (and the freaky yellow sauce)
3. Egg foo yung
4. Cream cheese wontons
5. Potatoes stir-fried with onions

www.wanderersgarden.com

Ham's Sandwich Shop - Minnetonka, MN

I’ve mentioned before that DawgMan has never given a bad food recommendation in his life. Gerd told me, after the first could successes of DawgMan’s recommendations, “Just go wherever he tells you to. He only eats good food!” So now, when DawgMan suggests something, I try to get there as soon as possible. He had mentioned a sandwich shop off the beaten path last week, and with the boss being out, we thought we’d have time to make it there (just in case we went over our allotted but vague lunch time).

It’s called Ham’s Sandwich Shop and it’s in Minnetonka, over by the Carlson towers off I-494. DawgMan said it had the best sandwiches ever. I’m fine with sandwiches, but I’m kind of from the camp where a sandwich is a sandwich. Yeah, Jimmy Johns and Quizno’s and Schlotzkys and Subway are all slightly different, but they’re all just sandwiches. This place had a pretty high bar set, yet still, I wasn’t expecting much more than just another sandwich.

It’s a bright happy place in a strip mall (a good sign) with 6 tables and 6 booths. You order at the counter from the menu boards on the wall. They had the “Top 10 Sandwiches” listed and a smaller board with classic sandwiches and truly, I’m guessing I changed my mind at least 10 times. Each sandwich had some pretty unique ingredients. Yes, there was standard stuff, but the differentiator was the stuff they add to it, like avacadoes, jalapeno bacon, chipotle mayo, garlic spread, habanero bbq sauce, etc. Honestly, this place has some serious sandwich wizards working in back.

I had finally decided on the El Diablo, which was a smoked turkey, jalapeno bacon, pepperjack cheese sandwich with lettuce tomato and chipotle mayo. Sounded amazing. But when I stepped up to order, there was another sign with the specials on it. And I changed my mind for the 11th time. I was intrigued by the Spicy BBQ Meatloaf sandwich on the list of specials. So I decided to go with that.

While we were waiting for our food, the owner, Joe, came out and talked to us. DawgMan and he have sons that played hockey together so they go way back. I asked a couple of questions and he gave me the scoop about his sandwiches. He pushes his head cook to come up with new and “out there” sandwich combinations and then HE gets to approve them. They go on the “specials” board and if the end of month sales are in the top 10, they move to the top 10 board. If tey fall off the top 10, they get rotated into the specials. The guy actually checks his sales figures!!! A TRUE business man and one of the smarter ones, I might add. He joked and chatted with us for a while, and then went back to the back. Really, Joe is a good guy with a head for business – that’s nice to see.

My sandwich came out and it was glorious. It was a thick slice of really tasty meatloaf covered in habanero BBQ sauce. It had a slice of provolone, lettuce, tomato, chipotle mayo (just a little, so it was awesome), and also some garlic spread all on multigrain bread. I pounced on this thing. In fact, I was through the first half before I remembered to take a photo. Seriously, I would put this in the top 5 sandwiches I’ve ever had. Super top notch, and I don’t EVER say that about sandwiches. Based on this one sandwich, I’m guessing the other sandwiches are equally good. But this meatloaf one was fantastic. The Habanero BBQ sauce had some zing, but was really palette-friendly. Yes, I’m actually raving (without glowsticks, thankfully) about a sandwich.

And a little bonus was a little peppermint patty thing for dessert in your basket. Excellent finishing move, like the Lion-Tamer.

I’ll note that I’m looking out the front store windows where there are words. I’m reading the words backwards since they’re facing out and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what squirrel-sliced ham was. It took me maybe 5 minutes to figure out it was spiral-sliced ham. If it WERE squirrel-sliced, I totally would have gotten some. It’s about time those free-loading bastards did something for a living, even if it’s cutting ham!

I don’t get up on my pulpit about much, but this place is one of those places. I grabbed a menu, so DawgMan and I can come here for lunch VERY soon. We made it there in under 15 minutes from Eden Prairie, so it’s definitely do-able for lunch.

Go to Ham’s Sandwich Shop.

Top 5 things about Ham’s Sandwich Shop

1. Spicy BBQ Meatloaf sandwich
2. Waaaaay too many awesome things to choose from
3. The whole family (who run the place) were super friendly and talkative
4. DawgMan paid for lunch – Cha-ching!
5. DawgMan’s perfect streak of restaurant recommendations continues

Bottom 5 things

1. Gerd would have loved this place and spit on Roly Poly after this, and she LOVED Roly Poly
2. I now have to say a sandwich place is just a sandwich place – totally ruins my complaining game
3. It’s kind of off the beaten path in the Northwest Minneapolis area
4. No Dew
5. I’m almost positive the name on the door doesn’t match the name on the sign, just weird (and confusing) 

www.cghams.com

Pairings Food and Wine – Minnetonka, MN

I originally intended to go to another restaurant, only to find out it’s been closed. However, I drove past this place called Pairings, and it looked interesting, so I drove back to it. It’s part wine shop, part, fancy cheese and deli market, and part restaurant – all upscale-style.

I hopped in line to look at the menu boards and looked around at the people. The queue to order food was a bit confusing as there was a line for salads and a line for entrees. And to boot, people would cut in line in the salad line if they too good to wait in line. I saw this twice in the time I was standing in line waiting to order my food. And I waited in line over 10 minutes. I’m no flow management person, but I think this place needs some redesigning.

The menu looked to be pretty comprehensive, with some really unique offerings. Lots of pasta, pizza, soups, and hot and cold sandwiches. And of course, a separate line for salads (build your own or made to order).

I decided on the Coconut Curry with Chicken – broccoli, baby spinach, orange and red bell peppers, basil, flat rice noodles, curry sauce, and a piece of flat bread. I also was enamored with the white bean, bacon, and sun dried tomato soup, so I got a cup of that as well. It was a tad pricey for lunch, but judging by the quality and appearance of the dishes I saw people around me eating, I thought it would be worth it.

I grabbed a table out on the patio since the inside was full. I didn’t get an umbrella or anything, so I sat outside and worked on my sun burn. The waiter brought my two items out and said the curry coconut dish was his favorite and I chose wisely.

He was totally right, the pasta dish was amazing. Really fresh ingredients and really good curry sauce. No complaints at all. It was one of the best curry dishes I’ve had. Almost borderline salad-ish with all of the greens in there. I’d highly recommend this to anyone. The bean soup was also really amazing. The bacon flavor came through (it’s really difficult to overdose me on bacon), and the sun dried tomatoes were a really good addition to the dish. Very very good.

I would consider this an upscale lunch place. It’s not super spendy, but you do get quality food. I’m not sure how much stuff they sell out of the deli case – I didn’t see anyone looking at that (mostly because it totally ruins the flow and you’d never actually get in line) – but the wine shop had a good flow of people in and out of it. I’m bummed that I didn’t actually get to try any of the “pairings”, but my work frowns upon coming in all loaded. Lame.

The clientele is also a bit upscale with some uppity snooty people and a lot of khaki-wearing d-bags. The wait staff seemed super helpful, though I did see a waiter kick the handicap door button to open it when he had his hands full with dishes. Not sure how sanitary that is, but I don’t work for OSHA or anything.

Just go to this place. And if you have a lunch meeting, it’s a pretty nice place to take a client (if you don’t mind waiting in line for a short stint).

Top 5 things about Pairings
1. Curry Coconut with Chicken
2. White Bean, bacon, and sun dried tomato soup
3. Super friendly staff
4. Really diverse menu
5. Might have to take some time in the wine shop – bonus!

Bottom 5 things
1. Bad flow, confusing and had to wait in line forever
2. Unsure of the purpose behind the market portion (maybe it’s better served NOT during lunch hours)
3. D-bag clientele
4. Had to sit outside and redden my fair Viking complexion
5. The waiter who kicked the handicap button to open the door

http://www.pairingsfoodandwine.com

Dragon Jade – Minnetonka, MN

Anytime I hear the word Jade, it reminds me of a story about my two friends, Chicken Little and Coach, fighting over who had dibbs on a stripper named Jade. It’s been a heated argument that gets brought up regularly over the past 10 years (yes, I’m sure Jade looks really pleasant now). Thankfully, I wasn’t involved in this trip to the strip club, so I’ve remained STD free while reaping the fruits of this hilarious competition that no one would really be a winner in. Needless to say, whenever I see anything related to Jade, I have a natural inclination to go there (physically and metaphorically).

I found a Chinese food place called Dragon Jade while searching for restaurants I could drive to during my lunch break. Sure, it’s not even remotely close (it’s in Minnetonka), but I figured I could do it anyway and work off the extra hours if caught. When I found the place, I was pleased since it was in a strip mall, which we’ve all learned by now is a great indicator of good Minnesota cuisine.

The inside of this place is the cleanest I’ve ever seen for a Chinese food place. It’s like dentist office clean with similar painting schemes. The decorations of course are all Asian-heritage, but it’s still immaculate. Weird (it’s sad that I think that’s weird in our developed country, but I do – ha ha ha). I brought some things to study since I have a mid-term exam last night and while I should have been studying last night, I went to see the new Harry Potter movie with some friends.

I checked out the lunch menu and found some non-standard things on it. The Drunken Pork with Peanuts intrigued me, so I went with that. It came with an egg roll and I’m always up for trying egg rolls at different places. I studied a little bit (enough to move me from a failing grade to a less failing grade, certainly!), and they brought the food out pretty shortly after that.

The egg roll was pretty good. A little too much cinnamon for my taste. I’m wondering if cinnamon is standard in Minnesota Chinese food and not in Illinois Chinese food. Might just be my preference since I grew up without it. Whatever. The pork itself was in a rich brown gravy, which I always enjoy gravy-related food items. The veggies were nice and crunchy and the pork was really flavorful and tender and not at all fatty, which is nice. Probably nothing flashy about this place, but it’s not one of those Chinese places where they all have a standard menu – Dragon Jade puts some effort and love into their food.

While eating I eavesdropped on this hilarious conversation on a girl and her sister at a table near mine. The younger girl was going on and on about her life dreams. “First, I’m going to join the Air Force and I’m going to play rugby. Then I’ll go to University of Minnesota for four years. Then I’m going to move to Ireland for a while and then come back to the US and work for Best Buy. But that all might change when I go to high school next year.” Seriously, the girl is in jr. high school and planning out all these hilariously detailed life plans. Hell, I STILL don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. The best part was her talking about rugby to her prissy older sister and how she should try it, but she might get a little bit dirty during the scrum. (If I had a nickel for every time I've said that...) Classic lunch conversation, especially coming from a jr. high girl.

Also, I got another fortune cookie message that borders on teh ghey (if you really reach for it): Success won't taste so good, without Failure as appetizers. [Yes, it had all the gramatic errors as shown.]

Top 5 things about Dragon Jade
1. Drunken Pork with Peanuts
2. Immaculately clean
3. Really cheap for lunch
4. Non-standard dishes to choose from
5. It reminds me of the Battle for Jade

Bottom 5 things
1. I talked myself out of ordering cream cheese wontons since they were Gerd’s favorite and I didn’t need 8 of them to myself
2. I got very little studying done
3. It’s a long haul for lunch if you work in Eden Prairie
4. The restaurant is NOT named after a stripper
5. Cinnamon in my egg roll – I might just have to get over this issue I have