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

Hoban Korean – Eagan, MN

D.Rough and I had both heard really amazing things about this place from a number of articles claiming it was the best in the Twin Cities. I hadn’t heard any friends talk about it, but it was in a further suburb, so I suppose I should have factored that in. We also heard they have karaoke attached to the restaurant, so we thought we’d better go check that out.

 

We went and checked out the Karaoke rooms while we waited for our table to be ready. They have four rooms of different size and they will bring you drinks and appetizers to your room, which sounds awesome. Looks like this could be a potential evening activity with some of our ridiculous friends…

The restaurant seated us in the large dining room, which was full. We scanned the menu and tried to figure out if we should go adventurous or play it safe. We decided on a safe appetizer and adventurous entrees. We got some spicy chicken wings to start. Then we got Meat Jun (sort of like a fried meat/bulgogi pancake), and also Hot and Spicy Octopus.

The chicken wings were really pretty darn good. Even better than I suspected they would be, since sometimes, Asian restaurants like to overcook the chicken and hope the sauce covers it up. These had a lot of meat on them and the sauce was really tasty and not very spicy. Just a little bit, but for Minnesota, that’s a lot. We both really liked these wings. 

The Hot and Spicy Octopus was next. We both love octopus, especially fried and grilled. I know Minnesota doesn’t have a huge bumper crop of octopus usually, so it was a gamble, but we were both up for it. It looked really pretty on the plate, so we were excited to check this dish out. D.Rough took the first bite to test it out. It was a small piece and I could tell by her face she wasn’t thrilled with it. Then I could tell, when she wasn’t through chewing it 5 minutes later, that it might not be the best-cooked octopus we’ve ever had. It clearly wasn’t. I’ve never actually had octopus this chewy before and I was really surprised how long it took for each piece to break down. The sauce itself and the vegetables were delicious, but the octopus was basically inedible. It was like eternally chewing on pieces of rubber and eventually, both of our jaws hurt from chewing and we gave up on it. I’d suggest a different dish to my friends who end up going there.

The Meat Jun sounded delicious. It arrived and looked a little drab. It was a sort of gray-ish-brown color that didn’t look all that appealing (especially compared to the awesome photos on the website). We were hoping to get over the texture of the octopus by eating this – but that wasn’t going to happen. The texture of this was possibly even worse. The meat was extremely chewey, and whatever breading they used on the outside was basically uncooked flour, yet super greasy. We tried a couple different pieces to make sure we didn’t just get one piece of non-perfect beef. But the whole thing was like this. We just kept chewing and chewing. The flour-y breading made the whole thing worse, so we just ended up stopping.

We figured we might as well drink, just to help recover from this. We ordered a small pitcher of Soju. Actually, we ordered three or four different kinds of flavored soju and they would come back and tell me they were out, so we finally ended up with the mango soju. Which, frankly, was DAMN delicious. Yes, we loved the awesome little ice-filled pitcher that it arrived in at the table, but the flavor was perfect. We know we can’t pour our own soju, so we kept filling each other’s glasses. We’re both givers. And yes, it did help us a little bit forget how bad the meal was. A LITTLE.

We got our large amount of uneaten food boxed up, so it didn’t look like we hated everything, and left. We immediately threw away the food when we got home. I apologize to the people that enjoy this restaurant. We simply had a bad experience here, which significantly pales in comparison to many other Korean restaurants we’ve eaten at. We may go back for the karaoke, appetizers, and drinks, but I don’t know that we’re going to order much off the main menu next time. We really wanted to like this place, but it just wasn’t up to our expectations nor past experience. Bummer

Top 5 things about Hoban Korean
1. The Mango soju (not even our first choice and it was great!)
2. Spicy Chicken Wings
3. Karaoke rooms looked awesome and the kid giving us the tour was really nice
4. Great menu photos for every dish
5. All the dishes come with many small accompanying dishes of various radishes, vegetables, and kimchee
 
Bottom 5 things
1. Meat Jun
2. Hot and Spicy Octopus
3. Out of all the best flavors of soju
4. The service was noticeably slow – we weren’t in a hurry, but geeeez
5. I don’t like writing bad reviews – it always makes me feel bad

www.hobanrestaurant.com

Junior’s Café and Grille – Eagan, MN

It’s been far too long since I’ve had a lunch date with EnyaFace!, but after many postponements, we made it happen. She works in Eagan, so she suggested Junior’s. I had never heard of it, but she said the food is pretty outstanding. Apparently, there are two locations (one in Burnsville), but we obviously chose the closer location.

The inside is like an old 50s diner. Lots of checkerboard patterns, photos of old gas stations and movie stars, lots of diamond plate, and red sparkly tables. The menu is much more expansive than I would have suspected plus they serve breakfast all day, so that was tempting. It took me a really long time to figure out what I wanted, but I finally decided on the Handyman Burger. It’s two hamburger patties, thick cut peppered pork belly, cheddar, swiss, and all the fixin’s. EnyaFace! got the fish n chips blue plate special, which I also had my eye on.

The place gets really packed at lunch, so you either need to plan ahead for that, or show up early/late. Just warning you in advance. Thankfully, the food was awesome. The burger is immense – double patties always make it larger, but it was still large, despite that. Lots of juice, without being greasy and the burger meat tasted good – I always check this to make sure they’re not masking inferior meat with a bunch of toppings. This place had high quality everything. I had to cut this one in half to make sure it fit in my face better. Seriously a great burger.

EnyaFace! was really happy with her fish n chips. She liked the fish flavor a lot, but the breading, she said she’d had better, but was still pretty happy with it.

Overall, I Think everyone was quite happy with the decision to eat here. I have a feeling I’ll be back here pretty soon. There are a ton of burgers and breakfast items I’d still like to try!

Not enough for a top 5, but obviously the Handyman Burger would be on there!

www.juniorssports.com

Teque Arepa – Eden Prairie, MN

I’m a big fan of arepas. I’ve had arepas from maybe ten different places, so I’m not an expert or anything, but I know what I like. For those not familiar, arepas are sort of like tacos, but on a corn starch circle of bread that looks like a large English muffin or a pita. They’re hold-able sandwiches filled with a variety of toppings. Arepa shells (are they called shells? that, I don’t know, actually) are either deep fried in oil or cooked on a flat-top.

A new Arepa place opened up in Eden Prairie in the old Roly Poly (which I was super sad to see leave) and I was dying to try it. I pulled into the parking lot and there was a car next to me with the menu held to the dashboard with a band-aid. That guys is SERIOUS about trying everything on the menu. I like your style, good sir.

The menu on the wall of the restaurant is comprehensive (the photo is from the small take-home menu). Lots of different fillings for your arepa, lots of sides, and lots of juices and drinks. A very nice gentleman at the counter welcomed me and asked if I had had Venezuelan food before. I told him I had had arepas before but not some of the other items, and I was looking forward to trying them. I ordered a Pabellón arepa (he said they were his best seller) and some Queso Blanco Empanadas. Sadly, the man told me the fryers weren’t working right now and I couldn’t get those, nor the fried plantains, nor the fried desserts (tequeños). He seemed as bummed as I did. But he did suggest, “maybe you just order two arepas!” – and that, I did, my friends. So I went with the Rumbera arepa. I had heard people raving about the lemonade with sugar cane in it, so I got one of those as well – called a Papelón con Limón. He asked if I wanted hot sauce or garlic sauce, and then he said, “maybe I just put them on the side. You can choose how much.” Great idea and thank you!

I was a worried when the order came out because the drink looked like a tamarind drink I saw some people drinking. Thankfully, it wasn’t – I’m not a fan of tamarind, no offense. But this was like a lemonade I’d never had before. Very sweet without being sickeningly sweet. The sour of the lemon balanced it all out – I was extremely pleased with this beverage choice. Although, next time, I want to try the soursop shake and pretty much every juice smoothie and shake they have.

The Arepa Rumbera was packed full. Sliced roasted pork and cheddar cheese busting out all over the place. I tried a bite to see if it was as good as it looked. The shell wasn’t greasy like some of the arepas I’ve had before at other places. Very light and just slightly grilled on each side, leaving marks. Crunchy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. The meat was extremely tender and flavorful and I just couldn’t get enough. I tried some with the garlic sauce – Winner. You need to use the garlic sauce. I tried some with the hot sauce – Winner. You need to use the hot sauce, as well. It isn’t like a salsa, it’s like a South American version of Frank’s Red Hot. Vinegary with heat, but also good flavor. Fantastic arepa!

The Pabellón was even better. I think this one is more traditional, based on others I’ve had. It has black beans, shredded beef, white cheese, and sweet plantain slices. I loved that with every bite, there would be this delicious sweet plantain flavor right at the end of the chewing. This one got a little messy, but only because it was packed full, like the first one. Again, the garlic sauce and the hot sauce jazzed it up (not that it needed it) just right.

There was a Venezuelan guy sitting behind me explaining all things Venezuelan to his coworker. Normally, I would have been annoyed, but he was extremely knowledgeable and thorough. I soaked it all up. He talked about how he makes arepas the easy and fast way for his kids every Sunday morning, but Teque Arepa makes them the traditional and better way. They were also playing Venezuelan music on the speakers inside and he commented that what they were actually playing was traditional Christmas music in Venezuela – he was amused.

There were tons of Spanish-speakers eating lunch here, which I was really happy to see. The dining room was decreased since Roly Poly moved out, but there are still 6 or 7 small tables to sit at – all of which were full. Man, I hope this place stays open forever!

I think I just found my new favorite lunch place.................


Top 5 things about Teque Arepa
1. Pabellón arepa
2. Rumbera arepa
3. Lemonade with Sugar Cane - Papelón con Limón
4. Really friendly staff
5. Very generous portions

Bottom 5 things
1. Bummed about the fryers not functioning – but totally forgivable
2. I wish I had a fork. None was brought out and none were provided near the counter
3. Very small dining room
4. So many things, it’s hard to decide – just keep going back!
5. This place is far from my home, but very close to my work. Dang it, now I’m going to want to go to work ALL THE TIME…

Teque Arepa
7733 Flying Cloud Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
(952) 405-8092

Haiku Japanese Bistro – Inver Grove Heights, MN

D.Rough and I noticed a new Japanese restaurant going in a strip mall near our house. When it finally opened, we knew we needed to try it, especially since we were in need of a sushi fix. When we got there, we were impressed with how full the restaurant was – it seems to be doing good business. We were also impressed with the lighting in this place. A considerable amount of tho0ught and money went into the lights, which are everywhere: on the ceiling, no the floor, on the pillars, behind the bar, above the bar, under the bar, in the food – yes, some of the bowls and glasses are lighted. It’s crazy and very modern without being corny. Nicely done.

The menu has a lot of appetizers and entrees on it, some hibachi items, and sushi. A nice mix, so you’ll get fed no matter what you’re in the mood for. They also have a pretty significant cocktail and drink menu, including a couple Japanese beers and sake drinks. D.Rough and I had to narrow down what we wanted, but it didn’t take us terribly long. We went with a Kani Salad (D.Rough’s favorite salad of all time), and a few sushi rolls, a Rainbow Roll, Sweet Potato Tempura Roll, Tuna Family Roll, and Slamming Salmon Roll.

I will suggest you ask about the Crazy Spider Roll. I didn’t and I should have. On the menu, it says it’s a tempura spider, which I assumed was a typo. When I checked out the website, sure enough, it still says tempura spider. If you order that, please let me know what you get on your plate. I’m verrrrry curious.

The Kani Salad arrived and was different than we’ve had in the past. We expected a layer of seaweed, but there wasn’t one – no bother there. Thankfully, the shredded crab meat was quite tasty and was mixed in well with shredded cucumber and likely some jicama, and then some spicy mayo and masago crumbs on the top. It had a great flavor, but it was a tiny bit dry. We mentioned next time, we might order a seaweed salad to accompany the Kani Salad and mix bites of it for more moisture. But honestly, the Kani Salad was tasty and we wolfed it down very quickly. And the spicy mayo had a hidden kick that we both loved.

In order of how I liked our sushi rolls (least to best):

The Tuna Family Roll was alright. Not my favorite. It had a lot of wasabi in it (wasabi mayo, to be exact), which isn’t my favorite. The spicy tuna inside the roll was quite good though. I liked the pepper in the pepper white tuna, as well. Mainly, my issue was with the overpowering wasabi.

Slamming Salmon Roll, my third favorite of the rolls. This had some great flavors on the inside, but it was masked by the wasabi mayo and then the wasabi tobiko crumbs on the top. I figured if you were going to double up on the wasabi items, you’d scale back their potency – not so in this case. And the amount of wasabi crumbs on top, made this roll difficult to eat. There were crumbs all over the table and in my lap, no matter which direction you turned the roll, there were crumbs falling. Again, the spicy salmon on the inside of the roll was quite good, as was the pepper tuna on the top. A decent roll, but probably more so if you really like wasabi a lot.

The Sweet Potato Tempura Roll was much better than expected. It’s also very inexpensive. And quite good. It’s got a smokey flavor from the sweet potato and is more heavy duty than most rolls I’ve had, but it’s really worth getting.

The Rainbow Roll was the best of the rolls. Each fish did taste slightly different and there was plenty of avocado to add a little bit of interesting texture and flavor without being too much. They’re good sized rolls, so we were really happy to see that. I was happy there no wasabi, frankly.

Overall, I feel like the flavors were somewhat muted and not bright and vibrant. I’ve had sushi that puts a smile on my face and makes you feel like you’re ALMOST eating a healthy snack with all the vibrant pops of flavor. This sushi wasn’t bad, it was just middle of the road. It is better than buffet sushi, without a doubt, and there really isn’t anything wrong with it. But I didn’t feel like it was a happy and light meal. Of course, I’ll be back, and am looking forward to it. There are a lot of things on the menu that I want to try and those cocktails may be calling my name here in the near future…

Top 5 things about Haiku Japanese Bistro
1. Rainbow Roll
2. Sweet Potato Tempura Roll
3. Atmosphere is pretty cool
4. Thorough food and cocktail list
5. Kani Salad flavor

Bottom 5 things
1. Heavy on the wasabi
2. Blinking neon lights in a bowl of king crab legs MIGHT be a little over the top (I was going to say jumped the shark, but that, my friends would be too many seafood references and thus, jumping the shark)
3. Kani salad was a tad dry
4. The bar area seems a bit jumbled with bottles randomly stuck on the short wall in front of the pretty purple wall
5. Still curious about a tempura spider…

www.haikujapanese.com

BJ’s Hot Dog Shoppe & Italian Beef

DorkyBarb mentioned a few months back that she needed to take me to this particular hot dog place in St. Paul. I, of course, was very interested. But it wasn’t until after this wildly inappropriate shower proposition conversation we had that I actually went there. See below…

DorkyBarb met me there, since she works nearby. The place is in a small off-the-beaten path strip mall on the east side of St. Paul. You really have to MEAN to go there, though they do have a sandwich-board-style sign on a more busy street to let people know they’re there.

You order at the counter from this incredibly awesome and friendly man who will tell you what’s good (everything), let you sample things (everything), and makes you feel right at home. He even gave me a sample of the Italian beef in a little sample cup, just so I could make sure I was going to like it – it was top-notch. I like this guy. He’s originally from Chicago and takes an immense amount of pride in the quality of his food. He’s old school and he knows what he’s talking about. You can get dogs and sausages and chili and even tamales (I’m soooo curious about these), but I went with my standard dog restaurant benchmark – the Italian Combo. It’s an Italian sausage covered in Italian beef on a bun that SHOULD be dipped in au jus – which the gentleman will ask you if you want dipped. You do, believe me.

You have the option of various cheeses to be placed on your bun before the meat is put in, and I got provolone and pepperjack. They also have a huge list of toppings to choose from (there are photos on the front of the counter if you have questions about what the toppings will actually look like – very smart of them). Some dogs get the works, but I went with hot giardiniera on mine. And an orange Fanta – duh.

You get your food right away (you actually pay after you eat, so you can enjoy your food immediately without fumbling for your wallet while holding food. There are a handful of tables inside and a few out on the sidewalk for you to choose.

I grabbed a spork from the counter since this thing looked like it was going to get mushy and sloppy. Believe it or not, the bun absorbed the au jus, but perfectly stood up to the juicy and liquidy ingredients like a champ – down to the very last bite. It was more of a hassle to eat the thing with the spork than it was to pick it up. I picked it up and was surprised how much this thing weighed. It was massive. The Italian beef was super thin and really juicy. The Italian sausage had some snap to the casing and was really quite tasty. The giardiniera was spicy and had tons of veggies in it (celery, peppers, olives, cauliflower, red peppers) and didn’t wuss out on the heat. The bun I will keep raving about. DorkyBarb said the couple that runs the place had to go through three or four different bun vendors until they found one that could stand up to the juicy ingredients they use – like they traditionally do in Chicago. I’m glad they patiently waded through vendors, because this bun had awesome flavor and retained it structure like a champion. Well done.

DorkBarb’s sandwich also looked fantastic. She opted for the Italian beef (no sausage in hers) and some different cheese and ingredients. Everything looks wonderful here and I can’t wait to go back.

Apparently, the lovely wife makes some amazing desserts and cakes for the shop, but they were all out today. They usually have southern caramel cake, red velvet cake, the best lemon cake in the world (according to DorkyBarb and the husband), and cafeteria style butter cookies. They all sounded fantastic, so I’ll have to try them the next time I’m there. And there WILL be a next time. And, I’ll even make sure I call DorkyBarb since she works right up the street and would be more than happy to join me. No inappropriate txt message next time – promise.

Their claim (on the sign) is they have the best Italian Beef in the Twin Cities. They aren’t lying. They beat Chris & Rob’s, and surprisingly beat Uncle Franky’s (which I am a huge fan of). [And, from what I've been told, it beats the Wienery, also.] But it’s true. It’s the best around. It makes me miss my Illinois roots, but now I’ve got someplace to appease my hunger pangs.

Thanks, DorkyBarb!

Top 5 things about BJ’s Hot Dog Shoppe & Italian Beef
1. Italian beef
2. Italian sausage
3. The couple that run this place are fantastic
4. Large number of toppings
5. Desserts (remains to be seen, but I’m guessing they’re up there)

Bottom 5 things
1. Can drive past it easily and not know it’s there
2. I’m trying hard to think of something bad, but there just isn’t anything. Sorry.
3.
4.
5.

www.facebook.com/bjshotdogshoppe

1990 Suburban Ave
St. Paul, MN 55119

D-Spot – Maplewood, MN

D.Rough and I love to take her Sister SalsaSandwich to eat fun food with us. We’ve been hearing people rave about the wings at D-Spot. D.Rough thought we should take SalsaSandwich out for dinner and a movie. It was going to be a good night for all of us.

D-Spot (the Maplewood location) is in a small strip mall on Century Avenue. When we got there, the place was filled with people. Thankfully, most of those people were sitting around waiting for pick-up orders. We grabbed a table towards the back of the dining room. There are only 8 tables in the place and I have a feeling it’s full most of the time.

Before I came here, I didn’t know what their shtick was. I thought they were just good wings. I didn’t realize the thing this place is famous for is the combinations of wing sauce. They have a few hundred different kinds. I’m not kidding. Look at the website. The owner and chef takes great pride in his combinations of sauces for his wings. I don’t mean he’s simply proud of them, I mean he’s a trained genius that isn’t afraid to push the envelope a little bit.

You can generally order wings in 6 or 12 piece batches. Flavors can be split up per 6-wing order, so you can’t get 6 different flavors in a basket unless you order 36 wings. I mentioned there are hundreds of wing combinations, right? Well, they only put 70-80 on the menu at any given time, so they can keep the number to an easy-to-manage process back in the kitchen. They have different groups of wings. They have spicy wings – exactly what you’d imagine: different spicy seasonings and glazes. They have comfort/savory wings: lots of rubs, garlic, and things to make a meal out of. Then they have PhD wings – these are super fancy combinations of ingredients. Things like horseradish buffalo sauce, ancho chili, and peppercorns. Then they have sweet wings. I wouldn’t call these dessert wings, because they aren’t. Chocolate, boisonberry, crème anglaise, and powdered sugar. I told you they were waaay outside the box. Then, of course they have the standard fireball of doom wing challenge under the Scorpion’s Lair. Devilishly spicy wings that will destroy your insides.

You can sit down at the table and view the menu, then you have to get up and get in line to order at the counter. While you’re in line, there is a small collection of free chocolate chip toffee cookies that will tide you over if you want. Actually, these were pretty awesome. I was kind of surprised.

I won’t go into all of the confusing conversations we had to get to a final order, but suffice it to say, it was a long time. SalsaSandwich isn’t much of a wings eater, so she ordered a cheese burger and some onion rings. Aside from a large basket of seasoned fries, here is what D.Rough and I ordered to split:

Buffalo Wings – you need something to be the control group, so you can know how good they are compared to other wing places.

Widow Maker Wings – a combination of their Iron Man wings (sweet and spicy) and Black Widow wings (soy glaze, cracked fennel, dry rub).

Goat’s Blood Wings – red curry, tomato, and goat cheese.

Tarantula Wings – soy glaze, roasted garlic, chili dry rub, and fried garlic.

One thing we heard people talk about when they discussed this place was the amount of time they had to wait for their wings. I understand that and I think it is perfectly acceptable since the sauces are made from scratch and they take some time to perfect. I have no problem with that. It DID take a while to get our wings, but understand we were there on a Friday night and it was packed with sit down orders and to-go orders. I’m fine with it. And, I’ll be honest with you, once I bit into the first wing, I would have waited a day for these wings. They were the best I’ve ever had. Not kidding at all.

Here is how we would rank them in order:

The buffalo wings were good. Better than most places I’ve been. It didn’t taste like Frank's Red Hot, so I was thrilled. It actually had some quality flavor and a little bit of zing to it. If we had only ordered these, they would have been good enough for me to come back here, without question.

The Widow Maker were even better. Very good sweet to spicy ratio. There was a faint hint of fennel on them and the dry rub was fantastic. And the soy glaze on them tied everything together and made your mouth not burn at all. Delicious.

Then, the Goat’s Blood wings really rocked my face off. The curry on them was better than most Thai places I’ve been. Absolutely stellar. The faint hint of tomato added a bit of sweet to the wing and the small sprinkles of goat cheese added a great zing to the flavor. These things gradually grew in their spice level, thanks to the curry. Brilliant wings!

And the winner of the night was the Tarantula. I’ve never had wings this good in my entire life. The soy glaze was sweet, but countered the chili flavor and the different garlic flavors. On top of all these, there was pork floss on them. If you haven’t had pork floss, you should – it’s like dried pork that’s then shredded like you rat someone’s hair in the 80’s. It’s fluffy pork strands and it’s life-changnig on these ribs. I can’t rave about these enough. Just get them. You won’t be disappointed.

We asked SalsaSandwich about the cheese burger and we got a non-committal “it was good” review. It looked good to me, but I would have gotten one of their crazy burgers with chili poured all over it or something. The Chilly Willy was the special of the night and it sounded great. SalsaSandwich IS a big fan of onion rings though, and she really liked them a lot. The basket was serious and she ate all of them before she even started on her burger. Yeah, they were good.

The seasoned fries we got shouldn’t be forgotten either. They were heavily seasoned, so if that’s not your thing then you may not like these. It IS, in fact, our thing and we fought over these fries. They were phenomenal. Just the right amount of crisp on them. Maybe could have even used a tad more crisp towards the end, but they were great, especially with the delicious dipping sauce that came with them. Eventually we started using our leftover sauce from our wings on the fries, which changed everything. Get the fries too!

I can’t rave about this place enough. I want to go here every day now. We discussed this and the reason they do so many to-go orders is they don’t serve alcohol here. They have a TV in the dining room, but I’m guessing they don’t want people hanging around. Eat your food and make room for the next group of people. As we said, there is considerable wait time (WORTH IT), so plan ahead for that. But you will not be disappointed with these wings. We’ll be back VERY soon.

And keep in mind, the St. Paul location not only does wings, but it also does the same insane kinds of gourmet flavors for their homemade pizza rolls. Get in on THAT!!!!

Do yourself a favor and check out the website for the flavors. Your mouth will start watering right away.

Top 5 things about D-Spot
1. Tarantula Wings
2. Goat’s Blood Wings
3. Widow Maker Wings
4. Buffalo Wings
5. Seasoned Fries

Bottom 5 things
1. People will complain about the wait, but just be patient - really
2. The dining room is small, cramped, and FULL
3. Sometimes it gets smoky in the dining room from the kitchen, just deal with it
4. Soooooo many things to choose from
5. No alcohol, but absolutely the best decision to keep turnover high

www.eatatdspot.com

Wok in the Park – St. Louis Park, MN

It had been a while since FireRetarded and I had gone out for lunch. I set up the necessary arrangements and suggested we go to Wok in the Park in St. Louis Park. As some background, Wok in the Park is located in the same space previously occupied by Thanh Do – one of my favorites which has now moved into a larger loction directly across the street. I was unsure what to expect, but I had high hopes going in.
We sat down and two very nice servers asked us if we wanted something to drink two different times. I think they got it straightened out after a bit. This place has a pretty good lunch deal going on. Pick a soup, pick an appetizer, and pick an entrée for $8.99. That sounded good, especially after I realized that all three of the choices I’d have to make were things I wanted to get anyway. I was really tempted by about ten things on the menu, including the Sassy Basil, the Sunrise Stirfry, Spring Zhing, Wok’s Cherry Own Curry, and Pho in the Park. When I buckled down, I got a bowl of Egg Drop Soup, a Summer Roll (like a fresh spring roll at other places), and (because I’m known as a metal guy in some circles) the Slayer Stir Fry.

The menus here are quite fun with their design and also have appetizing food descriptions.


The soup came out pretty quickly and even though I thought it was a smaller bowl than I expected, it was decent egg drop soup. It isn’t the snotty mega-eggy kind at a lot of cheap places. It was the kind with chicken broth, mostly-scrambled eggs, and a couple of scallions. The flavor was good and I liked that the egg was more cooked than a lot of places. Not a ground breaking soup, but it IS the style of egg drop soup I like, so hooooray for me! FireRetarded said his Hot and Sour Soup was really good, so he’ll be vouching for that.
The entrees and appetizers came out as we were finishing up our soups. The plates are trapezoidal, which is fun, especially when they set them down at a jaunty angle on your table. D.Rough actually has me looking at how things are presented now and I think she’d be impressed by this. The appetizer was separated by the bowl of dipping sauce and a thick line of white rice from the main entrée.

The Summer Roll was very generous sized and had three pieces of shrimp in it. There was also a bowl of hoisin sauce with peanuts on top to dip it in. The roll was very fresh and bright tasting, but was missing something. It took me a few bites to realize it was almost entirely filled with lettuce. I like lettuce just fine, but I’m used to cilantro, basil, some rice noodles, maybe cucumber and sprouts, maybe some carrots inside, and maybe some slices of pork (along with the shrimp inside). It was missing pretty much everything. It wasn’t bad or anything, just missing some things I’ve become accustomed to being in there.

I also got to try half of FireRetarded’s Egg Roll, which is more of the traditional fried version of an Asian roll. The outside wasn’t the usual wrap that I have seen – it was more flaky and bubbly, and ended up being really quite tasty and had a good texture. The insides were fairly standard and tasted pretty good (a little too much cinnamon for my taste, but then again, I’m not used to any cinnamon in my egg rolls). I’d say the Egg Rolls beat out the Summer Rolls in this case.

The Slayer Stir Fry wasn’t as spicy as I had expected, but then again, it only had one little flame icon next to it, as opposed to a couple of other that had two and three next to them. That being said, I was really happy with the flavor of this dish. It stood up very well and was one of the better sauces I’ve had. The Slayer has a choice of meat (I got chicken), “exotic” mushrooms, fresh garlic, peapods, carrots, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and onions in a home-made garlic sauce. It was delicious.

From the looks and sounds of FireRetarded’s Pad Thai, it was really delicious. It had a TON of peanuts on the top of it and looked really awesome. I’d be hard pressed to get something aside from that next time I come here. And yes, I will come back here. They have a fun staff and a really fun menu. I don’t think they’re a high-falutin’ kind of place, but they are very professional. I think Wok in the Park is worth the drive to check out.

For those who care, Wok in the Park is “guided by principles of sustainability”, are 100% MSG-free, and are able to accommodate, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, and other dietary restrictions.

Top 5 things about Wok in the Park
1. Slayer Sir Fry
2. Pad Thai
3. Fried Egg Roll
4. Really fun and appetizing menu
5. Very nice and helpful staff

Bottom 5 things
1. Lack of ingredients in the Summer Roll
2. I wanted farrrr to many things on the menu
3. No Dew (only Coke products)
4. The parking lot is pretty small and serves the whole strip mall, so you may have to walk
5. The individually wrapped toothpicks have some SERIOUSLY overpowering and bitter mint flavor in them

www.wokintheparkrestaurant.com