Saint Dinette – St. Paul, MN

I’ll admit straight away – I’m biased. One of my top 5 restaurants in the Twin cities is the Strip Club (it’s a steak place, so don’t freak out and clear your browser history). Anything that owners Tim and J.D. do, I will back 100%. They opened up Saint Dinette - a new upscale casual restaurant in Lowertown St. Paul, down by the new CHS Ballpark. D.Rough and I had a free Friday night, so we popped in to check it out.

Obviously, it was busy, so we put our name on the list and went to stand near the bar. There’s an area specifically for this activity with a nice rail to put your drink/snacks on and hang out while you look at all the delicious food coming out of the kitchen. The bar snack menu is simple, but has some great things on it. We opted for the Chicharrones – basically pork rinds – and a couple of cocktails. I got the Orange Julio (a tequila-based version of an arrange Julius) and D.Rough got The Currant - some sort of delicious punch with a sprig of thyme resting on top.  The chicharrones aren’t like any other – they are covered in Cheeto dust. Yes, the addictive orange snack that turns your fingers orange. GET THESE THINGS. (The photo makes them look like chicken strips, but I assure you, they are pork rinds)

We got seated in the dining room quicker than expected, but we had already checked out the menu while cocktail-ing. The menu changes every few months, though they do keep a solid base of favorites on the list. The menu is quite unique in that it’s a list of really familiar, almost home-y dishes, but they’ve all been tweaked or given some sort of unusual ethnic treatment to kick them towards the awesome arena. For example, they have a fried bologna sandwich on the menu – but they add pork shoulder and some delicious cheese to it. The short rib comes with house-made sauerkraut, a house-made kielbasa link, and has a sour beer lacquer on it. Seriously, J.D. knows what he’s doing. We ordered a pop-over, grilled octopus, ricotta dumplings, the cheese burger, and some fries. We were going to share it, so it’s really not that much food.

The popover is a pretty impressive item. It’s REALLY large and comes with a beautiful rectangle of butter drizzled with bee pollen and something else. The pop-over itself is really quite good, but the butter and bee pollen kick it up a notch. Very good.

The grilled octopus was given a Mexican-style treatment, including some chorizo and black bean puree. This was really fantastic, and not too overpowering. We like grilled octopus a lot, so we were pretty happy with this dish.

The dumplings were a recommendation from our server. We even went with the larger order at her suggestion. These dumplings were the best thing of the night. Absolutely delicious cheesy puffs with a squash sauce. When we come back again, we might both be getting our own order of these. We wanted to cut them into tiny bites, so we could keep eating them, but eventually, they disappeared from our plate. 

The cheeseburger is somewhat controversial dish. I guess the owners think it’s just fine, but people are really raving about it, so we had to get it. It’s got some sort of magical champagne-cheese on it, and it truly is really good. I don’t usually go for burgers at nice places, but enough people raved about this one that we caved. Worth it, though! And the lightly pickled cucumbers were quite good, as well. The fries were house –made crinkle-cut fries and were delicious. We were glad they didn’t try to do much fancy to these – there were plenty of them, so we were glad we got these. 

The dining room looks empty, but it's only because we were there late and it was close to closing time. We like to enjoy our culinary adventures and take our time. When we got there, there was a large line to dine here.

Saint Dinette is really one of the best new restaurants we’ve been to recently. It’s pretty close to home, so I have a feeling we’re going to find ourselves there fairly regularly. And we’re looking forward to it!!

Top 5 things about Saint Dinette

1. Ricotta Dumplings

2. Chicharrones

3. Cheeseburger

4. Menu isn't too large, but has things on it you'll recognize, making the choice easier

5.Grilled Octopus

Bottom 5 things

1. Parking was a pain, but we realized too late that it was an Art Crawl in Lowertown

2. No reservations, and you'll likely have to wait, but it will be worth it

3. All of the cocktails have bitters (Tim is a mixology wizard), so order accordingly - I realize that's totally MY issue, not a fault of the restaurant, it's just hard to find anything to complain about here

4. Dammit. There's nothing else to complain about

5. See #4

www.saintdinette.com

Giordano's Pizza - Minneapolis, MN

Chicago has its own style of pizza. A lot of places claim to have “Chicago-style” pizza, but it’s mainly just some low-budget deep-dish sub-par pie. Being an Illinois native, I can tell you there are “The Big 3” places in Chicago – Geno’s East, Lou Malnati’s, and Giordano’s. (Some people claim Pizzeria Uno is in there, as well, but it’s a distant fourth in all honesty.) My favorite of The Big 3 is Giordano’s, mainly because they’re serious about toppings there. DEAD serious. When I heard Giordano’s was opening a location in Minneapolis, I admit I might have done a little freak-out dance of joy.

The last time I ate at Giordano’s, I was with a bunch of roller derby people in 2010. I can’t believe it was that long ago. But thankfully, I did a decent write-up and took a bunch of photos of my friends. FIVE YEARS AGO. That’s insane.

The place opened a little while ago and has since been swamped. They even quit doing delivery because they were just too busy. Now, you can expect an hour or two wait to get in (not kidding). SO your best bet is to call ahead 30-40 minutes, go pick up your pie, and walk two blocks behind the restaurant down to the Lake of the Isles and have a picnic. Some co-workers and I called on our drive over and ordered a meat lovers pizza with some cheesy bread. Why he ordered cheesy bread is beyond me, but he did. 

I was worried it wasn’t going to be as good as the pizza I remembered from all my years driving downtown to get this pizza. I was incorrect – it was EXACTLY as good as I remembered. It’s is also still an inch-and-a-half or two-inches thick. It sounds like an exaggeration, but it isn’t. They lay down a nice crust in a super deep dish pan, throw in the toppings, and then cover it with cheese and a layer of tomato sauce. The sauce is incredible. The meat is substantial, without being TOO much meat – and this is ME saying this, so take that with a grain of salt. The cheese is delicious. The crust is also quite good, and even a little burnt on the bottom, since they have to cook the thing for at least 30 minutes to make sure it’s done all the way in the middle. 

I fully admit I was only able to eat two slices of this pizza. It’s sooooo filling, it’s like 6 pieces. So order accordingly. Also, the cheesy bread is fine, but not needed.

If you haven’t been to Giordano’s in Uptown Minneapolis yet, do yourself a favor and make a trip there. It’s perfectly fine to call ahead and get it to go. Just be ready to carry a 20-pound box of pizza back to your house/apartment. Just a warning.

Giordano’s (Uptown)
2700 Hennepin Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
www.giordanos.com/location/minneapolis-uptown

Taco Libre (reboot) - West St. Paul, MN

Since Taco Libre opened up, I said I wasn't going to write a second review of anything, but I changed my mind. Make sure you check out the first write-up, so you know what this place is all about. And, I will still stand by the fact that it isn't just the kitsch of the luchador theme that is amazing - the food is also REALLY quite good. Plus, you can usually catch a soccer match on the televisions in there, which is a bonus.

I'm a huge fan of pozole - its like a Mexican pork stew that most restaurants only serve on the weekends. Taco Libre is badass enough to sell it every day of the week. It's absolutely delicious. It comes with the traditional accoutrements for you to add at your discretion (lettuce, limes, and radishes), and it also comes with a smoky pepper sauce and a small amount of herbs and seasonings. This way you can add as little or as much as you'd like.  Oddly enough, it also comes with two tostadas, which I was thrilled with.

If you look at the picture, you can see how much pork is in this soup. It's a really massive amount in a tasty tomato-based broth. Lots of hominy in there, as well. I'm not kidding, this menu item is one of the best (and I've liked everything I've tried at this place so far).

Just go here and get the pozole. It isn't much of a gamble at $7.50 and you will likely have trouble finishing the generous portion you receive. Don't bother ordering anything else for yourself, as you won't need it.

Thank you, Taco Libre, for making one of my favorite soups available during all of your open hours!

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

Tin Fish – Edina, MN

My friend Paulio and I hadn’t met for lunch for a while and thought we’d better remedy that. Since Morty’s has been closed due to the renovations, Paulio thought we’d better do another golf-themed lunch place. Apparently, there is a Tin Fish location in the clubhouse of the Braemer Golf Course in Edina (basically Eden Prairie). It’s pretty much a fancy snack shop with a delicious menu.

The menu is pretty seafood heavy, but that’s what their main restaurant location in Minneapolis is known for, so no surprise there. I’ve been in the mood for fish n chips, so I ordered that. They do serve beer and wine, but I opted out since I had a couple of meetings to hit up. We grabbed a seat outside on the patio, despite the fact that it was a billion degrees out (closer to 92, but who’s counting when it goes over 70- degrees). We got caught up and the food showed up during the first of many of my embellished work stories.

The batter on the fish and chips is the crumbly panko crust variety, rather than the thick beer batter on most fish n chips. I was also surprised the fish, while plentiful, were in very small fingers or slivers, rather than a larger piece or three. The crumbly batter was a little floppy for my taste, although the fish inside was pretty delicious. The slaw was the vinegar-y kind and good, but a little dry, like they didn’t use enough vinegar. The waffle fries were the best part though. Big fan of these and there were a ton of them. Overall, the whole meal was fine, but not mind-blowing. I know not every meal has to be, but this one was right down the middle good. I may end up back here again if I’m looking for some unique place to eat, or need to get in a round of golf over lunch (the course is under serious construction this summer, but next year, it’s going to be awesome). Thankfully, it’s pretty close to me work, so it wasn’t a huge inconvenience to get here – less than a 10-minute drive.

Not enough to do a Top 10 list, but it’s a decent lunch place.

www.edinamn.gov/index.php?section=braemar-grill#mcpge