RESTAURANTS >>

• BEST AFRICAN RESTAURANT
  Sweet and friendly servers, a lush yellow room that glows like a candle flame, an attention-getting wine list, and sometimes a singer crooning pretty pop standards in the corner--this is an African restaurant? It sure is, and thank heavens for House of Lalibela, the first local African... More >>
• BEST BREAKFAST
  "It must be an Ideal day," puns Kim from behind the counter, to about every third customer who walks through this little diner's door. It's the noon hour, and four mechanics from a nearby auto shop are over in the smoking section, wiping the grease from their burgers into the axle grease on... More >>
• BEST CHEAP EATS
  Even before it became known as Eat Street, this stretch of Nicollet Avenue was home to a wide variety of food bargains. One standby is this "German-European Delicatessen," an offshoot of the Black Forest Inn. Open from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., this comfy café is a lazy-eater-on-a-budget's... More >>
• BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT
  How many menus are there at Chan's, the brand-new bright Chinese place on 25th Street, just off Nicollet Avenue South? One time we counted seven: the standard lunch menu, a pair of dim sum menus (ooh, those salty and savory rice-noodle bundles with dried shrimp), the bubble-tea menu (sweet... More >>
• BEST COFFEEHOUSE
  A lot of people will argue that trying to pick the best coffee house is like trying to pick the best cash machine: Duh, it's the closest one. But Spyhouse is more than just a coffee house--it's an inspiration to higher living. We're talking serious integrity here. Drip coffee comes from an... More >>
• BEST DINER
  The uninitiated may be hard-pressed to locate this little gem, tucked away as it is in the rear of the Renaissance Square building; a tiny sign is all that announces its presence to passersby on Nicollet Mall. This is probably just as well: any better publicity and Hamlin's would become... More >>
• BEST DRIVE-IN
  Even in the dead of winter, there's a surprising level of activity in the parking lot at Porky's. Perhaps against winter's bleak, gray sky the Porky's sign--a giant, brightly colored neon pig in a top hat--seems all the more inviting. Under the pig's cartoonish gaze, vehicles zoom past the... More >>
• BEST FOOD CRIME
  As if naming their restaurant after our restaurant section weren't enough, this snappy little reincarnation of the Minneapolis Table of Contents has perpetrated a series of serious offenses against food tradition. Prosciutto on escargots. Mu shu duck wrapped in crepes. Tater tots formed of... More >>
• BEST FRENCH RESTAURANT
  Forget about this downtown stalwart at your peril. Because while other French restaurants come and go, café un deux trois sticks to the basics of classic French bistro cooking and classic New York front-of-the-house efficiency. The current menu offers all the beloved regulars: boudin... More >>
• BEST GREEK RESTAURANT
  Perhaps the most satisfying single piece of paper in the entire metro area is the Xeroxed sheet that gets laid on the table at the beginning of a meal at It's Greek to Me: a handwritten (and often hand-revised) list of the day's specials. Baby octopus in garlicky red wine, a sweet slab of... More >>
• BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT
  A recent visit to Sri Lanka (which, if you've been living under a rock, re-established itself in Calhoun Village, the strip mall that holds the MGM Liquor Warehouse northwest of Lake Calhoun) resulted in a truly fine meal, highlighted by a starter of scallops and fresh spinach leaves in piquant... More >>
• BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT (CHEAP)
  What is Italian food? Is it the food they're eating in Turin, in Orvieto, in Genoa right this very minute? Or is it the Southern Italian immigrant cuisine that developed in American cities after World War I? When Italians and Germans lived side by side in the factory neighborhoods around... More >>
• BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT (NOT CHEAP)
  No doubt this item will cause controversy. Because Pane Vino Dolce is simultaneously the most passionately beloved and the most avidly despised Italian restaurant in the history of Twin Cities dining. It's despised because of its no-credit-card policy (for tabs that usually top $50 a head, with... More >>
• BEST JAPANESE RESTAURANT
  What's white, gold, red, and good all over? Fuji-Ya, of course. Is there anything we don't like about this place? The sushi bar has settled down into a first-class operation; the front bar-bar (liquor bar? That sounds dumb) is an exceptionally pleasant place to while away an hour sipping the... More >>
• BEST KOREAN RESTAURANT
  Have you noticed kalbi marinated pork at local supermarkets? Even a scant five years ago, Korean food was considered pretty darn far out of the mainstream, but nowadays a significant chunk of the population sees it with the same familiarity as they do Creole or Greek. Fantastic! So everyone who... More >>
• BEST LOCAL CHEF
  Some people have accused us of sleeping with Tim McKee, as this marks the millionth year in a row we're giving him Best Chef. It's an intriguing thought and all, but the sad truth is we've never actually met the guy face to face, which makes the logistics a little more magical than we're really... More >>
• BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT
  Mexican restaurant culture in the Twin Cities isn't exactly in its infancy, but then again, it isn't too far out of nursery school. Sad to say, there's no Mexican restaurant here that's based on fresh, seasonal, locally grown ingredients. What we've got is Caucasian-culture behemoths and... More >>
• BEST MIDDLE EASTERN RESTAURANT
  It's sort of like dining in a collapsing balloon, what with the drooping tapestries dangling just overhead, but the tabouli is fresh-made with plenty of parsley, the spinach pie tastes rich with sumac berry, and there's something sort of charming about this dark little room whose primary light... More >>
• BEST NEIGHBORHOOD CAFÉ (MINNEAPOLIS)
  If those Sunday suppers weren't beguiling enough--$20 three-course meals just made for grown-up family dining--this year Alma added weekend brunch, full of things like ricotta pancakes with lemon zest, a scattering of fresh raspberries, and organic maple syrup. Spread out a newspaper on the... More >>
• BEST NEIGHBORHOOD CAFÉ (ST. PAUL)
  More so than Minneapolis, St. Paul truly is a city of neighborhoods, of small towns interwoven into a big city. That's why we wish there were a Chet's every six blocks or so--a place that served fresh, simple dishes (vegetable salads, polenta, big roast legs of lamb with roasted potatoes...) in... More >>
• BEST NEW RESTAURANT
  Best new restaurant, best new reason to quit regarding the future with fear and loathing. The minute chef Vincent Francoual opened the doors to his French-in-technique, global-when-it-wants-to-be establishment, he irrevocably changed the dining landscape downtown, and all for the better. It's... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO EAT BEFORE YOUR ANGIOPLASTY
  A huge slab of marbled meat is the cliché choice, but we're not biting on it. What's the biggest porterhouse in town weigh in at, anyway, maybe two pounds? Even vegetarians can make a serious run at arterial gridlock by ordering up an extra-large Fat Lorenzo's pie, which tips the scales... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO EAT OUT WITH YOUR KIDS
  Yes, we chose a chain. Moreover, yes, when all is said and done and the carnage is there in front of you in all its thrown, dropped, and/or masticated-and-then-thrown-or-dropped glory, you often find yourself wishing you hadn't taken the kids with you in the first place. But you do go out to... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO SELF-MEDICATE
  The day you serve eviction papers to your bed partner, the day after you drank too much and told your boss exactly what you really think, the day you lose the house of your dreams by a thousand dollars--there are plenty of times when the Convention Grill fits the bill. Flop into a booth and... More >>
• BEST POWER LUNCH
  There are times when half of the Twin Cities media elite pass through this coffee shop in a morning. They come from all walks of information--from radio, television, electronic, and print--but mostly they are writers. Mostly they come because they bought houses in the neighborhood a dozen years... More >>
• BEST REBIRTH
  The legendary phoenix ain't got nothin' on Udupi--you want rising from the ashes? We'll give you rising from the ashes. When the Columbia Heights restaurant burned to the absolute ground in the winter of 2000-2001, there was nothing by the side of the road but a cement pad and cinders. (Extra... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT (MINNEAPOLIS)
  Welcome to the thousand-dollar paragraph, for which intrepid researchers did battle with many cloth napkins stretched over increasingly rotund, foie-gras-gorged bellies. Who knew living so high on the hog could be so joyless? (If anyone ever told you that the Best Restaurant item wasn't the... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT (ST. PAUL)
  What a joy it has been to watch this chef-driven spot morph from a single brightly lighted room to a food and wine festival. A recent visit brought to light a wine list bursting with hard-to-find choices (a Hendry pinot noir, for instance), fantastic food (a three-ingredient soup that shone in... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT FOR A FIRST DATE
  As soon as you pull up to the valet out front, your intended will know how cool you are: Did they use a casting agency to draft all those broad-shouldered hotties? Sheesh. Way to class up a sidewalk. Stroll through the orange air lock toward the host stand and it's like leaving Minneapolis for... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT FOR APPETIZERS
  They glimmer like little sea jewels in frothy laces of foam, the appetizers at Aquavit. Mussel meats nestled together like butterflies in a bowl of chilled dashi broth, lobster in half-moons of ravioli, wee herring tacos with a fiery spine of horseradish, polenta cakes the size of quarters... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT FOR DESSERT
  The most magnificent desserts often show up when you least desire them: at the conclusion of a filling, wine-soaked meal. And that's why Goodfellow's front corner bar, with its handful of tables, is an insider's ace in the hole. Settle in and order a coffee or a glass of bubbly and one of... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT FOR GLUTTONS
  There's nothing fancy about this Edina soup-and-salad emporium. No menus, table service, or ambiance. Just fresh, well-prepared food at a decent price--and as much of it as you can shovel down your gullet in one sitting. The lunch buffet costs $7.50, while dinner will set you back $8.75.... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT FOR LATE-NIGHT DINING
  Uncle. We give up already. This is indeed a lousy town for late-night dining--and we're going to call late night that which happens after 2:00 a.m., just to knock out the lame-o's of the world who sack out at 11:00. Eleven o'clock is not late night; it's just a poorly organized evening. Three... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT FOR OUTDOOR DINING
  Do you have a favorite Joe's burger? If you don't, you're doing something wrong: You're not enjoying summer intensely enough. Us, we're partial to the Spicy Asian Pork Burger ($9.50) with that marvelous accompaniment of skin-on fries. Some people go for a vegetarian burger, like past favorites... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT FOR ROMANCE
  What is it finally going to take for you to get some of that sweet, sweet loving? A carriage ride around the park? Rose petals on the sheets? Boarding school for the progeny? A bodysuit made of theatrical rubber instantly transforming you into Cameron Diaz or LL Cool J? We can't help you there,... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
  Wonder how much south Minneapolis hate mail we can generate with this one. We usually reserve this category for long-way-off establishments the likes of Schumacher's in New Prague and Harbor View on Lake Pepin. Who knew there could be a restaurant in Minneapolis that was half an hour from... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT TREND
  There was a time in this town when cheap wine meant just that: plonk. Suddenly, though, we live in a golden age of half-price wine nights. All credit goes to the Modern Cafe (337 13th Ave. NE, Minneapolis; 612.378.9882) for starting the trend, with their lovely half-price Tuesdays. But get... More >>
• BEST RESTAURANT WHEN SOMEONE ELSE IS PAYING
  This downtown gem is so inconsistent we're tempted not to gamble the price of admission. A recent dalliance with the tasting menu had servers throwing down delicacies with such rapidity that we blasted, breathlessly, through seven courses in about 80 minutes. Nearly $300 later, we were dizzy,... More >>
• BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
  It's the oyster bar that hooks us. Glistening little puddles of just-shelled mollusk on scrappy little disks of shell that sat oh-so-recently in the world's inlets, bays, and estuaries. Sweet Wellfleets, subtle Blue Points, delicate Kumamotos from the West Coast. Snare a seat at that oyster bar... More >>
• BEST SERVICE AT A RESTAURANT
  There are two ways restaurants create great service: by constant training, or by caring very, very deeply. Sapor is of the latter variety: Owners Tanya Siebenaler (chef) and Julie Steenerson (manager) go nuts with caring about the customers. Seriously. A visit with a friend with deathly legume... More >>
• BEST STEAK HOUSE
  One of the nice things about writing this blurb is the knowledge that it will never end up on the walls of the establishment in question, because the folks who run Manny's don't give a hoot what chump-change suckers who read (or write) free newspapers care (or write) about. Because if you've... More >>
• BEST STEAK HOUSE ON A BUDGET
  Twenty miles north of the state capitol and not too darn far off I-35E is a quiet country steakhouse in the quiet country town of Hugo. It's hard to believe the place is as quiet as it is when you consider that they've got a steak that'll make you swoon: "Chef Tony's Special Steak," a one-pound... More >>
• BEST SUNDAY BRUNCH
  Though the name promises Japanese cuisine, the menu at Sobas ranges from Mediterranean to Southwestern flavors. But hair-of-the-dog seekers and all-you-can-eaters can skip to the nearest pub buffet: This place doesn't even serve bloody marys. But before you wag a French-toast finger at us, know... More >>
• BEST THAI RESTAURANT
  Sometimes, when you're not looking, a restaurant will go and hit its stride. And that's precisely what northern Thai specialists Chiang Mai Thai went and did last year. The appetizer list is full of enough comforts to be reassuring (try fresh spring rolls filled with savory curried beef... More >>
• BEST VEGETARIAN-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT
  The French Meadow's tempeh Reuben ($7.50) has long been the subject of vegetarian cult worship, with its seared, sparrow-brown rye crusts, chewy, salty center of piquant Swiss cheese, biting sauerkraut, and perfectly spicy sauce. Hell, meat eaters have even been known to cross over in pursuit... More >>
• BEST VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT
  A tiny little underdog with a tiny little menu and great big bowls, Jasmine Deli is one of the biggest satisfactions of the past year. The beef bùn noodle salad boasts a dozen components of startling freshness, the bánh m" sandwiches are creative and prettily presented (and cost... More >>
• BEST WINE LIST
  So cheap, so good. Café Barbette's oft-changing, Europe-heavy wine list has begun to enact a subtle change among a certain group of Uptown fans, causing them to treat--hold on to your hats here--wine with the same casual trust and enthusiasm previously reserved for beer. It's the pricing... More >>