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BEST RESTAURANT FOR OUTDOOR DINING W.A. Frost & Company Located in St. Paul's historic Cathedral Hill neighborhood, W.A. Frost recalls an era when dining out was an elegant event deserving of top hats and elbow-length white gloves. In the winter, brick fireplaces warm rooms lined in Victorian paintings. On the patio in the summer, twinkling white lights snake through the overhanging branches, illuminating the colorful coleus and purple geraniums of the patio garden. Though the patio is stamped with Frost's signature quaint charm, white plastic furniture has replaced the fancy white linens, and the attire is more T-shirts and shorts than suit and tie. Seasonal menus created by executive chef Russell Klein, who has studied culinary arts in the south of France and Italy, help make even a grilled chicken sandwich feel trés chic. The casual outdoor menu features salads and sandwiches (such as a fried oyster po' boy), but guests still can choose from the high-end European-inspired dining room menu. Frost also features an outdoor garden bar, which is a perfect place to begin a season-long adventure in tasting at least 10 of the 900 wine selections.
Readers' Choice: Black Forest Inn BEST RESTAURANT FOR ROMANCE Fuji-Ya What goes on in those little tatami rooms off to the side of the main Fuji-Ya dining room? The ones with the paper screens, the doors that close, and the low tables on the floor, at which you sit on cushions and low-backed chairs? Glad you asked. Sometimes, sometimes celebrities hide in them, with or without their little kids, taking the opportunity to eat out without everyone murmuring about their outfits. Sometimes new parents--the moms finally freed from the sushi ban during pregnancy--cozy up in them for a normalcy-restoring date, with junior swaddled in a basket in the corner, like a precious package. And sometimes it's just the perfect place for a date, when you have something special to say, or you simply have eyes only for each other. Or, you know, you don't want anyone watching you shove nigiri into your face like Cookie Monster. One thing's for sure, which is that if you've got a little forethought with which to reserve one of these secret rooms in one of Minneapolis's favorite Japanese restaurants, you can shower your date with the greatest gift of all: Your undivided attention.
Readers' Choice: La Belle Vie BEST SUNDAY BRUNCH 128 Café Trying to satisfy wholesome churchgoers, bleary Saturday-night partiers, regular customers, and once-a-month restaurant diners with finicky kids--such is the thankless task of the Sunday brunch chef. Anyone who can do it deserves thanks; anyone who can do it really well (and without employing a six-foot steam table) deserves a medal. Fortunately for all of us, the quietly fantastic Brock and Natalie Obee of 128 Café take Sunday mornings in stride, doing what they do best and providing the simple, well-crafted food and unassuming, comfortable atmosphere that makes brunch a pleasure rather than a chore. Tucked away in the bottom corner of an apartment building across the street from the University of St. Thomas, 128's mission has always been to serve fresh, haute-y cuisine at prices befitting its humble surroundings, and the brunch delivers. For the price of your average Denny's artery-clogger, you've got your choice of six or seven reliably terrific and filling entrees. Highlights include a superb red onion, potato, and goat cheese frittata, as well as fluffy-as-all-get-out omelets, crepes, and French toast all good enough to become family traditions. Whether it's 9:00 a.m. services, hungry kids, or a wicked hangover that get you to Sunday brunch, this is the first basement to visit in the morning.
BEST BREAKFAST St. Clair Broiler The neon flames on the sign make the St. Clair Broiler, located on the corner of St. Clair and Snelling avenues, hard to miss. Inside, find all the comforts expected of a Ma and Pa diner: bouncy brown leather booths, historic St. Paul scenes decorating the walls, and a jam caddy. Breakfast items (served all day) are the solid meals mornings should start off with--steak and eggs, buttermilk pancakes, and eggs served any way imaginable and accompanied by inch-thick toast. There's a long list of omelets served just the way they should be: cheesy and fluffy, with hash browns and toast. Try the Mexican (fresh vegetables served with peppery cheese, salsa, and sour cream), Juan's Delight (Swiss cheese, turkey, jalapeño, veggies, sautéed onions, and salsa), and the Greek (feta and sausage). For those with a sweet tooth there's French toast, made with large pieces of French bread and sprinkled with a delicate dusting of cinnamon and sugar. Add a bottomless cup of coffee and it looks like it is going to be a good day.
Readers' Choice: Sunny Side Up Cafe BEST HANGOVER BREAKFAST Lyle's Bar & Restaurant So you woke up once again on Sunday with a dry mouth, vibrating head, and painfully empty stomach. A jeans search reveals you've squandered most of your money on the hangover you're currently experiencing. It's past noon but the only refreshment that sounds appealing is basic, greasy breakfast food. (That and a wee bit of the hair o' the dog.) Your options may seem limited, especially when your headache is too severe to withstand the cacophony of the Uptown Bar or the blaring televisions of the Poodle Club. Here's where Lyle's comes in. We all know about the nighttime happy hour, but did you know you get the same deals every day from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (breakfast is availavle till 2:00 p.m.)? Did you know that all of their moderately priced breakfasts include a beverage, whether that be coffee or a bloody mary? That they make the best Denver omelet in a bar in town, for only $6.25? Apparently you didn't, because you haven't been there. But go ahead and keep missing out on the tastiest, most affordable booze-and-breakfast combo around, because we like having the server all to ourselves.
Readers' Choice: The Uptown Diner BEST POWER LUNCH Café Brenda Last summer we watched, a forkful of farm-raised rainbow trout halfway to our bemused lips, as none other than hizzoner R.T. Rybak, perched atop what appeared to be a teeny, folding bicycle not unlike those used by clowns, plowed into the front window of this veggie-friendly downtown Minneapolis institution. He crashed, he entered, he lunched--perky young retinue in tow--and then he careened off, hopefully not sideswiping too many voters on his way back to City Hall. In fact, it seems that at least on this side of the river, the ranking members of the DFL mafia prefer Brenda Langton's croquettes, gingered mock duck, and chilled udon to a prime porterhouse any day. Publishing moguls, lobbyists, pundits, academics--we've seen 'em all here. In the evenings, the validated parking and bargain wine list (heavy on organic selections) combine to draw visiting celebs.
BEST RESTAURANT FOR LATE-NIGHT DINING Azia Years ago it used to be that post-midnight dining around here involved either trying to squeeze in at overcrowded, overdressed Figlio or undertaking the adventure that is standing in line at White Castle. While those options are still available, smart diners looking for a meal after the show now head to 26th and Nicollet. In between the shiny silver pressed-tin ceiling and marble floors that make the place seem solid and permanent (despite all of the location's short-lived previous incarnations) you'll find a stylish restaurant and bar where you can order such tasty drinks as a mango martini. The outrageous restroom tucked behind a lovely fountain and the weekend DJs add to the ambience, while the crowd varies from the hip club-goer dressed in black to the rumpled professor with elbow patches to the average neighborhood bar patron in jeans. And Azia's food is impressive. All the appetizers, including great pot stickers and an excellent variation on cream-cheese wontons that boasts cranberries and green onions, are available until 2:00 a.m. every night, as is a quite varied dinner menu containing many capable Asian-fusion dishes and intriguing options such as a vegan sweet potato stew. It almost feels like you're in a real cosmopolitan city, till you step outside to the near-dead street at closing time. Readers' Choice: Pizza Lucé BEST TAKEOUT Cossetta's For anyone whose cubicles and dashboards often double as dining tables, a carryout meal from this longstanding St. Paul lunch hub offers loads more home-style comfort than its stir-fried or tortilla-wrapped counterparts. Granted, the average Atkins disciple would likely run screaming at the sight of Cossetta's carbo-licious mostaccioli or scrumptious pasta salads, but even those folks can find an array of straight-up sausages and deli cheeses to fall back on. And if true on-the-go eating means foregoing the use of utensils altogether, there's always Cossetta's pizza by the slice, served hot and hefty with toothsome crust and a zingy sauce to rival anything this side of lower Manhattan. Occasionally daunting queues at the counter are a small price to pay for takeout as dependably tasty as this.
Readers' Choice: Sawatdee BEST RESTAURANT WHEN SOMEONE ELSE IS PAYING Levain Restaurant Levain. Opened with big plans--five-star cooking in the neighborhood. But you know how it goes with the best-laid plans of mice and Levain... Started life with a big-name maître d', but lost him before the paint on the sign out front had time to dry. Built its reputation on a big-name chef, paired a big-name sous--but that was yesterday, now it seems so far away. They left. Opened with no wine license at all--call it five-star dining, Mormon-style. Swapped that out for some jug-wine-tasting house-pours. Ditched that in favor of a wretched wine list. At the prices they were charging, an evening at Levain was less like dinner out, and more like the week that things go sour with the contractors renovating the kitchen. You wanted this, sure, but you didn't want it to cost this much, to take this long... But wait! What light over yonder window breaks? Why, they've brought Steven Brown on board to head the kitchen. Steven Brown the charismatic and charming. Steven Brown the kitchen-magician who can transform mere canned tomatoes into something that makes you want to leap out of your chair into a flight of interpretive dance. Steven Brown the conjurer of gnocchi that threaten to float up to the ceiling like bubbles from a wand, so buoyant are they. Steven Brown. They put the one thing in Restaurant Levain that could convince us to brave these deep waters again. But if you'd pick up the check, we'd be much obliged.
Readers' Choice: Oceanaire Seafood Room BEST CHEAP EATS Highland Grill With its brightly colored '50s diner feel and convenient location (Cleveland Avenue and Ford Parkway), the Highland Grill is a terrific budget destination. Stop for a snack after watching a movie across the street or fuel up after a bookstore-browsing marathon. This family-owned restaurant offers many classics, but there's often a twist that makes them unique. Grilled cheese sandwiches here are made with cheddar and Cotswold, and tangy chutney hides within the gooey layers. Egg salad is curried. The black bean falafel sandwiches come with pineapple and poblano-peanut-pesto aioli. Fun appetizers include pierogi (starchy little dumplings filled with potatoes and cheddar cheese and topped with sautéed onions) and beer-battered green beans (crispy and light, with plum dipping sauce). The same golden beer batter is applied to fish and served with malt vinegar. And of course there are a variety of burgers that are just plain good. Most dishes cost $9 or less, and some even dip into the scandalously cheap $5.95 range, leaving plenty of cash for a $3 to $4 beer. Who says you can't have quality on a budget?
Readers' Choice: Chipotle BEST LOCAL CHEF Doug Flicker - Auriga Great chefs are, unfortunately for the thousands of kids flooding ham-handedly into cooking schools, born, and not made. Even more unfortunately, for them, they usually tend to be born into hot, stressful, unappreciative, frankly ridiculous kitchens where they must spend years toiling in obscurity, honing their craft for nobody, and following a distant star that risks being blotted out by a thousand broken dishwashers and shrieking, fat-free-pasta-carbonara-demanding customers. Unfortunately for him, Doug Flicker has followed just such a rough path. Years and years in obscurity in the hottest, least remunerative prestige kitchens that Minneapolis had to offer. Seven years behind the line in his own restaurant. Trials, tribulations, worse. All through it, though, he has honed and refined his craft, perfecting the sear on the poultry, the texture of the sauce, the exact ratios of sweet to salt that will snap the mind to attention and coax the palate into submission. Now, now Flicker's cooking is like nothing so much as a Kandinsky drawing, clear colors and melodies sketched in confidently together, but never overdone, never muddying one another. For instance, a recent beef carpaccio was a red glaze on the plate, all salt, winey beef age, and depth, but the top was scattered with green garlic confit and slivers of ripe fig, the garlic notes sweet and hot, pricking the mellow, deep, coffee-notes from the beef, the sweet fig pulling the other way, the sweetness and fruit illuminating the rich, winey character of the meat. In another course, a homemade cured slice of rosy goose glistened with the grass and wind of the prairie, and sat happily on a tender flat gnocchi, like a pearl on an oyster, in winter-prairie form. Over the seven years he's been standing with sauté pan at Auriga, Flicker has developed an enormous reservoir of faith and trust in his clientele; a recent menu offered, quite plainly, in bold type, "Italian Canned Tuna." People were ordering it, which is unimaginable in any other restaurant in town. But diners at Auriga trust that if it's canned tuna, the accompanying poached egg, homemade sourdough crackers, and chickpea puree will be worth ordering, and even worth writing home about. That's the reward of traveling the most difficult of paths: Once you master it, the faithful will follow you anywhere.
BEST NEIGHBORHOOD CAFÉ--MINNEAPOLIS Vincent A Restaurant Downtown Minneapolis has been wiped clean, reimagined, and recarved by the forces of money and politics so often that, like a too-face-lifted face, it has been in constant jeopardy of losing any and all of its recognizable character. Which is why we're so grateful for Vincent, a restaurant that's done more than provide fantastic meals and value wines: it has provided an entire identity for a neighborhood that is as important to our regional identity as it is strangely vague. But our city's identity when at Vincent is not vague at all, it's playful, lively, everyday-friendly, internationally focused, and sophisticated. Playful? Look to the "strange but good" section of the menu, where Vincent Francoual, a brilliant chef and veteran cook from such important restaurants as Le Bernadin and Lespinasse, throws off his serious-cooking chains and flirts with the culinary back roads that food-heads swoon over: tripe stewed all day? Pig's trotters sliced as thin as rose petals? He said it would be strange. Lively? How about the women racing up to the balcony to take pictures of their tables from above? How about the plenty-under-$30 wine list, and the marvelous option of buying carafes of various wines, to pair flights with your meal, and spend less than you would on a couple of glass-pours at one of the big-ticket restaurants that are Vincent's rivals. Everyday-friendly? Heavens, have you tried one of the big-ambition, tiny-price prix fixe dinners the restaurant offers Monday through Thursday? Like what? Well, one week you might have begun with lovely cold smoked slices of salmon and thin slices of red beet that were rolled with fresh chèvre into little tubes, cut into bite-size lengths, stood on end, and topped with a tiny bundle of new sprouts and given a pappadum as a hat; each bite was an explosion of texture in the mouth, the sweet, gelatinous beet, the slippery, lilting salmon, the earthy, mellow cheese--amazing! An entirely new dish, as never before experienced on earth. And that was just the appetizer. The entrée of duck confit on a bed of wild rice tumbled together with lightly pickled sprigs of cauliflower gave new and different voice to these ideas of sweet, rich, and earthy--an intellectual and sensual exercise, executed by a top chef, for $28! This, this is the face we would like to show to the world, and to ourselves. And for that, Vincent, Minneapolis thanks you from the bottom of our hearts.
BEST NEIGHBORHOOD CAFÉ--ST PAUL Heartland You better get into Heartland while the getting's good, because this little can-do spot with the from-scratch-everything, all-regional menu has been for sale since January. Yes, it's been for sale since January! Seriously. Chef and owner Lenny Russo is looking to get out of his bucolic, gorgeous little neighborhood in part because you St. Paulites only come out on Fridays and Saturdays, and he needs to be able to even out employees' schedules, cash flow, and so forth, over the whole week. So if you neighborhood types want all the wonders of the Heartland kitchen--the Heartland house-cured goose breast prosciuttos, the Wisconsin wild boar roasts, the Ohio black walnut salads--think about heading in some Wednesday! Because there's a chance to change his mind if he can even out business, and build a lobby/bar next door so that people can have a drink with, or before, their meal. Seriously, St. Paul, consider this your all-points bulletin: If you want the best neighborhood restaurant in the history of St. Paul to stay in St. Paul, now's your chance to act! If not, expect to hear about the glory days of Heartland forevermore.
BEST DINER Band Box Diner American as apple pie? Hey, how American is that? Even the French have tarte Tatin. You want American, try this: In the shadow of downtown sits the Band Box, a rail-car-diner made by a grain-bin manufacturer--the place is so significantly Americana, it's a registered historic landmark. More American than that, though, is the crew that cooks and runs it, with their punk-rock hearts, communitarian spirit, and fancy restaurant training (the chef and co-owner, Brad Ptacek, led the kitchen at fondly remembered Caffe Solo.) And even more American still is the menu--a strawberry short stack, for instance, with buttermilk pancakes as fluffy as clouds topped with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream, or the famous baby burger, griddled to crisp perfection and served with real lettuce, tomato, red onion, and a sweet grilled bun--and it all still costs less than $3! What we like most about the Band Box Diner is that it's American and Americana in the best ways--in addition to the great grub, the place showcases true neighborliness and friendly, functioning multiculturalism--the coffee is brought in from a neighbor's family farm, back in Africa, and the diner has been a cornerstone of this sometimes-down, sometimes-up urban neighborhood for generations. Is that why families from all over the metro have been making pilgrimages to the Band Box lately, setting the little ones on stools by the counter, or rolling carriages up to the outdoor tables? Got to clue in the next generation about what it means to be American, before the television beats you to it.
BEST NEW RESTAURANT Cosmos Service has been in free fall in Minnesota over the last several years as the heavy-hitter, big-ticket restaurants of yore lost their luster, and their professional staffs were absorbed into the general population of the clueless. Decor hasn't had much to boast of either, as nouveau riche Miami-Italian glitz passed more and more for classy. Food, food was certainly on an uptick, as interested, interesting chefs achieved fascinating heights to the applause of eager audiences. The only problem was that Minneapolis looked like it was in danger of becoming a great food town, without ever becoming...well, never mind a great restaurant town, not even a good restaurant town. Luckily, Cosmos opened last year and gave us an example of what a great restaurant is supposed to be. The cooking of chef Seth Bixby Daugherty is boldly original, yet manages never to be fussy or weird. We nearly tripped over ourselves trying to race out the door when we read about the cantaloupe-Marsala stew he recently paired with foie gras--he has such a winning way of creating complex flavors in stews, you know. The service is beautifully trained and subtle. The beverage program is the work of brilliant minds. (Have you seen the apple martini with its skewer of perfectly tournéed apple balls?) The bar is gorgeous and the weekday breakfast is easily the best downtown. And the room feels like a destination, like a movie set, like a futuristic European getaway, in the way that only a very few Midwestern restaurants ever have. In short, Cosmos is the one restaurant that we wish that every restaurant worker or owner within a 200-mile radius would visit, to see how this stuff is done on a grand scale. And that, that is the one thing this state dearly needed.
Readers' Choice: Solera BEST PLACE TO EAT OUT WITH KIDS Day by Day Café This sunny, cheerful, spacious St. Paul breakfast institution is so overrun with toys that we used to think that a pack of overachieving preschoolers ran it. Toys occupy every nook. They're in the waiters' stations, the menu holders, the bookcases, window ledges, and myriad other crannies. Only fidgety little people understand that no one under the age of, say, seven, finds eating breakfast to be even a tenth the fun of racing from one stash to another amassing every Little Mermaid geegaw ever to come out of a drive-thru window. But lately we've been thinking that this can't be the case. I mean, we adore preschoolers, but we have yet to meet a three-year-old who could keep the fishpond on the sunny terrace stocked with big, healthy, orange koi. Or accurately record a telephone reservation for one of Day by Day's two meeting and party rooms. Or brew the veritable sea of Dunn Bros coffee while turning out stack after stack of perfectly browned, custardy French toast and remember to grace the plate with pecans, blueberries, and real maple syrup. (Or the biscuits and gravy, an occasional special we wish they'd put on the permanent menu.) Grown-ups might do all of those restauranty things faultlessly, but they would find a way to make it dull. And so we've concluded that this place must be managed by elves. And we defy you to prove otherwise.
BEST RESTAURANT FOR APPETIZERS Sapor Cafe and Bar They've made an art form and passion of appetizers over at Sapor, just check out their One Bite, Two Bite menu for proof. That's where you'll find a dozen snacks priced to move--the latest one had crispy wasabi potato cakes with roasted peanuts for $2.50, sausage-stuffed olive poppers for $2.75, an artichoke served with zippy house aioli for $2.25, plum-ancho barbecue ribs for $3, and jerk chicken with pineapple-mango sauce for $3. Throw those savory fellows on the table with a glass of the house-featured wine for $5.50 (the latest red was Castillo del Baron Monastrell), and you're eating in a four-star restaurant for less than you'd pay for a pizza at most of the cheeseriffic chains. For reasons we never understand, Sapor remains Minneapolis's least appreciated restaurant--there's scads of free parking, a very peaceful wine bar, a sweet wait staff, a very talented chef, Tanya Siebenaler, and a coconut cream pie that's to die for. So here's a proposition: we've told you about the One Bite, Two Bite menu with all those bargains, so how about you ask your book club if they'd like to meet there sometime?
BEST RESTAURANT FOR DESSERT Solera We can think of about a thousand reasons why Solera is the best restaurant for dessert in Minnesota--yes, a dozen: 1) The enormous sherry list; 2) the sexy lighting; 3) the after-work-to-very-late hours, perfect for post-work birthdays or don't-let-this-date-die nights; 4) the romantic rooftop patio; 5) proximity to all the downtown-theater district stuff, and when else do you have dessert alone, except after concerts or a show; 6) marvelous Spanish cheeses for your savory dessert needs; 7) very well-made espresso; 9) Tea Source tea service, and, of course, numbers 10 through 1,000: Adrienne Odom, Solera's gigantically talented pastry chef, who makes desserts that are terrifically imaginative, but also whimsical, lively, amusing, and fun fun fun. She always has a "dessert tapas" platter with a bunch of tiny, funny little desserts that amuse palate and mind alike. One month there may be a doll-size plum soda with a bit of ice cream floating up top, another time a flan topped with a scattering of corn nuts, another time a chocolate trufflelike concoction of deeply concentrated, slightly buttery dark chocolate sprinkled with flaky white salt, accenting the flowery notes of the chocolate. More substantial desserts are often just as thrilling: A peach trifle made with discs of sherried cake tastes like the very moment summer breaks into autumn, with the oaky smoke of the sherry putting a fine edge to the ripe summer fruits. Really, there are so many reasons to go to Solera for dessert, sometimes the true miracle seems to be that we find any reason at all to stay home.
Readers' Choice: Café Latte BEST RESTAURANT FOR GLUTTONS New King's Buffet Here you will find delicious dishes in obscenely plentiful quantities. If that isn't a recipe for gluttony, we don't know what is. Picture three islands plus of square metal pans brimming with fresh Chinese dishes, from marinated duck to sautéed string beans to sweet little walnut shrimp. Whoever said that Chinese food dissipates quickly and leaves you hungry never visited the New King's Buffet. Especially if you skip the rice. Witness one woman City Pages saw there recently gripping her stomach and sighing before a plate piled a foot high with empty shrimp shells. The atmosphere at New King's is a little cafeterialike, but the staff is efficient and friendly and the clientele is more diverse than most in the metro. So it's good people-watching to boot.
BEST RESTAURANT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE Lindey's Prime Steakhouse It's true that one night a City Pages writer and her hot date drove around the sticks for an hour trying to locate Lindey's. But once they accidentally found it (they'd given up and were on their way to Nye's), they were glad to have put in the effort. The place is old-style, with lots of wood and dim lighting and the overall feel of a Brainerd lodge. It offers a full bar--the bartender doesn't even mind if you alternate between pink squirrels and grasshoppers; he'll rinse out the blender over and over--and, most importantly, wonderful steaks. Each dish is accompanied by pickled watermelon rinds that apparently nobody eats and the most delicious potatoes flavored with a secret ingredient the chef won't divulge. Even more than for great chow, however, the real reason to get lost on the way to Lindey's is the restaurant's relaxed and rustic atmosphere. P.S. There is a second location in Medicine Lake, but it's not as good or charming.
BEST RESTAURANT--MINNEAPOLIS Solera The main thing that sets apart a great work of art, be it a novel, a painting, or a movie, from some crap at the mall is that it should be a fully realized vision, a completely thought-through, whole, interrelated, and complete event in which all the physical details serve the overall vision of the creators. Miraculously, Solera is such a being. Sure, you could say it's just a tapas bar. But that would neglect the beautiful flower-pod-doohickey that is the mosaic host stand. It would ignore the funny alien tapas bar chairs, the silvery figurines that make the salt and pepper dispensers, and so much more. Follow any train of thought you might have at Solera, and you'll find it fully realized: The wine and sherry list is like a university-level course on current thinking in Spanish viticulture. The food will meet you on whatever level you want: If you're just looking for a happy-hour snack after work, try the lemony, spicy calamari and a beer. If a romantic dinner for two is more your speed, the $30, eight-course menu gives you something to bond and linger over. And if you're a serious food-head, pull up a seat at the tapas bar and talk with one of the chefs. There isn't a restaurant in Minneapolis right now that hews more closely to its highest choices, nor a restaurant we'd rather go to.
BEST RESTAURANT--ST. PAUL W.A. Frost & Company Ever since chef Russell Klein, veteran of the famed Danube kitchen in New York City, took over Frost's, the place has been marvelous. And not just better than it's ever been, but better than we ever imagined it could be. Out with the creamy old country club dishes, in with strikingly elegant arrangements like green and white asparagus stacked front to back and side by side, like a log-raft of spring. In addition to spectacular food, the restaurant now also serves many needs: Mussels with spicy chorizo sausage in a creamy broth are as unpretentious as they are delicious; dig through a whole bowl while unpacking the week's gossip with your best friend, as the two of you sit beside one of Frost's many fireplaces. Sample something from the extensive and ever-improving, ever-broadening wine list--a French and American Pinot Noir tasting flight, perhaps? For gourmets, it's a food destination: How about roasted Wild Acres duck with a port-wine reduction, alongside herbed spätzle and black pepper- and vanilla-glazed turnips? For groups, the tree-canopied summer patio is an irresistible draw. The revamped cheese program showcases the best that the world's cheesemakers have to offer, and just cries out to make your afternoon snack something memorable. In short, what a difference a chef makes!
BEST RESTAURANT TREND Falling Wine Prices Wine prices have been falling. Constantly. Everywhere. And not just on the half-price bottle nights, which, of course, are lovely. No, prices are falling at almost every restaurant, in every price level and service level of dining. At W.A. Frost there's now an elaborate under-$30 list. At Chet's Taverna they relaunched their wine program, just about halving pricing on everything. This year's hot spot Solera splashed out with so many low $20-something bottles that they just about single-handedly remade the downtown dining price-point. Jumping Jehoshaphat! This month at Three Muses they're even trying a $1 bottle program: You can choose between their white or red offering for a single dollar when you order two entrées. Can you believe it? Five or six years ago the number of restaurants with fair wine pricing in Minnesota could be counted on one hand, but now saner thinking illuminates nearly every corner. You mean we'll make more money on three tables each drinking a $20 bottle of wine than we will on one table drinking a $60 bottle? Eureka! So take a bow, all you increasingly savvy wine drinkers, it's your advocacy that has remade the Twin Cities restaurant-wine scene, and you should all have fatter bank accounts to thank for your efforts.
BEST SERVICE AT A RESTAURANT Cosmos After thinking and thinking and thinking about it, we have concluded that the main problem with service in this town is a blind-man-and-the-elephant one. Follow along: Servers are raised in TV rooms in various suburbs and small towns, going out once in a great while to restaurants they don't pay much attention to. Then they come to the big city, get the big tips cash job they've always wanted, and just make it up as they go along, cobbling together their ideas of what might be done with silverware, whatever little glimmers they know about wine are pieced together into a universal worldview and then...that's it. Ten years later, these people have either become great servers or insufferable nightmares. Which is why Cosmos is such a joy; from doorkeeper to bartender to server's assistant, each and every person has training to fall back on. They all exude confidence and competence, reliability and helpfulness. They all seem to carry around in their heads a vision of what the heck they're trying to accomplish in their interactions with you, and it is just a fantastic relief. Hosts are able to get a visual ID on you and--miracle!--bring the rest of your party to you in the bar when they show up to the dinner. Servers are able to understand the price of wine you're looking at, and suggest something more appropriate than the wine you were considering. Servers' assistants understand when, how, and under which circumstances to remove plates or replace tableware. There's no blind-man-and-elephant problem, because it seems that when they showed up everyone got a weeklong seminar on the behavior and characteristics of elephants, and can thus get on with it. Training! This hotel restaurant is a miracle of training and service.
BEST STAR CHEF EXPERIENCE Patrick Atanalian The weirdest trend of the last year has been the way so many of Minnesota's name-brand, swoon-inducing, best-reviewed chefs just vanished into thin air for months and months at a stretch. Where do they go? Whom do they feed? Wasn't it weird the way Steven Brown was totally MIA for like a year, and then just popped up at Levain, but that meant that Stewart Woodman disappeared? And where is Lisa Carlson? And how is it that Patrick Atanalian, who had such a devoted and admiring following, who could cook a piece of chicken in such a way that each millimeter of bird was tender and appealing in a different way, from crisp to crisp-fatty to crisp-tender to--oh, so you don't believe it. Big whoop. We've seen it. We're salivating just at the memories, the beautiful, beautiful memories. From when he cooked at the late lamented New French Café, and the even later lamented Loring Café. So, where is Atanalian? Finally, here's one we can actually answer: He's teaching cooking out at Le Cordon Bleu in Mendota Heights, and you should care because every Tuesday to Friday, from 11:30 to 1:30, he leads the students in preparing a three- or four-course lunch, which is available to you in their dining room for $15. Yes, only $15! And they serve all kinds of crazy ambitious things, like "ris de veau à la Normande," "medaillon de gibier poivrade," and "zuppa de vongole." (That's veal sweetbreads in a creamy apple sauce, venison medallions in a peppered demiglaze with almond cake and red wine pears, and clam soup to you, Bud.) Fifteen bucks. Patrick Atanalian. Mendota Heights. Never thought those words would be all together like that and make any kind of sense. Oh well. What kills us is that these kids probably have no idea what they've got out there. But you know. And such are the privileges of adulthood.
BEST STEAK HOUSE Little Jack's Steak House While it's true that you might get a slightly better steak at some fancy place like Morton's, you will never--we mean never ever--find a better steak-house atmosphere than you will at Little Jack's. The place is stuck in the '60s, with just a touch of the '50s thrown in for good measure. The lounge is dark, as it should be, and staffed by a veteran with a sassy attitude and fantastic hairdo. Past that, you have your choice of several distinctive dining rooms, including one with a giant, shimmering chandelier and another, called the Viscount room, which sports vintage red upholstered booths and light fixtures fashioned from multi-colored chunks of glass. The service is friendly and not too solicitous, so you can sit around for hours. And you'll need the extra time to finish off the enormous carafe of wine that automatically comes with the delectable "steaks for two." Adding to the overall charm of the place, Little Jack's new owners have added a whole list of Korean dishes to the menu, so you can munch steak while your date gets down with some bi bim bop.
Readers' Choice: Manny's Steakhouse BEST STEAK HOUSE ON A BUDGET erté Whatever the Twin Cities have lost in terms of quality-of-life points due to budget cuts and transit strikes, we should be gaining back thanks to the sheer volume of good, cheap steak available within a 10-or-so-mile radius of downtown Minneapolis. From the Eisenhowerrific Ike's to Dinkytown's oh-so-welcome Steak Knife (student-budget steak that doesn't taste like a hoary cliché!), this category is wide open. But, in the end, the fact is that no one gets everything as right, as consistently, as good old erté. They've got the understated hip-romantic ambience, the thoughtful wine list, the knowledgeable, ruthlessly efficient and aching-to-please waitstaff, and the bar lighting that makes everyone 20 percent more attractive. Oh, and the food: unpretentious and almost uniformly terrific, with a couple of can't-go-wrong house cuts and just enough of a modern tweak to make steak-house staples interesting again. You are hereby defied to find a better pair of pork chops in town than erté's Guinness-marinated and Scotch-and-brown-sugar-glazed version. Come in for the food, stick around for after-dinner drinks and conversation, and you have our guarantee that your date will emerge impressed with both your fiscal sensibility and fantastic taste.
BEST COFFEEHOUSE Anodyne Of the hundreds of coffee shops in the metro area, there are at least a dozen high-quality establishments we could choose as the best. After all, like Laundromats and hardware stores, where you go for your daily fix is largely determined by where you live. That said, we're very comfortable citing Anodyne, which doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but does cover the waterfront in terms of providing a reliably satisfying coffee-shop experience. The espresso drinks have all the requisite flavors and brewing options; you want a double-decaf cappuccino mocha with almond? You got it. The straight javas are decently priced ($1.61 for a 16-ounce cup), with dark, medium, decaf, and fair trade roasts all available. The confines neatly split the difference between cramped and cavernous, with a long table that can seat 10 to 12 people for a meeting, a handful of smaller tables, and a couple of nooks with couches and overstuffed chairs for a living-room ambiance. Then there is the raft of extras: Breakfast is available all day and ranges from waffles and omelets to muffins and doughnuts. A lunch and dinner menu includes sandwiches (ham and Swiss, egg salad, tuna salad, you name it), macaroni and cheese, and veggie burgers. There's a wide assortment of teas, soft drinks, and juices, and Sebastian Joe's ice cream for dessert. The music is solid--Tom Waits, last time we were there--and there's no smoking unless the weather's nice and you're at one of the sidewalk tables outside.
Readers' Choice: Dunn Bros BEST DIM SUM Peking Garden Restaurant The loose translation of the Chinese term dim sum is "dot the heart," an apt description of what this feast of all things savory, sweet, crispy, and chewy promises to do both figuratively and literally. On weekends the narrow spaces between the massive tables become congested with carts carrying a wide variety--nearly 50 by our count--of traditional Cantonese snacks. With offerings ranging from chicken feet to steamed pork dumplings, egg custard tarts to taro root cakes, dim sum is a crowd pleaser. The beauty is in the basics at Peking Garden. The sticky rice and meat wrapped in banana leaves is earthy and comforting. A plate of lightly dressed Chinese broccoli on the table provides a much-needed respite between delicate shark fin dumplings and sweet fried sesame balls. Dim sum is served Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 to 3:00; we recommend you arrive before 10:30 or risk experiencing the dreaded table stare-down.
BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT The Oceanaire Seafood Room Ever had shad roe? Honestly, the closest we ever got to it before was in the Cole Porter song. Then one night we saw it on the Oceanaire menu, alongside Florida sushi-grade black grouper, Alaskan dayboat halibut, Columbia River spring king salmon, diver-caught Maine scallops, Chesapeake Bay crab, California white sturgeon "Molassol" caviar, and had to have it. That's right, we surveyed the seafood of the whole world and settled on this little seasonal enthusiasm from the American Atlantic. How is it? Pretty good! Very rich. Kind of livery. But what the heck, it was an experience. Then we had oysters, all kinds of oysters: Elegant, well-balanced golden fellows plucked from Pleasant Bay in Cape Cod; fat, succulent winterpoints from Maine's Mill Cove; luxurious, mineral-tinged bluepoints from Long Island--those were Queen Victoria's favorite oysters, we've read, she had them shipped from New York to Buckingham Palace. But we'll bet she never, ever got to pick between so many delicacies from so many oceans on a single night. Frankly, if we had to pick between all the machinery and power of empire, or all the machinery and power of Oceanaire, we'd pick the latter. What Minnesota lacks in seaside and sea power, Oceanaire makes up for in seafood.
BEST VEGETARIAN-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT French Meadow Bakery and Cafe Although French Meadow isn't exclusively a vegetarian restaurant, it's very veggie friendly and, dare we say, even vegan-friendly. There's a rotating vegan soup of the day; sometimes it's black bean chili, sometimes it's a stew. If you do dairy, do the roasted vegetable sandwich, overflowing with roasted portobello, red peppers, caramelized onions, arugula, and a creamy goat cheese-herb spread served on homemade ciabatta bread. An egg salad sandwich, served on healthy hemp bread with Havarti cheese, makes a great light lunch. Dinner meals (with table service and a wine list) include a lasagna loaded with vegetables and fresh mozzarella, organic shepherd's pie with eggplant, mushrooms, carrots, and tomatoes topped with garlic mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese, and macaroni and cheese made with aged organic white cheddar and spinach. Not to be missed is the veggie burger: A spicy golden patty that's crunchy with veggies and topped with a secret sauce of tomato, capers, and tofu, it clearly stands outside of the shadow of any hamburger. Other items include several organic salads, a tempeh Reuben, and of course the 30-plus varieties of bread made daily, as well sweet treats.
Readers' Choice: Café Brenda BEST WINE BAR Cesaré's Wine Bar The dreams of the domestically minded tend to be fairly simple: An Ikea within driving distance, a really good wine bar--no, not like the kind we had two years ago. A really, really good wine bar. Like, well, like brand new, dream-fulfilling Cesaré's, a place where the wine selection goes into hundreds and hundreds of bottlings, covering wine-head rarities, collector jaw-droppers, and budget gems from around the world. Where the food is carefully rendered slow food, and where you can choose between the market's best olives and salamis or subtle pastas or chickens. Where the decor and building itself are a joy too (the place is basically the expression of the love of an architect for the enduring qualities of Arts and Crafts wood details expressed in modern idiom). Cesaré's, the wine bar of domestic dreams. So we got the wine bar. And the Ikea's on the way. What now? Everybody, all together: Dream the new domestic dream; free, expert, house-cleaning super-robots. Hey, it worked with Cesaré's...
BEST WINE LIST The Modern Cafe What makes a great wine list? Ideally, it would be one that you couldn't assemble yourself, this afternoon, at the liquor store. No. It should reflect some committed, thoughtful buying. It should have things on it that you could not get at the liquor store today, nor, possibly, ever. Because that is one thing that will draw you out of your bunker. It should be priced to allow you to sample things you wouldn't ordinarily get to try, because on the human side, that is generous and hospitable, and on the business side, that is how you turn curious wine drinkers into committed and enthusiastic wine drinkers. It should go with the food at hand, it should be affordable, it should be clear, it should be bold, but also reliable, stout of heart, and pure. Oh wait, that's Boy Scouts. Well, the other stuff, definitely. And that is what we have at the Modern. Check the newish chalkboards when you walk in and you'll see a restaurant rarity like Chaptoutier Marsanne, sold in liquor stores, if you can ever find it, at $45 a bottle, but at the Modern it's on offer for just $6 a glass. Why? Just because owner Jim Grell thinks that's a nifty thing to offer. Sit down in one of the well-worn maple booths and consult the printed list and you'll find plenty to go with new chef Phillip Becht's new menu. Hendry Block 7 Zinfandel to go with the beef short ribs braised with piquillo peppers, perhaps? If you don't know about George Hendry, he's a boutique grower who supplies grapes for such billion-dollar collectible wines as Opus One and Mondavi Reserve, but he also bottles a few, a very, very few, of his own wines, and this powerful bottle is one of them. And if you think that's impressive, consider that it is just one of many powerful bottles on a very powerful list.
Readers' Choice: Zander Café BEST THAI RESTAURANT Chiang Mai Thai Here's a word to the wise: If you aren't prepared to participate in a sunrise duel, then don't ask a Twin Citian what the best Thai restaurant in town is. Yes, feelings run just that high. For us, though, when we're off the clock, there's only one place we head to: Chiang Mai Thai, the elegant Uptown Northern Thai joint. Once we're seated it's often nigh impossible to settle on appetizers: Of course, the cashews tossed with oyster sauce, chiles, and cilantro are just spicy enough, just salty enough, and just zingy enough to engage your attention through an entire hash-through of the movie you just saw at the Uptown. So then, of course, one of the nam prigs, the signature Asian crudité platters, in which lightly steamed vegetables are served with your choice of dipping sauce, either sweet and spicy pork, or roasty eggplant. Of course the beef-jerky-of-the-gods, neua wan. Of course the light and flavorful laab salad--in mock duck or tofu versions, even!--with its satisfying combination of roasted rice powder and herbal cilantro. Oh wait, that's too many appetizers. And what about the fiery green papaya salad, the most chile-laced and mouth-puckering in all the world? Hmm. Debate the point over the Are-we-in-Napa? wine list, which draws California collectors from all over the country. It'll be hard to pick from this shockingly budget-friendly list, of course, but consider the arguments over your favorite appetizer and best wine mere training, mere fencing with safety-tipped rapier, for the real fight. You know, the one that arises when friends, if you can call them that, invite you to their corner Thai joint. Hey, those are fighting words!
Readers' Choice: Sawatdee BEST VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT Pho Tau Bay Tucked away at the south end of Eat Street, facing both the railroad tracks and the car wash, is a gem of an eatery. An electric incense shrine greets guests at the door and a host of authentic Vietnamese dishes grace the table. A full selection of banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) starting at $2 make for a great lunchtime option. (Buy 10 sandwiches and the 11th is free!) More leisurely luncheons may include one of the delectable noodle soups. All told, the menu lists 36 noodle soup options--each served in a bowl the size of your head--19 vermicelli salads, and 15 broken-rice platters. Less adventurous diners (or parents of picky eaters) will be glad to know that less authentic standbys such as lo mein and fried rice are tucked away at the back of the menu. The dining experience here is simple, perfect for families, groups of friends, or quick lunch jaunts from the heart of downtown. And yes, they deliver.
Readers' Choice: Quang Restaurant BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT Salsa a La Salsa Mexican Grill You know that thing about computer speed, how it doubles every six months? So it is with Mexican restaurants in Minnesota. It seems that every six months the Mexican restaurants around here are twice as good, in twice as many ways, as they just, just were. We never had any Mexican places with breathtaking, and breathtakingly cheap stews and sauces, but now there's Pineda 2. We never had any cathedral-ceilinged Mexican places gorgeously decorated to look like outdoor piazzas, but now there's the big Me Gusta complex. And we've never had anything like Salsa a la Salsa, a Mexican restaurant that is both authentically, richly Mexican in its food and culture, and welcomingly, deeply gracious in its hospitality. Run by the Azria family, Salsa a la Salsa serves two kinds of dishes, ones that Lorenzo Azria grew up with, like the marvelous mixiotes de pollo, a banana leaf filled with chicken, avocado leaves, lots of herbs and spices, cactus-leaf spirits, and steamed till hauntingly vegetal and lush, and other dishes he perfected in 30 years of cooking in California and Minnesota kitchens, like heart-healthy grilled vegetables touched with achiote oil served with blackened salmon. While the food is very good at Salsa a la Salsa, the margaritas cold, and the crackling fireplace hot, it's the restaurant's hospitality that really sets it apart--Lorenzo Azria is nearly always there, circling the room, chatting with every group seated in their sturdy wooden booths, and generally making sure you're twice as comfortable as you just were.
Readers' Choice: Pepito's BEST MEXICAN TAKEOUT Piñeda Tacos We like Chipotle, really we do. For a suddenly ubiquitous chain, they provide decent food at a good value. There's an undeniable allure to moving cafeteria-style through a line while you pick out items for a custom-made burrito ultimately rolled as fat as the top of a baseball bat. But that's why we love Piñeda, a pair of Lake Street joints that beat the chain at their own game. First of all, there's a huge array of meat options, a half-dozen variations on pork alone (you want it on green sauce, with potatoes, roasted, barbecued, with the skin on, on chipotle sauce, or as Mexican sausages?), plus items like liver, beef tongue, and chicken in tomato sauce. Second, the food is an even better value. Our favorite is the burrito gordo, a 12-inch flour tortilla stuffed with the meat of our choice, rice, beans, cheese, sour cream, crescents of avocado, lettuce, and tomato, plus all the onions, cilantro, hot green chilis, and red and green sauce we want to add at the condiment stand, for $6.50, tax included. Veggie burritos are $4.50, tostadas $2, and the eponymous tacos $1.75. Third, there's no gringo leavening, meaning that it helps to have a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish as you move through the line (although the cashier usually is fluent in English), and if you order your meat on chipotle sauce, prepare for some fairly serious heat. Of the two Piñedas, the 2150 E. Lake St. address has a slightly wider menu and accommodates sit-down dining, while the one further west is ideal for hit-and-run takeout. Cash only.
BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT Udupi Café One of the most extravagant foodie experiences in the Twin Cities is to be had during the weekends at Udupi's lunch and brunch buffet, when some 30 dishes are spread out for your sampling pleasure. Try the fluffy, polentalike casserole of "special rava kitchadi" and vegetables, which just bursts with spices; whole cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks are hidden in its rich depths. Madras-style aloo kofta has pinwheels of vegetables simmering in a mild and luscious sauce. Try dozens and dozens of things, garnishing them with fresh coconut chutney, cucumber raita as frothy as a milkshake, or fiery lemon pickles. This feast runs $10.99 on the weekends, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and only $7.99 on weekdays. The restaurant is just as elegant and bold with spicing at night, and just as inventive and friendly, of course, but that lunchtime buffet just about puts your eye out with its dazzling, imaginative abundance.
Readers' Choice: Taste of India BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT (CHEAP) Broders' Southside Pasta Bar Every nation that has wheat has some kind of pasta--Japanese udon, Polish pierogi, Tibetan momo. But the Italians love it the most. Some say that the word macaroni comes from an expression of spontaneous love for pasta, something like "ma, che carini!" or "my, what cuties!" Nowhere in the Twin Cities is this love more purely expressed than in the airy kitchen of Broders' Southside Pasta Bar, where pasta is made fresh daily, and chefs combine it with the harvest of the globe right before your eyes. The tender delectables that result will have you crying out, "My, what cuties!" Try the legendary trenette con pesto alla Genovese for a perfect example: This is pesto as it was meant to be, the greenness of the overexploited sauce enhanced with green beans, the earthiness accented with potatoes, the whole of it as rich as a well-run farm in summertime. If you want to fall in love yourself, for not too much money, please know that Sunday through Thursday after 8:00 p.m. two people can dine on a plate of pasta, salad, and a half-bottle of wine for just $20 total. My, what a cute idea! Readers' Choice: Olive Garden BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT (NOT CHEAP) Ristorante Luci Looking into a bowl of adeptly tender pappardelle con funghi the other night at Ristorante Luci, we were struck by the agile playfulness of the dish. It was merely a bowl of pasta, but in among the al dente swaths of pappardelle, grassy tips of asparagus nipped happily, herbily, at peppery slices of shiitake mushroom, the two glossed with brown butter, each forkful a landscape of forest in springtime. We looked up from the dish and contemplated our lovely $28 bottle of 1999 Barbera, typical of this little restaurant that buys wine early and cheap and cellars it for a while, without ever seeming to raise the prices accordingly. We looked at the terra-cotta walls smiling down on the cheery tables, we listened to the laughter echoing off the walls, and we marveled, just marveled to ourselves: This is one of the best bowls of pasta in memory, and it's merely the primi in a $25.95 four-course feast! No wonder Ristorante Luci has been a Twin Cities favorite all these years. We settled back in our chairs and let the rest of the evening wash over us, and rest assured, the rest of the courses, the seared pork with sage risotto, the spicy potato soup, the tuna tartare, were just as good as that pasta.
Readers' Choice: Buca di Beppo BEST JAPANESE RESTAURANT Tanpopo Noodle Shop Tanpopo is counterintuitive, Tanpopo is intuitive. The little Lowertown full-service restaurant is counterintuitive because many of its defining qualities, such as being light, elegant, healthy, and serene, seem completely, completely incompatible with many of its other qualities, like being cheap, easy to get into, friendly, and low-key. But that's just how it is here, where you can sit in a white cathedral of a space, gaze into the many courses of your teishoku meal and know that you're spending a mere $8. (Try the heart-healthy saba meal, which features fried slices of Omega-3-rich mackerel, miso soup, a lively green salad, rice, and pickles. Or the earthy abundance of the wild mushroom udon soup, which features tender blanched spinach and light, sweet slices of omelet alongside the mushrooms.) Eight dollars for a big, healthy dinner and serenity is counterintuitive, right? But Tanpopo is intuitive, too; it's a place that serves calm and poise in little elegant portions, and, intuitively, we seem to head here whenever we want the wealth of the universe affirmed.
Readers' Choice: Fuji-Ya BEST KOREAN RESTAURANT King's Fine Korean Cuisine Keep it a secret, but we are developing an almost cultish faith in the powers of King's soups to destroy colds: The pork kim chee soup is hearty, spicy, and cuts through a winter head cold like a sword through butter; the soybean hot pot with vegetables sets any sniffly soul quickly on the road to recovery. There are a lot of reasons to love King's: the springtime-fresh seafood pancake, the barbecue glory of the pork gal bi, the nutty light show that accompanies the late-night Korean karaoke, the budget-loving lunchtime buffet, the parking from here to eternity, and the low prices, to name but a few. But it's those soups that win our loyalty every time, and their uncanny ability to go straight from the spoon to the very marrow of your bones and heal you right up.
BEST MIDDLE EASTERN RESTAURANT Khyber Pass Nestled in between a Dunn Bros and a Jamba Juice on the super-busy intersection of Snelling and Grand Avenues, Khyber Pass, with its soothing yellow lighting, quiet decor, and sweetly strumming sitar sounds is an oasis from the bustle of the everyday commute. There's a certain calm to the place; patrons even tend to assume a pleasantly hushed tone while dining here that fits perfectly with the no-frills, just plain good Afghani comfort food. Must-have appetizers include two types of chutney: walnut and cilantro, a snappy green, nutty, garlicky mix; and red pepper-apricot, a hot, tangy zap! There's also creamy-garlicky hummus drizzled with olive oil, and salata, a refreshing mix of chopped tomato, cucumber, onion, lettuce, mint, cilantro, and lime juice. Shola, a favorite vegetarian entrée consisting of mung beans and rice swirled with tart yogurt and spicy chutney, should be a standard comfort meal for all vegetarians. Also not to be missed are the kabobs. Be sure to try the chai tea, sweet and softly textured, yet boldly spiced with cardamom. You'll definitely want to take advantage of the refills.
BEST FRENCH RESTAURANT Cavé Vin Robust, rollicking, and romantic, Cavé Vin delivers everything you love about the land of liberté, égalité, and frites--namely, the food, the wine, the sense of style, and the good times. Come here for the keenest, simplest pleasures: that good loaf of crusty French bread accompanied by a sweet pot of butter, the rich bottle of French country wine in the pleasant twentysomething range, the garlicky pleasure of escargot in a creamy, lick-the-plate-clean sauce, the light and crispy decadence of frog's legs, the summertime joy of haricots verts, the charm of a glossy roast chicken, the wealth of flavor in a chocolate pot de crème. To gild the lily, Cavé Vin has some big plans upcoming--they just added weekend brunch and plan a flower-filled patio for the summertime. If you do snag one of these patio tables, be sure to take a moment and look at a set of tailpipes racing down Xerxes as you contemplate one of the essential incompatibilities between French and American thinking. Namely: Why are so many of our fellow citizens racing toward Southdale to wait two hours for mall-chain food that isn't even a tenth as good?
Readers' Choice: Vincent A Restaurant BEST GREEK/MEDITERRANEAN RESTAURANT Christos No dark paneling or red leather booths, no heavy oregano or cigar smoke, this place glows with Mediterranean light. An open kitchen, white walls, and elegant black-and-white photos of the Greek isles welcome you in. The menu is traditional Greek/Cypriot turned out with a light hand and careful attention to seasoning. Longtime favorite shrimp Mykonos tosses seasonal fresh vegetables with salty feta, while the pork souvlaki is tender and lovingly charred. The lamb tavas, in onions, tomatoes, and potatoes, is fragrant and silky on its pillow of rice. And standbys such as moussaka, spanakopita, and tryopita in crisp, flaky phyllo are made for friends with long forks. If you're going to order octopus anywhere in the Twin Cities, this place is a sure bet. The classic octapodi, marinated in wine, olive oil, black pepper, and fresh herbs, will convert the squeamish. Though the waitstaff appears suspiciously Scandinavian, they knows their baklava from their rizogalo. The wine list features southern Mediterranean favorites: Most of the whites are young and raspy, the reds all a bit rough, though they'll hold their own against garlic and olive oil. You can sit sipping retsina and picking at gyros as long as you like, watching Eat Street's ever-fascinating traffic.
Readers' Choice: It's Greek to Me BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT Yummy China is a big place with lots of flavors and about a billion people. Yummy isn't all that big, but boy, oh boy, does it have a lot of flavor, and about a billion dishes. Like what? Like tankfuls of critters fresh and flipping in one of the live-fish tanks. Like lobsters bright orange with frying and jazzy with chiles. Like dark, savory, eggplant hot pots, their clay pots spitting like angry cats. Like ma po tofu spread out on high platters, glistening. Like dim sum dumplings peeking up from dear little baskets (every day from 10:00 to 3:00!). Like green plates of pea shoots glowing like spring itself. Like, finally, red beans swimming in syrup for dessert, begging for one tiny spot in your full, full tummy (which has been made nummy by Yummy). It's hard to imagine how anyone could shoehorn any more into the confines of Minnesota's most authentic newcomer, but please know this as well: Just like the great, wide, and long nation of China, Yummy has plenty of parking.
Readers' Choice: Rainbow Chinese Restaurant and Bar Advertisement
2004 Best of the Twin Cities HOME
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