Best Restaurants in Minneapolis-St Paul

It's almost time for the Big Game! Minneapolis is soon going to be flooded with tons of sports fans hoping for a win. While you're there, I'm sure that you'll love all that Minneapolis has to offer. My favorite thing about the Twin Cities? The food scene. Here are my can't-miss restuarants for every meal!

Breakfast and Brunch

Tucked away downtown is this complete gem. Spoon and Stable is everything that you could want for a classy brunch out. Not cheap, but reasonable for a downtown brunch, they have a wide array of brunch cocktails, and dishes ranging from the sweet to the savory. They also have an impressive selection of pastries, also suiting a variety of tastes. My date and I chose to do a little of both. For breakfast, we had the quiche of the day, made of fluffy perfect eggs with caramelized onion and spinach. The puff pastry crust was a little thick for my taste, but overall excellent. It came with a delightful salad to the side. Moving to something a little sweeter, we had the buttermilk waffles with sweet whipped cream and cinnamon apples. Also fantastic.

We also chose to indulge in some pastries. The citrus and lingonberry tart was nothing short of divine, with the most angelic meringue that I have ever tasted. Also more savory, we had the goat cheese danish. Garnished with a savory spice blend, it expertly tempered our sweet citrus tart.

Pastries were $3, breakfast entrees were between $8 and $16. Coffee was free. Between two entrees and two pastries, we were both full, but there weren’t leftovers.

Lunch

Surly Brewing Company has a destination brewery near the University of Minnesota that is worth a visit. The décor and views are lovely, as is the food and beer. They had around 20 kinds on tap the day we visited, making the decision fairly difficult. I settled for a lighter ale called #Merica and was not disappointed. Charles had an amber ale named Furious.

The Sunday at 1pm that I was there was busy, but we only had to wait a few minutes for a table.

For lunch we opted for a little bit of everything. We had the cheese board with spiced nuts, honeycomb, and four kinds of cheese with a delicious bread and cracker assortment. We followed that up with a side of seasonal squash with bitter greens, seeds, and chile vinaigrette. Our final dish was a polish sausage with hot mustard. I will admit that I was apprehensive that a brewery could have truly excellent dining beyond pub-food, but you won’t be disappointed.

Cheeseboard for $15, squash for $8, sausage for $16. Beers were $5. Between the two of us, we had leftovers and walked away stuffed.

Supper

I’m going to show my hand here and say that this is one of the finest dining experiences that I have had in my whole life. Restaurant Alma, in the northeast corner of the city, provides a three-course high end tasting menu. It’s very small, so you’ll need a reservation. We got in early, but the place was full before we left. This is the kind of fancy restaurant that you see on the Food Network. It feels very casual, but the food is anything but. For each course, there are around five or six options, and they are all so decadent that it was hard to choose. I feel that we made excellent choices. In accompaniment, we also opted for the wine flight, which provides a half-pour for each course.

For our first course, we had warm roasted beets with pickled chiles and cheese. I like beets, and these were exceptional. With that, we also had the pasture raised beef tartare with pumpkin seed mole. I love steak tartare and this was perfect. Delightfully soft and flavorful. The sauce accompanying it tasted nearly of gun oil. Fantastically smoky and gorgeous.

Our second course was couscous and rabbit confit with pear and carrots. I hadn’t eaten rabbit very often, but this was delicious. Thin strips of rabbit on a bed of anise-spike couscous. The lobster bisque was ordered was charmingly theatrical. The waitress set down the bowl with the potatoes, apples, and lobster beautifully arranged, and then poured the soup over it from a tiny silver pitcher. Also amazing. The savory tempered by the sweet of the apple.

Our final course was a roasted leg of lamb with squash, chutney, and saffron. I love lamb, and this rounded out what I would consider to be a very good meal. The lamb was an impeccable medium-rare and delicately seasoned. I could not be happier with it. We finished our night with pan seared scallops. I was apprehensive of these. It’s difficult to get a scallop to be perfect. These were nothing but. Crisp sear on the outside, soft, medium middle.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay for dessert due to another engagement, but boy do I wish we had.

Three course meal for $55, a la carte is available. Wine flights are $25, or bottles for less than $100.

See you soon, Minneapolis.

What is the best place to eat in your city?