[MSP] Restaurants serving less common cuisines - a list

[tvdxer]

Less Common Cuisine in the MSP Area

A list of restaurants serving harder-to-find cuisines (as opposed to Thai, Japanese, German, Spanish, etc.).

Compiled by Jacob Norlund / 17 June 2007

NOTE: Some of these restaurants may be out of business. Others may have changed names. And of course, it's not complete...yet. Any help in expanding the list would be greatly welcome.

AFGHAN

Crystal Bistro Afghan Cuisine
6408 Bass Lake Road
Crystal
763-533-4900

Da Afghan
929 W 80th St
Bloomington
952-888-5824

Khyber Pass Cafe
1571 Grand Ave
St. Paul
651-690-0505

CAMBODIAN

Cheng Heng
448 University Ave. W
St. Paul
651-222-5577

Kolap Restaurant
601 N Dale St
St. Paul
651-222-2488

ECUADORIAN AND PERUVIAN

Guyaquil Restaurant
1526 E Lake St
Minneapolis
612-722-2344

Machu Picchu
2940 Lyndale Ave S
Minneapolis
612-822-2125s

FRENCH NORTH AFRICAN

Barbary Fig
720 Grand
St Paul
651-290-2085

HMONG

Foodsmart
544 University Ave.
St. Paul, MN
651-665-0949
Grocery store with Hmong cafeteria in back.

Golden Triangle Hmong Restaurant (Va Lor?)
371 W University Av
St. Paul
651-602-0602

Hmong Market
217 Como Av
St. Paul
651-487-3700
Food court

INDIAN – GUJARATI

Bombay 2 Deli
1840 Central Ave NE
Minneapolis
612-788-4571

INDIAN – HYBERABADI

Kabobs Restaurant
7814 Portland Ave S
Bloomington
612-636-7786

ISRAELI

Little Tel-Aviv
3228 West Lake St
Minneapolis
612-929-1111

KURDISH*

Babani's Kurdish Restaurant
544 St Peter
St Paul
651-602-9964
Country's first Kurdish restaurant. (?)

LAOTIAN

Family Lao / Thai Restaurant
501 University Ave W
St. Paul
651-224-5026

Thai Bazil
704 University Ave W
St. Paul
651-225-8080

Vientiane Restaurant
995 University Ave W
St. Paul
651-645-4351

LATIN CARRIBEAN

Babalu
800 Washington Ave N
Minneapolis
612-746-3158
http://www.babalu.us/
Cuban, Spanish, and Carribean cuisine

LEBANESE

Beirut Lebanese Restaurant
1385 Robert Street South
West St. Paul
651-457-4886

Emily's Lebanese Deli
641 University Ave NE
Minneapolis
612-379-4069

Morgan's Mexican & Lebanese Mercado
736 S Robert St
St. Paul
651-291-2955

MALAYSIAN

Peninsula
2608 Nicollet Ave.
Minneapolis
612-871-8282

Rasa Sayang
2480 Winnetka Avenue North
Golden Valley
763-525-9876

Satay 2 Go Asian Cuisine
Apple Valley
6670 150th St. W.
952-891-8551

Singapore!
5554 34th Ave S.
Minneapolis
612-722-0888

MULTI
Midtown Global Market
Lake Street & Chicago Ave.
Minneapolis

NEPLAI – TIBETAN

Everest on Grand
1278 Grand Ave.
651-696-1666

Namaste Cafe
Minneapolis
612-872-2496
Average Entree $9

PALESTINIAN

Abu Nader Deli & Grocery
2095 Como Ave.
St. Paul
651-647-5391

PAN-AFRICAN

Tam-Tam African Restaurant
605 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis
612-339-0854
Ugandan, Ethiopian, and West African

PERSIAN

Good to Go
200 S 6th St. / 330 2nd Ave. S. Minneapolis
612-341-4600 / 612-338-8400

PROVENÇAL

La Fougasse
5601 W 78th St
Bloomington
952-835-0126

SCANDINAVIAN

Aquavit
80 S 8th St
Minneapolis
612-343-3333

Cafe Northstar
618 S 2nd Ave
Minneapolis
612-338-2288

Taste of Scandinavia
845 Village Center Dr
North Oaks
651-482-8285

SOMALI

Al-Uruba Restaurant
2800 27th Ave. South
Minneapolis
612-729-9898

Banadir Coffee
370 W Lake St
Minneapolis
612-821-9010

Café Sport
425 E Lake St
Minneapolis
612-825-6776

Cairo Grill
1922 Chicago Ave S
Minneapolis
612-870-6200

Casablanca Restaurant and Coffee Shop
411 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis
612-746-3489

Gazira International Food and Deli
2115 Chicago Ave S
Minneapolis
612-872-0001

Gulet Deli and Grocery
922 E 24th St
Minneapolis
612-874-6970

HAMDI Restaurant
818 E Lake St
Minneapolis
612-823-9660

Hodan Restaurant
1304 E Lake St
Minneapolis
612-729-9988

Indian Ocean Restaurant
1401 11th Ave S
Minneapolis
612-338-1817

Kaah Restaurant
912 24th St E
Minneapolis
612-872-8390

Kilimanjaro Café
324 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis
612-333-2211

Lake Plaza – Food Court and Bazaar
413 E Lake St
Minneapolis

Madina Somal Restaurant
3205 Cedar Ave South
Minneapolis
612-729-6884

Mandeeq Restaurant
1202 E Lake St
Minneapolis
612-724-8133

Marka Cafeteria
1206 E Lake St
Minneapolis
612-724-6711

Merkato Restaurant
605 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis
612-746-0333

Safari Restaurant
1424 Nicollet Avenue
Minneapolis
612-872-4604

Sahara Restaurant
408 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis
612-332-1822

Tariq Restaurant
137 E Franklin Ave
Minneapolis
612-874-9500

TAIWANESE

Evergreen Taiwanese Restaurant
2424 Nicollet Ave.
Minneapolis
612-871-6801

TURKISH

Black Sea Restaurant

WEST AFRICAN

Akwaaba
1823 Nicollet Ave S
Minneapolis
612-872-4414

Ghana
864 University Ave
St. Paul
651-762-9451

Three Crowns Restaurant & Catering
2817 Lyndale Ave S
Minneapolis
612-813-4444
Nigerian

SOURCES:
Chowhound
Twin Cities Dining Guide
http://www.somaliresource.net/busines...

[tvdxer]

Just to let everyone know: the list has been updated for the first time in a couple of months. Changes:

*Kilimanjaro Cafe re-categorized from Somali to Ethiopian
*Flamingo added under new category "Eritrean"
*Highland Cafe / Bakery added under "Nepali" with note
*New "ethnic food courts" section added with Midtown Global Market and Hmong Market in it...if anybody knows of any others, please let me know

The updated list, in PDF form, is available at:

http://www.geocities.com/tvdxer/chow....

Hope you enjoy.

[tvdxer]

Correction:

Kilimanjaro Café
324 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis
612-333-2211

should be under "Ethiopian". I checked out their menu yesterday and it seemed to be thoroughly Ethiopian.

[dahliachewswell]

Additionally,

Fasika on Snelling, about one block North of University, serving AMAZING Ethiopian food, also, Ethiopian beer and wine.

-----
Fasika Ethiopian Restaurant
510 Snelling Ave N, Saint Paul, MN 55104

[burkhass]

This is fantastic! My New Year's resolution this year was to try a new ethnic restaurant each month of 2007. I highly recommend it. It's the only resolution I've ever actually kept.

[NewSushiFiend]

Black Sea is on Snelling just north of Minnehaha. Great place!

[soupkitten]

i just printed it also. maybe i'll print a second time and keep one copy in the car also. thank you very much for taking the time!

[nieves]

I don't know if you would consider food from El Salvador to be unusual, but I would definitely say that Manana in St Paul is a great restaurant. A bit of a 'hole in the wall' and I usually take my food to go. Their Pupusas and some of their salsas are fabuluous!

Manana
828 7th Street E
Saint Paul, MN 55106-4516

[Foureyes137]

If you have the resources and time to upload this and post a link, this list in a portable format arranged in rows and columns would be AWESOME as a checklist on my fridge. Of course, I could always do it myself...

[tvdxer]

I'll do that.

[tvdxer]

I'm not sure this is exactly what you wanted, but I'm sure at least somebody will like it.

Go to http://www.geocities.com/tvdxer/chow...., which will give you a link to download a PDF file of (an expanded version of) this list with half-decent formatting (columns, etc.).

[autmommy]

Helping out the non-techy types here..If you tried the link above and it did not work, try this!
http://www.geocities.com/tvdxer/chow....
There was a pesky comma at the end of the other link. Thanks for this tvdexer!

[Foureyes137]

Thanks guys, this is terrific!

[soupkitten]

i believe that morgan's lebanese/mexican deli & market on robert's street has closed also.

[clepro]

Yes, Morgan's is closed.

Where's all the Ethiopian restaurants? Here's one:
Queen of Sheba
651-690-0068
2447 West 7th Street
St Paul, MN 55116

[tvdxer]

The original file had about five Ethiopian restaurants, but I decided not to include them because I didn't think they were unusual enough. But maybe I'll put them in the PDF file I'm making right now..

[AnneInMpls]

Great list!

Some corrections:

- Aquavit closed a few years ago.

- Taste of Scandinavia (North Oaks) has been bought out and no longer seems particularly Scandinavian There are several locations, which serve gyros, lasagne, and taco pie, along with a few open-faced sandwiches. The original owner (who is Finnish) now runs the Finnish Bistro. See http://www.finnishbistro.com .

Another recommended source: Jeremy Iggers, a former restaurant reviewer for the Strib. It's a bit light because he's about to start reviewing for The Rake (a free monthly magazine).

http://jeremyiggers.blogspot.com/

And some more restaurants for your list:

NON-FRENCH NORTH AFRICAN

Mairin's Table (some Moroccan dishes) .
23 Northeast Fourth Street
Minneapolis
612-746-4272
http://www.mairinstable.com/

LATIN CARRIBEAN

Aribel's Guyanese Restaurant
1120 E 66th Street
Richfield

El Meson
3450 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis
612-822-8062
http://www.elmesonbistro.com/

Cafe Ena (Carribean/Columbian) .
4601 Grand Ave
Minneapolis
612-824-4441

Marla's (Trinidad/Indian) .
1123 W Lake Street
Minneapolis
612-306-7659
http://www.marlascuisine.com

Palm Court (Guyanese) .
2424 Central Ave. NE
Minneapolis
612-789-3373

Victors 1959 Cafe (Cuban) .
3756 Grand Ave S.
Minneapolis
612-827-8948
http://victors1959cafe.com

West Indies Soul (Island Caribbean) .
625 University Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55104
651-665-0115
(also at Midtown Global Market) .
http://members.aol.com/westindiessoul/

PERSIAN

Caspian Bistro
2418 University Ave SE
Minneapolis
612-623-1113

SRI LANKAN

Sambol
1260 Town Center Drive
Eagan
651-688-8686
http://www.sambol.com/

TURKISH

Istanbul Bistro
15718 Wayzata Blvd.
Wayzata
952-476-7997
http://www.citypages.com/restaurantad...

[tvdxer]

Thanks for the additions! Very appreciated!

Unfortunately, the software this forum uses doesn't allow me to edit my original post to include your additions. However, I'll put them in the original file (under Cuban, Guyanese, Colombian, etc.)

[faith]

Well, I am in awe at these lists, very impressive. I have one spelling correction-
it should be Hyderabadi, not Hyberabadi, under Indian.

[Foureyes137]

Great list! I would only add:

ECUADORIAN

Sabor Latino
2505 Central Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
[phone]