1. Khyber Pass Café
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 690-0505
Address: 1571 Grand Ave.
Description: Khyber Pass Café has served delicious Afghani cuisine since 1985. When entering the restaurant, the diner is immediately struck by its personality, charm, and aesthetic sense. The restaurant has a comfortable, clean, and cobbled-together feel, which integrates potted plants and Afghani crafts with numerous tasteful paintings.The menu comprises well-executed entrées. The possibilities include chicken, lamb, beef, and vegetarian dishes. The korma-e-murgh, boneless chicken in curry sauce with potatoes and peas, is one savory option. Another interesting choice is kof a-chalau, which is made of meatballs, onions, and spices. The restaurant is open for lunch Monday through Friday and for dinner Monday through Saturday.
2. Acme Deli
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 698-8191
Address: 1552 Saint Clair Ave.
Description: “A couple o’ tables,” reads the sign outside Acme Deli, and it doesn’t lie: Don’t count on finding a place to sit inside. The seating is limited for a good reason, though: Acme’s owners have wisely chosen to devote their storefront space largely to housing a big sandwich-making space, with a mouthwatering variety of stuffings from which to assemble your feast. Faculty at the nearby colleges love to have Acme cater their symposia, and you can get in the spirit by taking your Saran Wrapped sandwich to the bucolic grounds of St. Kate’s or Macalester for a picnic lunch.
3. Blue Door Pub
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 493-1865
Address: 1811 Selby Ave.
Description: This establishment’s door was blue before it became the Blue Door Pub in 2008: The Selby Avenue storefront was Puerta Azul, a beloved but under-patronized Puerto Rican restaurant. As the Blue Door, the establishment sees lines out the door for its “blucy lucy” cheese-stuffed burgers. As the only beer-and-burgers pub (aside from the legendary O’Gara’s, up the street) in a neighborhood packed with hungry families and college students, the Blue Door has a built-in clientele that keeps it consistently hopping, so shoot for an off-hour stop if you don’t care to wait for a table.
4. Cecil’S Restaurant, Delicatessen & Bakery
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 698-6276
Address: 651 South Cleveland Ave.
Description: Cecil’s, established in 1949, is where the Twin Cities’ expat New York Jews find solace. The front of the building is a huge deli with fresh meats, cheeses, breads, and baked goods; in the back is a modest restaurant. The menu contains almost every hot and cold sandwich imaginable, including several kosher selections. All of Cecil’s food can be ordered for takeout. Cecil’s Restaurant is open for lunch and dinner daily, and the delicatessen is also open seven days a week.
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Address: 525 Selby Ave.
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Address: 477 West Seventh St.
7. Fabulous Fern’S Bar & Grill
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 225-9414
Address: 400 Selby Ave.
Description: Love it or hate it, Fabulous Fern’s is the lowest common denominator among the many dining establishments on St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill: You’ve got your burgers, you’ve got your beer, you’ve got your darts, and you’ve got your free popcorn. Restaurant specialties include wild rice and chicken salad with cranberry vinaigrette dressing, the Cajun meat loaf sandwich, Fern’s pot roast, and pecan-crusted walleye. Popular with sports fans who flock to Fabulous Fern’s to watch the bar’s 4 plasma TVs and 10 regular TVs, the place really gets hopping during Vikings games. Fern’s is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week and serves their full menu until midnight every day.
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Address: 276 South Exchange St.
9. Hickory Hut
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 224-9464
Address: 647 University Ave. West
Description: The Hickory Hut serves up great barbecue in a fast-food and take-out environment. Don’t go for the decor (“hickory” describes the flavor, not the woodwork), but go for the tangy, meaty wings, barbecue beef sandwiches, and ribs; for the catfish, shrimp, and at least a dozen side dishes; for the large, inexpensive portions; and for the superb barbecue sauce. This is some seriously tasty food.
10. The Lexington
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 222-5878
Address: 1096 Grand Ave.
Description: The Lexington—known locally as “the Lex”—is the kind of place old-school St. Paul Catholic families take their dressed-up kids out to eat for a “fancy” meal with their godparents after Confirmation. Its style is almost a parody of colonial class, with “a collection of pediments, pilasters, cornices, arches, keystones, and shutters pasted like oversized Post-it notes to the smooth brick walls” (in the words of architecture critic Larry Millett), but after three-quarters of a century, the sense of community and neighborhood history at the Lex are no joke. Still, if you’re looking for objectively fine dining rather than “fine dining,” for the price there are better bets elsewhere.
11. Mickey’S Diner
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 222-5633
Address: 36 West Seventh St.
Description: Mickey’s is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been featured in several Hollywood movies, but don’t think that means it’s full of tourists and hipsters: The burly hostesses aren’t afraid to throw people out for getting fresh, and you may just see them do so. Mickey’s serves up real ice-cream malts, eggs any way you like ’em, burgers and fries, Mulligan stew, and pancakes 24 hours a day. Set in a ’30s-era dining car with a chrome and Formica interior, the diner has been family owned and operated since 1939.
12. Muffuletta Café
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (651) 644-9116
Address: 2260 Como Ave.
Description: Located in the charming, London-like St. Anthony Park neighborhood near the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus, Muffuletta serves an eclectic menu in a colorful, casual-yet-classy atmosphere. The restaurant changes its menu daily, but you can expect to find such things as pork tenderloin, duck, gnocchi, and steaks, all prepared with great attention to detail and an eye toward succulence. Muffuletta also offers a prix fixe menu that changes weekly, with an appetizer, main course, and dessert for one price. Muffuletta serves beer and wine, including a fabulous wine list courtesy of the sommelier on staff. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday and brunch only on Sunday.
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Address: 1890 University Ave. West
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Address: 350 Market St.
City: St. Paul, MN
Category: Restaurants
Address: 656 Grand Ave.