61. Sushi Tango
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 822-7787
Address: 3001 Hennepin Ave.
Description: Sushi Tango’s logo is a crazed anime boy with spiked hair, but that image doesn’t necessarily represent its atmosphere. It’s a chill and happily uncrowded spot that emphasizes the social side of Japanese dining, with highly sharable appetizers and drink selections including a tasty sake Bloody Mary. A place like this takes happy hour seriously, and there are two of them every day—with a full eight hours of happy hour each weekend day. (The “weekend,” of course, includes Thursday—this is Uptown, after all.)
62. Brasa Rotisserie
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 379-3030
Address: 600 East Hennepin Ave.
Description: Brasa’s distinctive Caribbean-American menu, created by chef Tamara Murphy, puts it among the Twin Cities’ top names in dining. The restaurant calls its fare “comfort food,” but this isn’t your mother’s comfort food—even if your family is Caribbean. The pulled chicken, roasted pork, and (yep) grits are carefully sourced and lovingly prepared; both locations offer stylish in-house dining rooms as well as take-out options.
63. Conga Latin Bistro
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 331-3360
Address: 501 East Hennepin Ave.
Description: You won’t have any trouble spotting Conga: Its neon sign featuring an animated pair of hands beating on (natch) a conga drum is a northeast Minneapolis landmark. The owners of Conga, the Thunstrom family, are also responsible for the perennially popular south Minneapolis Latin restaurant El Meson. The nuevo Latino menu features a couple of paellas, the popular Spanish rice and seafood dish, as well as a wide selection of chicken, pork, beef, and seafood items. Other choices include the seafood casserole and Jamaican chicken. The beer and wine list is extensive, and there is ample opportunity for dancing. Conga is open for lunch Monday through Friday and for dinner daily.
64. Machu Picchu
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 822-2125
Address: 2940 Lyndale Ave. South
Description: Machu Picchu is a Peruvian restaurant that specializes in Latin seafood. Located in the heart of the Lyn-Lake neighborhood, an area overflowing with stores, theaters, and coffee shops, the restaurant attracts a hip crowd looking for an exotic dining experience. Machu Picchu is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
65. Barrio Tequila Bar
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 333-9953
Address: 925 Nicollet Mall
Description: Barrio is indeed a tequila bar, and both locations offer some of the Twin Cities’ most distinctive drink menus, featuring specialty tequilas and margaritas that will put you in orbit. Barrio isn’t a one-trick pony, though: Its menu was created by top chef Tim McKee, and it puts a deliciously new spin on Mexican favorites like tacos (potato-chorizo, for example), sopes (goat cheese!), and steak (it comes with chile-lime-tequila butter). Guacamole? Of course—custom-made. Andale, for reals.
66. Chiapas Restaurant
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 789-2971
Address: 2416 Central Ave. NE
Description: Chiapas Restaurant serves authentic Mexican food in northeast Minneapolis. Silverio Perez, who also owns the Pancho Villa restaurant on Eat Street, operates this 50-seat eatery. The restaurant specialties include chile relleno, enchiladas, and fajitas. Also featured are several vegetarian items. Chiapas is open daily for late breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
67. Chino Latino
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 824-7878
Address: 2916 Hennepin Ave. South
Description: Chino Latino is a chic hangout with a menu influenced by the food of Asia and Latin barrios. The food is often delicious and sometimes, well, interesting, such as an item that caught the eyes of local animal lovers: guinea pig. Chino Latino is open for dinner (and stays open past midnight) daily.
68. Little Tijuana
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 872-0578
Address: 17 East 26th St.
Description: Open until 3 a.m. daily, “Little T’s” is the bar-rush capital of the Eat Street environs. The tattooed servers brace themselves like linebackers for the happily drunk 2 a.m. crowd, who arrive to chow on enchiladas and draw obscene pictures on the butcher-paper tablecloths with the provided crayons. The restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol, which is definitely a good thing. Are there any special reasons to go to Little T’s before the show? Not really, though the fried ice cream’s darn good at any hour.
69. Me Gusta Mexican Cuisine
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 724-6007
Address: 1507 East Lake St.
Description: For decades Me Gusta Mexican Cuisine has satisfied Twin Citians’ needs for authentic Mexican cuisine. Today there are numerous authentic Mexican restaurants in the area, but not that long ago Me Gusta was an oasis in a sea of bland, tasteless pseudo-Mexican eateries. Like the rest of the menu, the chips are fresh and the salsa is spicy. Then satisfy your thirst with Mexican beer, wine, or Jarritos, a sweet Mexican soda. The menu includes several burrito, fajita, and enchilada dinners and, for more adventurous diners, nopales asados (grilled cactus), the chile relleno, or the enchiladas en mole. Me Gusta is open daily for lunch and dinner.
70. Pancho Villa Restaurant
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 871-7014
Address: 2539 Nicollet Ave.
Description: In Minneapolis the words “Pancho Villa” are most often heard in combination with one or both of the words “margarita” and “birthday.” Bring six friends to Pancho Villa on your birthday, and you can drink for free all night while wearing the birthday sombrero. On 200-plus other days of the year (that is, the weekdays), you can enjoy two-for-one margaritas all day long. The food is also tasty and surprisingly authentic, but as for the atmosphere, all that can be said is … two-for-one margaritas!
71. Pepitos Mexi-Go Deli
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 822-2104
Address: 4820 Chicago Ave. South
Description: These two Mexican restaurants carry an amazing selection of Mexican foods at reasonable prices, including vegetarian enchiladas and tacos, Azteca sandwiches served on teleta-style Mexican bread, huge nacho plates, and quesadillas made with homemade tortillas, all of which are excellent when topped with one of the six fresh-made salsas offered at the salad table. Pepitos is open daily for lunch and dinner.
72. Caspian Bistro & Marketplace
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 623-1113
Address: 2418 University Ave. SE
Description: Since 1986 the Caspian Bistro has served the nearby University of Minnesota with scrumptious Persian foods including kebabs, including beef, chicken, and lamb versions accompanied by basmati rice and salad. The menu also includes Middle Eastern treats such as gyros and lamb shank. The small adjoining market offers Middle Eastern delicacies and staples. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. The restaurant accepts Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.
73. Falafel King
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 824-7887
Address: 701 West Lake St.
Description: Falafel King provides Middle Eastern foods in a casual atmosphere. From the counter, diners may select from numerous appetizers, salads, sandwiches, combinations, and dinner entrées. Middle Eastern favorites such as kebabs, hummus, and falafel are served. The restaurant also serves omelets, and Greek and Middle Eastern–style breakfasts. Falafel King is open daily and offers lunch and dinner buffets. The downtown Minneapolis location is takeout or delivery only.
74. Holy Land Bakery, Grocery & Deli
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (612) 781-2627
Address: 2513 Central Ave. NE
Description: Holy Land is not only one of the best specialty markets in the area, it also serves enormous portions of outstanding Middle Eastern cuisine on disposable plates. The choices include kebabs, falafel, hummus, spinach pie, shawarma (gyro), and much more. The menu offers large pita sandwiches and much larger dinners, which generally include a salad and rice or hummus paired with one of several meats (shawarma, kebabs, combinations, etc.) and a basket of fresh pita. Select a self-service drink, and there will be plenty of leftovers for less than $10. On request the deli offers halal meals to meet the dietary needs of Muslims. Holy Land does not serve alcohol. Both Holy Land locations are open daily for lunch and dinner.
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Restaurants
Address: 1518 Nicollet Ave. South