Best Restaurants in Minneapolis

Isaac Becker and Nancy St. Pierre’s first North Loop eatery earned Becker the 2011 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest, and over a decade later, it endures as one of the city’s best restaurants. In a world of constantly rotating menus and finicky food trends, 112 is refreshingly consistent; several of the dishes have remained unchanged since its 2005 opening.

But don’t mistake it for complacency: Becker’s commitment to precise technique and high-quality ingredients has kept locals coming back for steak tartare and stringozzi with lamb sugo. From the spiced nuts and olives that start every meal to the warm but extremely professional hospitality, 112 is a gift to the Twin Cities dining scene.

Afro Deli is what happens when fast casual dining meets African, Mediterranean and American fusion. With a menu that ranges from Somali-Italian fusion (the best-selling Chicken Fantastic) to classic Mediterranean gyro and hummus platters, and American standbys like cheeseburgers and steak sandwiches, Afro Deli is a lot like Minneapolis — diverse, delicious and totally unique. 

Some restaurants try to be everything to everyone, but not Al's. Since opening in 1950, Al's Breakfast has earned its reputation as one of America's best classic diners by reliably serving up no-frills breakfast foods cooked to perfection. Arrive at the diner, reportedly the narrowest restaurant in Minneapolis, well before you're hungry and expect to wait a bit before landing a counter spot on one of 14 stools.

Bring cash or a personal check; Al's doesn't accept credit cards. 

While it's not a vegetarian restaurant by any means — fried chicken drizzled with harissa honey and steelhead tartare served alongside sea beans, dill cream and Old Bay potato chips were both on the menu recently — All Saints excels at putting seasonal vegetables at the center of your plate. Or as co-owners Kim Tong and Denny Leaf-Smith put it, it's "veggie-forward, meat friendly" rather than the other way around. 

Watch out for wood-fired wonders like charred baby cauliflower with lemongrass tofu, chili crisp and pickled coriander, kale and cannellini bean toast on Japanese milk bread, and golden beets gussied up with burrata, dukkah and serrano vinaigrette. 

The best restaurants pick a lane and own it completely, and The Anchor hasn't used their blinker in years. The star of the menu at this Irish pub is, unsurprisingly, the fish and chips. The Anchor uses battered and deep-fried wild Alaskan cod served on a bed of thick, hand-cut chips. Elsewhere on the menu you'll also find shepherd's pie, meat and veggie pasties, curry chips and a handful of other pub staples. And, of course, plenty of Guinness. 

Located in Minneapolis' North Loop, the ever-popular Bar La Grassa — an Italian restaurant with a James Beard Award-winning chef — is a pasta lover’s paradise. Menu items, designed to be shareable, include gnocchi with cauliflower and orange, soft eggs and lobster bruschetta, red wine spaghetti with pine nuts, and more. The open kitchen, sparkling chandeliers, tall ceilings and cozy seating make it an ideal spot for a special night out. Reservations are recommended, as it’s a popular spot with locals.

Another contender for the smallest restaurant in Minneapolis, Boludo's flagship location in South Minneapolis mimics its environment by packing an incredible amount of flavor into a compact package: its Argentinian empanadas. With a variety of perfectly balanced fillings, these flaky, savory pastries are the heart of Boludo, but not its only achievement. The restaurant is also home to some of the best and most unique pizzas in Minnesota, which stand out from the crowd thanks to a salted crust and sweet sauce. 

In 2007, Restaurant Alma chef Alex Roberts opened Brasa — a casual, family-friendly rotisserie joint focused on fresh, local ingredients. Inspired by the Latin American and Caribbean hole-in-the-walls Roberts used to frequent with his fellow line cooks when he worked for Danny Meyer and David Bouley, Brasa is consistently delicious and affordable.

Don’t be afraid to over-order on slow-roasted pork, candied yams, rice and pigeon peas, and collards with smoked chicken – they're even better the next day. And never leave without picking up a half-pint of the restaurant’s signature green sauce, which has had customers begging for the recipe for over a decade.  

Brasa’s original location is in Northeast Minneapolis, and they now have outposts in Southwest Minneapolis’s East Harriet neighborhood, St. Paul’s Grand Ave., and Hopkins. 

The Broders' Empire spans an entire city intersection, with Broders' Pasta Bar and Broders' Cucina anchoring 50th Street and Penn Avenue in Minneapolis’s family-centric Fulton neighborhood. Broder’s opened in 1994, wowing Minneapolitans with regional classics like Ligurian Pesto Genovese and Roman Cacio e Pepe. More than 20 years later, they’re still churning out top-quality versions of those classics, plus a robust menu of seasonal dishes like short rib paccheri with gremolata.

Broders' Pasta Bar is walk-in only. For a more casual experience, head across the street to Cucina, an Italian deli and pizzeria. Either way, you can’t go wrong. The Broders' name is synonymous with quality.  

A couple of key alums from Gavin Kaysen's restaurant group (former Bellecour front-of-house manager Jeanie Janas Ritter and her husband Adam, the chef de cuisine for Demi's widely revered opening run) brought a slice of Paris to South Minneapolis when they opened Bûcheron in 2024. An instant hit in the neighborhood, it went on to win the 2025 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. 

No wonder why; it's casual and cozy, and full of daring flavors that reach well beyond standard brasserie fare. That goes for everything from a meaty pork chop made with a cashew purée, Brussels sprouts, epazote, morita chili and morcilla jus to a complex vegetarian combo of sweet potato with a banana glaze, lentil and pumpkin porridge, radish, tatsoi and pickled elderberry. 

The answer to a question nobody asked (but absolutely should've), Bull's Horn is what happens when an award-winning chef (Doug Flicker, a co-owner with his wife Amy Greeley) retires from the world of fine dining to open a dive bar. Sidle up to the counter for a few cheap beers and mixed drinks, then settle in for some of the world's best bar food. You'll recognize everything on the menu, from dill pickle fried chicken buckets to fried bologna sandwiches, but nothing really compares to the flavor of the dishes here. 

Restaurateur Jami Olson has not one but three food-and-drink concepts on Quincy Street, one of the main thoroughfares in Northeast Minneapolis. Stop by the original location of Centro (it's since expanded to four) for stiff margs, barrel-aged tequila negronis, and either an exceptional Taco Bell tribute (the Centro Crunch) or a plate full of fresh tortillas pelted with nopales, braised lamb, shredded pork shoulder and some of the best salsa in town.

Its next-door neighbors include an all-day Mexican café/impeccably curated market (Vivir) and a laid-back spot (Bina’s) that rides the line between an elevated dive bar (classic cocktails poured alongside tall cans of Coors Light and Hamm's) and a diner (a masterful tuna melt, rich wagyu-butter burgers, vegan sloppy joes, and devilled eggs draped with herring).

Looking for flavors from the Andean highlands but not up for climbing a mountain? The humble-looking Chimborazo restaurant in northeast Minneapolis features impeccably cooked foods from Ecuador and the Andes that will taste intimately familiar to Ecuadorians and delicious to all. This delicious Minneapolis institution is open daily for lunch and dinner, and offers a singular brunch menu on Saturdays and Sundays. 

One of Daniel Del Prado's many ventures in Minneapolis, Colita blends the flavors of Mexico with barbecue and smoking techniques. Focusing on small plates categorized by cold, hot, and smoked offerings, be sure to order anything with their hand-ground tortillas like the variety of tostadas with options like tuna, charred eggplant, chicken tinga, or cacio e pepe. For a vegetable option, be sure to try their corn elote, glazed carrots, and masa and guacamole. The entire kitchen is gluten-free.

Beyond their dishes, they are serving up some of the most popular cocktails and mocktails in the metro. Just peek on Instagram and you will see endless snaps of their pebble ice margaritas topped with foam and a rubber duckie. For something sweet, their churros cannot be missed. 

With multiple James Beard nominations for her pastry work in Gavin Kaysen’s Spoon and Stable and Bellecour and a wildly successful bakery collaboration with Cooks of Crocus Hill, Diane Moua had no shortage of accolades when she moved to open her eponymous restaurant.

Diane’s Place is housed in Northeast Minneapolis’ Food Building and an homage to Moua’s Hmong-American heritage. Serving a range of technically perfect and creative pastries (like a scallion Danish that evokes garlic bread and a coconut pandan croissant) as well as thoughtful and well-balanced savory dishes (definitely add the egg to the Hmong sausage bowl) at breakfast, lunch and dinner, there are no misses at Diane’s Place.  

Stop by Emily’s Lebanese on a weeknight and you’ll see an eclectic mix of locals chowing down on long-stewed green beans and cinnamon-spiked chicken and rice, plus a long line at the counter for take-out pints of baba ghanoush and stuffed grape leaves. Emily’s has been serving its comforting, affordable fare in Northeast Minneapolis since 1973, and for the sake of the neighborhood, we hope they never stop. 

Chef Ann Ahmed landed on the New York Times' coveted list of the country's Top 50 restaurants in 2023 with what is arguably her finest hour in a career that's full of them. Building off the momentum of her two most recent takes on Southeast Asian cuisine (Lat14 and Khâluna), Loring Park's sprawling Gai Noi space leans into Ahmed's Laotian background with bright and bold salads, freshly steamed baskets of sticky rice, house-made pork sausage served alongside a smoky tomato dip, and mok paa made with banana-wrapped whitefish, dill and a spicy rice gravy. 

Drinks are also dynamite here — especially fresh takes on the classics like a pho-spiced Old Fashioned, passionfruit Negroni and lemongrass Collins. Gai Noi is walk-in only and does not accept reservations.

Between its bright, plant-lined interior and chef Christina Nguyen's loving survey of Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian and Filipino food, Hai Hai looks and tastes like a transportive Southeast Asia trip. For best results, grab a spot on the patio (it's heated during cooler months!) and one of the playful cocktails overseen by Nguyen's husband (co-owner Birk Grudem) before placing your order. Menu staples include water fern cakes with shrimp floss, mung bean, fried shallot, scallion oil and nuoc cham; a crispy rice salad begging for its optional pork belly topping; and Balinese chicken thigh rounded out by coconut rice, a macerated kale and bean sprout salad, infused coconut cream, crispy chicken skin, lime leaf and a dash of dynamite sambal. 

Himalayan is one of Minneapolis' best palate-expanding blends of Tibetan, Nepali and Indian food. Every option is phenomenal, but we always come back to the creamy Kathmandu curry and momos. 

The signature dish at Hola Arepa is always crisp and sweet, with savory and rich fillings to keep all that cornmeal balanced, including slow-roasted pork, shredded beef, chimichurri-spiced chicken and a vegan-friendly riff on al pastor made with jackfruit. Much like its sister restaurant Hai Hai, the drinks are always incredibly creative and deceptively strong, reflecting the craft cocktail roots of co-owner Birk Grudem. 

Four years after its original concept won the 2022 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, Owamni entered a new, expansive chapter as Indígena by Owamni inside downtown Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater. Chef Sean Sherman's decolonized approach celebrates ingredients indigenous to the Americas, including corn, squash, bison and wild rice, while excluding colonial ingredients such as wheat flour, dairy and cane sugar. His expanded menu includes larger game cuts, seafood and shareable plates. 

Reserve ahead for dinner, or swing by for a last-minute seat at the bar

One of Bon Appetit's Top 50 new restaurants in 2018, Kado No Mise is Shigeyuki Furukawa's ode to his hometown of Tokyo. The menu changes regularly, and the bar is stocked with sake, Japanese whisky and shochu. 

For a truly memorable night, book one of two different multi-course omakase menus at the upstairs chef's counter on Wednesday-Sunday nights, or opt for an exemplary kaiseki experience on Tuesdays. The latter features a seasonal sashimi assortment and a parade of small plates with a wealth of items and ingredients you won't find elsewhere. 

Slightly more casual but no less impressive is Kado No Mise's sister restaurant, Sanjusan, a Daniel del Prado collaboration that delivers a deft blend of Italian and Japanese dishes on the first floor. 

The weather is always warm in Ann Ahmed’s lush dining room. But it’s not just the vibes that keep Khâluna booked with well-heeled locals night after night. The ambitious, skillful menu is packed with rich, complex dishes that celebrate Ahmed’s Laotian heritage (and earned her a James Beard nomination for Best Chef: Midwest). Come for the confit duck leg fried rice, stay for the warm hospitality and resort-like atmosphere.  

You can't beat Kramarczuk's for Eastern European eats. Open since 1954, this authentic grocery/deli/bakery/restaurant combo is your one-stop shop for scratch-made sausage, charcuterie, borscht, cabbage rolls, pierogi and basically everything else from the Old Country. Order your kielbasa with kraut and onions or "Cossack style" in a bun with melted cheese. 

The vibes at Little Tijuana's are distinctly dive-bar, with graffitied bathroom stalls and colored Christmas lights, but the menu leans cheffy and eclectic. Where else can you get a late-night mapo rigatoni (Little T’s kitchen is open until midnight, a rarity in this town) and a chopped cheese with waffle fries? Order generously; you'll need plenty of fuel to soak up beverage master Travis Serbus’ espresso negroni (made with rhubarb gin) or Lil’Tea, which has both mezcal and aquavit. Cheers! 

There's only one type of sandwich you can order at Lu's: the delicious Vietnamese banh mi. Starting with a crisp French baguette and your choice of meat, tofu or mock duck, bahn mi sandwiches can be topped with cilantro, cucumber, pickled carrots, jalapeños, onions, butter and/or pork pâté. A byproduct of the French colonization of Vietnam, banh mi can be found basically everywhere in Minneapolis. But Lu's has simultaneously perfected the form and streamlined the ordering experience so that, miraculously, the best banh mi in town is also the fastest one out of the kitchen.

The restaurant that started it all for the prolific and decorated Daniel Del Prado, Martina is a case study in how to make a fine-dining restaurant that doesn’t feel fussy, with a vibey dining room that somehow caters to both the romantic date night and the seen-and-be-seen crowd. But it’s not all style; Del Prado’s Italian-slash-Argentinian menu is full of crowd-pleasing but sophisticated dishes like spaghetti fra diavolo with lobster and a half-chicken served with vadouvan velouté and agrodolce.

In the mood for something more casual? The connected pizzeria, Rosalia, churns out charred and chewy pies worthy of a special trip. The Linden Hills location is so popular its winning recipe has been replicated in Northeast Minneapolis and St. Louis Park's up-and-coming TexaTonka neighborhood. 

The lines are often long at Marty's Deli on the weekends thanks to a peerless egg-and-cheese sandwich that's served until noon, smeared with garlic aioli, and stuffed with fluffy eggs, Cooper Sharp American cheese, and such welcome add-ons as braised greens, Peterson's bacon, house-made sausage, and a hash brown that would make Ronald McDonald weep. (If you'd rather not wait, breakfast is also served until 11 during the week.) 

Don't sleep on Marty's lunch items either. Martha Polacek's salty focaccia bread is wrapped around signatures like The Pool & Yacht (chicken salad, capers, red onion, pepperoncini, sweet pickles, pickled fennel and arugula) and The Seward (roasted cauliflower, whipped feta, curry-pickled beets, fennel pesto and arugula). 

There's an ongoing debate about which restaurant first served Minnesota's infamous Juicy Lucy, but there's no question that the "Jucy Lucy" you get at Matt's Bar is one of the most definitive versions. It's just a simple cheeseburger with the cheese stuffed inside the patty rather than served on top, though plenty of Minneapolis restaurants try to dress it up as something it's not. The OG burger you'll get here is greasy, straightforward and far better than its fancied-up imitators.

Maya Cuisine's Central Avenue location serves up some of the best Mexican food in Minneapolis by focusing on the basics. You won't find any zany flavor combos here, but if you're seeking well-balanced al pastor tacos, fresh corn tortillas, or a spicy bowl of pozole on a cold winter afternoon, there's no better place to find it than here. 

Between its James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant and spot on Bon Appétit's own year-end list, Oro by Nixta hit the ground running after its 2023 opening. Chefs Gustavo and Kate Romero first launched their business as a love letter to masa during the pandemic — one that was expressed through pop-ups, weekly takeout dinners and some of the country's most complex heirloom corn tortillas. That mission now extends to a dine-in menu meant to be shared and devoured.

Or as fellow acclaimed chef Diane Moua put it in her international food guide, "Don’t go by yourself, or as a table for two; you need to go with a group of four and try everything." 

Pimento is what you get when a Jewish rapper and Jamaican business executive become neighbors and decide to open a restaurant together. One half of the restaurant specializes in counter-service Jamaican street and comfort foods — think Kingston-style jerk bowls with all the fixings included — and the other half is a rum bar where you can enjoy a drink, kick back and stay a while.

One of the clearest reflections of Daniel del Prado's Buenos Aires background, Porzana shakes up the tried-and-true steakhouse tradition with primal cuts you won't find anywhere else and side dishes and snacks like four different (fantastic!) kinds of potatoes, grilled broccoli with jalapeño, puffed buckwheat and cilantro, and thick slices of bread slathered with bright tomatoes, anchovies, oregano and a spicy Bolivian chili sauce. 

If you still have an appetite at the end of your meal, definitely get the grilled pineapple with olive oil cake, lime curd and gelato. Or just order another round of drinks; much like the rest of del Prado's growing portfolio, Porzana slings drinks that could stand their own against any of the area's best cocktail bars.

Quang began as a four-seat bakery in 1989 and evolved into an icon of Vietnamese cuisine on Minneapolis’s diverse, bustling “Eat Street”. Run by the children of original chef and owner Lung Tran (the restaurant is named after her late husband), Quang turns out consistently delicious pho, bun, and combination platters to the hungry lunch and dinner crowd day after day.  

Since opening in 1990, The Red Sea has been a West Bank/Cedar-Riverside standby for delicious Ethiopian and Eritrean meals. The food is incredible, but what really sets The Red Sea apart is that it's also a nightclub. Where else can you start your night by sharing a massive platter of Ethiopian food with friends, then seamlessly transition over to the bar to hit the dance floor? 

In 1999, after years of working in New York City’s top restaurants (Bouley and Union Square Cafe, to name a couple), Alex Roberts moved back to his home state and opened Restaurant Alma. In 2010, he won the James Beard award for Best Chef: Midwest. In 2016, Alma bought their historic building and expanded it, adding an (always-packed) bakery and café and an adorable on-site boutique hotel.

The original restaurant remains best-in-class, and Executive Chef Maggie Whelan has continued Alma’s tradition of unpretentious (but delicious) cooking and strong emphasis on seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. Alma has also served as a training ground for some of the Twin Cities' brightest talents, including Tiffany Singh (Laune Bread) and Ben Siers-Rients (Petite Leon, Lynette).  

The team also operates Alma Provisions, an adorable takeout coffee and pastry shop in Southwest Minneapolis’ scenic East Harriet neighborhood, and Brasa, a casual rotisserie outpost with four metro locations. 

Located just a block away from beautiful Powderhorn Park, Reverie serves some of the best bar food in town. The curbside burger is a cheesy thing of beauty, and the nachos are piled so high with toppings it always feels vaguely like you're getting away with something. It just so happens everything on the menu is 100% vegan, too. Dinner is available daily, with brunch served weekend mornings and afternoons. 

Named for its late founder, Sammy McDowell, this sunny little deli and cafe in North Minneapolis proves you don't need to reinvent the wheel to stand out. The menu consists of classic, familiar soups; sandwiches and salads made with fresh ingredients; and a certain magic that elevates them into truly great meals. Whether it's the thick and flavorful bread, Sammy's house-made special sauce or simply the care given to everything on the menu, Sammy's is sure to impress. 

Located inside a former horse stable in the North Loop, Spoon and Stable has a well-earned reputation as one of Minnesota's most delicious and exciting fine dining establishments. Run by James Beard Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen, the restaurant masterfully combines Midwestern ingredients with French techniques to produce meals that are familiar yet unique. 

Our apologies to those in-the-know, but we’re about to spill the secret of Tenant. This diminutive chef-driven restaurant is cheekily named: the team rents the space from Beard-winning chef Doug Flicker, whose lauded Piccolo used to occupy the building. On Tuesday through Saturday, Tenant serves a seasonal tasting menu at standard and counter seats, hand-delivered by the chefs who prepared it. This intimate experience (literally and figuratively — Tenant is relatively tiny) is unpretentious fine dining at its best, and one of the Twin Cities’ true hidden gems. 

Housed in the ground floor of the boutique Hewing Hotel, Tullibee fully embodies the spirit of the trendy-but-not-unbearably-so North Loop neighborhood it calls home. A rotating, farm-to-table menu revolves around shareable fish and meat dishes that thrive on the razor's edge between familiar and daring. The restaurant even has its own in-house butchering program, and uses a wood-burning grill to cook each cut of meat to perfection over an open flame. 

This tiny little building in Northeast Minneapolis has a surprisingly wide-ranging menu, but the star of the show at Uncle Franky's will always be its hot dogs. One of the few restaurants in Minneapolis to custom-make their own dogs, Uncle Franky's serves all-beef wieners that are a shining example of how a simple, familiar meal can excel when done right. The all-natural casings are snappy, the poppy seed buns are firm (but not too firm), and the toppings are balanced. If you're feeling particularly hungry, order a double-dog (two dogs, one bun) and get ready for a nap. 

With delicious Cuban dishes like mango pancakes, sweet plantain omelets and cafe con leche with house-made sugar paste, Victor's 1959 Cafe is one of the city's most popular brunch spots. You should expect to wait a bit before being seated, but if you're willing to brave the waitlist your patience will be rewarded with one of the best tasting brunches around. 

While other restaurants in town are perfecting the art of the soul bowl, Wendy Puckett is more interested in SOULROLLS: an unlikely fusion between soul food and egg rolls. Originally developed as a way for Wendy to trick her kids into eating more vegetables, they're now the signature dish at Wendy's House of Soul. The rolls come in countless varieties, from the breakfast-themed 9 a.m. roll to the Jive Turkey roll, which is stuffed with turkey, cabbage, broccoli, carrots and fresh garlic. Or if you prefer something more traditional, Wendy's also serves up some of the city's best chicken and waffles, chicken wings and sides.

It may seem like a stretch to suggest that the country's best Detroit pizza can be found in Minneapolis, but that's okay. You don't have to believe us. Believe "Good Morning America"; the beloved morning show actually declared Wrecktangle Pizza the winner of its United States of Pizza competition in 2023 thanks to the staying power of its breakfast-inspired pie.