Minneapolis-St. Paul's Best Spots for Middle Eastern Food

Following in the footsteps of their father, Jamal (owner of the Burnsville restaurant Mediterranean Cruise Café), Rana and Khalid Ansari first opened Baba’s as a wholesale hummus business in 2018. Its growing popularity and the need for a larger production facility led the siblings to launch Baba’s Hummus House as a food truck in 2021. 

After making waves at the Minnesota State Fair, they opened a bright and airy brick-and-mortar over in Minneapolis’ Lowry Hill East neighborhood. It not only allows them to continue distributing their delectable hummus to more than 600 stores in the Midwest but also serves as a hub for their bold hummus bowls (one Halloween special was made with black sesame, beef bacon, green labneh, shredded kanafe, chive oil, and Aleppo chili crunch), mana’eesh (think: Arab-style pizza made with a long-fermented dough and dynamite ingredients like jibna, sujok, and beautifully spiced braised chicken), mezze platters and more.

The University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus has long been a hub for hungry students seeking everything from Cantonese (Shuang Cheng) to Korean (Korea Restaurant) cuisine. Caspian Bistro, a market/restaurant near Huntington Bank Stadium, has been a gateway to Iran’s culinary wonders since 1986. From delicious kebabs served alongside saffron-tinged basmati rice to rich and herbaceous ghormeh sabzi, there’s plenty to pick from here. The market side also contains a wide array of dried fruits, teas, and pickled items to add to your pantry.

Northeast Minneapolis has long been a haven for international cuisine, particularly Middle Eastern dishes. Located a stone's throw away from St. Maron’s Church — home to a hopping Lebanese festival every September — Emily’s Lebanese Deli has served many satisfied patrons since its inception in 1973. From scratch-made tabouli and their signature meat pies to stuffed cabbage rolls, zucchini and grape leaves, many an entree at Emily’s ensures there’s a little something for everybody, whether you’re by yourself or with family and friends.

While Minnesota has long been an epicenter of exceptional Middle Eastern cuisine, desserts and snacks that cater to the same demographic were another story. That all changed in early 2024, when Mahmoud Rammouni opened The Golden Nuts in Columbia Heights. 

Whether it’s scrumptious baklava and knafeh in a dizzying array of variations, or viral desserts like Dubai chocolate bars and mango ice cream, Golden Nuts has a little something for everyone. An expanded seating area now serves coffee and tea concoctions, too, making it a worthwhile destination for all your sweet and salty snack cravings.

Minneapolis’ longest-standing Middle Eastern grocery and restaurant has been a local staple since Wajdi and Majdi Wadi opened it in 1987, naming Holy Land after their grandfather’s Jerusalem bakery. Their hummus and pita bread are wholesale staples at Midwest grocers everywhere, and their restaurant is recognized as one of the best Middle Eastern spots in the state. It was even featured on Food Network’s iconic show “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.” 

Holy Land’s pita remains the perfect vehicle for sandwiches served in their restaurant, and their market next door also carries the same spices, ingredients, meats, and more to recreate the very same dishes at home.

When Mahmoud Shahin and his older brother acquired Lori’s — a small coffee shop near the edge of U of M’s St. Paul campus — in 1996, who would’ve known the space would soon be serving scratch-made shawarma, hummus and kabobs? Now approaching its 30th year, Mim's Cafe has expanded significantly to accommodate a more extensive kitchen, while continuing to serve students and patrons alike with some of the best Palestinian comfort food in the Twin Cities, as well as everyday coffee shop pastries and beverages.

A step inside the Midtown Global Market reveals a multitude of meal options and flavors. Tagines — slow-cooked stews prepared in earthenware pots — have been a specialty of chef Hassan Ziadi since Moroccan Flavors opened in 2016. Created to conjure the cuisine and scents of his native birthplace (Chefchaouen), Ziadi’s tagines can range from seasonal vegetables to salmon filets and jumbo shrimp. 

Served along with turmeric rice or couscous, depending on the tagine, they are more than enjoyable for a group of friends or family feeling hunger pangs after exploring all that the Midtown Global Market has to offer. Don’t forget to wash it all down with Moroccan mint tea!

Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood is filled with hearty pockets of international fare. Open since 2022, Nader Persian Restaurant is a small, family-run operation—short on tables and blissfully free of fast-casual bustle—that delivers some of the most transportive home cooking in the city. Comforting dishes like aulo mosamma (chicken with tomatoes, Persian plums, and potatoes) and fesenjan (chicken stewed in a pomegranate-walnut sauce enriched with brown sugar) are served with such care that dining here feels like being welcomed into someone’s home.

The grill section of Pangea Halal Market serves all the Middle Eastern staples (shawarma, kabobs, falafel) along with freshly baked pita bread and value-packed combo platters. One would be hard-pressed to find similar blends of quality and quantity elsewhere, but Pangea is able to do so with relative ease. Mahmoud Maragha’s grocery store offers an extensive selection of ingredients, meats, and condiments, making it relatively easy to recreate the very same flavors at home.

As more people seek different ways to enjoy tea, coffee, and dessert outside of the usual drive-thru options, Yemeni coffee and tea spots have expanded outside SWANA-heavy locales such as Michigan, New York, and California. The Dearborn-based Qamaria Yemeni Coffee opened its first Minnesota franchise in Little Canada and quickly added locations in Eden Prairie, Burnsville, Blaine and Rochester. 

Its singular coffee uses warm spices like ginger, cardamom and cinnamon to set itself apart from the rest of the Twin Cities’ strong cafe scene. With extended hours (as early as 8 and as late as 1) and pastry offerings from St. Paul’s own Marc Heu Patisserie, Qamaria is a welcome reprieve for early birds and night owls.

St. Paul has been the home base of many bread artisans over the years; Razava Bread Co. is no exception. Originally the brainchild of the Baldinger family back in 1888, Razava was revived in late 2024 with the help of head baker Omri Zin-Tamir, whose focus on high-hydration doughs and long fermentation became the talk of Mill City Farmers Market. 

Located on Grand Avenue and Saint Albans — a mile away from its original location on Carroll Avenue — Razava serves as both a reminder of, and a love letter to, the Israeli food Zin-Tamir grew up with. Bread is often both the star and supporting cast of the show, including the buckwheat pita used in sabich (roasted eggplant and potatoes with tahini, egg, zhug and amba) and a stellar latke sandwich; the Jerusalem-style bagels that provide a pristine canvas for smoked salmon, roasted tomatoes, onion and toasted caper cream cheese; and the sourdough that accompanies shakshuka and tartine-esque toasts like a fall special with roasted badger flame beets, honey ricotta, and lemon zest.

While Mim’s Cafe satisfies its patrons on the St. Paul side of the University of Minnesota campus, Dinkytown residents on the East Bank have been blessed by Wally Sakallah’s Falafel & Hummus since 2009. Whether it's a quick bite of shawarma and fries before or after seeing a show at the Varsity Theater, or a family-style dinner of kabobs, rice and pita in copious portions, there’s a plethora of salads, sandwiches and plates one can partake in, with plenty left over for dessert and tea — if one has the room for it.

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