My Minneapolis Food Tour: From Sandwiches to Southeast Asian Comfort Food

Recently, I went on a weekend trip to visit with a friend of mine in Minneapolis. It turned out to be quite a foodie tour of the city. We ate at some wonderful restaurants and explored some beautiful parts of the city. This quick food tour shows just how diverse and delicious Minneapolis can be.

Marty’s Deli

I landed early on a Friday morning and my friend picked me up from the airport. We were both hungry so he took me to his favorite breakfast sandwich spot in town – Marty’s Deli! He was telling me that on the weekends there is a line around the block for this place. We got lucky – since it was Friday, there wasn’t a long line and even some open seating at the tables. Game on!

The main breakfast sandwich at Marty’s is The Egg & Cheese and guess what we got? The Egg & Cheese! We both added the breakfast sausage and hashbrown to our sandwiches – which is “the move”. Also, grabbed some nice black cold brewskis to wash it all down.

This sandwich is truly a work of art and delicious as heck too! Their focaccia bread, which is made in-house, has a soft interior with a crusty exterior that did not fall apart during consumption. Eggs were perfectly cooked scramble style and folded over to fit the exact dimensions of the bread. The sharp American cheese was absolutely sublime and gooey in every bite. And the sausage and hashbrown combination, also made in-house, rounds off this perfect sandwich.

It gets a bit messy but is totally worth it! I don’t think I’ve had better cheese on a breakfast sandwich before. The sharpness of the cheese mixed with the garlic aioli is a match made in heaven. This is a very filling sandwich and most people would be satisfied with only half of it. But you know ya boy SHLAYED it!

Vinai

For dinner, we went to Vinai – a Hmong restaurant in NE Minneapolis owned by Chef Yia Vang. Luckily, my friend already made a reservation before I even booked my flight. Reservations are actually hard to come by for this James Beard Award winning restaurant, so I felt very honored and privileged!

The menu at Vinai is one of those menus where you really can’t go wrong. Everything looks so good! I suggested to my friend and his girlfriend that we order one of everything. They laughed because they thought I was joking – but I was dead serious lol. Since they have both been to Vinai multiple times, I let them take the lead with ordering.

To start with, we got the Deviled Eggs, Laab Carpaccio and Hmong Cucumbers. The deviled eggs were sitting on top of a sauce that was bursting with thai basil flavor – I scrapped the dish of any remaining sauce! The cucumbers had very flavorful dressing with fresh herbs and chiles. The laab carpaccio was another bomb of flavor to round off our first course.

After a quick shlay, we had a few minutes to ourselves and talked about how delicious everything has been so far. For our main course, we got the Double Cut Pork Chop, the Crabby Fried Rice and the Charred Cabbage. Our choices were extremely correct and my taste buds were about to go for a wild ride!

The Double Cut Pork Chop might have been the best pork chop I’ve ever had – and I’ve had a lot of chops! It’s perfectly cooked and has an amazing spice blend on the crust. I also suspect there may be a marinade involved as well. Just a guess ☺️. They serve the fatty pieces, lean pieces and ribs sliced separately. I liked the fatty pieces the most 😊. We also got two of the Hmong sauces, which were devine 🤤.

The Charred Cabbage was the under dog of the bunch and wow did that exceed expectations! There was a slight char on the exterior of the cabbage but the inside was super soft and tender. Savory flavors and herbs were packed into each layer of the cabbage – super tasty! The crab fried rice was extremely exceptional with lots of crab meat chunks.

We were feeling extremely satisfied with ourselves and our life choices. Then the waitress asked us if we wanted dessert and we gave each other the look that we all know well. The look where you really want a nice sweet treat to cap off the meal but you are all so very full. Yes.. we got dessert.

We got the Mango Madness with mango rice and ice cream. The dish is visually stunning with a tall crispy rice “sculpture” on top of a bed of mango chunks on sticky rice and ice cream. The fruit was very tender and paired well with the cream and rice components. Very delicious! It was only a partial SHLAY since there were a few mango pieces leftover but we SHLAYED it in our hearts!

Diane’s Place

The next morning, we had reservations at Diane’s Place for breakfast. This Hmong-American full-service restaurant focuses on delectable pastries and Hmong comfort food. Chef Diane is known for helping many Minneapolis restaurants with their pastry programs and she is also a James Beard Award winning chef.

We started our meal off with some pastries. I got the Coconut Pandan Croissant – which was amazing! If you are not familiar with pandan, it has a flavor similar to vanilla. The croissant had a perfect crust that was cut open and filled with the creamy pandan custard, then topped with crispy coconut bits.

Such a delicious array of flavors and textures! Each bite was better than the one before and I did not want it to end – but eventually I did SHLAY ☺️

For my main breakfast, I ordered a more savory option and got Diane’s Hmong Sausage with sticky rice and an over easy egg. This sausage is Diane’s recipe and is specially made for her by the butcher shop next door – it’s packed with fresh herbs and is so delicious!

Also, I got the Hmong hot sauce and that packs quite a punch! It is a bit over-whelming at first but then the flavors really come out in the after taste. Super delicious and super SHLAYED!

This dish was so delish! Sorry for the rhymes, but these are exceptional thymes! Everything at this restaurant is done well – great service, great ambience, great pastries and great sausages! They even have interesting beverages on the menu. I got myself a Celery Soda to go 😊

Conclusion

After eating at Marty’s, Vinai, and Diane’s, I can only assume the Michelin Guide skipped Minneapolis because their inspectors refuse to admit the Midwest can cook. That’s fine—more award-worthy meals for those of us who actually own a map 😉. I’ve been to Minneapolis a couple times now and I find it to be a premier destination for world class cuisine!

If you’ve never been before, I highly recommend checking Minneapolis out sometime. I had such a great time visiting this city and hanging out with my friend! Thank you for reading and see you next time! 😊