I have been to a number of new restaurants over the summer - though my blog does not show this fact. Some good ones of note are:
Wise Acre Eatery in Linden Hills. I've been for both weekend brunch and weekday lunch and enjoyed the fresh ingredients and cute decor. Worth a visit!
Lowbrow - stopped by for a drink and snack, so can't give a full review. It was ok, but nothing stood out for me.
Aster Cafe - funky little cafe near the river in downtown Mpls. Had some good drinks and appetizers before the U2 concert this summer. Nice find!
Red Rossa - when you can't order off the bar menu because you were seated in the restaurant is ridiculous. No one was in the restaurant except for us. One item on the bar menu wasn't on the regular menu but no exceptions were to be made so we couldn't order it. Really, how hard is it to walk the dish a few extra steps. No need to rush back here, the food was ok, not great.
Spent a week in Virgina this summer with my parents and had a very good lunch at Clementine in Harrisonburg, Virginia. A nice, artsy restaurant with great food! Nice find in such a small town. We also ate at even smaller town restaurants that week - fairly decent food, but Clementine was probably the best meal.
After a bike ride this summer we stopped in The Old Market Deli in Cannon Falls. Their claim to fame besides a tasty Tom Turkey Sandwich and quiche for the hubby, was that President Obama ate there a few days prior to our visit. Every framed picture in the place was of him. I noticed when I went to the website they even have him on their website - I wonder if they had to get clearance for that. Anyway, a nice restaurant in this small town!
We also ventured out to some small towns near us to try some restaurants. It was our Friday Night Fish Fry tour of 2011 - without the fish. Many small town restaurants feature the fish on a regular basis. We had burgers both times. Pretty good food - I'm sure the fish was fine too.
Aji - a nice little Japanese restaurant worth a visit. You might want to hurry as the two times we were there it wasn't very busy. I hope they can make it. We went recently for happy hour with RFO and she had us trying various sushi. We're not sushi people in general, but RFO picked some good ones for us newbies!
Midori's Floating World Cafe - I really pushed this restaurant off for as long as I could as I just don't like the name. However, the hubby convinced me to go for lunch one Friday afternoon and surprise, surprise...it was very good! Great miso soup and the dish I got was good, albeit not hugely memorable since I can't think of what it was. (That's my advancing age showing up, not any issue with the food!) I also had a very nice hot tea to go with my meal. Definitely worth trying this place. Still don't like the name, but I'll deal with it. (I also remembered that I don't care for their "logo" either when I went to their website to grab the link.)
I think that pretty much catches me up for the summer. Looking forward to lots of new restaurants in the queue.
Happy Eating!
