Shanghai Bistro - Stillwater

Visited on Sunday, September 11th

Erin's Review

So, as some of you may have guessed by the lack of posts here for a long time, or knew if you read my other blog or follow me on twitter, I am pregnant! And haven't really wanted to go out to eat to any new or exciting restaurants for awhile. At nearly 4 months pregnant, I'm just now starting to get my appetite back, so hopefully we can resume more regular posting... I'd been bugging Ben for a date since we went to the U2 concert, and finally we got it arranged - decided on an weekend afternoon so hopefully I wouldn't be as tired.

I got a few recommendations of restaurants from people on twitter - one was Shanghai Bistro. I'd been craving sushi for awhile, so that was my choice. I had pretty good luck when we went to Ronin during my first pregnancy with cooked sushi and them being accommodating about altering rolls, so I was hoping this would be the same.

When we got there, we discovered that this was the same location as the former Stones, which we'd been to a couple times. It appeared that they'd changed absolutely nothing about the patio - I even recognized the same furniture. It's a nice patio, so it's not like they needed to change much. There were tons of open spots on the patio - kind of odd for a nice weekend night. I think most people maybe want a view of the river? The inside was totally empty and dark.

We were seated immediately, and our server came out and took our drink order. I said I wanted something fruity and non-alcoholic and explained I am pregnant, and she recommended a fruity blended drink that was pretty tasty. I'm not sure what it was as it isn't on the menu online, but it involved coconut and strawberry. We also immediately ordered crab rangoons, which I loved but may have ruined my appetite for my meal. The bees DEFINITELY loved my drink - thankfully the garnish served as a way to keep them away.

I explained to the server that I could only have cooked sushi rolls and asked if they could make any substitutions for me. She seemed wary - and helpfully let me know that she has been told that pregnant women can have 6oz of raw fish a week. Whatever, lady. I'm certainly not about to take that risk at some random sushi restaurant in Stillwater, and I'm NOT taking pregnancy advice on what I can eat from a 20 year old. Whatever. So I said that I wasn't comfortable with that and would only be eating cooked fish. Then I asked if the California Roll was cooked - she said no. I said... are you sure? (because I know it is at every place I've ever been) and she said she would check. She came back, informed me they could bake any roll for me, and had forgotten to ask about the California Roll. I made her go back, and she found out that yes, indeed, it is cooked. So I got that, along with one roll with eel and shrimp tempura where they were willing to remove the one additional raw fish from the roll. So a lot of fiasco for not anything THAT exciting.

Once I actually got the sushi, it was pretty good, although the California Roll seemed a bit lacking - just the crab and avocado. It seemed most other places have a bit more going on. The other roll (Red Dragon) was quite good, but fell apart really easily. This was where I really could tell how much my appetite has gone down - normally I could down these 2 rolls no problem, but I could barely finish half and nearly had to run for the nearest trash can when I had one too many rolls after I was full. Not my finest moment, but thanks to a jolly rancher, I was once again good to go.

After that, I was pretty much done and completely full. We had intended to check out Nelson's Ice Cream after dinner but I couldn't even fathom having room in my stomach for that! Next time for sure. I've yet to go to a restaurant in Stillwater that really wowed me... this one was fine, but nothing special. Next time I plan to try dock cafe, which was also recommended.

Ben's Review

Since we hadn’t really been out without Annie since the U2 concert in July, we arranged to have Erin’s sister Liz watch Annie on Sunday evening while we went to spend a couple hours in Stillwater.

Erin got a couple recommendations of restaurants in Stillwater and decided on Shanghai Bistro as she was wanting some sushi (of the non-raw fish variety). We arrived in Stillwater a little after 4, with plans to walk around Main St. until dinnertime. We happened to park right in front of the restaurant, and it turns out we had been there a couple years earlier when it was called Stones.

We made our way back to the restaurant around 6 and easily got a table on the patio. I had seen earlier that there was a band that would be playing so I made sure we sat on the other side of the patio so it wouldn’t annoy me. Little did I know that it was just two dudes playing acoustic covers of some awesome songs. I heard some CSNY, Oasis, Billy Joel, Tom Petty, amongst the sweet cover songs they played. For ONCE I was actually enjoying the live music at a restaurant!

I saw the cucumber martini that sounded good and ordered that while Erin quickly ordered the crab rangoons with no hesitation. Shanghai Bistro has some standard Asian food and I was tempted to get my all time fave (but very boring) sesame chicken. At the last minute, I decided to go with the moo shu pork, but was then stymied by the fact that they were out of the batter for the stupid pancakes! With nothing to fall back on I got the sesame chicken :(

The martini and crab rangoons were both good. The martini definitely had something extra like simple syrup or something, because it was incredibly sweet; nothing like the pleasant face slap of cold vodka that I was expecting. For $10 I expect nothing to be watered down, especially with sugar. I don’t mind a little liver damage, but I will not tolerate extra sugar in my diet.

After Erin’s deliberations with our server about her sushi, our food came out after a few minutes. I got a hearty sized bowl of breaded and fried chicken along with a separate bowl of rice. Our server even brought out some chili oil and sriracha for me to jazz it up a bit, which I appreciated.

The sesame chicken was everything you expect and demand - all white meat chicken, breaded and fried with a little sesame sauce. It was certainly better than typical delivery places in the cities, but nothing spectacular. For $10 it fit the bill. I ate nearly all of it, as that stuff doesn’t do well for lunches the next day. I also finished off my meal with a dessert cocktail of an old fashioned, which oddly enough tasted to have less simple syrup than my martini, go figure.

Service: Eh, this was just ok. Erin had to have some back and forth about the sushi and then she was even telling Erin how much fish a pregnant woman could have. As if she was going to take any pregnancy advice from our server.
Food: The food was good, but nothing special.
Drinks: Decent beer and wine list, with a full bar. Avoid the specialty martinis.
Ambiance: Awesome cover band and a chill patio crowd on a Sunday night. There were actually a lot of children and families.
Convenience: Shanghai Bistro is right on Main St in Stillwater. We even got a parking spot right out front.

Deets

Shanghai Bistro

324 Main Street

Stillwater

Edina Grill

Visited on Saturday, November 27th with Jake and Allison

Ben's Review

Erin wanted to go out for breakfast this weekend and since it had been a pathetically long time since we last visited a place on our list, we decided to hit up Edina Grill for breakfast on Saturday. Our friends Jake and Allison live nearby so we invited them along, and they joined us in spite of the early hour (8:30).

94W, 35W, and 62W were all nearly empty at 8am on Saturday which made the drive over to Edina not bad at all. I was surprised by how dead the whole city seemed to be, is 8am on a Saturday too early to be out and about? Maybe because of the holidays. We also had no trouble finding a parking spot at 50th & France, which usually sucks to drive around, and there were also plenty of tables for us when we arrived.

Edina Grill is one of the Blue Plate restaurants so I knew the type of place it was and also many of the menu options. On the list of specials they listed a poblano bloody mary that sounded damn good, and Jake actually attempted to order one, but apparently there is a law in Edina that they can't serve booze until 10am, so he was out of luck. The server said the law used to be noon, which seems ridiculous. Not sure what the details are around that (beer vs booze, bars vs restaurants, etc) but that seems like a harsh law.

As we chatted we realized that the place was actually filling up, not that it's a huge space, but with how quiet the morning had been on the drive over I was surprised to see all these people arriving, clearly we got there at the right time.

In very cutesy fashion, both couples ordered the same things: Jake and I both had the breakfast burrito, Erin and Allison got the eggs benedict. Annie was stuck with her cut up banana and some cheerios, life is rough sometimes.

This is what Annie REALLY wanted

I had actually had the breakfast burrito before, at Longfellow Grill, so I knew what I was getting, but it's just too damn good to pass up. Pulled pork, hash browns, eggs, black bean salsa, and cheddar cheese make up the bulk of the burrito and it is delicious. Jake even, very seriously, commented that it was the best breakfast burrito he's ever had. It's about the size of a Chipotle burrito and it's topped with salsa verde and sour cream, so you won't be hungry for lunch after this meal. I didn't eat again until dinner at 6:30.

I had a great time at Edina Grill and the food was excellent, as I have come to expect at the Blue Plate restaurants. I probably won't be back to Edina Grill anytime soon simply because Highland Grill and Longfellow Grill are so much closer and have nearly identical menus and quality. I'm glad we went though because Jake and Allison have come to Saint Paul the last several times we've hung out so now that we went to their neck of the woods, I won't feel bad making them come back to Saint Paul the next six times we see them.

Service: Great service, our server was friendly and not intrusive.Food: Excellent breakfast burrito, highly recommended.

Drinks: The coffee is strong, gave me the shakes, and they have that weird law to deal with. The poblano bloody mary sounds good, I'd like to try it.

Ambiance: This is a quiet, friendly breakfast place, it would be interesting to see how the environment changes at dinner time.

Convenience: Parking around 50th & France usually sucks but we were there early enough so it wasn't an issue.

Erin's Review

It feels a bit like cheating to review Edina Grill at all, since we've already reviewed most of the remaining Blue Plate restaurants - Highland Grill, Longfellow Grill, and Groveland Tap. Scusi just opened up near our house, so I'll have to throw that on the list as well. But, here we are - anything to get a review up, I guess! As parents, Blue Plate restaurants are exactly the kind of places we love - consistent and kid friendly. We used up all of our baby-sitter cards recently for organized events, so we haven't been able to do a baby-free dinner out in awhile, despite having quite a few gift cards we need to use up.

Anyway, as I expected, Edina Grill was very similar to the other Blue Plate restaurants, probably most similar to Longfellow Grill in that it's pretty spacious. My eggs benedict were really quite good - the eggs were still runny but not underdone and the hollandaise was creamy and hot. The hash browns were crispy, and Annie enjoyed the few bites I let her have.

The orange juice was fresh squeezed, which was a nice touch. After seeing how twitchy Ben got from the coffee, I was glad I didn't have any! I had already had a cup before we left and certainly didn't need to transmit any more wakefulness to Annie - she has plenty of that all on her own :)

We had a great time at Edina Grill - it was a beautiful morning, and thankfully we didn't need to deal with a huge rush since we got there so early. I won't go back since it's not even close to our house, but rest assured, we'll be back to Longfellow and Highland many times.

Deets

Edina Grill

5028 France Ave S

Edina, MN

Ronin Sushi Cafe

Visited on Thursday, September 24th

Erin's Review
Our 4th wedding anniversary was on September 24th, and neither of us had any real ideas for what we could do. The only thing we knew we had to do was go and pick up my parents' dog Maggie in Apple Valley to watch her that weekend. Ben had been wanting to go to Ronin for the reasons he talks about below, so I gave in - I had been having major cravings for sushi and he's always wanting Thai, so it seemed like a good compromise.

When we got there, it was just us and a few families - not full at all. I think there was only one actual server working, so she was still kept pretty busy. We were seated quickly, but it took awhile to get drinks and water and to actually place our order, but the wait wasn't anything to get upset about.

The menu was pretty funny, as it had pictures of everything that for some reason looked comical to me. There were also some recommended items, such as a side of rice... lovely :) I knew I wanted sushi, and obviously my options are limited due to pregnancy. I know you CAN have raw fish from a trusted place, but I figured I'd stick with veggie/cooked rolls to be on the safe side. I ordered the veggie roll with cream cheese and spicy mayo on the side (plain veggie rolls just don't do it for me) and the dragon roll, which had ell and shrimp. As a last minute add, I threw in a bowl of miso soup since it was FREEZING in there. Good thing I had grabbed a jacket before leaving the house!

My soup came out quickly, and it was tasty despite being not very hot. I was starving so I ate it without complaint. My veggie roll came out quickly and was quite good, but would have been pretty blah without the cream cheese. The dragon roll came out a bit later and really hit the spot - it was delicious! It was also much larger than I anticipated, so Ben helped me out with it after he couldn't handle his pad thai.

I was pleasantly surprised with Ronin - it had a nice ambiance and the food was delicious. If you are in the Lakeville/Apple Valley area, check it out.

Ben's Review
After hearing the crazy story that the owner of Ronin has been through lately we decided to go there for our anniversary dinner, since we were heading to Apple Valley that night to pick up Maggie for the weekend. Ronin also came highly recommended from Bill Roehl as having the best Thai food in the south suburbs.

Ronin is located in the same strip mall as Carbone's Pizza, which opened when I was in high school at Lakeville and has some damn good pizza, as I recall. Ronin occupies a small corner of the mall on the north side, next to 160th St.

It wasn't busy when we arrived around 7pm or so on a Thursday night, there were about three tables occupied and some people squeezed into the sushi bar at the back. We were seated right away by the hostess and browsed the menu for awhile while we waited for our server.

The menu at Ronin is nice as it has pictures of nearly every menu item, very helpful when you don't necessarily know what everything means. They have a good mix of Thai food and sushi which makes it a good compromise for when not everyone wants Thai food (Erin). Falling back on the old saying "when you're at a burger place - get a burger", I ordered the Pad Thai with chicken, at the level four spiciness (out of five). The past few times I've ordered Thai food I've gone with three or four and never been too impressed with the heat of the food. Bill assured me they make food spicy at Ronin and the server also added that the particular chef that night liked to make things hot. I felt ready, and was getting excited for a big plate of Pad Thai in my belly, to complement the Fat Tire I'd also ordered.

Our food came quickly enough, maybe fifteen minutes or so, and we dug in - me with my Pad Thai and Erin with her pregnancy-approved sushi dishes. The Pad Thai started out great, the spice level was hot and the flavor was fantastic, everything I wanted in a Pad Thai. I got about a quarter of the way into the Pad Thai before the heat really started to build up and I quickly realized I was out of my league. I couldn't seem to tame the heat in my mouth and I was torn because the Pad Thai tasted so good, but every bite made my mouth heat up again. Erin eventually had to pull the dish away and force me to save it for lunch the next day (though I snuck some more when she went to the bathroom).

I did end up saving the rest of the Pad Thai for lunch the next day, but the heat was mysteriously gone after microwaving it. I had no problem finishing it for lunch and my mouth didn't hurt at all, maybe I had burnt it too bad the night before, who knows? It was still great for lunch :)

I was tempted to buy a gift card to Ronin on our way out, but we just aren't in the area enough to convince me to get it, we already have an envelope of gift cards that don't get used and I didn't need to add to the pile. BUT, they have a great deal on gift cards right now, buy a $50 card and get a $10 card free, so I would encourage you to get down there and try out the food and pick up a gift card if you live nearby.

• Service: Service was OK. It took awhile for our server to get around to us, but other than that no problems.
  
• Food: Fantastic Pad Thai, though I'll go with the level three next time, and Erin's sushi was great.
• Drinks: They have beer, wine, and (I love this) "liquor available four ways - w/soda, w/tonic, on the rocks, or straight up" that's my kind of bar!
• Ambiance: It was cold when we were there, but the Pad Thai helped that :) Seems like a family friendly place as we saw several children while we were there.
  
• Price: Prices were right on par, or maybe a little under, for the Pad Thai ($8 plus $3 for chicken) and the sushi was reasonably priced as well.
• Convenience: Plenty of parking available, as we were in the suburbs, and being so close to Cedar Ronin is pretty easy to get to from many places.

Deets
Ronin Sushi Cafe
7704 160th Street
Lakeville, MN

Good Day Cafe

Visited on Tuesday, September 8th

Erin's Review
We needed a place relatively close to downtown to go to brunch after my ultrasound appointment a few weeks ago, and Good Day Cafe fit the bill. You can see this restaurant off of 394, in the same building as the Metropolitan Ballroom. When we got in, it was surprisingly large, and busy, given that it was a weekday mid-morning. I was a little disappointed that all the blinds were down, giving the room kind of a dark feel. It was a beautiful day outside, and by that time, the sun was high enough that it wouldn't have been blinding anyone to open the shades and give everyone a beautiful view of 394.

The big excitement of this meal was opening the envelope we had just been given at our ultrasound which contained the sex of our baby - so we got right to that immediately after being seated, and found out that "It's a girl!" (props to the ultrasound tech for having such cute cards on hand).

After that, brunch was an afterthought, although I was starving. Good Day Cafe has some good looking benedicts on the menu, but I'm a bit wary of raw eggs now that I'm pregnant. Sometimes I'll ask if the eggs are pasteurized, but I wasn't feeling like being that person today, thus I stuck with eggs over hard, potatoes and sausage.

I enjoyed my meal - the potatoes were crispy, and the sausage and eggs were fine. Obviously, it wasn't anything special, but it filled me up. My favorite part of the meal was actually the toast and jam - delicious! My orange juice was good, but NOT worth the $5.50 price tag. Had I read that before ordering, there is no way I would have gotten that.

The service was great - the waitress was very excited to take our picture with our "it's a girl" card, and was attentive throughout the meal. Good Day Cafe is a solid breakfast choice if you're out in the Golden Valley area.

Ben's Review
After we had our 20 week ultrasound, we went to Good Day Cafe for a late brunch to open the envelope that told us we were going to have a baby girl in February. Back when we first found out Erin was pregnant I didn't want to know the gender before the baby was born. As the ultrasound day approached I found that I was pretty excited to find out, so it all worked out for the best :)

Good Day Cafe is a large restaurant, but it was surprisingly busy on a Tuesday morning at 10:30. The soft colors and high ceilings of the restaurant give it a very laid back feel, and the employees treat you like people, rather than customers, everyone was very friendly.

After the excitement of opening the envelope, we browsed the menu a bit. They have the usual breakfast fare, but the huevos rancheros was calling out to me this day. I'm not even usually a fan, but this recipe sounded great. Chorizo sausage, salsa, salsa verde, sour cream, and two eggs however you like them. This was a delicious breakfast, and enormous, it filled me up till dinner.

We had narrowed down our choices of girl's names to two, we each had our favorites. As we finished up our food we discussed and figured out a name (guess who's name we used :). The one complaint about Good Day Cafe I had was that the coffee was not very good at all. I'm not a coffee connoisseur but even I could tell that the beans were burnt on this pot, though my cup was kept full the entire meal :)

A good breakfast, certainly one that we will remember for a long time.

• Service: The service was great, everyone was friendly and our server was prompt, and even took a photo of us.
• Food: Excellent heuvos rancheros, good selection of breakfast foods.
• Drinks: Coffee was not good, and Erin's OJ was good, but it cost as much as a beer ($5.50).
• Ambiance: As I mentioned, the building really makes you feel comfortable and the spacing between tables is ample.
• Price: A little pricey, the OJ was a lot and the meals were around $10 apiece.
• Convenience: There is a parking lot, but I gotta say that this area of Golden Valley is a pain in the ass for google maps. I had to call the restaurant to make sure we were going the right way. Not the restaurant's fault at all, but annoying.

Deets
Good Day Cafe
5410 Wayzata Ave
Golden Valley

Barley John's

Visited on Saturday, October 25th with the Brew 52 crew

Erin's Review
I always love a good Brew 52 meet up, so I was excited to go to Barley John's last weekend. It was a beautiful fall day, and although I was initially annoyed when I saw the group sitting outside, it ended up being just fine. Colin, the brewer at Barley John's, was nice enough to come in on his day off to go through the tasting with us. We went from light to dark, starting with the Little Barley Bitter, moving on to the Stockyard IPA, then to Old Eight Porter, and finally the Dark Night (I don't know if it is Night or Knight - it isn't listed on the website so I'll go with Night since that is what Rett put on Brew 52). Little Barley Bitter was my clear favorite, unsurprisingly, but I actually also enjoyed the IPA and Porter. I hated Dark Night - just not a fan of that type of beer at all.

The patio at Barley John's is very nice, even though I usually hate patios that face parking lots. I liked the patio better than the inside, which is tiny and pretty boring in terms of decor. We moved inside after the tasting to eat dinner with the siblings. They don't have many tables for groups larger than 4, so I'd recommend making a reservation if you do have a bigger group. The staff seemed quite overwhelmed with how many people were there that night, but that is likely just because of the Brew 52ers that were there - other than those people, the place would have been full but not packed.

Joe ordered the hummus as an appetizer, which I thought had a great habanero flavor without being overpowering and too spicy to eat. It took me quite a while to decide what to get for my main meal - Barley John's has a surprisingly large menu. I decided to go with a Beer Brat as it seemed appropriate. I loved the waffle fries that came with it, and the brat was done perfectly. My only complaint was with the bun. It was cut weirdly so the brat didn't exactly fit inside the bun, it kind of rested on top of it. Parts of the bun were also very hard, to the point that it seemed that it might have been a little stale. Because I loved the brat itself, and the sauerkraut, I will forgive the bun, but it did make the meal a little worse.

Overall, I had a great time at Barley John's - the beers were tasty and the atmosphere was very friendly. I'd recommend sticking with the sandwiches or pizzas for your meal - from what I have heard, these seem to be better than the pastas or other entrees.

Ben's Review
Rett arranged a Brew52 meet-up at Barley John's two weekends ago, so we thought we'd have dinner there as well (it doesn't take much for us to agree to order something rather than cooking). Colin, one of the brewers, was guiding the group through a sampling of four of the beers they have. Since it was a nice fall day we sat outside while we sampled the brew. It was a little windy that day, but luckily someone supplied a blanket for Erin from their car, so she was OK for the hour or so we spent out there :)

It was fun to have someone talk us through the beers, I would highly recommend getting a flight of beers if you stop by they're all good except for the current seasonal the Dark Knight - it's 13.5% alcohol and aged in bourbon barrels, I can't drink these kinds of beers, just too heavy and syrupy for my liking.

The inside of Barley John's is small. The bar itself is about twelve feet long and there are around ten tables total. We grabbed a table with my two of my sisters, Becca and Amanda, and my brother-in-law Joe. They seemed reluctant to let us pull a fifth chair up to a four person table, but they let us as long as we didn't block the walkway. The menu is a little more than I would expect from a brewpub, although I still ended up getting the cheeseburger. Joe ordered the Habanero hummus which I thought was pretty good. Not only do they have sandwiches, burgers, and brats, but they've also got full entrees - rigatoni, beef tenderloin, etc.

They also have a decent selection of scotches, and they even have a scotch flight as a menu item, which is a sample of four scotches, two from column A and two from column B. I will definitely be back at some point to have the scotch flight, as that wasn't going to suffice for my meal on this night. They have a list of scotch on the website, but I feel like the menu in the restaurant had more listed.

My cheeseburger was pretty good, and it came with really good waffle fries, I love it when places don't charge extra for waffle fries - they're delicious. The burgers come pretty plain but they do have a good selection of add-ons that are fifty cents each: bell peppers, jalapeno pepper, garlic mayo, sautéed mushroom, roasted garlic (bacon was $1.75 if I remember right, yikes). Roasted garlic and garlic mayo? Oh, hells yes :)

Our service was OK, the servers seemed to be swamped because the place was full, but even with a full house there aren't that many people. Next time I go I will be sitting at the bar to try my scotches and more beers.

• Service: No complaints, but nothing special.
  
• Food: Burger was good, hummus was good. I'd be interested to see the beef tenderloin.
  
• Drinks: I'm pretty sure there is a full bar, and they have their own beers as well as a good selection of local beers that complement their beers.
  
• Ambiance: I think going here in the summertime and sitting outside would be better than a cooler fall afternoon. They have hop vines that cover the patio which is a nice touch and they would look cool when they are in bloom (or whatever hops do when they are 'ready'). I didn't notice much character in the dining room and there wasn't much decor, it was pretty plain.
  
• Price: Typical prices, $8-$9 for a burger, $4-5 for a beer.
  
• Convenience: Barley John's is in Roseville just off of County Road D and 35W and they have a parking lot.

Deets
Barley John's Brew Pub
781 Old Highway Eight SW
New Brighton, MN

Highly recommended for the beers and casual food is pretty good as well

Crave

Erin visited on Sunday, April 13th with Mom

My mom and I wanted to grab some lunch before heading over to Southdale to do a little shopping on Sunday. Neither of us had tried Crave yet, so we decided to go there and wander around the Galleria for awhile before heading over to Southdale.

I had heard that it can get pretty busy at times, so I made a reservation on Open Table for 12:30pm, but it wasn't that full when we got there so this might not be necessary.

The menu at Crave is very large - they really do have something for everyone, which is key in a mall restaurant. Both my mom and I decided to go with the Sunday brunch menu, which was different than what is shown on their website. (As a side note, what is with the trend of annoying music on restaurant websites? I hate it. I hate music on all websites. I hope that trend dies a quick death VERY soon.) There are many more options for brunch on the menu - such as a Minnesota Omelet with duck confit and some other things in it, quiche, and a few other things that I can't remember. They do have eggs benedict here but I decided to get something else for once.

I was deciding between a few things - the salmon omelet, Minnesota omelet, and the quiche - I asked our very friendly waiter for a suggestion, and he recommended the Salmon omelet. He said that the Minnesota omelet sounds better than it actually is, so keep that in mind if you go! My mom also got fresh squeezed orange juice - this was very good, but obviously it had a lot of pulp in it being fresh squeezed.

My omelet was very good - it said it had dill Havarti cheese in it, but I could barely taste that which was disappointing. It was a lighter omelet, and the salmon tasted delicious. I was pleasantly surprised that the omelet came with a side of potatoes and toast - that wasn't specified on the menu and sides were listed separately so I wasn't sure. The potatoes were cut almost too small - I would have liked the cubes to be just a little larger to have more potato and less .... edges, I guess? They were well seasoned and had peppers mixed in too. The bread was nutty and delicious.

My mom had the fried egg on foccacia with bacon and cheese - that looked REALLY good. I had a tiny bite of her bacon and it was great!

Crave also has a full sushi menu - I glanced at it and it seemed pretty expensive, but I'm not sure how much you get. It was a really pretty restaurant for being inside of a mall - they had really cool light fixtures and nice decor. They also had an okay patio - if you are into sitting outside overlooking a parking lot and Southdale.

(Light fixture)


(Patio)

Even though Ben didn't go here with me, I will use his rating scale:

• Service: Excellent - our server was very friendly and attentive.
  
• Food: My omelet was slightly bland but still good, my mom's sandwich seemed great. Very extensive menu.
  
• Drinks: The OJ was good... they have a full bar and a large wine list.
  
• Ambiance: Very nice for a mall restaurant. Even nice for a non-mall restaurant too, I guess.
  
• Price: Both of our meals were approximately $10 so it was right in line with what I expected from a place inside of the Galleria.
  
• Convenience: Lots of parking, near major highways.
  

Deets

Crave
3520 West 70th Street (in the Galleria)
Edina, MN

Recommended if you happen to be in the area. I wouldn't make a special trip or anything.