Sea Salt Eatery

Visited on Thursday, June 26 with Scott, Mike, Dasa, and Tomas

Ben's Review
My co-worker Mike lives near Minnehaha Park so we arranged to have dinner after work at Sea Salt Eatery which is located near Minnehaha falls in the park. We drove to Mike's house after work and hung out there for a few minutes. Mike's wife is from the Czech Republic and they had some Czech liquor that we tried; it was clear, plum flavored, and about 100 proof. Scott, Mike, and I all had a shot before heading to the park.

We walked from Mike's house to the park, stopping at the falls to take a couple photos (you can't really pass that up if you're going there). The previous day I was a little worried that the weather wouldn't hold up; Sea Salt is an outdoor restaurant so if the weather is bad you don't really want to go. The weather turned out to be beautiful that day, however, I should know better than to trust weather forecasts at this point.

At Sea Salt you order inside the restaurant and get your drink, and then they bring the food out to you when it's ready. As we waited in line I scoped out the menu. The seafood tacos sounded good, but I was concerned that it wasn't going to be enough food. I asked the cashier how big they were and decided to go with a catfish po' boy. Mike had ordered some clam fries for the table to share so I didn't order any other side dish.

I had heard that they had Surly on tap here, but the taps that I saw were only Summit Pilsner, Summit EPA, and New Belgium Skinny Dip. I was a little disappointed, but I can always fall back to Summit, no big deal. So we headed out to our table beers in hand to wait for our food. Eating outside in Minnesota in the summertime is great, especially in the evening when it's not so hot anymore. I don't even recall any mosquitoes that night, which is pretty amazing.

I was a little skeptical of the clam fries, but those things are GOOD. And there were plenty for the five of us to eat. My catfish po' boy came out and I was stunned at how big it was - there were three huge catfish filets on a long hoagie bun, it all barely fit. After allowing Erin to photograph my sandwich I dove in, and it was great.

The bun was soft and the catfish was lightly breaded and not greasy, it was fantastic. Mike ordered some tacos and they also looked good, they were loaded with cilantro. All the food we had looked so FRESH, I was impressed. Mike said they go there a lot, and I can see why, especially when it's only open a couple months out of the year.

After we finished our food Scott and I went inside to get another round of beers and as we walked in from the opposite side we saw something we had missed earlier - an extra set of beer taps with the Surly beers :) They had Furious, Bender, and Bitter Brewer with the signature Surly tap handles. All of sudden, the meal just got better; Scott, Mike, and I all got a Furious and Erin had another Skinny Dip (she's not much for the hops).

I give Sea Salt two thumbs up for the food, the beer selection, and the reasonable prices.

• Service: Service was good, I like, that they bring your food out after you order it.
  
• Food: Fantastic sea food, Erin even liked her oyster.
  
• Drinks: I liked the beer selection, make sure to ask for the Surly if you don't see it, it's there :)
  
• Ambiance: Right in the middle of a park on a nice summer evening, it doesn't really get better than that.
  
• Price: For our beer and food, our bill was around $35 which I think is great for fresh seafood.
  
• Convenience: There's some pay parking spots in the park but you can park on a side street and walk a bit for free. If you're going here it must be a nice day so walking shouldn't be a big deal.

Erin's Review

As with most places on our list, I was very excited to try Sea Salt Eatery. I love seafood, and I love things that are fried, so it seemed like it would be right up my alley. As usual, the weather forecast for last Thursday had changed approximately every 5 minutes in the 24 hours preceding our dinner. Luckily it ended up being beautiful and sunny.

When we got there, the line wasn't that long and there were quite a few open tables. By the time we left, it was pretty packed, so I was glad we got there when we did. I was having a bit of order indecision. I've never had a po'boy, so I decided to go with that in the spirit of trying something new. I'd also never had crawfish, so I figured why not. I threw in one oyster on the half shell to see how that was as well.

We took our beers outside (in the absence of any light beer, I ordered the Skinny Dip) and waited maybe 15 minutes for our food. The clam fries came out first, and they were great - fried but not greasy and very fresh tasting.

When our food arrived, I was surprised at how big our po'boys were - they were HUGE. My oyster was very large as well. In fact, it was so large I was not sure if I would actually be able to eat it in one piece. Luckily, I perservered and overcame the oyster. It was fresh and delicious. I'm actually not sure if I've had an oyster before, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but this one tasted great.

(Luckily Ben grabbed my camera to capture my oyster eating experience)

My po' boy was very good too - the crawfish were apparently pretty big, and the bread was great.

I definitely enjoyed Sea Salt and would love to go back. It seemed fairly reasonably priced and the atmosphere was great, very casual obviously, and the staff was friendly.

Deets

Sea Salt Eatery
4825 Minnehaha Ave.
Minneapolis

Highly recommended on a nice summer night

The Strip Club

Visited on Saturday, June 21st with Janelle and Scott

Erin's Review
I had read a lot about The Strip Club on various local blogs, and most reviews were pretty good. Ben was probably more excited about trying this place out than I was - he loves steak houses. I thought the menu was much more inventive than is usually found at a steak house, so I was intrigued. I decided I didn't really want to have my own steak here, because they are fairly expensive and I can never finish the whole thing, so Ben got the NY Strip, and I got 3 small plates. He had a little of my food, and I got to have a few bites of his steak.

The first thing I noticed about the food when it came out was how pretty it was. It was very beautifully prepared, and was really fun to photograph. Janelle and Scott did the same thing we did, Scott got a steak, and Janelle got 3 small plates, so I had plenty of food to photograph that night. Here are Janelle's dishes. She seemed to like them all, but did say that if she went back, she'd get a steak instead.

On the whole, the 3 small plates I ordered were very good. First, the asparagus was tasty, and I liked the sauce that came with it a lot. It was kind of an unusual flavor, as I'm used to just have plain asparagus with maybe a little sauce. I liked the sauce almost more than the asparagus itself, it was a combination of sundried tomatoes, roasted peppers, and mushrooms. I'm normally not a huge mushroom fan, but these had a good consistency and weren't super mushy which is usually what I don't like.

The mashed potato pie was not exactly what I was expecting - for some reason I was picturing a little bit more (like maybe a whole pie dish filled with mashed potatoes?? wishful thinking), but it literally is a little pie crust with mashed potatoes on it. I did not taste any bleu cheese, so I don't think there was really much in there. Normally that is not really a flavor you can mask. I did like this dish, but I thought it was pretty bland. More cheese would be better, and maybe even putting the bacon and the scallions in the mashed potato mixture... but then it wouldn't have been as pretty.

Now, for the deviled eggs. The 3 plain eggs I got were great - the sauce was spicy which was an interesting accompaniment to the eggs. The 2 pink eggs totally freaked me out. I know that is irrational, but for some reason I thought they were some other type of egg (like not from a chicken) completely. I have no idea why I thought that, but the sight of those pink eggs just kind of made my stomach turn. I did eat them, and I have to say they were not good. They were pretty..... tough, almost. Overly chewy. Ew. I did ask our waiter what kind of eggs they were, and apparently they are pickled in beet juice or something. I didn't taste any beet flavor at all, but maybe I was too put off by the color and the over-chewiness.

I tried a few bites of Ben's steak too - I liked it a lot, the sauce was very tasty. It wasn't what I would have chosen, I would have probably gone for the bleu cheese sauce. I also had a glass of wine, the Casa Solar Tempranillo, which came in a pretty small glass (I thought at least) but seemed fairly reasonably priced and was a good complement to my meal.

I enjoyed the Strip Club - it is a cozy place. I don't know if I'd go back, because it isn't really convenient to our house, and there isn't really a lot near there, but it was fun to try once! I really liked how the owner came over and talked to us. He seemed very down to earth and really wanted to make sure we had a good experience.

(Tim the owner is in the middle of this photo talking to another table)

Ben's Review
Erin's co-worker Janelle and her husband Scott had won a gift certificate to the Strip Club playing bingo and Janelle knew that we had it on our list so we arranged to have dinner last Saturday night. I love the Strip Club's url (http://domeats.com), I'm sure they had a tough time finding a url given that most permutations of "strip club" were probably taken :)

When we arrived Janelle and Scott had already been seated right inside the door in front of a big window. The front of the restaurant kind of faces west, towards downtown St. Paul so the blinds were down as the sun was low at that time. I have to say that the Strip Club is not really in a picturesque neighborhood anyways, so having the shades down wasn't a big deal. It's located in a residential area where you would expect a corner market to be, but instead there is a nice steakhouse. It seems a little out of place, I'm surprised it's even zoned to allow alcohol to be served.

Scott had ordered a pint can of Surly Furious which tempted me, but I went for the bottle of Bell's Two Hearted instead. The drinks at the Strip Club are a little pricey; my beer was $5 for a bottle and the Miller Lite is even $3.75. They have a list of specialty drinks, some that looked good, but I stuck with beer. They don't list them, but I would guess they have some good scotch too.

I had high hopes for the Strip Club after checking out the menu. For the first time in recent memory I knew what I wanted before we even got there, I was going to get the New York strip steak, which seems to be their signature dish. The steak comes plain but you can order a "sauce accompaniment" for a couple dollars. I got the "love you long time" sauce which consisted of ginger, scallions, red chilies, sesame, and soy. Being an Asian food fan I figured that was right up my alley.

Our food arrived promptly and it looked REALLY good. We were a little weirded out by Erin's purple deviled eggs, but I'll let her get into that a little more. My steak came with steamed carrots that I had kind of written off as nothing more than just a simple vegetable garnish, but I was impressed with how many I got and how good they were. I actually FINISHED the vegetables on my plate, vegetables that I had barely even acknowledged on the menu. I was a little proud :)

The steak was done as a I requested, medium, and was delicious. I was glad I got the sauce as it added a great flavor and some texture to the steak. I don't recall how big the steak was, but I would guess around 10-12 ounces.

After we had finished eating a busboy came around and took our dishes while we were chatting. A little while later our server, Bill, came back and brought us our check. Janelle handed Bill the gift card and asked to thank the owner for donating the gift card to the bingo game, so Bill went to fetch the owner. A minute later the busboy came back over and introduced himself as Tim, one of the owners of the Strip Club (pictured in one of the photos above). I thought it was real cool that he actually works in the restaurant in such an unassuming role as clearing dishes. He was very friendly and made sure we enjoyed our time there. That definitely left a positive impression on me, if I go back that will probably be a reason why.

• Service: Our server Bill was great and meeting Tim the owner was cool.
  
• Food: Excellent steak and sauce, but no bread unless you order it? That's a bummer.
  
• Drinks: Drinks are expensive, but they've got a good bottled selection. They have two taps: Rush River IPA and Rush River Amber. Good beers, but a random choice for only two taps.
  
• Ambiance: I like the restaurant, its a small place with a spiral staircase to an even smaller upper level. It was pleasantly busy on a Saturday night.
  
• Price: It's a steak house so it costs a little more than a standard place, but the food isn't unreasonable.
  
• Convenience: Located just east of downtown Saint Paul, there's no parking lot so you'll have to find a spot on the street.

Deets

The Strip Club
378 Maria Ave
St. Paul

Recommended for atmosphere and interesting menu

Quang

Visited on Monday, June 16th

Ben's Review
Erin and I had planned to go for a walk after work downtown so Erin could take some photos. Afterward we convinced ourselves that we deserved to go out for dinner. It wasn't a long debate.

We first tried to go to Pho Tau Bay at 28th and Nicollet. I've eaten lunch there twice before with a group of people from work and I thought Erin would like it. We got there and the parking lot was completely empty and the restaurant appeared closed. We had seen Quang a couple blocks north so we decided to head over there instead. I later learned from my coworker that Pho Tau Bay is closed Mondays, Quang is closed Tuesdays, and there is another Vietnamese place nearby that is closed Wednesdays. Some sort of rotation I guess???

We luckily found a parking spot in the small parking lot in front of Quang that they share with a couple other shops that are attached. There were plenty of tables available when we arrived and got sat immediately. I opened the menu (with pictures, nice!) to scan my options. As an aside, I love the simplistic nature of many Asian restaurant menus. Most of the time it's a simple list of the items followed with a number that makes ordering very easy, I love it.

I had gotten a vermicelli salad last time at Pho Tau Bay and I went with another one at Quang. It had rice vermicelli noodles, carrots, cucumber, and grilled chicken. I also throw in some hoisin sauce and I tried the fish sauce that came with the meal as well (even though it didn't smell appetizing, it tasted great). We also ordered some spring rolls that came out 5.6 seconds after ordering them. Spring rolls are great, especially cause they can last so long. I want to learn how to make them so I can stuff my fridge full of them.

Our food came out quickly and we got to it, as we were both hungry. My food was fantastic, and I'm now on a Vietnamese food obsession that will last a couple months. At least it's not some unhealthy food obsession like, say, bacon. I think grilled chicken over rice vermicelli has to be an OK diet :)

It took a lot of willpower to not finish the whole large bowl and save the rest for another meal. Had I kept picking at it like I wanted to there would only be enough for a little snack, so I held back. Erin didn't even come CLOSE to finishing hers and I got to snag a few bites as well.

We asked for a couple containers for our food and the server came back with the containers and also slapped the check on the table. We boxed up our food, took the check to the front, and left. I bet our whole time there was around thirty minutes, quick, easy, and delicious.

The ratings for Quang:

• Service: Excellent service, I loved that she brought our bill with the boxes. She knew we were ready to leave and didn't need to ask for dessert or refills.
  
• Food: Fantastic. Spring rolls were great with pork and shrimp and my rice vermicelli salad was delicious.
  
• Drinks: I actually didn't even check if they had beer, we both just had water. Quang is borderline Vietnamese fast food, so I didn't feel like having a drink.
  
• Ambiance: They have huge windows that face Nicollet so it's very well lit, I really enjoyed the space.
  
• Price: Our bill was $20 after tip and tax, and we both got two meals out of our food, so Quang is a great deal.
  
• Convenience: Small parking lot out front holds maybe ten cars, otherwise you're parking at a meter.

Erin's Review
We decided after our walk through downtown to go out to eat for the second day in a row. We justified this because the place we were headed to was fairly inexpensive and that we'd get two meals out of each of our orders. This seemed like a good enough justification for me, but I don't need to be convinced to go out most of the time...

We headed down Eat Street from downtown past about 15 places that are on our list - for some reason we really had never eaten out in this area before. I'm excited to try them all out. Pho Tau Bay ended up being closed, so we headed back to Quang.

My only experience with Vietnamese food prior to this was Ngon, this was a much different atmosphere. Ngon is more of a hip bistro that you would go to for a nice night out, and Quang is a no-frills place to get cheap, filling, and delicious food (not that Ngon isn't also filling and delicious, but it isn't as cheap).

I decided to get a broken rice dish with chicken - it was very good. The chicken had a bit of a kick to it, but it wasn't overwhelmingly spicy. It was a huge portion, which was nice, since I could also take it for lunch the next day. I also liked the spring rolls, but not as much as Ben. I think I just have too much of a preference for fried, unhealthy appetizers :)

I enjoyed Quang - the service was great, the atmosphere was friendly, and the food was delicious.

Deets

Quang
2719 Nicollet Ave.
Minneapolis

Highly recommended for the value, service, and food

Day by Day Cafe

Visited on Sunday, June 15th with Liz and Jono

Erin's Review
Despite Ben feeling pretty crappy on the morning of his birthday, I forced him to go out to breakfast at Day by Day Cafe. It was a beautiful day, and I knew the food would make him feel better. As is usually the case, I was right!

When we got there, we had to wait maybe 5 minutes inside to get escorted to our table on their beautiful patio. This is one of the nicest patios that I've been to. I love patios where you are sheltered from the outside world - there was a privacy fence around the whole thing, which helped to make the patio feel really secluded.

I had seen on the specials blackboard in the front that Eggs Benedict was available that day. I wasn't really feeling like trying to find something else, and I knew I could have some of Ben's pancakes so I went with that. When the waitress asked for our order, I wanted to be VERY clear about what I wanted, so as to not repeat my last experience with overdone eggs. So, I asked if the eggs were poached. The waitress replied "Oh, I don't think so, we don't poach eggs on the weekends." Excuse me, WHAT? I think my face showed my dismay, because she said she'd go check. She came back and said that the eggs would be basted. I didn't know what that meant (now I do, thanks to Google) so I just said, as long as the yolks are runny, I don't really care. I just wanted to order. Someone please explain to me why a breakfast place would not poach eggs. I am confused. It isn't like the process takes too long. Is it because they don't want to waste a burner on the stove for the boiling water? Help me understand.

Anyway, after that debacle, I was a bit apprehensive. I got my meal, and the hollandaise looked a little... flat, I guess you could say. Just plain. I'm not 100% positive that it was not from a jar or can of some sort. I don't want to discredit Day by Day, because I know they are a well loved institution, but perhaps this was not the best thing to order. The ham was really good - nice and thick. The eggs were runny, as specified. The hollandaise tasted very bland, but it wasn't gross or anything. The hash browns were good, but not as crispy as I prefer. I LOVED Ben's pancakes though. He says they weren't very hot when they came out, but I ate them after I was done with my own meal so I wasn't expecting them to be scorching. They tasted great.

I really enjoyed Day by Day - the patio is beautiful, the inside is well decorated, and the staff is very nice and accommodating. It was a busy Sunday morning, and we were well taken care of with water refills. I would definitely go back, but probably would not order the same meal because it was pretty mediocre.

Ben's Review
I had a pretty rough night on Saturday as we had some friends over for my birthday. I made plans to get breakfast the next morning, but by the time I rolled out of bed I was feeling that I would rather just sleep more instead of doing ANYTHING. I'm actually getting tired just recalling that now.

Erin, Liz, and Jono all still wanted to go out though, so we headed over to Day by Day Cafe on West 7th Street in Saint Paul. We wanted to go someplace that had outdoor dining and heard that Day by Day had cool patio seating, and it didn't disappoint. Being that it was gorgeous Fathers Day I called ahead to see what the wait was like and was told the line was out the door. We wanted to go anyways and we didn't have anything else to do, so we figured we'd deal with it.

We only ended up waiting about five to ten minutes to get seated as there wasn't much of a line by the time we got there. I think we could have even sat down sooner if we weren't holding out for an outdoor spot. The backyard deck at Day by Day is a huge deck nestled amongst the restaurant and the three story apartments that surround it. There are many trees and bushes that isolate you from the outside world remarkably well, making for a quiet, peaceful atmosphere. It was fantastic.

My stomach wasn't feeling up to coffee that morning so I went with sprite instead. Perusing the menu, there was a lot that looked tempting, but again with my stomach in a weak state I had to keep it simple. I went for a short stack of pancakes with a spontaneous side of American fries at the last second. I don't know, potatoes sounded good at the moment.

Our food took a little while to arrive, but our server was apologetic about it. By the time the food came out I was ravenous. The pancakes came with whipped butter which is the only kind of butter you ought to use with pancakes as it spreads so easily. I loaded up on the butter and syrup and dug in. The pancakes were good, but a little cold, which is probably inevitable as they take maybe a minute or two to cook, so I'm sure they sat around for several minutes before coming out. The potatoes were good as well and I got a whole plate of them.

Day by Day doesn't take credit cards (but they have an ATM) so when the check came, we slapped down our cash and headed out. I left feeling MUCH better than when I arrived :)

• Service: Good service, the servers don't wear uniforms and have a laid back attitude that I liked.
  
• Food: Good breakfast menu and it's served all day. Our food was pretty good. The heart-stopper looks........filling.
  
• Drinks: Coffee, juice, soda, etc. :)
  
• Ambiance: Excellent outdoor seating for a relaxing meal on a nice day.
  
• Price: I feel like ALL breakfast places are charging noticeable more lately, and Day by Day was right in line with this feeling, more than I'm willing to spend on breakfast on a regular basis.
  
• Convenience: Gotta find a spot on the street, but at this area on W 7th it shouldn't be much of an issue.

Deets

Day by Day Cafe
477 W. 7th St.
St. Paul

Highly recommended for their patio and service