Baldamar in Roseville
Baldamar in Roseville
As restaurants are facing what could be a very tough winter, Fall Restaurant Week seems like a great way to support some of your favorites with a bit of an extra push. If you're not ready to eat indoors, there are plenty of great options for the #takeout2liftup version of RW. And if you're ok with inside, we've got some deals that will help your budget and restaurants at the same time. Check out what I'd be ordering if I could make ALL the rounds next week.
++ If you're looking for patios with heaters, best bet is to call the Dine In restaurants and see what they have going on for the weather at the moment, and to make sure the RW menus are available on said patio.
sandwich and chips
Takeout Only
Sorry not sorry, but I am on a full-blown hunt for hoagies and the one on Cafe Alma's $15 lunch menu (though named a "hero") seems right in my lane: Red Table meats, spicy giard mayo, yes. I might even take that buttermilk bibb salad and slap that on there too.
Lake & Irving's $35 dinner menu would start with red pepper soup before I tapped into the Loco Moco: high quality beef patties with coconut shrimp, curry gravy, and a fried egg over furikake spiced sushi rice.
It's soup season, so St. Paul's Mucci's $35 dinner should start with that sausage, kale, and pancetta warmer: Toscana Soup. Then braised pork ribs with roasted red pepper risotto, and tiramisu (!) because some parts of the '80s didn't suck. For Trattoria Mucci in Uptown, it's fully a $30 squashy tale they're telling for dinner: by way of burrata, gnocchi and whoopie pies.
I don't know how you're going to pick from the many entrees on Red Rabbit Grand Ave's $30 dinner menu. This is a good one for the family so that you can order a bunch and then call dibs on the lemony-garlicky cavatappi with Italian sausage or the marsala mushroom pizza with chevre while they brave the pineapple, bacon, and jalapeno pizza (PB&J).
Kids, there's a meatloaf. On Saint Dinette's $35 dinner menu, you listen to me and start with the broccoli and cheddar casserole (I will forgive this word ONE TIME and ONE TIME ONLY), then move on to that dry-aged beef meatloaf, before you take one bite of your Jell-O salad. You hear?
Takeout and Dine In Available
You can kinda brunch it at Barbette with the $20 lunch. What with ham and Gruyere buckwheat crepes with poached eggs or truffled soft scrambled eggs.
At The Brooklyn, I'd start with the ricotta meatballs on the $35 dinner menu, which would give me an excuse to go veg and tuck into the squash ravioli with browned butter cream and sage for the main.
If you haven't felt the warmth of one of Bub's Gourmet Aussie Pies, you must still be shivering. Get out to Lake Elmo for a $15 lunch that could be your choice of The Pippen (spicy butter chicken), The Arianna (with chicken, leeks, and potatoes), the veggie loaded Joey and many others.
Reading The Bungalow Club's $35 dinner menu has me craving mushroom soup and braised shortrib with sweet potato, apple and cheddar. And I would 100% add that $10 pasta supplement, because they get pasta there.
I'm either going for the hot Italian sandwich on the $15 lunch menu at Roseville's D'Amico & Sons, or the lasagne bolognese on the $20 dinner menu. But I am NOT walking out without a pumpkin cookie, that's for sure.
Hammer & Sickle's Eastern Euro food is perfect for fall eating! For a $30 dinner you could warm your gut and soul with pierogi, beef stroganoff, chicken kiev, cabbage rolls and more.
I like the idea of taking The Lexington's $35 dinner back to my couch so that I can privately eat my loaded baked potato soup, followed by that steak Diane with cognac cream sauce. Of course I'm getting carrot cake.
It's a $20 ramen lunch at moto-i and I'm great with that. The hard part is choosing between wagyu bulgogi ramen, all beefy and rich with a spring egg, or the vegan abura ramen, light and satisfying with tofu.
Ninetwentyfive in Wayzata has a really great two-level patio that might be where you land for a $35 dinner of butternut squash soup, pot roast with mashed potatoes, and warm apple pie with vanilla bean ice cream. Wrapping yourself in a Faribault blanket is the only thing that could make this more MN.
Who else is loving a good shaved Brussels Caesar salad for a fall twist on the original? Find a killer version on The Copper Hen's $30 dinner menu. Follow that with their famous chicken pot pie or the baked mac-n-cheese if you're smart.
Dine In Only
Yes you do deserve the bacon cheeseburger on 6Smith's $15 lunch, that also comes with an app and some dessert.
A smoked flat iron steak dinner, that starts with short rib mac and cheese for $35 at Baldamar sounds just right, right now.
Go check out the Bay Street Burger Dive for a $15 dinner and score their classic and awesome house cheeseburger with a side of fries and choice of drink (that includes beers and Yes Way Rosé).
It's been a while since you've had a crab cake I bet. Dig one on Cafe Lurcat's $35 dinner menu, then sneak into some wild mushroom risotto and finish off with cinnamon sugar donuts.
Cast & Cru might not have theater for another year, but they do have some harvest-feeling food on the $35 dinner. Start with blossomed Brussels sprouts, then go wild rice stuffed chicken before forking that pumpkin cheesecake.
Downtown at Giulia, I have LOVED that black kale salad that kicks off both their $35 dinner and $25 lunch menus. Then it's either spaghetti carbonara or chicken picatta risotto for dinner.
Nico's Taco Bar Uptown and Como, want you to know that they are offering house-made nixtamal tortillas from artisan bolita corn on the $15 lunch and $25 dinner menus. Stuff them with spicy pork, Oaxacan style turkey, chayote squash, epazote, all kinds of good things.
After a summer of salmon, I'm very ready for the delicate poached sole with artichoke bread salad and buerre rouge on St. Genevieve's $35 dinner. That I can bookend it with a creme fraiche touched tomato bisque and a chocolate mousse seems downright elegant.
You have to go with a trusted and safe human to Tilia for the $35 dinner because there's no way you're not stealing bites from each other. You're getting the wild mushroom tartine, but you'll need to dip a spoon in that butternut squash soup. You'll love your pork Coppa steak with bacon braised butter beans, but you'll have to share to get a forkful of that sweet potato and mushroom doppio ravioli. Acorn squash cheesecake vs. spice almond cake: it's a draw.
