Malabari Kitchen

This place is more of a 3.5 star than a 4, but I will round up since 3 feels too low. I have been here a couple of times, but think I just had the misfortune of ordering the wrong thing. I am also South Indian (not from Kerala), so my perspective is probably much pickier than others'.It is a small hole-in-the wall restaurant, and a short walk from where I live, which is exciting for me when I crave south Indian food. If you order take out, it could take a while--the first time I ordered a rice dish and samosas and I waited an additional 30 minutes (on top of the 30 minutes before going to pick my food up). I didn't face any issues when I dined in. I have tried the tomato rice, mini samosas, chilly pakoda, and eggplant curry. The tomato rice was great, but I am unsure if the samosas are made in house, or reheated. They were pretty dry. I liked the chilly pakoda as well, but they didn't use spicy chillies. I didn't enjoy the eggplant curry, but I was ordering with other people, so it wouldn't have been my first choice anyway. I definitely want to come back to try the yogurt rice and yogurt curry.

Excellent excellent Kerala food which is apparently a rarity in the TC. Portions are more than good plentiful with family style being encouraged. Among the appetizers we got that really stood out included the Onion pakoda, fish pakoda, and Mini Samosas. Our group had to run back the onion pakoda bc it was so good. For my entree I had the Shrimp Biryani which was incredible. Meal had great flavor and spice to it (spice levels made to order) and the shrimp packed a good bite to it. I also sampled the beef masala (yum) and the Arabian Sea Dinner (piece of fish was the star of this dish). Huge rice portions for he table and I recommend the Naan.Small restaurant with 1 server who was very knowledgeable and helpful (Roger). Hours are limited here and the parking in Cedar-Riverside is miserable , but make the time to check this small business out !!!

4 years in the Twin Cities and a visit to this place was always like a plane made to sit on the runway but never took off. Finally it did, yesterday. The place was like a 'hole in the wall' and wasn't too big. You can hardly have more than 3 people move around at the same time. The tables were limited and would have had a long wait time if we had gone on a busier time.We were meeting some friends and since one of them was from Kerala and the rest of us were all from Southern India, we decided to take on this place for a dinner. The host was very too friendly and though an American, seemed more knowledgeable about the dishes and fluent spelling them in a native way too.We were served a jug full of hot water on request, before we began ordering. The orders didn't take a longer time to be served. Me and my wife had paalappam with potato stew and More curry with a side of rice while others had chicken and egg curries. The spice level wasn't 'Indian' hot though we had requested specifically to be that. Nevertheless, the food tasted pretty well, the quantity was sizable and wasn't too expensive.

Amazing Kerala food. I ordered onion bhajji as appetizer and chicken curry with appam as my main dish. Appam is a steamed fresh bread and it went really well with the curry. The spice level was just right.Smallish local joint located on cedar ave. Near downtown Minneapolis. Will definitely be coming back here.

This place was no frills but excellent Indian food! I eat Indian food pretty often and Malabari had menu items that I wasn't familiar with, so it was exciting to try some new flavors. I had the Softshell Crab with the Indian style mashed potatoes, which were awesome! I had never had a mashed potato with Indian food but with the special spices it made perfect sense. The crab was a little crunchy and slightly short on meat, but the sauce was amazing, really good heat and a different flavor than any other Indian dish I've had. I definitely want to go back! And yes the cook/owner appears to also take your order/serve the food, but he was moving quickly so I got everything in a timely manner.

Yum! While preparing for our trip to the Twin Cities, I happened upon this Indian restaurant which came highly recommended on many websites. Being from Kerala, my family and I had to try it out. Definitely the best meal we had on our trip. The shrimp biryani was really good. And the fish curries were nice and spicy, and great paired with kappa (yucca). The portions were good also enough to share. We had awesome service by Biju, a fellow Malayalee! Definitely recommending this to anyone looking for authentic Malabar cuisine in Minneapolis.

After a long day in the office, I was stoked to get back to campus to sync up with a fellow colleague. I originally planned for us to try Ethiopian, but then backed out last minute for some late cravings of Indian cuisine. There were a few Indian restaurants on the West Bank campus that specialized in various regional cuisines. I have limited exposure the many cuisines (e.g., Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi), so when I heard Malabari specialized in Kerala style dishes, I was ecstatic and unsure of what to expect. I am also a curious eater! Upon arriving, we were seated by a very friendly man who I believe is the owner. He also served us with plastic cups of water and a glass jug for us to "help ourselves." I thought this was pretty neat and different than other experiences I've had. All the items on the menu looked very delicious and I was a little confused to what to order since there were no pictures and I had no experience with this style of food. In this scenario, your best bet is to either ask the owner or your friend (who happens to be Indian). He recommended the Goat Biriyani and that was what I ordered. Though, I was unable to order it right away as we had to wait around 10 minutes for the server to return. Customer service is a bit slow, so it may annoy some (especially when only 2 other customers were there besides us)The food then came and I was highly impressed by the presentation. It is very different in terms of product design, aroma, and supplemental condiments to the past biriyani dishes that I have eaten in places as far as Singapore. This wasn't bad, as I enjoyed this version greatly. What was a point-of-difference were the two sauces / chatneys that came with the dish. One was brown and the other green. I didn't know how to properly use it, but found either on the rice and goat to be delicious. The sauces complemented the meat and rice nicely. We also ordered the chai, but it was nothing to preach on. It was sort of bland and required some additional sugar to sweeten it. Just go to Mapp's Coffee next door if you want some chai to cool off from this meal. Overall, food is great and we had a positive experience despite some setbacks of slow service levels and bland chai. The prices were a little higher than other restaurants in this segment, so be warned.

Nice cozy , chef owned restaurant with amazing exotic South Indian recipes. The chef and the server were very friendly. I ordered the king fish fry and Goat Biryani and they both reminded me of the best I had in India. Try the food and you won't be disappointed. Talk to the chef if you have any questions as he is a super helpful and accommodates small customization_

Wandered in here just minutes before closing. The waiter got us seated and never made us feel rushed. We're big fans of Indian food, but this meal stood out as distinct from what we've had before. The dishes were from Kerala, the southwestern part of India. Almost everything had coconut milk or coconut oil in it, making for a unique taste. We ordered the Fish Molly and crab meat red curry along with some naan. All delicious. Our waiter was enthusiastic and effective. Kerala is now on our travel bucket list.

Malabari is closed. There's a Persian restaurant now. Very disappointed when we arrived. Should have posted they are out of business.