Vinai

Snagged an "impossible" reservation and checked out this new-to-us place. Good service and a good space: the lighting, so often a weak spot in restaurants, has been well thought out here. Not too bright, but bright enough to read menus, atmospheric without being too dark. Nice.The food was amazing, and seemed to be well planned for a Midwestern US city: exotic flavors, but everything was still... yummy. Crave-able. Maybe the only thing that could be improved is some sort of parking solution. There is nowhere to park nearby, and several popular restaurants in the area. Overall we loved it, and will be back!

As a fan of Union Hmong Kitchen, I came here with relatively high expectations, and was not disappointed due to the quality the establishment had demonstrated with their food. Pretty much everything so far was a hit, after visiting here for dinner twice. I purposefully didn't order the hilltribe grilled chicken because I have had it in UHK before, but I think the next time I will give it a try here just to see what new elements I can discover.The braised beef rib was extremely tender and the soup tasted everything like I imagined it to be, with good flavor and ingredients and very authentically Southeast Asian. The new york strip steak was cooked to perfection with medium rare, had a good pinch of spiciness with chili oil to the side, and was extremely tender and juicy. The roasted eggplant had just the right amount of garlic, cilantro, and chili to not let one ingredient overpower another. The curry rice ball had the essence of crab and cream cheese. The sambal on the deviled eggs provided the dish with a flavor that I had never experienced before in a positive way due to the cultural fusion. The crabby fried rice allowed every bite to have a feeling of "separated but together" when one tries to break apart the added duck egg, as the rice would be separated while the egg yolk would try to bind everything together.My friend tried very hard to figure out how Mango Madness was made after having it because she thought it was too good. And the chocolate lava cake had so many layers of flavors, including the chili oil, that made it a very integral part of my sweetness experience.Overall, highly recommended, and can definitely attest to the establishment's greatness and why it is named as one of the restaurants on New York Times' Top 50 list - making Minnesota proud.

This is a nice and chic venue with delicious food overall. We enjoyed most of our dishes and it's family style so we split everything. Here are my reviews of the food:1. Deviled Eggs - this appetizer was amazing. The flavors of the crispy shrimp were a great addition. 2. We got a shrimp salad and there was way too much fish sauce. This was the only dish we disliked.3. Charred Cabbage - the sauces were fantastic and unique and this is the best cabbage dish I've had in my life.4. Chicken Curry - the coconut flavors were great and it's soup based but comes with noodles and good fixings. 5. New York Strip - this was very good and we could not finish it since we were pretty full from our other dishes. Ideally we would have gotten this earlier in our dish rotation.The server had good recommendations for the food. The only training opportunity is that she forgot to give us our leftovers after we told her to box them up which consisted of $20 worth of NY Strip steak and we forgot to ask as we left. All higher end restaurants remember to bring leftovers after they are boxed up without the customer having to remember so just wanted to bubble that up.Overall a great dining experience with fantastic and unique food. Be sure to reserve far in advance due to the popularity of this place if you want to dine during peak dinner times.

I finally made time to check out this new restaurant. Street parking available but you'll have to drive around the neighborhood and walk. Beautiful restaurant, I noticed the beams when I walked in. Reservations recommended, we went on a weekday and they were busy. I am a big fan of devil eggs and had to order them, delicious by the way. Shrimp and pork toast was different, I'm not a big fan of dill, there was alot in there. Fried catfish platter was also fun to eat, the dipping sauce was on the sour side for me, I had to ask for chilli and fish sauce to balance it. Otherwise the presentation on their other entrees were excellent. We noticed the table next to us had a small pot, they had ordered curry.

Words cannot describe how delicious everything was here, we started off with some cocktails. I highly recommend the hmoob ntsuab it has flavors of Thai basil, lime, gin and olive oil. We then had some amazing appetizers, I highly recommend getting the shrimp + pork toast as well as the califlower. For entree the chicken and coconut curry crabby fried rice are amazing. For desert must get the chocolate lava cake. Service was excellent, Tim did an amazing job was so friendly and knowledgeable! Gorgeous ambiance, it feels like you're in a cozy house.

Certainly one of the best dining experiences I've had in recent memory (and I've been doing a lot of traveling and eating). We didn't have a reservation but they were able to seat us at the bar. This place is beautiful. I could tell it was just recently done. The cocktail program is extremely interesting and well executed. We had the cilantro highball, hmoob ntsuab (such an unusually and unique beverage), the new fashioned, and the volt and the beautiful. All were excellent and everyone behind the bar was super friendly and helpful and passionate about what they were doing.For food, we ordered the deviled eggs, the roasted eggplant dip, the lamb heart wraps, the shrimp/pork toast, the braised cabbage. We also got the mama vang and happy tiger hot sauces. There were no misses at this place. Everything was perfect. No notes. I have a Hmong coworker and have been exposed over the years to various Hmong dishes. The sauce that came with the grilled lamb hearts was perfectly balanced with the fish sauce and the acid in it. All of the herbs and the veg were perfectly balanced. The shrimp toast is better than any other version I've ever had. It's essentially a shrimp/pork dumpling on top of rich toast. The eggplant dip has me rethinking how I'll make baba ghanoush next time. It was so creamy and balanced. I can't give this place enough stars.But here is what else I saw. I sat at the bar which means I could see the whole brigade. People were working happy. You can tell the brigade liked and deeply respected the chef. They were smiling. You could taste it in the food and in the drinks. Mark my words: This place is gonna blow up way bigger than it already has. This is that point in time where everything is firing on all cylinders and the chef's vision is put exactly on the plate. I love this place and will make it a point to come here whenever I'm within 100 miles of this place.

Wow. Just wow. Every dish we had at this Hmong restaurant was fantastic (even the MAC snack had a spice dip that elevated the fruit slices). We were a table of 4 and ordered a bunch of small plates and 3 mains to share, and 2 desserts. It was the right amount of food- none of us left hungry, and none of us were so stuffed that we couldn't move. The interior has a cozy organic vibe, with lots of wood and natural textures. There is no lot, but there is plenty of unmetered street parking around the restaurant. My Hmoob ntsuab cocktail was light and delicious. I also tried white pinot noir for the first time, and really enjoyed it!Our server was super knowledgeable about the menu and immediately asked us about any dietary restrictions. Again, everything we ate was delicious, but my favorites from each course we ordered were:Roasted Eggplant Charred CabbageChocolate Lava Cake(we also ordered: the MAC snack, curry rice ball, grilled whole fish, crabby fried rice, happy tiger sauce, mango dessert). The Mango dessert gets a special shoutout because I am usually not a fan of tapioca, but this dessert had such an amazing mango flavor, I could have eaten the whole thing. This was an absolutely fantastic experience. Definitely check this new restaurant out! (And as an unexpected bonus, the owner, Chef Yia Vang, actually helped deliver our main courses to the table).

Great spot for delicious and beautifully presented Hmong cuisine. Went twice and tried several dishes. Service was wonderful and friendly, even when I returned a dish. Some things were bigger hits than others, but overall would absolutely recommend Vinai.Hits: Fried catfish - was served like a lettuce wrap. Catfish was fried to perfection, and flavors of the pickled vegetables and noodles with the catfish all worked great together.Charred cabbage - beautiful dish with amazing flavors. The char on the cabbage added great texture. Crabby fried rice - nice garlic and crab flavors, and the herbs on top elevated the dish. Caveat is that the first time I ordered this dish, it tasted like overcooked scrambled eggs and nothing else - no garlic or crab flavors, not even rice. Was told that the chef de cuisine wasn't in that day so it was not recommended that I get it remade since it might still come out the same. Ordered it again the next time I went, and it was amazing! Grilled fish - incredible! Amazing flavor with lots of herbs and umami, and the texture was perfectly light and delicate. It doesn't photograph well, but looks really good in person. Chocolate lava cake - rich and warm chocolate cake with a great flavor twist from the ice cream and whipped cream toppings.N/A Cool as a Cucumber - sweet, citrusy and refreshing. Complemented the meal well.Good: Grilled carrots - very nice flavors. But would have preferred that it be served warm. Roasted Eggplant - loved the flavors, but was surprised that it was a smooth dip. I expected pieces of eggplant. Or would have liked some chunks of eggplant in the dip for some texture. And it was a little off to eat it with sticky rice vs a bread. Deviled eggs - very well done, and beautifully presented but a little too much basil for me. Mango tapioca dessert - lots going on here. Loved the different textures from the different components, and it had some great flavors in the mango ice cream and tapioca pudding layer, but the mango compote tasted canned and the fruit pieces in it tasted like apples not mangos. N/A Culantro Highball - very subtle flavors of the herbs from the dishes. OK on its own but was too much like the flavors in the meal to complement it. Might have been better with whiskey, or some sweetness.

Easily one of the best meals I've ever had. EverEverything was different but deliciousGood valueGreat serviceLoved the ambiance, very chill vibe but also modern without being pretentiousI absolutely plan to return to try moreThe parking is a B but that is mainly because of the area it is in , so plan more time to troll for street parkingOtherwise go here asap and you will not be disappointed

AMAZING menu, big portions, great ambiance, and superb service. Chef Yia and his team have put so much thought and love into their food, a wonderful experience.