112 eatery

Usually John and I go out for a pre-Christmas celebration together, but our last Vegas trip took the place of that. Instead we opted for an overnight downtown after the holiday. Plus, we had not been to 112 eatery in quite a long time. This time we were seated upstairs near the front windows.

Olives and spiced almonds to start.

I had a very delicious white Russian.

First we had the blue prawns with rooster mayo. The shrimp were very good.

Snapper crudo was next and it was very fresh and light. Excellent.

I had the pan fried skate wing with prosciutto crust.

John had the nori encrusted sirloin with ponzu.

Both entrees were really good. All of our food was perfect actually. I always forget how amazing the food at 112 is. The service was excellent as well, we had no issues at all.


112 Eatery
112 North 3rd Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
612.343.7696
http://www.112eatery.com/


We stayed overnight at the AC Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. I had a comp hotel night to burn, so we thought we’d make a night of it downtown. We also went to Clockwerks brewing and Acme Comedy for a show after our dinner at 112.

Hi-Lo Diner

We went back to Hi-Lo Diner the other day. We went during peak hours and waited a good 20-30 minutes for a table. The place is popular! Apparently, they are coming up on the one year anniversary as well.

This glazed donut was amazing, super and fantastic! Warm and fluffy as can be. We ordered it as a starter and it helped the wait for the food seem a bit shorter.

I had the Zie Local Yolkel omelet filled with ham, gruyere cheese and fresh herbs with hash browns on the side. It was OK, not amazing. The hash browns were really good though. Fresh potatoes, crispy on the exterior. 

John had the Tex Max, which was a burrito stuffed with chorizo, hash browns, scrambled eggs and pico de gallo and topped with enchilada sauce, melted manchego and cheddar cheeses and seasoned sour cream. This burrito was a monster, and very flavorful. 

We were seated at a small two person booth/table off to the right side of the restaurant. The service was a kind of slow and not quite as friendly as our previous visit.

Hi-Lo Diner

4020 E Lake St

Minneapolis, MN 55406

Phone: (612) 353-6568

www.hi-lo-diner.com

Hi-Lo Diner

We have been intending to visit Hi-Lo Diner since it opened last year. I guess the thought of a long wait has kept us away. We visited late afternoon for a late lunch on a weekend and only had to wait a few minutes for spots at the counter.

I had a Hi-Top special topped with lobster, avocado, hollandaise, poached egg, onion and peppers. I should explain that I Hi-Top is not a donut, it does not have a hole, but it sort of tastes like one. This was sweet and savory, with the Hi-Top being sweet and everything else more on the savory side. It sounds crazy, but somehow it all works great together. It is like an updated eggs benedict that is much easier to cut than a toasted English muffin.

John had the crispy chicken sandwich topped with apple bacon slaw, hi-lo pickles and roasted garlic aioli with a side of crinkle cut fries. He said it was perfect and loved the crinkle cut fries.

The service was excellent! Everyone was very friendly and recommended dishes to try for our first visit. They even checked back to see what we thought after the food had arrived and they were not even our server. We enjoyed our meal immensely and there were a lot of interesting looking items on the menu I’d love to go back and try next time.

The diner is a bit larger inside than it looks on the outside as well.  There is seating around the edges of the room at tables and booths and seating at the counter that runs the length of the interior as well. The diner was built in 1957 and came from Gibsonia, PA. It looks great inside and out and is a great addition to Minneapolis.

Hi-Lo Diner
4020 E Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Phone: (612) 353-6568
www.hi-lo-diner.com

Stanley's

Stanley's in Northeast Minneapolis is quickly becoming a favorite stop of ours. They have a great selection of beers on tap and a great menu with a wide variety of choices. The service is always friendly and quick as well. It is definitely a good place to watch football or basketball games on TV since they have quite a few TV's.

I love the pretzels at Stanley's! I've ordered them the last couple times we have visited. The honey mustard dipping sauce has great flavor and the pretzels taste freshly made as they arrive warm. These are probably the best pretzels I've found around town!

John ordered a burger and did the build your own burger with bacon and Swiss cheese. He said the bacon was very tasty and it was a solid burger overall.

I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich with bacon and pepper jack cheese. It caught my eye on the menu as it also had the honey mustard sauce on it. The sandwich was quite good. I am not that crazy about the french fries for some reason. They have some sort of coating on them that does not improve them at all.

Deals and Discounts: There is a coupon in the 2013 Entertainment book for Stanley's this year. They are a new addition to the book and a good one too. The coupon is buy one entree get one free (up to $10 off). Stanley's also has a good happy hour and wide variety of specials all the time. We were unable to use the coupon on this visit as they had bloody Mary's on special and we could not use the coupon with other specials. That's ok, we will use the coupon next time.


Stanley's 

2500 University Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
(612) 788-2529
http://www.stanleysbarroom.com

112 Eatery

I visited 112 Eatery with a small group of girlfriends recently. When I've gone out with this group in the past, we've gone to mostly chain restaurants in the suburbs, but we decided to branch out and try somewhere different this time.

We shared all of the appetizers and desserts and everyone was trading entrees back and forth as well, so everyone got a try a variety of items, which I thought made the night very fun.

We started with a few appetizer type items, first being the cauliflower fritters. I am pretty sure we all loved this dish. The cauliflower was tasty, surprisingly light and not overly deep fried.

This was the surprise hit of the table I think. I was not sure if the sweet and sour crab salad sounded good on the menu, but it looked and tasted amazing once it arrived. It had shredded cabbage, carrots, crab and a sweet and sour dressing. One person claimed they did not care for crab, but they tried the salad and liked it.

We also ordered the ricotta with white truffle honey. I had no idea what to expect with this dish before it arrived, but this was really light and refreshing. The ricotta was so light and airy and the honey have it such a wonderful sweet flavor, without becoming overpoweringly sweet. I wish it had come with more bread though.

I was really looking forward to trying the pan fried gnocchi with Parmesan and I was not disappointed. It was so light and salty with a tiny bit of crunch as well. We all loved this dish too. I'd like to try gnocchi at other restaurants but something tells me this is an excellent example of it and it is probably easier to do bad gnocchi than good gnocchi. I can't wait to go back and order this again.

Tara was very adventurous and ordered the tagliatelle with foie gras meatballs and the frog legs with wakame and mustard sauce. Tara loved the frog legs because they were tender and meaty.  Cheryl detected a note of seafood-ness to them which mades us wonder what kind of liquid they were cooked in.  Whatever it was, it definitely made them not just a "tastes-like-chicken" dish. I tried a bite of the pasta and you could tell it was handmade pasta- very delicious. Tara said she loved the meatballs because it wasn't just foie, there was she thought, veal and breadcrumbs mixed in, which cut the richness of the foie, in a good way.

Tonya had the 112 burger and she said it was great. She especially liked the English muffin style bun it was served on and it did not disintegrate as some burger buns tend to do.

Dawn and Cheryl both ordered the nori encrusted sirloin with ponzu. I had a bite and this was wonderful steak. It was so tender and cooked perfectly. I would not have considered ordering steak at 112 before this, but I'd like to try this dish again sometime.

I had the bacon, egg and harissa sandwich. This is one of my favorite sandwiches ever. But then I love bacon. A lot. This was good bacon too, crispy, thick and smoky. The sandwich is deceptively simple, but the harissa packs a lot of spice and flavor. And there is nothing better than an over easy egg in a sandwich.

The roasted asparagus with lardo was also really good. Something about this restaurant really makes me want to eat vegetables! The asparagus (or maybe it was due to the lardo) had a slight smoky flavor which I enjoyed. We also learned what lardo is, which is basically a thin layer of pork fat. In the photo of the asparagus it is the off white stuff that looks kind of like cheese. It added a nice salty flavor to the asparagus.

I also ordered the blue prawns with rooster mayo, which were just OK. The sauce was really quite spicy and I thought the shrimp had a slight mealy texture for some reason. Not sure that I would order them again.

We all loved the donut cake with raspberry jam and ice cream. The donut was so light and fluffy it was amazing. I am not sure if I even had a bite of the white chocolate mousse and blueberry compote. I was so full at that point!

We had a great meal and enjoyed our dinner a lot. The service was excellent. We may have waited briefly for new forks at one point but that was the only issue we encountered. The menu is varied enough that even the people in our group with dietary restrictions and non-adventurous palates could find something good to eat. I think we all tried at least one new food during this dinner, which is very impressive!

Deals & Discounts: I wish. Sorry, no deals here that I have ever heard about.

112 Eatery
112 North 3rd Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
612.343.7696
http://www.112eatery.com/