Hai Hai brunch

We checked out the brunch at Hai Hai awhile ago. When patio season was still an option. Please come back warm weather! Also, some of the hype seems to have died down here. Granted, we visited on a Saturday afternoon, well after lunchtime, so the rush was probably over.

I had the Thai Fried chicken and papaya salad. It included fried egg, sticky rice and coconut milk pancake, green papaya salad and lime leaf honey butter and fish sauce syrup on the side. Lots of things to play around with. The chicken was excellent; very crisp and a little spice. I really liked the coconut milk pancake with the lime butter on it- it was a bit crispy and sweet.

John had the Fried rice cakes and egg, which was a bit of a breakfast bowl type item with scrambled eggs, scallion, papaya, pickled carrot and jicama, pickled onion, cucumber, Thai chili and tamari vinegar.

This is definitely a fun brunch with great food. They have a lot of items you won’t find on the menu anywhere else in town if you need to mix up your brunch a bit. The back bar and patio are quite nice in the warmer weather and make the restaurant quite a bit larger. We even discovered that there is a nice sized parking lot in the back of the building, which is super convenient.



Hai Hai
2121 University Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Phone: (612) 223-8640
https://www.haihaimpls.com/

Minnesota State Fair 2018

This is late as all get out. I should have posted it during the fair. Oh well! We visited the Minnesota State Fair three times this year, a couple times were just for short stops though. The transit situation was not ideal this year as Dunwoody did not start until noon and Ridgedale always fills up so fast. I forgot to take photos of a bunch of stuff, but here's what I do have.

 pronto pup - my favorite item I think

 bacon stuffed tots with bacon sour cream, best new food I tried this year

 Swedish meatball smorgas at blue barn- John liked it

 big fat bacon- must have every year!

 fudge puppy- chocolate covered waffle on a stick

 Minneapple pie with cinnamon ice cream- so good! 

 rode the sky glider

 Tin Whiskers dill pickle kolsch- John liked it and would get it again

 roasted corn on the cob- must have! 

grilled peach

bacon wrapped pork belly - it was gross- too salty and the middle was too soft and mushy. Could not finish

egg roll on a stick from Que Viet - really good! 

 Sweetie Cakes black forest cake was served warm- quite good! 

We were reminded of why we do not normally go to the state fair on a weekend. The Saturday we went was a record breaking attendance day and you could tell as everything had huge lines and some of the streets were wall to wall people. Not fun!

Denver trip 8.10-13.2018

We took a quick weekend trip to Denver to meet up with John's mom and her husband Al. We used up our Sun Country airline miles, and used John's Hilton credit card nights, so it wasn't too terribly expensive of a trip. (I am DONE with Sun Country, we've had good experiences, but they are turning into a discount airline, with crappy service to match. No thanks.)

Tried the Minnesota Wild bar and restaurant in terminal 2 at MSP. It was OK, not great. We were tired of Barrio.

 After arrival we took Lyft to the hotel, checked in and met John's mom and Al for a couple drinks.

Friday night, we went to the Rockies-Dodgers game at Coors Field.  Nice stadium and the game was fun.

 Saturday morning we all had breakfast at Sam's No. 3 diner a couple blocks form the hotel.

  Sam's No. 3 diner 

 I think we walked around a bit downtown along the 16th Street pedestrian mall.

 Walked over to the Capital to stand 1 mile above sea level. 

It was a bit smoky and hazy most days, from fires out west, this was probably the clearest day, so you could see the mountains a bit.

 Saturday we also went up to the Peaks lounge atop the Hyatt for happy hour. Very nice view.

 sampler at 10 barrel brewing

We had dinner at Will Call in RINO, but I forgot to take photos. I think we called it a night after that too. 

Sunday morning we had breakfast at Snooze. We went to the Larimer Street location, but there was still quite a wait. John had the scramble.

 I had the smashed avocado Benedict. 

We went over to SoBo district and wandered though some antique stores. Found a brewery there too. They are everywhere in Denver. Convenient! 

 Yes, we did it, we went to Casa Bonita.

Yup, the food sucks, but it is certainly a scenic restaurant. Wish I would have taken a photo of the sopapillas. Those are pretty good.

 show with guy in gorilla suit

 cliff diving pool

 behind the waterfall at Casa Bonita

We found a brewery next door to Casa Bonita. Of course. There was also a thrift store and a Ross in the strip mall. Maybe the strip mall location is a plus, not a negative. Seems like it to me!

 Denver Beer Co.

 South Platte River

 Ship Tavern in the Brown Palace Hotel. Nice neon sign! 

 We had dinner at Tamayo on Larimer street. We had hoped to sit on the rooftop, but it was closed for a private event.

 mahi tacos

 al pastor tacos

 Larimer street at night- very cute area. 

Monday morning we had breakfast at Denver diner a few blocks form the hotel. It was an old school diner for sure. The food was good, not great.

Stayed at the Hyatt Convention center in downtown Denver. It was quite nice, great service throughout the hotel. Forgot to take room photos though.

Our flight home was fine, everything on time. The only drawback is the fact that the Denver airport is 30 minutes out of town even without traffic.