Prairie Dogs & Fuji Ya

We decided to head down to Lyndale and Lake Street on a Saturday night awhile back. We wanted to get something to eat and check out the new brewery, LynLake Brewery. I totally forgot to take photos at the brewery, but I have some food photos to share.

I ordered the tuna tarar to start. Diced tuna, avocado, ginger, garlic, lemon chili oil with soy tobiko. The tuna was fresh, but I was not a fan of the tobiko.

I also had the gyoza, which were crispy and hot. I got 5 house-made pan-fried pork or vegetable pot stickers. Very good.

John ordered the age calamari. It was quite rubbery and not great. We tried it but did not eat very much of it.

John was still hungry after his not great calamari, so we stopped in at Prairie Dogs so he could get something to eat. Good choice! It is a tiny little restaurant, with a menu featuring hot dogs and sausages.

John went with the Micho’s Sonoran Dog which is bacon wrapped and grilled, cilantro aioli, bean spread, avocado, cotija, onion, tomato, salsa verde. This was phenomenal. The salsa was spicy and fresh. The hot dog had a nice snap (they use Vienna hot dogs) and the toppings were all fresh and flavorful.

We added an order of the double fried fries with prairie sauce. The fries were amazing, so fresh and crispy. Why can’t all French fries be made in house and taste this great?

Prairie Dogs had a nice list of local beers on tap and in bottles too. We thought it was a great place to stop in for a quick snack. The prices are affordable for the quality of the food and service was excellent.

Next, we went to LynLake brewing. The taproom is really cool with a large first floor with huge garage doors that open to the street. The rooftop patio is really nice, with a view of downtown and the surrounding area. There is a second bar on the rooftop as well. I totally forgot to take photos, have to do that next time.


Prairie Dogs
55408, 610 W Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 223-8984
http://www.prairiedogsausage.com/

Fuji Ya

We went to Fuji Ya for happy hour on a Friday recently. This is one of the best happy hours around with food and drink specials. I highly recommend it, if you can get there before 7pm on a weekday. The bar was pretty full when we arrived around 6pm, but we found a table right away.

We started with gyoza (potstickers) and the yakitori (chicken skewers). The gyoza were really good because they had a nice crisp exterior. The dipping sauce had touches of chile and was delicious as well. The yakitori was ok, maybe a bit bland. The server snatched the plate away before I could try the sauce on the plate unfortunately. I hate it when that happens.

The second plate was our sushi order with spicy tuna roll and tuna nigiri. The tuna roll was good, nothing spectacular. The nigiri tuna was really good, so I ordered another plate, which I forgot to take a photo of. The second batch was not quite as good as the first as it had different coloration and was separating a bit, but it smelled and tasted ok. We also ordered a tempura shrimp sushi roll, which was also tasty. The specialty rolls were only $5.25 and $6.50, and the nigiri were $3.50 for two, so it seemed like a really good value for all of the sushi.

For drinks I started with a glass of house white wine and John had sake and a beer. I also had a really good whiskey ginger drink later on after happy hour was over.

The service was acceptable, nothing memorable, but not bad either. He was pretty busy the whole time we were there as the bar area was quite full.


Deals and Discounts: The happy hour is a great deal for food and beverages. Drinks start at $3.50 and food starts at $3.00. The happy hour runs Tuesday-Friday from 5-7pm. The late night: happy hour is Tuesday-Thursday 9pm-11pm and Sunday 8-10pm.


Fuju Ya
600 W Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 871-4055
http://www.fujiyasushi.com