¡Salud! Tacos The Zimmern List: San Diego premieres April 2 9|8c on Travel Channel! To fully experience San Diego you need to spend a day in Barrio Logan, a neighborhood on the rise transformed by a vibrant art and food scene. After a stroll through the art-filled Chicano Park—home to a massive display of murals… Read More →
On’s Thai Kitchen Located in Midway on University Avenue, On’s Thai Kitchen always makes it onto my list of top 10 favorite restaurants in the Twin Cities. There are many excellent choices for Thai cuisine in my hometown, but none transport me to Thailand quite like On’s. The 105-item menu has many recognizable standbys like fresh herby… Read More →
Young Joni Young Joni’s presence on my list of must-try restaurants should come as no surprise. What chef Ann Kim and her team have accomplished is exceptional and worthy of all the national attention—which includes recognition from GQ and Eater as one of 2017’s best new restaurants in the country. And while this may be… Read More →
Partnering with All of Us Travel I spend close to 250 days out of every year on the road and I’m a strong believer in the transformative power of travel. Nothing challenges your perspective or opens your heart and mind to humanity like travel. We become our best selves on the road, culturally curious and acutely… Read More →
Aki’s BreadHaus In the midst of Oktoberfest season—now a worldwide trend no longer reserved for Munich—it’s only appropriate I share my favorite German bakery. In the Twin Cities, most steins of beer this month seem to be accompanied by one of Aki’s famed pretzels, and for good reason. Located in Minneapolis’ Northeast neighborhood, Aki’s BreadHaus… Read More →
112 Eatery Located a few short blocks from Target Field in downtown Minneapolis, James Beard award-winning chef Isaac Becker’s first restaurant is a favorite amongst chefs and service industry folks. That has as much to do with their steak tartare, famous 112 cheeseburger and foie gras meatballs, as it does with their night owl hours… Read More →
Esker Grove The Walker Art Center, a contemporary art mecca with a newly refinished sculpture garden, is one of the Twin Cities’ most beloved cultural assets. Add a beautifully designed restaurant with a menu from one of the country’s best chefs, and you have a winning combination, whether it’s date night, happy hour or brunch… Read More →
Kramarczuk’s Sausage Company Kramarczuk’s is an iconic Twin Cities restaurant and deli, serving Eastern European sausages and comfort classics for more than 50 years. Wasyl and Anna Kramarczuk moved to the United States from Ukraine in 1949. In the 50s, they bought an established butcher shop in Northeast Minneapolis, started making sausages and quickly became… Read More →
Shuang Cheng Everyone knows a Chinese restaurant like this one, armed with an enormous 400-item menu that mostly caters to a Westerner’s palate. And while Shuang Cheng offers a dizzying variety of dishes, it defies the stereotype that quantity does not equal quality. I usually skip straight to the seafood page of the menu. If… Read More →
Birchwood Cafe Few Minnesotans have done more for local farmers and purveyors than Tracy Singleton. You can bet everything served at her iconic Seward restaurant was grown organically, sourced ethically, and hails from some cool Midwestern farm. She’s long been an industry leader in sustainable, eco-friendly practices, and has used her restaurant as a vehicle… Read More →
St. Genevieve I’ve often said that one of Minneapolis’ greatest assets in the food scene is chef Steven Brown, and his newest addition, St. Genevieve, is a testament to that. A Parisian-style buvette, it’s one of a slew of new restaurants in Minneapolis celebrating familiar, yet reinvented French fare—proof that the classics never go out… Read More →
Szechuan Spice Of all the great regional Chinese cuisines, Sichuan food holds a special place in my heart. While we don’t have as many great Chinese restaurants as I would like in Minnesota, we do have a few that absolutely blow me away and Szechuan Spice in Uptown is one of them. It’s best to… Read More →
Lowry Hill Meats When Erik Sather opened Lowry Hill Meats in the fall of 2015, let’s just say I was excited. There are less than a handful of great, old-world butcher shops in the Twin Cities, and LHM’s standard for every product they sell—from meat to eggs, cheese, spices and coffee—is exceptionally high. I always… Read More →
Brasa Rotisserie For years, Brasa Rotisserie has been the go-to for Creole-style rotisserie chicken and Southern-inspired sides. From the mind of James Beard award-winning chef Alex Roberts, Brasa is a casual, convivial spot where meals are best had family style. They’re known for a mash-up of Southern-Caribbean-Mexican-Creole dishes, like slow roasted pork doused with fresh… Read More →
Punch Pizza There are plenty of great pizza places in the Twin Cities, but Punch will always have a special place in my heart. Now with eight locations across the metro, their first location, which opened back in 1996 in St. Paul’s Highland Park, is my favorite. Co-founders John Soranno, who grew up in Milan,… Read More →
Modern Scandinavian-Influenced Fare Located in a historic 19th-century brick-and-timber warehouse in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood, The Bachelor Farmer celebrates Nordic-inspired cuisine made with ingredients sourced from local farmers or grown on the rooftop garden. They created small masterpieces on top of a humble piece of toast before it became a culinary craze, so order a few toasts as an… Read More →
San Francisco’s In Situ By Bob & Sue By offering the signature recipes of many of the world’s greatest chefs, Michelin 3-star chef Corey Lee of Benu and his executive chef Brandon Rodgers have made In Situ, located in the renovated Museum of Modern Art, one of the most unique dining experiences in the world. The… Read More →
Authentic Americana Cuisine Tune in for Bizarre Foods: Route 66 on Tuesday, February 21 at 9|8c on Travel Channel. Stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles, Route 66 is the most historic road in the country, an emblem of the American Dream. The fabled highway, also known as “the mother road,” is not just a means… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week One Fifth is a new concept in Houston owned by my pal Chris Shepherd. Housed in a teeny old church that became an adult film studio before facing the wrecking ball, Chris got a stay of execution and is now putting a new restaurant in the space each… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week Lucky for me, last week’s press junket for the season premiere of Bizarre Foods included lunch at Balthazar in New York City. Did I spring for the Plateau de Mer for one??? Yes, yes I did. This restaurant is one of my favorites in New York, serving French… Read More →
Where to Find Great Comfort Food in the Windy City By Bob & Sue In addition to three of our favorite fine dining restaurants in Chicago—Grace, Alinea and 16 at the Trump—we enjoyed several first time places for memorable comfort food: Credit: Huge Galdones Momotaro This large Japanese restaurant offers delicious sushi and high-quality small… Read More →
Street Food at Its Best Tune in for Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food: Hyderabad on Thursday, September 22 at 4|3c. India’s fourth largest city, Hyderabad is home to a diverse mix of cultures and an extraordinary, complex cuisine. From dosas to biryani to 400-year-old recipes renewed, Hyderabadis pride themselves on their food. Whether you’re looking for… Read More →
Central Asian Comfort Food in Chicago You’ve probably heard me say that you can understand the history of a country and its people by looking at its food. No where is this more true than the countries of Central Asia, where the Silk Road impacted all parts of culture. Dive into the meat-centric culinary traditions of… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week (And the Week Before That) By Andrew Zimmern Of all the great regional Chinese cuisines, Sichuan food has a special place in my heart. While we don’t have as many great Chinese restaurants as I would like in Minnesota, we do have a few that absolutely blow me… Read More →
Mediterranean Food Heaven in Cyprus Cyprus is an island paradise, and a crossroads of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern culture. It’s also a nation ripped in half by decades of conflict. In Nicosia, Cyprus, the world’s last remaining occupied and divided city, there is a small café called the Berlin 2 Wall Kebab House. They serve a… Read More →
Modern Food, Age-Old Technique Defined more than a decade ago by chefs Claus Meyer and Rene Redzepi, the New Nordic food movement is reimagining what Scandinavian cuisine is, with a focus on seasonality, sustainability, animal welfare and traditional Nordic ingredients. And while this ground breaking philosophy has famously fueled avant-garde creativity, exploring old traditions is… Read More →
Shengjian Bao with a Cult Following Eating your way through the world’s most populous city is one of life’s greatest pleasures. As Shanghai’s landscape becomes more international, many traditional places have disappeared, but thankfully Da Hu Chun has stood the test of time. Open along the river since the 1930s, this restaurant is known for shengjian… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week? Dinner at Upland in New York City. By Andrew Zimmern Justin Smillie’s Upland is as impressive a dining experience as New York offers. Here, serious food intersects with a rambunctious and spirited environment in a thoughtfully designed and beautifully lit space. Credit: Corry Arnold The five lettuce Caesar salad… Read More →
Where to Eat Tuna Eyes in Okinawa Japan’s version of a neighborhood bar, the izakaya has been an integral part of the country’s culture since the 1600s. They were the original gastropubs, serving shareable tapas-style small plates to sake-soaked patrons way before it was the trend. Today, izakaya specialties are some of the most beloved… Read More →
Honest Puerto Rican Food in the Bronx An international community of settlers, the Bronx celebrates diversity everywhere you look. Today, as immigrant success stories become the new norm, the borough is a far cry from the symbol of decay it represented a few decades ago. And with such a vibrant and constantly evolving immigrant community, it’s easy to stumble… Read More →
