Editor's Picks: What to Eat During Mpls.St.Paul's Restaurant Week

Photo by Caitlin Abrams

Black Duck

Winter Restaurant Week is back again with over 80 (eight-zero!) participating restaurants lined up for lunching, brunching, and dining out on the town. Eighty restaurants to choose from is an abundance of riches, of course, and this time around, since we have so many restaurants appearing on our Restaurant Week roster, we're highlighting all the fresh new inductees, because we're so happy to have them, plus a handful of Eat Street restaurants, which have been impacted by the ICE killing of Alex Pretti. Supporting local restaurants right now is more important than ever—go eat.

New Restaurant Week Spots We Can't Wait to Eat At

** Al & Alma’s Supper Club** may be a Restaurant Week first-timer, but after 70 years in the restaurant business, they know their way around a three-quarter rack of ribs with garlic mashed potatoes on the side, no less. If you're looking for a classic, cozy, supper clubby experience, head out to the chilly shores of Lake Minnetonka, and if I were you, I would not be going halfsies on the bacon-wrapped scallops.

Chef Jason Sawicki's ** Black Duck Spirits & Hearth**, open in Northeast Minneapolis since 2024, is delving more than ever into Polish American cuisine, a move we fully endorse. I will personally promise you that if you are on the hunt for truly fine pierogi—plump and silky and served with a little chive-topped dish of sour cream—this is the place. Other highlights: an Oklahoma onion smash burger but make it a duck meat blend and brown butter-glazed paczek, a Polish-style donut filled with raspberry.

Chefs Lisa Wengler and Jo Seddon are at the helm of lovely ** Gia** in south Minneapolis, serving up simple but beautifully executed rustic Italian food day in and day out. If it were me putting in a Restaurant Week order, I'd be going for the casarecce pasta (Venetian-spiced duck ragu with tomato, white wine, and parmesan) and the butterscotch budino.

La Madre 's menu is coming soon, stay tuned!

** Liliana**, from the same team behind St. Paul's Estelle, is a cozy, delightful slip of a space out in the Woodburian suburban landscape. Start with steamed mussels and focaccia for dipping or beef sirloin carpaccio; for an entrée, it's all about that black garlic butter agnolotti. Liliana has some fun add-ons too, like sausage-stuffed olives, chicken liver mousse cannoli, and (love it) garlic bread.

People who like to golf and also like to eat unite! ** Launch Pad Golf** in Prior Lake is joining Restaurant Week for the first time ever with a menu of roasted red pepper soup, Korean-style braised beef short ribs, seared jumbo sea scallops, and caramel pumpkin bread pudding, and those are just SOME of the options you can choose from.

Welcome ** Mizu**, out in White Bear Lake! If treating yourself to ramen and sushi is the only thing spiritually propelling you through the dreariest of February doldrums, this is the place for you. There's a ton of choices on this menu, so you can choose your own adventure of shrimp and pork gyoza with tonkotsu ramen for a savory, soul-satisfying meal, or maybe keep it light and fresh with tuna tataki and teriyaki salmon. Either way, you're getting yuzu cheesecake (with glitter on it!) for dessert so it's a win.

** Northern Tap House **is hitting all the best notes—fried pickles, Ellsworth fried cheese curds with sweet chili on the side, jalapeño bacon cheddar smash burgers, cinnamon sugar mini donuts with a little side of chocolate sauce for dipping. Is this... State Fair baiting? Either way we approve.

We're so thrilled to have ** San Pancho by Familia Luna** join Restaurant Week—you must start with the taquitos dorados as an appetizer, all crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside like a savory cannoli; then it's onto tacos or a torta or a camarones al diablo. The choice between a vanilla flan and a slice of tres leches is an agonizing one, we'll leave that up to you.

Eat Street Restaurants

Not long ago, on a frigid evening, I walked past the ** Black Forest Inn** and peered through the windows—inside it was warm, candlelit, cozy to the max. Pull up for a bowl of borscht, chicken paprikash, or a classic bratwurst dinner, and rumtopf bread pudding.

Maybe the ** Copper Hen** is your go-to brunch spot, but Restaurant Week presents the perfect opportunity to try it out for dinner—start with fried sweet plantains with hot honey or spinach artichoke dip as an app; pesto risotto, chicken schnitzel, or baked mac and cheese as an entrée, and one of the restaurant's signature cupcake to finish things off with a sweet bite.

Just off Eat Street's main drag, Luna and the Bear is dishing up both lunch and dinner menus. Pop in for fried cauliflower or hot honey tofu; a chicken and brie sandwich or a burger smothered in smoked gouda; and banana flan or Belgian waffle bread pudding. Definitely slip into adjoining Moonwater Gin Bar afterward for a nightcap.