I reviewed Shuang Cheng previously, and the last time was a bit more than a year ago. In…read morere-reading my reviews, I stand by everything I've said about the excellent consistent quality of the food, the service, and how much I enjoy coming to this restaurant. I truly hope they are around longer than I am. I would hate to find out this was one of the choices no longer available to us. Please read my previous reviews for a more inclusive view; this review focuses only on their lobster. I had previously mentioned that they prices of their lobsters (I love the version with black bean sauce) have gone up tremendously. While true, there seems to have been a subtle change in their pricing strategy. Previously (as of before the pandemic), the lobster was priced by the pound, which is the conventional way of doing it. However, they seem to have two lobster prices. The first one is called "Big Lobster" and they say it's between 2 and 2 and half pounds per lobster. The price of that (as of this review) is $56 dollars, or $28 per pound. That's not really a bad price at all. It's expensive, but reasonable. The other lobster is called "Live Lobster" and is priced $10 less at $46. So the real question is how much does this second version weigh? I ordered the Big Lobster, but they said they were out of it. I asked the weight of the "Live Lobster" but I didn't really get a straight answer, but he seemed to say "about two pounds" which doesn't really make sense because that's the price of the larger, more expensive lobster. But I decided to go for it anyway. As I stated in my last review, I'm guessing this lobster is at least two pounds, based on many years of eating lobster. For this review, I had ChatGPT translate the the Chinese on the menu, thinking it was secret code for "if you can read Chinese, save ten dollars by ordering this version" but AI says the Chinese means "lobster" so if you spoke Chinese, you'd still be mystified. So my recommendation is order the version that is ten dollars cheaper and you may (or may not) be paying $23 a pound. Price aside, I love this version of lobster and it is certainly a better deal than what you would pay at an American style seafood or steak restaurant in the Twin Cities.

We have not been to Shuang Cheng in a while - it was one of our favorite places for seafood when we…read morewere younger/recent college grads. It was nice visiting and enjoying some of our previously go-to dishes. The soft shell crab made with golden garlic style was as delicious as I remembered, although at a much higher price now ($44+) for the dish. The seafood soup was a nice start to our meal, would have been even better if they had red vinegar. The mapo tofu and eggplant dishes that we ordered ended up being very similar in taste/sauce/seasoning but still pretty good. The service was pretty fast and the staff was friendly.

I was in town for work recently with 0 plans or reservations and researched this place in an uber…read morecoming straight from the airport. Cozy Hmong-American restaurant with French-influenced pastries? Count me in! I literally updated my destination to this restaurant while in the uber and decided to grab a bit of food before heading to my hotel. I had no reservation, but arriving a little after 1 pm on a Monday had no wait for a bar seat. It's such a cozy, homey restaurant with light wood, light brick, natural light, few plants inside and a very casual patio with picnic tables outside. I could see this place being a tough reservation during peak times. I hadn't eaten all day and was extremely hungry. I opted for the king crab omelette with red curry beurre blanc. I got a side of sticky rice to make it slightly heartier since I was so hungry and got some pastries to go, since I was in a bit of a time crunch to make it to my hotel and take some work calls. Service was incredibly friendly and fast. My server really did Minneapolis proud, chatted with me about my trip, gave me other great goodie recommendations to fill out my dining for the week, and overall really made the visit special. The crab omelette was unreal. Simultaneously fresh, light, but with a hint of kick and richness from the red curry beurre blanc. Excellent flavor combo. I got the crab Rangoon danish and the coconut pandas croissant to go and ate them for breakfast the next day and they were still so light and fresh with unreal flavor combos. The pandan was my favorite and I tend to be a savory over sweet pastry girl. This place is deserving of all of its hype and more. I honestly really wanted to go back and asked if I could try to sneak in a reservation to come again for later in the week, but sadly they are when I was free the rest of the time I was in town. Absolutely scheming to come back to Minneapolis just to eat here again!

Unfortunately, our experience at Diane's Place was disappointing. Two of the front desk servers…read morewere not very helpful -- when we asked for a cold drinks menu, they told us they didn't have one. However, after we showed them the drink menu listed on their website, another server from the back was able to provide it. On top of that, our order was incorrect and our food was packaged to-go even though we requested to dine in. The food itself was decent, but it was frustrating not receiving what we actually ordered. Overall, the service and lack of attention to detail really took away from the experience.

The dumplings here are amazing. There is some confusion about sauces as 2 employees gave me…read moredifferent information. The pizza dumplings were a special but they come back from time to time. We buy frozen dumplings to take home so we have tried most of the flavors. All have been excellent. I really enjoyed the crawfish ones they have previously offered.

After seeing this place all over my tiktok, I knew we had to come try it!! This place was very…read moregood!! Definitely worth stoping in! There is paid parking outside but we found a spot fairly quickly. Inside you order on a tablet. They do have water that is free, otherwise it is cans for soda. The food came fairly quickly! The service we had was so fast, I can't even tell you if people here are friendly haha! They dropped our food off and were gone again! But we loved the fast service! The pizza dumplings were good, not great. They tasted like a fancier pizza roll. The sauce it came with was good though! The buffalo scallion pancake wrap was VERY good! The heat was there but still doable for this Minnesotan! The star of the show was the chicken Caesar salad sandwich. It was so tasty! The bread does kind of fall apart but who cares!? It was delicious!! Get a side of the sauce to dip it! We will be keeping our eye on this place for more collabs and delicious items!!

He Said: While I am saddened that Fuji-Ya left Uptown, I am…read morevery happy that such a quality restaurant has filled Fuji-Ya's vacancy. Jade Dynasty is like the Captain Planet of Chinese restaurants. Many powerhouse Chinese restaurant owners/operators have come together to form JD. The inside looks great. The food options are plentiful. The parking is easy (not a given in Uptown). I have had their regular menu items, dim sum, and seafood. All delicious. Pros: - Great to have a quality food establishment in Uptown - Clean and courteous - Good food quality Cons: - Prices are slightly higher compared to other mom and pop Chinese restaurants

Jade Dynasty was absolutely delicious! Their dim sum menu offers a wonderful variety of shareable…read moreplates, making it perfect for larger groups or anyone who loves trying multiple dishes. It's such a great spot if you enjoy sampling different dishes. The space is stunning, especially after the recent remodel. You walk into a beautiful dining area that opens up into a larger space with high ceilings, gorgeous light fixtures, and an airy, open feel. It feels modern, elegant, and welcoming all at once. My favorite dishes were the fried mochi, the duck, soup dumplings, and the pork, each one was flavorful and perfectly portioned for sharing. The dim sum was fresh and beautifully prepared. What really stood out, though, was how friendly and involved the owners are. You can tell they genuinely care about the restaurant and their guests, which makes the experience feel even more special. Everything we tried was delicious, and I can't wait to go back!

Good food (it's greasy Chinese food). Nice people working there. Massive portions. Like massive.read more

Our waiter was very kind and went above and beyond with the service! Bring your friends because the…read moreportions are exceptional.

Good prices for the portion of food you get! Server was friendly and gave me extra white rice for…read moremy laab. Chicken laab may be better with a curry dish because eating that alone with white rice tasted a bit dry. Massaman curry was tasty with generous amount of vegetables and meat. Lighting wasn't that great. The further you go inside the restaurant, the less light there's. But, I would come back here for the quality of food.

I was planning to go somewhere else but my GF convinced me to grab some Thai Food--the food…read moregenuinely tastes like it's made with love. The atmosphere is cozy, the staff is welcoming; the host was super super nice and very polite. It genuinely feels like the focus is clearly on delivering authentic, flavorful Thai comfort food. I had the Thai Fried Rice: This dish was a winner. The jasmine rice was perfectly blended with egg [I ordered extra egg] scallions, and tomatoes, giving it a delightful savory and fresh flavor. It wasn't overly greasy [which is a plus] and hit that sweet spot of a hearty, flavorful fried rice dish. The portions were also generous! i also ordered the Vegetable Egg Rolls and they were excellent. Crispy, golden-brown wrappers filled with well-seasoned cabbage, carrots, and mushrooms. They weren't oily and came with a tasty sweet and sour dipping sauce that complemented them perfectly.

I've loved tea house since I was in college over a decade ago, and it is still just as amazing. I…read morerecently stopped by for a beef noodle soup and eggplant in garlic sauce, and I'm already hungry for more of it all. The space itself is great to dine in, but they also do a great job on takeout! Highly recommend trying it. Parking in the area is metered.

My friends got takeout and it was awesome. Veggie egg rolls came in a little box to keep them warm…read more Tasty. Lo mein wasn't too greasy and had plenty of veggies. King pao chicken and green beans were good but they all loved the eggplant. No clue what the house special was but we had too much food. We will be back.

Meet up noodle is located on eat street, so there is street parking all around if you're willing to…read morewalk a little bit! It is a sit down restaurant (they also do to go orders) but feels relatively casual! It's a good spot for meeting up with friends or family. At the tableside, there is extra soy sauce, vinegar, and chili oil which is nice so people can adjust things to their own taste! However, I found the items seasoned perfectly and did not need to adjust anything. They have plenty of vegetarian options, and if you ask, they will give you a version of the menu that is annotated to show what is and isn't vegetarian! Some modifications can be made to menu items, and they will let you know if it's something they can accommodate. Different dishes come with different noodle shapes as the standard preparation if you don't specify what you want, but you are able to pick your shape if you'd like. We chose extra wide for both our noodle dishes. The spicy oil noodles would typically come with extra wide noodles and the garlic stir fry would have come with thick noodles if we hadn't specified otherwise! We ordered the spicy fried flatbread pieces, the shaanxi oil splash noodles, and the garlic stir fried noodles with veggies! There is a window where you can watch as the hand pulled noodles are being made, which is fun. The service was speedy, with the food coming out in less than 10 minutes after we ordered, and our water being refilled well before it got empty. For the food, I cannot stress this enough: get the spicy fried flatbread bites! It is so good. The bread is slightly soft in the middle but you get a nice crunch from the edges. The bread has such a good flavor, with five spice and chili peppers. It's not super spicy, so a reasonable option for someone who just wants a little spice. The shaanxi oil splash noodles are another story. They are really good but have more of a kick to them, which is to be expected since they are mostly chili oil and noodles. The mildness of the bok choy balanced the chili oil out well. I really enjoyed this dish and will for sure get it again! The garlic stir fried noodles were also good! It has a slightly tangy umami flavor, mostly driven by the soy sauce and vinegar base. We ordered it with veggies, which came with carrots and zucchini in addition to the bell peppers and tomatoes. While I would also get it again, the oil splash noodles rank higher for me! Overall it was a positive experience and very much worth the visit! For anyone who's read this far into my review, I want to reiterate go order the spicy fried flatbread pieces!!!

The good: wonton in chili oil. Was not expecting this to be one of the best I've had! The sauce…read morewas the perfect blend of savory spice and I could've drank a bowl of it like a psychopath. I even dipped my bok choy in it rather than the soup. That being said, you may notice there's no bok choy in my picture. That is because they got my order wrong and served me the Lanzhou noodle soup rather than the spicy beef noodle soup. I didn't notice until eating partially through and not finding any bok choy. I'm pretty easy going so I told them I didn't need a replacement, I was just looking forward to bok choy. They brought out a small dish for me which was really nice of them! That being said, I thought the soup was subpar unfortunately. The noodles were great! Definitely seemed and tasted handpulled as advertised. But the broth tasted watered down and lacked flavor or spice. I dumped a heaping spoon of their table chili oil for a moderate improvement. The meat was also not particularly flavorful or plentiful. Unfortunately I don't really have an interest to go back, but I'll give it 3 stars for the service and great wontons!

I took my cousin out to eat at this pop up kitchen in NE Minneapolis. Since we had to be in the…read moresouth metro and it was traffic time, we decided to go check this place out. Located in the industrial area, there's a corner office in this big parking lot that is now bar and restaurant. I didn't make reservations so we sat by the bar. We were greeted upon arrival and the hosts and server were so nice. Food is asian fusion, definitely recommend the beef chow fun with spicy chilli oil. The noodles are so soft and fresh. Drinks are delicious too.

Had the chance to try Jook Sing during their residency at Bar Brava and it was phenomenal. The menu…read moretakes Chinese American comfort food to another level with creative, flavorful dishes that are beautifully executed. The XOXO Beef Chow Fun was out of this world, with noodles that were a clever twist on potato pavé and packed with rich, savory flavor. The fried rice was perfectly balanced and full of texture, and the spicy citrus chicken had just the right amount of heat with a sweet, bright citrus finish. The fried wontons were another favorite, paired with an apple-flavored sweet and sour sauce that worked so well. Every dish felt thoughtful and elevated while still comforting. Easily some of the best modern Chinese American food in the Twin Cities.

A quick and easy lunch. Order at the counter, sit at a table and the robot delivers your food!…read more Miso soup is lacking flavor. Shrimp mei fun was pretty good but also a little bland and my shrimp were slightly cold. The sushi is good for the price. The rice was not hard and had an appropriate amount on the rolls. The fish portion was generous and tasted good. I like that the rolls are small and bite sized.

Delicious food, so glad to have this spot close to my work. Nothing I've ever had has been short of…read moreamazing. I need to move in a few months and I am shocked that I am considering moving closer to Saint Paul for this restaurant. I will be back to try more dishes soon.