SERVICE MATTERS Today I was excited to eat at your place. I drove all the way over there from Bloomington after a friend recommended it. I was not impressed. I sat there for 10 minutes and no greeting or acknowledgement from the waitress at all. After while, I asked her if I was sitting in the right place for service since I was at the bar and she stood in front of me pouring waters a couple of times and said nothing. She looked up and asked me if I was there for to-go order which I replied "No.", she then proceeded to say, " Well I'm busy and walked off". She then came back five minutes or so later, left a water, still no greeting and walked off. At that point I packed up and left. The food is quite pricey and with service like that, it's a not for me. I was prepared to spend $25 for a soul food platter but not with service like that! As a business owner myself I know that service is what will set me apart not just specializing in something ie vegan soul food because anyone can do that so it matters who I choose to be on my frontline and the same goes for your business. I was VERY disappointed. All she had to do was greet me, let me know she'd be right with me and offer to provide a drink while I waited. I had already gotten my menu...oh well. This young lady needs to know how to handle her job when it gets busy. She's a reflection of you. read more

Hands down one of the best restaurants AND it's all plant based! Everything on the menu tastes if not the same, better than meat. Recently became a vegetarian a month and a half ago so this place is definitely on my list of favorites. I ordered the BBQ Jackfruit Roll and nacho fries. The Jackfruit with their house made coslaw in the BBQ Roll is delicious! All served with an aioli and a garden salad. The Nacho fries are a 10/10. Recommend to all! read more

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The food is pretty decent quality. Great place with extensive vegan options. Cauliflower Buffalo wings, Mac and cheeze, all great. Service is lacking for a traditional sit down restaurant. You seat yourself, have to get your own drinks, own silverware, go up to the counter to order. At least they brought us out food. The waitress struck me as if she owned the place, but maybe she didn't care about the service. Then I understood. Nowhere on the website menu (they don't offer physical menus, not a huge deal) does it say that they charge a mandatory 20% service charge. I checked several times. Absolutely nowhere. This is illegal to tack on 20% to a menu price for a "service charge" without disclosing it prior to billing. It also makes me feel nickel and dimed and ruined my experience of eating there. Then they have the audacity to request a tip, configuring their toast POS to be 18, 20, and 25%. After NO service and charging a 20% charge for non-existent service. It appears they prompt for a tip for pickup, too. The restaurant itself is fairly small, maybe 8 or 9 4-seater tables in total. Overall, decent food, but not two entrees for $70 good with awful service on top. Cannot recommend. read more

Not sure how this place gets rated 4 starts...I had the worst experience ever. And this is probably the first 1 star I've ever given to a restaurant... I came around 12:30 and it was not packed at all. But with only one (maybe two) server, everything just got so slow. I waited for 5 minutes to order a 4 items soul plate (Mac and cheese, corn bread, bbq ribs, and greens), and then waited another 30 minutes or so for the food to come out. Food was lukewarm and the gave me sweet potato instead of the corn bread. All the items were too salty. After I finished, I had to wait another 5-10 minutes for the bill. So if you ever decided to eat at Trio, make sure you have enough time to waste here. I would not recommend this place to anyone if the service was not improved. read more

I really loved Trio-Plant Based. My husband and I tried their take out option due to COVID19 closures rather than dining in. The service was quick and the take out option went really smooth. Im really impressed by how quickly they had orders ready and I didn't have to wait at all at the pick up window. The staff was wonderful and still so friendly despite the current milieu... The food was amazing! We each had burgers and fries. Im so happy that there is a soul food vegan restaurant in Mpls. Would definitely recommend. read more

We've been wanting to go eat there for a long time. We've done take-out and loved it. We arrive around 2pm. Put in our order at the counter and a waited. A BUNCH of people came in after us and the place was full. When we noticed some people that arrived after us were getting their food, my wife went up to the counter and checked. Things were crazy, the woman behind the counter was quite flustered and things didn't go very well. We ended up cancelling our order (hadn't paid, yet). The owner came out to talk to us. He begged us to stay while he got our food. Wouldn't let us pay for the trouble we experienced. The food was FABULOUS and the owner so gracious. I mentioned to him that his employee may not be so great at dealing with stress and just needed to learn. He agreed. Hopefully, she will get better at dealing with a busy restaurant. Trio certainly deserves to be busy a lot! read more

I really want to be able to support this place, but I can't. It's meh at best. I went again last night and it was not great. The dining room was full and no servers in sight. When someone did finally take our order, my impression was they were kitchen staff. Our nachos came, they we're missing the meat that the menu listed. They had very minimal black beans. The portion was small for the price. We were left with no plates, napkins, silverware or water. Just the nachos. Our cheeseburger Mac arrived and it was nothing special. No one ever came to check to see how things were or refill water. We could do better at home, and did. My husband and I went home and made some tasty nachos because we weren't full. Trio needs to take a step back and put some focus on training to improve service and present food as listed in the menu. read more

Vegans often fudge the facts about how tasty vegan restaurants are. It's not really our fault. Vegandom is a small kingdom, with limited options, and so when someone even tries to do vegan food, we often pat folks on the back- like, "Aww, thanks for trying! That's so nice! Good for you!".... even when the food is, to put it mildly, a bummer. The addition of this restaurant to Vegandom ups the stakes, in the best possible way. There's a rich, long tradition of creating friggin delicious vegan soul food in the Black community (Bryant Terry! https://bit.ly/1yx1LrC) and that tradition rings out here at Minnesota's only Black-owned vegan restaurant. Trio makes it painfully obvious that while many Black folks have been perfecting tasty vegan food for years, everyone else is just scrambling to catch up. Because the food here is friggin delicious, team. The cornbread is sweet and light. The burgers are perfect- full of fixings, great bun, super tasty patties, without the lingering boulder-in-your-tummy feel of other places in town. And the collard greens are insanely good. It's clear that someone worked super hard on the flavor of these, because they have that multi-layered and complex flavor that can only be achieved when you're skilled with spice and ready to let things cook for hours. The time of patting backs is over. Trio proves that it's possible to create delicious, hearty, complex vegan food and I, for one, will be eating here until all the other vegan restaurants up their game. read more

Had cauliflower with bbq sauce and their huge cookie. Super tasty!

When I tell you I traveled from the heat to the cold to get a chance to try this place I truly mean it. Coming from Arizona all the way to MN to see what I've been missing was the mission. I'm so glad to say,mission accomplished and every moment was worth it. This place was amazing. From the moment we entered and the friendly greeting and service I was sold. The person behind the counter was not only friendly and knowledgeable ,but she made great suggestions about what they had to offer. Between my excitement of finally just being there and having the opportunity to try it out she was more than patient with my friend and I as we looked over the menu and asked lots of questions about the food. We finally decided on the mac and cheese burger on a pretzel bun with fries with an additional order of onion rings. The food finally came out and we could hardly wait to dig in,so of course we had to taste some in the car. The presentation of the food was great and the taste was beyond what my thoughts could process fast enough. Between the flavor,the smell and the amazing taste we managed to breathe,smile and laugh with pure joy as each flavor exploded in our mouths. Trio is by far on my best place to eat list. I'm so glad I made this trip just for this place alone. read more

Trio Plant-based - Mac and cheese burger and fries on a pretzel bun - Vegan Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Friends gave us a gift certificate for Trio for our wedding! I am gluten-free and dairy-free. My husband likes all kinds of food and we often cook vegetarian and vegan meals. I was super excited to learn about Trio. It's got a casual lively vibe and it encouraged me that a plant-based restaurant is doing so well. The food is delicious!! There is so much flavor packed in it. I had the Chili Mac (with gluten-free noodles) and my husband had the BBQ Pit burger. Both were outstanding!! We really lucked out while we were here. They were testing out a new peach cobbler for the menu and were handing out free samples. I hope it makes it! read more

I was super excited to try Trio! I LOVE vegan soul food, and supporting businesses owned by people of color is important. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Majani's and Soul Veg in Chicago, because I just was totally underwhelmed by the food at Trio. First, someone suggested I get the soul platter when I called for take out, so I said sure. I had no idea it was $25! Then there were the individual items-- the yams were way too sweet, the mac n cheese tasted like boxed, the rib was too tomatoey. I did think the cornbread, while sweet, was delicious. Also, the onion rings were fabulous-- super crispy and full of onion. The cauliflower was disappointing, though. The chocolate chip cookie was decent, but not great. I would try it again, but I found it very average. PS-- the old menu had vegan spaghettios. This sounds amazing, and I desperately wanted to try it. It's no longer offered, though. read more

Fantastic plant-based food. I crave their mac & cheese, their cauliflower wings, their collard greens, their burger, their... well really everything! read more

I really hope they were having an off day. Was delighted to hear Lauryn Hill and other old favorites on the soundtrack (yes, I am old). Server (manager?) was very nice. Place smelled like bleach. Had a falafel burger and it was beautifully crisp but flavorless. I don't think any spice of any kind had touched it (it should have a little cumin, some parsley...). There was the thinnest possible smear of avocado on it. Cajun fries were nice and crisp but sooooooo salty it hurt. Lemonade was OK but does blueberry lemonade mean just throwing a handful of thawed frozen blueberries in some lemonade? Peach cobbler was spectacularly bad. The kind server said "It was made yesterday!" like that was a point of pride. No, if you're going to talk about when it was made, it better have been made within the last couple of hours. It used canned peaches and someone didn't drain the syrup, so it was a bowl of soggy sugary syrup. That made the cobbler part (isn't it supposed to be biscuit-like?) completely soggy. My friend got the soul food plate, said it was OK, didn't elaborate. Portions on that were small -- LOTS of plate showing.. The bill came and it was a lot more expensive than I thought it was going to be. But I want to support small business, so I tipped 20%. That brought the bill up to about $70, even though my friend drank water and didn't have dessert! I only realize now, looking at the other reviews, that there was an automatic 20% gratuity in there. (Somewhat unusual since you have to go to the counter to order and to pay.) It's fine. This place has a great concept. I am sure it is hard for a small business to find a good cook, given that everyone is competing for good workers. But I really hope they can make it happen soon. Will give them another try some time, I guess, but am not super excited about it. Now that we have lots of vegan restaurants and restaurants offering veg options in town, it's harder for a place to be the default option. read more

I came here with my parents for dinner. We had the Mac and cheese- omg gobble it up! I ordered the bbq cauliflower wings and they were delicious! My dad got the onion rings and they were also delicious and I had a bbq jackfruit wrap that was pretty good, but a bit too spicy for me. I'd go back when I'm in the mood for vegan junk food, not a huge fan of the location. Parking was annoying. read more

Trio has become one of my favorite vegan spots in the city. Today we ordered $50 of food from this restaurant, halfway through the meal we noticed a large bug in our food. I sent an email to them alerting them of this and this was the response. "Claim?" Nah we won't be returning. read more

Trio Plant-based - response from manager - Vegan Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Meh. Basically, they just buy a bunch of pre-made vegan food, like frozen Gardein burgers, and heat them up for you. Everything has a distinct "this was in a can" flavor. Don't get me wrong, I think restaurants can take pre-made ingredients and pair them with fresh ingredients to make something amazing. But that's not what they do here. Tried the Nachos because reviews mention them a lot, but I don't understand why. The salsa was definitely canned Rotel. The guacamole also tasted old and weird, so I asked if they had fresh avocado and they said no (not surprised) because it comes pre-made. The cashew cheese sauce was nothing special either. Also got the Beyond Burger which was fine, but the fries tasted like they had been frozen. Overall, I felt a bit sick after. Would not come here again. read more

Best soul food vegan in Minneapolis! The chili and cornbread are my go-to, and you gotta try a vegetable plate of greens, yams and Mac n cheese! Good stuff! read more

So many amazing vegan options! We had split the soul bowl mac and cheese, the nachos, and the vanilla cake with fresh strawberries. We also had some hot teas. The food was excellent, and I can't wait to go back to try more. The owner came by our table and thanked us for our support and the waitress was super friendly and attentive. Loved all the windows and natural light. I am so glad to finally try this place and I'll be recommending it to friends! read more

Amazing food. Staff were incredibly helpful and attentive. They accommodated our large group easily. Will return!

The food is SO GOOD!! I love that the restaurant not only serves excellent vegan fare, but are also committed to building and supporting community. read more

I wanted to like this place but couldn't. Service was subpar. She forgot multiple things like water refills, bbq sauce, drinks we ordered, and leaving off mayo and tomato on the sandwich. Yams had too much cinnamon, Buffalo wrap too much buffalo sauce, fries were very dry, bbq sauce very watery. Good item was the cornbread. The cauliflower wings which should have had some crunch to them had none and the breading was soggy. Definitely would want to find an alternative place for vegan food. read more

Trio Plant-based - Build Your Own Soul Food Platter - Vegan Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

The FOR YOUR SOUL bowl with riblets was AMAZING!!! Soul filling!!! Ate 1 there and had to have 1 to go!!!

You absolutely have to stop here if you're in Minneapolis! The food is EXCELLENT, the ambiance is lovely, and the service is great. My food recommendations are the vegan ham & cheese with tomato soup, the house salad with vegan ranch, and the "perfect brownie" for dessert. read more

Trio has been on my list of places to check out for a while now. I live in Saint Paul and find almost any excuse to never cross over to Minneapolis however tonight I made the journey! (My friend picked me up and drove so I was spoiled tbh.) He and I are vegans and we are super passionate about vegan cooking (we both work for a restaurant that has yummy options for any dietary needs and literally everything is made from scratch, in house... we go so far as making vegan and non mayo from scratch. I am FOH and he is BOH so we experience first hand how amazing food can be when you're dedicated to creative, innovative and passionate dishes. We also are always looking to support businesses who share our philosophy. I.e. veganism / social justice / locally sourcing ingredients (I am skeptical about what this means in practice at Trio.) What we ordered: Nachos (best part) Ham and cheese sandwich with chips Two orders of the macaroni and cheese Two orders of the bbq ribs and collard greens The issue I had was with the quality and execution of the food. I hesitate to say I could have prepped most of everything we ate tonight at home however, between the two of us we were able to identify the correct brand of the ingredients used, so I really could have. For example, the chicken was very clearly gardein chicken strips. Everything was good and palatable except for the collard greens which were so ridiculously salty we couldn't eat them. Other than that we ate everything on our plates. I just felt the food lacked passion and creativity. That sounds weird but with the bbq ribs for example it is simply the ribs from Herbivorous Butcher warmed up with barbecue sauce. I'm not sure what the kitchen space looks like but I would love to see an investment in the menu options and making more products in house instead of sourcing ready made or processed products. The service was good; the server was kind and welcoming but definitely nothing exceptional. The short: everything was fine but just fine. I want nothing but the best for Trio and love their mission and values but the food needs to show up with the same gusto. It just wasn't there tonight. Side note: I want to offer my respect for the staff at Trio. I know you're doing damn hard work and don't want to come across as though I don't appreciate you. read more

I really enjoyed this place! I got the platter with Mac and cheese, jackfruit ribs, greens and cornbread. I loved everything except the ribs. I didn't enjoy the flavor or texture. The Mac and cheese was so good as were the cornbread and greens. Definitely would go again! read more

Trio Plant-based - Soul food platter - collard greens, cornbread, Trio Macaroni & Cheeze and Ribs - Vegan Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Absolutely LOVE this place! EVERYTHING is delicious, and the customer service is TOP TIER! This is our second time dining here and Angel has greeted us both times! She's been so warm, and welcoming. We arrived at 6:45p. They were closing at 7p, and they still served us, and prepared an incredible feast! The lemon pepper is a must! It's so crispy, and seasoned to perfection. Other favorites include the BBQ PIT Burger, YAMS!!!, & chili cheese fries! We will certainly be back! read more

Great place to go especially if you follow a plant based diet! I thought all the food here was great. My favorites were probably the Mac n cheese, cornbread, and the strawberry shortcake (which might be better than any non-plant based strawberry shortcake I've ever had). The service is so great - the owner is awesome - so sweet! It's in a pretty busy area on Lyn-Lake so parking can kind of be difficult and traffic around there is not the best. But if you're in the area, it's definitely a great place to check out! read more

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Horrible service. Ordered to go and nobody came to the front to greet (or take orders) for approximately 10 minutes. I was 5 minutes late for the pick up promised time but I had to wait more than 30 minutes on site. Ordered 3 items from lunch menu but it came with missing one item (it was obvious by looking at the bag). No apologies from patron. Unfortunately, I can't rate food at this time as I had really bad experience from beginning before trying their food. read more

Delicious! The cauliflower wings, macs, and burgers are great. Next time I'm trying the onion rings because they are huge and look incredible. read more

Service was terrible. The restaurant only has about 10 tables that fit at most 4 people each. They had 2 servers that doubled up as hosts. We were seated right away but then did not see our waiter until 15 minutes later when she unenthusiastically came to take our order. Each person got one small glass of water that was not refilled the entire time we were there. I tried the soul food platter with cornbread, jackfruit ribs, and Mac and cheese as well as the bbq pit burger with fries. The burgers did not have any flavor and the fries were just standard frozen French fries that you can get from any chain grocery store. The jackfruit ribs were underwhelming, the cornbread was very dense, and the serving of Mac and cheese was about 2/3 of a cup. We did not see the waiter for 45 minutes after bringing us our food and that was only because we flagged her down. For the combination of service, price, and taste/quality of food it is a terrible value. Do not recommend for anyone to try. Save your money and dine somewhere where you will not leave hungry and dissatisfied. read more

I really want to support this place and see them succeed. I love that more vegan places are opening up (finally!) and support their social mission. But I leave Trio wanting more. Granted, after having lived in NYC for a year and being spoiled at all the awesome vegan food there, and having visited vegan restaurants all across the country, I have pretty high standards. But there is no reason we can't have that here. The first time I visited Trio, I had the soul food platter. It was ok, but nothing I got too excited about. The mac and cheese was average and the ribs were a little tough. The bite of corn bread I was able to wrestle from my husband was really good. The second time we went, my husband had the quesadilla. It sounded awesome, but just wasn't that great. It had like five little slices of chicken, which seemed like maybe Morningstar, and definitely wasn't oozing with the kind of cheesy goodness I'd expect in a quesadilla. My friend had the ham and cheese sandwich and it looked very sad. You could barely tell that there was anything in there--just looked like two slices of bread. I had the burger and fries, which I did enjoy, but no shortage of vegan burgers around town now. Same with the BLT. I'm going to give them another try and I do applaud them for trying to make a vegan café work in Minneapolis. Hell, it's more than I'm doing. I just wish the menu offered a little more creativity and the execution was better. I feel like everything on there would generally be pretty quick and easy to throw together at home. In fact, I've had better meals through my Purple Carrot subscription. Hopefully this doesn't come off as too harsh. I really do want them to succeed, which is why I'm sharing this feedback. I see all the positive reviews, which is great, but my friends that have gone there have left a bit underwhelmed. read more

Our whole family loves TRIO!! The Classic Cheeseburger, the Soul Bowl Mac 'n Cheese, and Chile & Cornbread are fabulous...and so many other great vegan specialties to choose from. Great service and warm, friendly vibe, too. read more

Amazing food will be back. The service was the best the owner kept checking on us I haven't experienced that type of customer service in a long time at a restaurant. I would give this restaurant a 10 star's read more

Buffaloes cauliflower wings are it my mane go to here with a side or 2 which is priced very confusing,I guess to force folks into purchasing other menu items also the cornbread is tasty with the butter should be bigger portions on the sides and cornbread but hey it's plant based food meaning you'll be hungry again in a few minutes.Over all very tasty and delightful read more

Trio Plant-based - Greens finished - Vegan Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota

My husband and I were so excited to find Trio! It was as good at the opening hype promised. We shared the Soul Food plate and loved the greens, sweet potatoes & mac. Vegan Mac & Cheese, something I thought was impossible. The ribs from the Herbivorous Butcher are always good. We also had the peach cobbler, which was a great finish to the meal. We're planning a return visit with our kiddos to have grilled cheese and ham very soon. read more

Service was appalling. Food for mediocre. Menu is very comfort food focussed ... meh! Maybe I went there on their 'worst' night. Sincere advice to chefs to visit LA or a 'bigger' city and experience other plant based restaurants. Owner/Chef tried to make up for his staff by offering a dessert on the house, but the server ended up charging for it. We paid and left. Fair to say, never to go back. I have been vegan all my life so I REALLY wanted to like this place. read more

Thank you Trio Plant-based for the most wonderful catered lunch on Monday!! It was my first time trying jackfruit BBQ ribs and when I tell you I couldn't tell they were vegan, I'm not lying!! Everything was delicious - the ribs (of course!) the corn bread w/ maple butter, the gluten free mac & cheese, the collard greens - YUM!! If you live in the Twin Cities or are visiting the Twin Cities, it is a worthwhile stop!! I truly appreciate the time and care that was put into our order. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! So delicious! read more

I have been vegan since 1990, vegetarian since 1976, so - a lot of plant-based foods have crossed my lips and...I know good vegan food when I taste it. Trio Café is "Rockin' It". Not only do they have great food, and their GF Lasagna is enough to kick the "raw foodie" out of me, they are also founded on a beautiful principle; Community. This is reflected in how their patrons are welcomed and what appears on their menu. Featuring ingredients, recipes, and menu items that come from the reaches of the community, they are true to their vision. Do I suggest that you visit Trio Café? In a heartbeat. read more

The food was AMAZING!! everything we ordered was so good and the service was the best. I 100% recommend coming Minneapolis just to come eat here. Definitely will be coming back here when I'm in the city. read more

Trio Plant-based - Vegan Near Me - Minneapolis, Minnesota