We went to Gai Noi for dinner last Saturday, August 8, and had a wonderful time. We got to the…read morerestaurant around 7PM. The line outside looked intimidating but we told them any table would do. We were told that the wait is 20 min. but was seated after only 10 min. wait. We ordered the egg & basil fried rice, crispy tofu, Laab Seen (beef) , Fried Walleye, and Curry. Everything we ordered was delicious. I appreciate the added 18% reflected in the price so no surprise and the waitstaff earned their 18% tip. The dining room is cozy and clean. We loved our experience at Gai Noi.

I always recommend Gai noi to anyone visiting the area. There are so many classic options packed…read morewith flavor, and great vegetarian options. All the laarb options - tofu, chicken, and beef are refreshing, spicy, sour, and sweet. Pad Thai always blows people away and ends up as the #1 order. The staff were incredibly diligent and helpful, trying to make the experience the best.

Ambience is super cute, clean, and welcoming…read more Service is prompt, friendly, and pretty quick. Food was delicious. All of us really liked what we ordered. Dishes had good flavor and portions were generous. We would definitely come back.

Came here for my birthday dinner, and it delivered! I did not really know what to expect, but it…read moreended up being perfect. There weren't too many people here for a Friday night.. but it was a bit later (like 9pm) so we sat at the bar. Got drinks immediately. Again, my classic grey goose club soda lemon lime. Delicious, per usual. Got a few sushi rolls (can't remember which) but they were all really good. Super light, fresh, not too heavy, and just quality sushi! Finally, got a mango sticky rice as a free dessert for my birthday. The staff was super friendly and nice.. I really enjoyed the vibe and food here and would definitely be back! I loved the bar vibe here. Definitely somewhere that I could come just to have a few drinks and a few bites.

This place was super clean and cozy. The server was very quick and accommodating…read more The Vietnamese coffee was pretty good, I'd get it again. We ended up doing the Chef's special with Bun Bo Hue and half a banh mi. It wasnt my favorite BBH, as it had a bun rieu taste to it, but it wasnt bad. The sandwich was pretty good, but the peppers have a small kick, so be careful if you can't handle it. Portion size is great! Lots of soup, maybe some less noodles than a normal serving, but I didn't mind!

I had a great lunch here The pork eggrolls are always the…read moreperfect crunch and I like they cut theirs in half This time I tried the lotus wings- (6) these were actually really good, nice crisp sweet and slightly spicy - I would have preferred more spice and less sticky! The beef Banh mi was also excellent and very filling Can't go wrong with most of the menu here - I was so hungry that my phone did not eat first like usual!

My go to for Thai food!!…read more I haven't had anything from here I didn't like. Pad see ew, pad thai, tom kha, green curry, CRISPY TOFU!!! The fried tofu is soooo good. My favorite. Would go back for just the friend tofu. Good service, always seating available. Drive though available (it's supposed to only be for phone order pick ups but people don't realize that!!)

The food here is great! It hits the spot for thai food cravings and its large portions as well…read more Service was kind of slow. We had to flag down a waiter after sitting for almost 30 minutes with no one helping us. Once we ordered our food came out quick. Loved my pad see ew and level 3 spice was ideal. The thai iced tea was also very good.

The food at Nong's is pretty consistent and that's why I go there…read more I would recommend this place to anyone who enjoys a good Thai joint.

It simply doesn't get any better…read more This place has amazing food, wonderful staff at a very fair price

We decided on Hai Hai for Independence Day dinner as it was one of the few restaurants on our…read moreto-try list that was open. While we made a reservation a couple of weeks in advance for an earlier 5PM dinner, it wasn't busy at all at that time. We easily could have gone without. Hai Hai is a really large restaurant, far larger than I anticipated, with plenty of spaces on the back patio, a large bar area, and a lot of seating indoors up in front. We were led to one of the indoor tables which we appreciated immensely given the heat outside. We found the service to be prompt and efficient. The food came out fast, within 10 minutes or so. They must be really efficient in the kitchen. Hat Yai Chicken ($23) - I've eaten this dish several times in the past, but always bone in. This one, on the other hand, includes two pieces of fried boneless thigh, mostly cleaned and stripped of skin. I say mostly because one thigh still had quite a large chunk of cartilage attached. Unfortunately removing the skin also removes a protective layer to help the chicken from being drying out. And overfried this is, making the meat somewhat tough and stringy, although there's just a bit of intermuscular chicken fat to moisten things up a tad. The hard fry does allow the breading to develop into a robust crunch, however, and with the fried garlic, fried curry leaves, and sliced Thai chili on top, makes a flavorful and texturally interesting bite. The chicken is served on top of a piece of roti. I assume it's homemade since it's on the denser side of things and is floury, without that glass shatteringly crisp skin of some other roti varieties I've had. There's a dip of red curry on the side, which is aromatic and flavorful, sweet with coconut milk to start, then the aroma of curry leaf and spices, and finally a small bit of heat to warm the mouth. It's strangely served lukewarm instead of hot. Finally, there's a small pile of home made pickles. Nice to eat, but the rest of the dish isn't fatty, oily, or heavy enough to really require them. Then again, it's nice to have as a palette refresher between bites of the flavorful chicken and curry. (4/5) Vietnamese Crepe, Pork & Shrimp ($23) - I've only eaten banh xeo once before and I found it to be a greasy, soggy mess. This one is anything but. The pancake stays completely crisp, almost shatteringly so, even on the bottom surface facing the plate. Of course it's still a messy dish to eat, due to having to cut it up to eat in lettuce wraps, mixed with herbs. Four large lettuce leaves are included, along with cilantro and some (holy?) basil. The banh xeo s not easy to cut with the provided butter knife, so I asked for the steak knife - still not easy to cut! Inside the crisp crepe are several pieces of shrimp, tender and not overcooked at all, a bunch of almost melt-in-the-mouth cubes of pork belly, then a bed of wilted onions, green onions, and bean sprouts. I love how the bean sprouts are cooked here instead of being raw like in so many Vietnamese dishes. This dish is served with two sauces. One a sweetened fish sauce Nước Chấm. For some reason I taste some fruity elements but I could be imagining things. The other is a barely spicy sriracha-ish sauce. (5/5) Visiting Hai Hai was definitely a good choice for dinner. I can see why the head chef has a James Beard award to her name! Bathrooms - Four all gender stalls, two wash stations right outside. It's great since most foods are messy finger foods that needs a convenient wash area. Food: [4.5/5] Service: [+] Other: [ ] Final Rating: 5/5

Two of us went to Hai Hai the other night and had a great experience! We started off with the Bun…read moreCha Lettuce Wraps and the Adobo Pork Ribs. The ribs were PHENOMENAL!!! Highly recommend!! For the vegetable we got the Fried Brussels Sprouts were amazing as well. The flavor that was in this dish was amazing. Our main course was the Balinese Chicken Thigh. It is very coconut forward, which was not my favorite thing. It is my fault for not reading the description, but I felt like the coconut cream sauce on the rice really overpowered the dish. We ended with the Vietnamese Coffee Tiramisu cake. So so yummy!!! Our server was great and the vibe of this place was so fun. The plants and colors really bring a nice pop to the area!!

I came here for a work dinner and my favorite Minneapolis foodie booked the restaurant…read more I was so excited to try this place since I have a Laotian friend and he swears by the food! I quickly browsed the menu a week before but was so excited to see the space and order dinner and a few drinks. Right when you come in the doors, it feels like you're transported to a completely different area. The decor is absolutely beautiful and the indoor outdoor living and seating was something out of this world this place is a must see and must try food. The service is quick and everyone is there to help. So my Laotian friend told me that I needed to order the Siin Swan as an appetizer and then the New York strip Laab with sticky rice since that's like their traditional meal. We also ordered these the basil wings that was served with this amazing spicy tomato paste and then for the entrées we did a green curry octopus that was cooked to perfection. I've never had octopus like that before. We also ordered the duck fried rice and the Massann curry everything was so delicious. We were wanting more, but we were so full. We took one quick look at the dessert menu and we had to order the pistachio cake again absolutely phenomenal, fantastic flavor and the crunch of the pistachio was perfect. I cannot wait to come back here and tell everybody about this place to make sure that they come here when they're in Minneapolis area.

Attended a birthday party here. They rented the private dining area around the side/back of the…read morerestaurant. The space was nice. Set up like a cooking show room. There were 2 tables separated which was a bit awkward. Not sure if that was a choice or how it's just always set up. I believe the room required a $1000 min spend (or maybe more) but to my surprise the menu was pre planned (personal nightmare for me as I don't eat pork/beef/seafood - most of the menu). I looked at the menu days before and there weren't many things I could eat... but I was excited to see they had basil wings. We had welcome drinks which were good and were able to order drinks from the cocktail menu. The food started coming out but 2/4 ppl at our table didn't eat beef/pork and again we didn't realize there was a 2nd special menu for another person at the other table so that table got foods different from ours and we had to order additional chicken and rice. Pretty much wasted 1/2 of the dishes of food on our table. The basil wings were good but the rice wasn't good - very bland. The bill came to almost $3k and split 16 ways (after the event) $180 for 5 wings, bland rice & 2 cocktails definitely left a bad taste for me. I get this was the terms of attending the event and may be more so on the host not communicating how it works prior but for $3k definitely could have been better. After we ate we were told they have a speaker hook-up for music, people were already leaving. We did have a great time but definitely should have had music going upon arrival. Super tiny parking lot but plenty of street parking. They have a really cute patio and the main restaurant is cute!

Overall it was good. The flavors were solid, but a few things felt a little off. The portion of…read morerice seemed pretty small compared to the entrée, and the cucumber and lettuce were cut into huge pieces that were honestly a little awkward to eat. The chicken had good garlic pepper flavor but was a little dry. The chicken gyoza, though, was really good , crispy, flavorful and easily my favorite part of the meal. Service was good and it's a nice casual spot.

The flavor has changed. It's a sweet Pad Thai sauce now not the same tamarind tang like they used…read moreto be. Something's up lol. Now, I need to find a new fav Thai place. The flavors here are wildly different. I've been here before with friends and they've ordered the curry, but the curry looked too watery and that kind of should've told me that it wasn't going to be a hit of a Thai place for me. I like closer to a thicker sauce for coconut curry. Usually the Thai places that have more watery coconut curry sauces just hits a little lower & it def shows. Amazing Thai has this same issue lol. Now, this place too... I feel lost without a fav Thai place in Minne lol. The string beans were crunchy in the papaya salad which was great but the entire sauce tasted like MSG & lacks the Lao shrimp paste flavor although it was more grey since I did order the Lao style but not enough shrimp paste flavor as it should have. Either this place has different cooks etc., it is not the same as a year ago or more. I took a few bites of each plate and I wrapped it up to go, and I threw it in the garbage since my stomach was churning had to take some Tums lol. This place, Amazing Thai, & Sawatdee are the bottom 3 for me. Back to the drawing table. (I've never seen an Asian person eat here... I guess that says a lot?)

Driving in it does not look like much but do yourself a favor and stop. Amazing food, great…read moreservice. Really busy with the take out orders. We ordered the Panang Curry with Shrimp and the Roasted Garlic - Ginger rice soup with shrimp. Both dishes are perfect.

This place was recommended by family and friends but it did not meet our expectation…read more Service: there was only one worker, a very young boy. He definitely did not want to work because he didn't look happy and never smile throughout the time we were there. He also did not greet us nor was he attentive. He even forgot our drinks, water and a can of soda. For visual, we were the only customers during our visit. Food: dishes were either too salty or bland. They were not flavorful and the portions were small. Inside: The restaurant had very poor ventilation. They had the AC on and blowing but the entire restaurant was full of fog from the kitchen cooking. It was so bad some of us had to step outside with our babies. The employee serving must had been oblivious to it because he didn't even seem to care. He continued to work like he wasn't walking through any fog.

Maybe the best Thai food place in the Twin Cities metro so far, because ever since I got introduced…read moreto this place in mid-July, I have been back 4 times since then and have catered from them for my birthday gathering that happened at the end of August, so it is easy to see how impressed I was with their food. Among all the dishes I have tried, some of my favorites include the crab fried rice, the panang curry, the tom yum soup, the mango sticky rice, the masaman curry, and the chicken wings. Particularly, the crab fried rice got my attention because it was significantly more expensive than the other fried rice dishes, so I knew there was a reason for that and ordered the dish. It was super flavorful and the real crab meat including the claws were evident, and it wasn't clumpy at all, indicating that they used rice that was at least a day old. The panang curry was so savory that the ground peanuts just elevated the flavor and gave it that much creaminess texture. The masaman had a good amount of onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and roasted peanuts, and offered a comprehensively pleasant experience. The mango sticky rice was as good as that dish itself could be, because the dessert creation was simply fire. And finally, the chicken wings had incredibly soft meat and was seasoned inside out which made them really tasty. I would say the only dishes I didn't enjoy as much was the pad see yew which I thought had too much soy sauce because it was a bit salty. I also thought the pad thai didn't have enough tamarind and a bit too much palm sugar, but honestly that's with Thai food here in the United States in general. Regardless, the food here is just too good and this establishment may have just become my go-to spot for Thai food within the metro if I am to hang out with my friends over Thai food. I must also mention that the space is really nice because it bright and has many tables which makes it easy to hang out with friends and chat here, and I thoroughly love that.

Frequent patron and huge fan! Over the years I've had every single vegetarian dish on the menu -…read morefried egg rolls and fresh spring rolls with tofu, squash curry, red curry, pineapple curry, stir fried mixed vegetables, Pad Thai, pad see yew, drunken noodles, Thai basil stir fry, Masaman curry is such a comfort dish, Panang curry is amazing, I've literally tried all of it. Honestly, haven't had a bad dish! Make sure you specify the spice level you want when ordering. We typically order for pickup, but have eaten in the restaurant a couple times. Service and atmosphere are fine. But pickup is super convenient for a yummy meal at home and prices are very reasonable. Portion sizes are enough for leftovers the next day. One of my local favorites and will definitely keep coming back.