I have been closely watching a new skyway location at 225 S 6th St called The Original SoupMan which was slated to open today at 11 AM. After being reminded when I got off the bus by a sign outside the restaurant, I asked if Kim wanted to join me for lunch to try out this new place. She agreed and asked that we do it at 1 PM but after a meeting was rescheduled (and later rescheduled again to tomorrow) we ended up there at its busiest time at noon on the dot.

As Kim and I walked up the line was nearly out the door with people, just like us, looking to try out this place. I have a feeling that many were interested in name alone as this store is loosely based on the NYC location that was mentioned in that fucking god awful show Seinfield (the Soup Nazi). They had been renovating the L-shaped space for a long while but had paper over all the openings so you couldn’t see in until today. It was cleanly decorated with some seating and plenty of space to line up. A sign with the Nazi’s likeness was situated by the main entrance and it displayed the soups of the day without any prices listed.

As we were waiting in line we squinted to try and read the menu from afar and were soon offered a small sample of New England Clam Chowder. Knowing that this is at least based on the NYC favorite, I figured that the NE Clam Chowder would have to be somewhat decent. While Kim thought it was good (she said she would not normally eat this type of soup) I thought it fucking sucked. It wasn’t as bad as canned but it certainly wasn’t anything I’d be clamoring to return for and it does absolutely no justice to NYC or the Soup Nazi. I guess that something is lost in translation in the ~1000 miles between NYC and Minneapolis. At this point were were about halfway through the line and could begin to read some of the menu items. I was absolutely shocked at how fucking astronomically expensive this lunchtime restaurant was. Who the fuck are they kidding charging anywhere for $5 to $9 for a cup of soup?!

As we continued our long wait (now stretching over 10 minutes), a man came up and began chatting with one of the staff members dressed in a white coat (those wearing white coats seemed to be management level) and the worker told him that the best soup they had available was the Lobster Bisque. For $8.99 for a cup and $10.99 for a bowl (even more for a pint obviously), that better have been their best soup and it better have been made with live lobster living in a tank in the front, served in a golden chalice and offered to you by someone wearing white gloves and a tuxedo. From what I could tell, no live lobsters and no luck with any of the rest of it either.

As we came to see the menu better, we saw that they were offering soup with a half sandwich for $3 more or $5 more for a whole. I’m not quite sure how they feel that they can compete with any of the other downtown locations such as Eddington’s or even Panera. I assume that they need to have exorbitant rates to cover the “Soup Nazi’s” name and the fact that they are mentioning “as seen on Seinfeld”. Now knowing the prices Kim said to me that this would be our last lunch there. I could only agree.

Their sandwiches are much more reasonably priced starting at $2.39 for a half and going up to $7.49 for their most expensive whole. I really don’t see why you would want to eat here as opposed to any of the 1000 other options nearby unless you were some sort of huge fan of that fucking terrible show and really thought that eating overpriced food would bring you closer to Seinfeld and the Soup Nazi himself.

They have a variety of sandwiches listed and include everything from Grilled Chicken Balsamic to a Mexican Burrito. Several are wraps, some are paninis and the rest are your typical deli-like usuals. The only one that popped out at me was their Egg Salad and Parmesan which I decided on before I saw that they were all pre-wrapped in plastic and sitting upright in a cooler in the front. Their paninis are probably your best bet as they are made to order.

All combos come with soup, sandwich, salad and includes a beverage, baguette, fruit and a piece chocolate. The fruit, for me, was not ripe but one of Kim’s coworkers who ate there this afternoon said that his was over-ripened and he wasn’t quite sure how you could be selling black bananas on your opening day. Kim’s orange was tiny and was just slightly larger than a Clementine. I believe that they also had some tiny apples but I might be remembering incorrectly.

Our original order came to just over $23, quite expensive for a simple lunch like you would see at Panera (and which would be much, much better) but for those that work in the building (just say you do, seriously) you get a 25% off card (no information required as of today at least) and that brought it down $5.25 to a total of $17.37. After paying, Kim found a flavored decaffeinated raspberry tea and I grabbed my pop. They have no caffeine free and sugar free options available and they only have caffeine free root beer. As I was getting my drink, Kim worked her way through the line and found a place to sit along the windows. My chair was half off the tile and half on an unsteady grate. I was a little uneasy sitting on it and tried my best to move the table a bit more forward (into the line) so that I wouldn’t have to sit like that. While I’m sure it’s safe, I didn’t appreciate the precarious nature of my seating arrangement none-the-less.

After some quick photos, I tasted my food. The soup, while meaty, was basically awful. I like goulash just fine but this, this was nasty and had the texture of shit. Kim’s bisque was also quite meaty but I didn’t find anything special with it. It wasn’t nearly as good as other similarly priced bisques that I have had in much nicer restaurants and neither were items I’d ever order again. My wheat baguette was ok and my egg salad sandwich was nothing better than I could have had anywhere else including my own kitchen. Kim’s panini looked pathetic especially when they wrapped it in lame foil with more face time for the Nazi. I didn’t even bother to taste it and I didn’t hear a peep about it from Kim. Kim pretty much refused to drink her raspberry tea and I gave her my root beer. Because it was decaffeinated, I sucked it up and drank the tea which had the distinct flavor of Vicks 44. Nothing like bringing back memories of being sick as a kid! Blech. The best part of my meal? The small square of Dove chocolate that was offered as a desert.

As you can tell, this isn’t looking good for The Original SoupMan in Minneapolis. Soon after eating I posted this to Twitter and it pretty much sums up what you probably already know in 13 words:

The Original SoupMan fucking sucks the cock, stay far the fuck away. Yuck.

Seriously, don’t come here, it’s not worth your time or your money. Eddington’s next door or any Panera kick the living shit out of this place and as Kim mentioned, “no unlimited breadsticks kills them right there.” I’m assuming that something has been lost in translation coming from NYC to Minnesota via a mass produced chain store because there’s absolutely no fucking way that the soups and sandwiches we had today were anything even close to being Zagat rated as the original store is. It’s seriously a scam.

After I finished work today I stopped in the little store across the way to nab a Fresca and some gum before going to get Kim from her office. The friendly cashier inside asked if I had eaten at the place across the hall from him and when I said I had he mentioned that he couldn’t justify spending that kind of money for soup but even so he mentioned that people said the soup was ok but the food was too expensive. I just shrugged and said I didn’t care for the food or the prices and moved along. Did you try The Original SoupMan yet? If so, what did you think?

Address:
The Original SoupMan
225 S 6th S
Minneapolis, MN 55402

See all the pictures from The Original SoupMan in Minneapolis on Flickr here (camera).

Following a heads up e-mail from the world famous foodie MSPD, Josh and I headed over to the Ronin Sushi Cafe in Lakeville, MN which is located in the storefront that was previously occupied by Papagayos which closed in April of 2007 and hasn’t been in use since.

I stopped by there at around 12:45 today and found a small sign on the door that said that they will be open this entire weekend including today (the 4th of July) and they will be serving their Thai dinner starting at 5 PM. I called Josh and asked him to bring along his camera and let him know to look over their menu for when we headed back later tonight. While they have their Thai dinner menu available they said that their full sushi bar menu will not be available until August. As of today they don’t yet have beer or wine but they soon will (they said that the beer man doesn’t deliver on the 4th of July).

Their About Us page shows their sushi options which include Omakase (Open Sushi) and they say you that start with $30 and work your way up until you’re full. They have three levels (”rookie” through “hardcore”) which offers you the option of eating sushi and rolls without many raw items up through spending a ton of money (they say, “Beware!”) and eating some hot foods. On that note, their page also lists that their spiciness scale goes from 1. mild to 5. “5 - Insane - Don’t even go there, there’s no going back!”

We headed over there around 4 and walked in to a nearly empty restaurant. According to the owner (who is a first time restaurant owner/chef who has experience working in other family restaurants) they were supposed to open yesterday but due to a family emergency it had to wait until today. There was one other person eating when we arrived and when asked what he thought he said, without pause, “Delicious!” Knowing this was their opening day I thought to myself, “whatever.” The interior hasn’t changed much at all since Papagayos but it looked nicer somehow — I might just not be remembering correctly.

The waitress came over and handed us our menus which Josh remarked, “That’s a way to do it, just print out your website.” While I already checked the menu before we left I decided to do my usual and ask the waitress what her favorite dish was and try that. She immediately recommended their Drunken Noodles which are listed on the menu as “Fresh fun noodles, basil, tomatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper,” and normally whenever I see that I smile and think, “yeah right,” and that’s exactly what I did today. When ordering the waitress asked if I wanted meat or tofu added and I chose chicken and also how hot I wanted it. I asked how hot their hottest was and if it was recentered for Minnesota tastes and she said she’d add fresh Thai peppers to it for me. I asked for extra napkins (nose blowing) and as much water as they had in preparation. Josh couldn’t decide what we wanted at first but after much decision making he decided on their Yellow Curry which has potatoes, onions, and carrots and he also asked that they add chicken to his.

When they brought the dishes out I immediately noticed the large portion size and the gorgeous fresh vegetables that added a ton of color to the dish. We were notified that if it wasn’t hot enough they would gladly cut up some more fresh Thai peppers for us. Josh had received his first and had already taken a few bites and determined that it was not hot enough. After a few bites of mine I also came to the same conclusion. I asked the waitress and after quite some time they arrived at our table with two more small bowls filled with freshly cut Thai peppers and also a bright orange habanero. Both Josh and I dumped a good bit of the peppers on our plates and the waitress and owner said, “Oh! You like it as spicy as we do!” Yup, sure do. The habaneros did the fucking trick and minutes later our mouths were on fire and the napkins were being used to clear our noses (I dumped them in the bathroom trash so the poor waitress wouldn’t have to clean up our snot).

The vegetables were quite fresh and the chicken was plentiful. My dish was fantastic and even though I enjoyed what I had eaten at Spice Thai in Savage, this absolutely wrecked that. I may have found my newest favorite South Metro restaurant! Josh’s also improved with the additional peppers and the cocunutty sweetness of the curry dropped the spice down to tolerable thresholds. Another impressive dish although one I wouldn’t order myself because I’m already watering at the mouth for another plate of those noodles. YUM FUCKING O! Seriously.

After dinner they brought us two dessert sticks with our bill (which came to $23.38 before tip) and soon after that they dropped an excellent sticky rice treat that had some sort of bean paste inside and were made with some fruit that I have never heard of before. The taste was similar to green apple candy and one that I would definitely order in the future. Please forgive the photos, we dug in before I remembered to snap some.

I absolutely, positively, and unconditionally recommend Ronin Sushi Cafe in Lakeville and am already excited to go back and try their sushi. If their Thai dishes are this good I can only imagine how tasty that will be. According to their website they are planning sushi training sessions and also visits from other local sushi chefs. Sounds pretty good to me…

If you head over to Ronin let us know what you think below!

Address:
Ronin Cafe and Sushi Bar
7704 160th St
Lakeville, MN 55044

Phone:
Restaurant: 952-997-6646
Delivery/Catering: 612-849-7525

See all the pictures from Ronin Sushi Cafe in Lakeville, MN on Flickr here (camera).

Tonight Kim and I headed over to Apple Valley’s Central Village where La Luz Cafe has opened replacing the now defunct Jan’s Brown Bag Deli. This restaurant was originally slated to open in April but didn’t actually open its doors until Monday of this week. While plenty of others have tried it already we wanted to wait a few days for my cold to clear (you can’t taste food when your nose is stuffed!) and for them to get a bit more settled. While I prefer to go on opening day we just couldn’t do it this time.

We walked in just after 7:30 and found two people being waited on at the registers. Kim and I looked over the menu at the house before arriving and because Kim had no voice I did the ordering for her. I originally thought that I would go with their Roasted Veggie Torta Deluxe but after arriving I figured I’d ask for suggestions to see what the employees liked instead. Once a register opened I hesitated while waiting to be prompted by the cashier to step forward. Instead of doing what I expected she put her head down and forced me to move up to the counter to get her to interact with me. While she was obviously new at this, the guy next to her was chatty and readily offered up well informed suggestions to those he was waiting on. I suggest that this young girl spend two or three days ghosting him before she has another attempt at the register. While it’s no big deal, you know — the first week issues, it would be nice if they were all as helpful as the other guy was.

Kim wanted the Chipotle Chicken Salad Melt and a Chocolate Banana Smoothie. I asked the cashier for her suggestion and after turning to look at the board and thinking for a moment, she said that her two favorites were the Chili-Lime Chicken and the Roasted Turkey and Avocado. I told her that I would take one of each. She rung us up and the total came to just over $20. Pretty reasonable for three sandwiches and a smoothie. The cashier said that she’d get the smoothie up soon while they worked on our sandwiches.

Kim moved over to their lounge area and picked up a copy of Minneapolis/St Paul Magazine and today’s Star Tribune while I sat next to it at a table. The lounge area was nice and has a flat panel hanging on the wall which was tuned to the Twins game (they lost, their streak ending at 10). The chairs look comfy and I’m sure it’s a nice place to sit if you’re there in the morning drinking some of their coffee selections. The tables and chairs, which are for the most part situated along the walls, are fairly close together and small. Later when we were eating and had three plates on our table, it was a bit crowded. I moved our table further away from the next table over and while no one was sitting there tonight, if they were I would have felt a little claustrophobic.

Kim’s smoothie took about 10 minutes to arrive and was an ice-based version rather than yogurt. I didn’t care for the drink at all as it had too much banana and not enough chocolate and the ice was too chunky for me. I prefer my smoothies to have a yogurt base so that they are creamier. Kim said it was all right but I don’t think she’ll be coming back just for smoothies in the future. Our sandwiches were out less than 10 minutes after that and when I went up to get them I was a little surprised at how lonely they looked in the middle of the large plates they were served on. I knew that you had to order, for $1.49 extra, a side salad and tortilla chips but later both Kim and I agreed that they should add them by default, after raising the prices appropriately, so that you don’t have to think about adding the option after the fact.

I sat down at the table and spent some time taking photos and then started out with Kim’s Chipotle Chicken Salad Melt. It is described on the menu as smokey-spiced (sic) chicken salad, co-jack cheese, tomato and red onion for $4.95. It is their least expensive item which range from the aforementioned $4.95 to their most expensive sandwich at $5.95 but remember that while those prices are definitely reasonable you’re only going to end up with the sandwich. I am not a chicken salad fan as it is and as such, this one just didn’t do it for me. I don’t know what it was about the sandwich that I didn’t care for (probably the fact that it’s chicken salad) but it just wasn’t right. Kim, however, disagreed and it was by far her favorite of the three sandwiches we tried tonight. Next I bit into the Roasted Turkey and Avocado which is listed as including sliced turkey, pepper-jack cheese, avocado, red onion and cilantro lime mayo for $5.50. The sandwich was pretty bland for me even though it had pepper-jack cheese and the fancy mayo. I guess it could use just a little something else to make it have some punch. While I liked it and I thought it was a decent sandwich, I certainly won’t be ordering it again. I couldn’t taste anything other than the avocado and the turkey. Finally I got to the Chili-Lime Chicken sandwich which they say is sliced chicken, jack cheese, avocado, tomato, red onion and dreamy creamy which is their avocado mayonnaise for $5.25. This sandwich was not only fantastic but it will be the single reason I return to La Luz. It was absolutely perfectly spiced and with the sweet avocado it was well balanced. To be honest, I fucking loved it and if you’re not sure of what to get at La Luz Cafe when you go, try this one I’m sure that if you like some heat in your food then this one is for you.

Aside from the sandwiches innards, I have to mention the bread. While La Luz isn’t serving 100% authentic Cuban pressed sandwiches, they are damn close and nearly picture perfect. The bread itself is a little different than what is generally accepted as proper Cuban bread, but it was amazing. The outside was just lightly crisp and the inside was soft and spongy. The bread didn’t have much flavor which is perfect as you really don’t want it to overpower the taste of the food but it definitely added some physical characteristics that made the sandwich enjoyable to eat. I am quite impressed, really.

Now, while I really liked the food I do have an issue with La Luz’s decision to advertise their Wednesday night live music as “Wednesdays After Church”. I really take offense to businesses pushing nonsecular agendas and I honestly believe its in their best interests to leave that kind of horseshit out of what they do. While it’s everyone’s own choice how they choose to run their establishment I do know of at least one prominent local blogger who refused to join us for this review because of the content of the La Luz website. Why not rename that night something else and save yourself the potential lost business?

Overall La Luz Cafe beat my expectations and while it will never attain a spot on our “Top Restaurants” listing, it is certainly worth the visit if you are in town and looking for a sandwich. If you end up going please let us know what you think below!

Address:
La Luz Cafe
15322 Galaxie Ave S
Apple Valley, MN 55124

Phone:
952-432-1088

See all the pictures from La Luz Cafe in Apple Valley on Flickr here.