At least three new restaurants have popped up onto the radar in the last week. Details are thin, as is the case at this stage of things but I have done the usual digging and posted a variety of links to the information that is available so that you can be as informed as ever about the new places opening up around town.
1. Las Tortillas Mexican Restaurant
15051 Crestone Ave
Rosemount, MN 55068
There is a quick blurb in the StarTribune here and Thisweek here.
According to the Star Tribune here’s what the restaurant will look like:
“We’re looking to do fresh tortillas made in house, handmade margaritas, traditional Mexican fare, as well as the more standard American-Mexican style.”
2. The Onion Grille
100 Sibley St
Hastings, MN 55033
You can find more in the Hastings Star Gazette here or in the background information for the Hastings City Council here.
According to the Star Gazette article, the owner will be trying to recapture the recently close Levee Cafe’s “fine dining” with its popular menu items such as:
long-standing favorites that patrons of the Levee were used to, like the creamed artichoke dip, the chicken wild rice soup, the salmon BLT, the liver and onions, the Levee salad and the chicken ala king, to name a few.
3. Spoon
14871 Granada Ave
Apple Valley, MN 55124
The only information I can find is a completely empty Secretary of State filing and the City Council Agenda here.
Spoon will be taking over the Mandarin Buffett location in the outdated strip mall behind McDonald’s. Aside from that small detail and the trendy single word name, no other details are available at this time.
Are you aware of any other restaurant openings coming up in the South Metro? What do you think of the three listed here? Which one of the three here interest you the most and why? Do you consider the menu items listed for The Onion Grille to be “fine dining”? Whatever you have to say about these three new restaurants opening in Apple Valley, Hastings and Rosemount go ahead and comment on!
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January 14th, 2011 at 8:11 am
Please please please, Las Tortillas, don’t make Minnesotan tortillas all the time. Fresh masa tortillas are sadly such a rarity around here.
January 14th, 2011 at 8:16 am
That sentence frightens me a bit.
January 14th, 2011 at 11:56 am
I will also be interested to hear if anyone’s eaten at Mendoberri in Mendota Heights. I read about it on HeavyTable but haven’t heard anything else about it.
January 14th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Uh, yeah…it sounds like something in the opening narration of Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares.”
January 14th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
I wish Spoon luck. Food joints in that strip mall always seem to have a hard time.
January 14th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
That looks like fine dining if you live in Hastings.
January 14th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Way to stay classy lefty.
January 15th, 2011 at 8:12 am
I’m a huge fan of Mexican food and it seems like all of the good Mexican restaurants are in the city. Maybe this will be a “real” Mexican restaurant in the suburbs.
I’d say the Onion Grill won’t make it for me than a year. Strip mall restaurants always tank.
January 15th, 2011 at 8:38 am
ch m
what’s your fave’ in south msp or stp?
bb
January 15th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
The Onion Grille aka Levee Cafe isn’t in a strip mall. For Hastings…it will be fine dining! I hope the Onion owners are not crooks like the previous owners.
The location where Spoon is going is a dive. The previous restaurant that was in there was disgusting. I always hope new businesses do well, but I just don’t think that little area is great restaurant location. Osaka is till open and it’s right down the way…so maybe they will be OK too.
And seriously…I have never had good Mexican food in MN unless it’s out of someone’s truck in WSP at lunch time. Even the “better” Mexican places we have are not good…at least to California/Arizona standards.
January 15th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Or Chicago standards. Home of Rick Bayless. Probably blows California/Arizona out the the water.
January 15th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
I should proofread more often.
January 16th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Spoon’s sign says “Dim Sum and Hot Pots,” which, btw, would be a great name for a band. We’ll give it a try, once they’re open. Hope it’s not the same owners as the previous joint because Song Long sucked. We used to eat in Mandarin Buffet quite a bit and got to know the family who owned it pretty well. Nice people serving up Americanized Chinese food at a reasonable price. It was always our go-to option when we were in the area shopping. Now we just go across the street to Taste of Thaiyai. Mmmm. Now I’m hungry.
January 16th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Wow…dim sum and hot pots! I’m not going to get my hopes up but that’s a great sign.
January 17th, 2011 at 8:40 am
Yeah, if they can pull those off, it would be a great addition to the area.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:59 am
dim sum and hot pots is very promising, but the best of these restaurants tend to be closer to the cities and larger Asian populations…(Hank and norma or Tiffany and Brent and their families from various SOTR suburbs likely wont be a core constituency) so i would worry about that. Mandarin Kitchen and Jun Bo are the closest places for decent dim sum that i know.
Yet, Taste of Thaiya is across the street and is very good Thai, and serves some interesting Northern Thai foods… very nice people as well.
So there is hope for a niche player with true ethnic food, but i worry that unless they have the American menu of General Tso’s Chicken and Lemon chicken and cream cheese wontons they will struggle for volume down here.
when this opens will a reader please let us know!…tks.
January 19th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Hopefully the Onion in Hastings will serve better food than the Levee did. They have a nice spot on the river. There is another restaurant opening in Hastings too, a place called Me and Julio’s is going to open in the old Papa’s bar and grill in the south end of town. This will be owned by the same folks that own the Lucky 13 in Mendota (or Mendota Heights). Come see the work on the new bridge and enjoy some new restaurants.
January 19th, 2011 at 5:50 pm
That’s down by the schoolyard, right?
January 21st, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Came by Spoon the other weekend and stopped in for the dim sum. Really good actually… competition with the likes of Jun Bo and Mandarin Kitchen. Eclectic menu… saw that there was also american food offered like burgers and fries.
January 24th, 2011 at 11:44 am
Tried Spoon last night and really liked it. The Song Long signs are still up, but Spoon has a banner to help identify it as a new restaurant.
For $22 we got Spoon’s cream cheese wontons, egg rolls (free with coupon at the counter), lemongrass tofu + mixed vegetables, patty melt, and taro bubble tea.
The sesame-scallion sauce for Spoon’s wontons were a nice change from regular sweet and sour and the wontons themselves were thin, crispy and full of cream cheese. The egg rolls were pretty good, but I’d like to try the veggie ones next time. Lemongrass tofu was packed with lemongrass and veggies and the tofu was cooked perfectly. We’d definitely order it again. Had to try the patty melt, which seems to be from a handformed patty and totally hit the spot. The chips were pretty generic, but were a simple and cheap side.
Can’t wait to try more!
April 25th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
The “Spoon” space still looked kinda scary the last time I drove by.. so havent tried it yet.. anyone else?
Also, I am guessing Las Tortillas in Rosemount will probably open in May, I drove by last week and it didn’t look like it was close to being ready to open in April..
May 13th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Las Tortillas is scheduled to open May 18th it looks like from an article I read. Their menu is up on their website as well.
June 15th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Long time lurker (as in a couple of years), first time posting…
My husband, daughter (age 2) and I went to Las Tortillas last Friday evening around 7:00. The place was busy as all of the tables and counter/bar area was full. We had a 15 minute wait so we took the time to read the menu. They had a good amount of servers and cooks on staff so the tables turned quickly and we were seated right around 10-15 minutes. We saw alot of the food that was brought out to the other guests, which was nice. Everyone seemed to have the roasted corn that night, but it wasn’t on the menu? The guac looked fabulous, but I can’t eat that much on my own (husband doesn’t like) so I didn’t order it. My husband had the beef chimi, which he thought was really good. I had the chicken burrito, which he seemed to like more than his own meal and so did I. Great moist chicken, delicious black beans, cilantro rice, fresh tortilla. I remarked that each of the ingredients seemed housemade and really stood thier own individually. My daughter had the cheese quesadilla from the kids menu, which was fine. The complimentary salsa and chips were fresh and good. The salsa had just a small warmth, but probably not enough for Bill or others on this site. The bill came to $20 for the three of us, with our entrees and three non-alcoholic drinks (they serve Coke, as I know at least one of you will care about that). We don’t drink too often when we dine out, so I didn’t notice their beer list. All in all, we will return.
The negatives: 1) no designated waiting area; 2) no fresh veggies/fruit for kids meals; 3) there were many tables that seated 6 that were occupied by 2-4 people; and 4) no announcement of specials (where did everyone know to order the corn?)
The positives: 1) Besides the quesadilla I didn’t see any plates that consisted of dumping gobs of sauce and/or cheese; 2) when we left, two of the servers and the manager/owner (I assumed) thanked us for coming; 3) the service was very prompt; 4) prices were good for the reasonable amount of food served.
June 15th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
2nd time posting! :)
June 15th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Thanks for the nice review Rochelle. I’ll have to check this place out.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I’ve been to Las Tortillas twice now, and it’s definitely different from most Mexican joints in the south metro, in my opinion. The first time I went, I ordered the street taco combo trio which came with one of each (Braised Chicken, Beef Pastor and Carnitas) Other than my desire for cilantro that isn’t just a decoration, they were all quite good and the price was very reasonable for what you get. I got the soft shell masa tortillas, and could definitely tell they were fresh. My second visit involved trying the chicken enchiladas while my girlfriend tried the Fish Tacos. Both were tasty and, while I prefer the fish tacos at Sea Salt, were definitely worth it.
My only complaint was that, on my first visit at least, the regular salsa had no heat what-so-ever. I understand wanting to please as many Minnesotan palates as possible, but I didn’t even get a tingle. Even with a relatively high tolerance for heat, I’d expect to feel something. The Hot salsa had some heat, but was lacking most any flavor other than the hint of smokiness, which I assume is from chipotle peppers used (though I don’t know that for sure). When I mixed the regular and hot salsas together though, it created a nice blend of flavor and heat. On my second visit though, the regular salsa had been spiced up a bit more so perhaps I received a bad batch on the first try.
Lastly . . . try the cornbread. I got it fresh out of the oven, and it just melted in my mouth. Definitely want to try it again to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.
August 6th, 2011 at 12:39 am
Just checked out the new Me&Julio’s in hastings, it had great food and better service, all the servers were so nice. It was opening night so there were some kinks to work out, but they offered to comp our meals for the wait, but the service was so good we insisted we pay, the unlimited popcorn made the wait not so long, and amazing drinks. The building is a real upgrade from Papa’s, a fun drinking place on the weekends, yet classy. The patio is beautiful. We had the puffy (I think?) tacos, and they were delicious and filling. Definitely worth checking out. Something I would expect out of the owners of Lucky’s and original owners of axel’s and bonfire.
August 19th, 2011 at 7:01 am
[...] in January I made mention of a new Mexican restaurant opening in Rosemount over near Suzie’s Kitchen. Soon after it opened I stopped and took a look at the menu posted [...]
September 19th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Spoon has applied for a liquor license and the ability to build an outdoor seating area: http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/archives/36/09-22-11_tentative.pdf
Would you want to sit outside there?
September 20th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Ugh, no. I mean, really, I’m hard pressed to think of a worse location for a restaurant to have a patio. Plus it seems like it would be a pain for dim sum.
I went to Spoon once back in the winter for dim sum, and thought it was so-so. I’d give it another shot the next time I’m craving it, but I certainly wouldn’t be going to take in the scenery of the Granada Shopping Center.
Oh, and I don’t advise going to their website with your sound turned on, unless you want to hear what has to be the cheesiest, schmaltziest reject-from-Delilah song ever.