Rachael's Restaurant Reviews- Hola Arepa

I ate at Hola Arepa's food truck on my birthday last year and was blown away by how good it was.  When I heard they opened a brick and mortar spot, I quickly grabbed some friends to go eat some Arepas pronto!

First, a culinary lesson. What's an Arepa you ask?  Well that varies by country and place. But generally speaking, an Arepa is a thick patty made out of corn maize/corn meal and then either cooked on a griddle, fried or even steamed.  It is most commonly associated with Venezuelan and Columbian cuisine. The patty is then stuffed with braised meat, vegetables, cheeses, eggs, you name it.  Think of it as an incredibly delicious Colombian tortilla.

Hola Arepa- 3501 Nicollet Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55408

Rating- 9

The Order:

Shredded Beef & Plantain Arepa- Sweet plantain, black beans, hola sauce, cotija cheese, pickled onion

Delicious. the beef was so wonderfully flavorful and juicy. The cotija cheese added a wonderful bite and creaminess.The plantains were sweet, the pickled onions spicy, and the Arepa was crispy on the outside and hot and perfect on the inside. This is what Friday tastes like.  I added extra Hola Sauce and some homemade salsa to mine because I like things spicy. Ahhh, I want one again right now.

Yuca- with aioli verde or chimi churi sauce (we got both)

These were good Yuca fries.  Very crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside.  I tend to like mine a tad bit thinner, and thought Brasa's version was better. But, overall worth the order for sure. But per usual, I would drink the dipping sauces with a straw if I wasn't guaranteed to get weird looks.

Tortilla Chips-  With 3 salsas

Clearly homemade chips, and the salsas were all incredibly delicious.

Solveig & Hibiscus Tonic Cocktail- Far north gin & house made hibiscus tonic

Wow. Please do not leave Hola Arepa without getting one of their house made cocktails.  Everything about this drink was exactly what I wanted.  It looked incredible, it tasted refreshing and summery, this is happiness in a beautiful small hand corked bottle. 

If I haven't made it clear enough already, GO! The food is fantastic, the atmosphere is great, and the drinks are wonderful.  This spot is clearly popular and when we went on a Friday night at 7pm, we had to wait about an hour for a table. On the plus side, once we were seated the service was fast and food came straight away. If you want to avoid a long wait try a weekday, or come for dinner closer to 8pm when the line started to dwindle.

Rachael's Restaurant Reviews- Kiku Bistro

Sometimes it's so hot you just can't imagine eating anything that is even remotely warm.  Enter Sushi! The perfect summer dinner.  Andy and I have been going to Kiku Bistro for a few years now.  It's close to where we live, you can sit outside, there is always a $10 off coupon floating around somewhere in our "junk mail" pile, and they have a crazy long happy hour.

Kiku Bistro- 2819 Hennepin Ave.S. Minneapolis, MN 55408

Rating- 7.5

Okay you thrifty bits, Kiku Bistro's Happy Hour is insane. The Happy Hour Hours are (drumroll...)

Monday-Thursday: 4:30pm-7:30pm & 9pm-Close

Friday: 3pm-7:30pm & 9pm-Close

Saturday & Sunday: ALL DAY

Do you realize what this means? On most days there is only about an hour and a half when it is NOT Happy Hour. Thank You Kiku Bistro! 

 The Order: 

Caterpillar Roll- Eel – Cucumber – Kanpyo – Avocado

 I love me some Avocado.  Eel isn't my favorite Sushi but it is Andy's so we usually end up with some type of Eel roll. Rice is sticky, sauce is deep and salty. Yumm. 

Lake Calhoun Roll-Tempura Shrimp – Avocado – Spicy Crab - Crunch

I love the crispy bits on top of this.  The special sauce adds a nice spicy, creaminess to the roll and I love the crispy tempura Shrimp combined with the Avocado inside. Very well balanced textures.

Spicy Tuna Roll- Not much to say about this one except that it's Spicy Tuna and I like it.

 

Now, clearly I am a fan of Kiku Bistro.  Mainly because it's pretty good sushi for a good price and I always have a coupon.  Is it the best Sushi in the world? Nope. Is it even the best Sushi in the Twin cities? Probably not. But is it a great deal and a fun place to have a quick happy hour? You betcha. So go. Because I want to make sure it stays open. K? Please?

Rachael's Restaurant Reviews- Brasa

Andy and I found ourselves with a rare night off last night and decided to have an impromptu date night.  I had been wanting to try Brasa for a while now because I consistently hear amazing things about it.  So off we went to North Minneapolis in search of "comfort food inspired by the creole cooking traditions of the Americas and Caribbean."

Brasa: Premium Rotisserie, 600 E Hennepin Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55414

Rating- 7

 Brasa's menu is organized by proteins, sides, bowls, breads and sandwiches.  Most items are designed for sharing (or not).  You can order small, medium and large sizes depending on whether you're trying to feed the table or just yourself. We decided to order one bowl, one protein and two sides. 

The Order: 

Smoked Beef- "Braised & Seasoned with Sweet-Spicy BBQ Sauce"

Here's the thing, I was underwhelmed by this dish but Andy loved it. So perhaps take my review with a grain of salt?  I also admittedly feel like my being underwhelmed is party my own fault.  Braising means you sear the meat and then slow cook it in a cooking liquid of your choice to break down the connective tissue and make the meat very tender.  So, I was expecting juicy beef that had been braised in BBQ sauce. I wanted the sweet and tangy goodness to be infused in every salty rich bite.  Instead I got what was nicely braised beef (meaning it did reach desired tenderness) with a small ladle of BBQ sauce added on top right before they bring it to your table.  To be fair, the description says "seasoned with" BBQ sauce, not "marinated in" BBQ sauce. My fault.  Even still, braising is a method of cooking that can infuse meat with an incredible amount of flavor, and I felt this dish was lacking the intense flavor I was hoping for.

Pork & Over Easy Egg Bowl- "Yellow Rice, Jalapeno Spinach & Red Sauce" 

If you are just ordering for you, and not planning to share, I recommend ordering one of the bowls.  This is a lot of bang for your buck people.  It has rice, spinach, slow roasted pork, egg, crispy onions and sauce all for about 9 bucks.  The rice was a wonderful golden color, flavorful and fluffy. While the spinach was good, I couldn't detect even a hint of Jalapeno. Since I like spicy food, that was disappointing. The slow roasted pork was tender and savory, good marks there. The over easy egg was perfectly cooked and when you broke the yolk it infused the dish with that extra layer of depth you want from good comfort food. Brava Brassa! The red sauce, on the other hand, like the Jalapeno was hard to detect. 

Crispy Yuca with Citrus & Garlic

I'm not always a fan of Yuca. When it's done well, I LOVE it. When it's not crisped correctly, it's terrible.  Brasa's Yuca was fantastic.  Nicely sized slices of Yuca fried up to perfection.  Good and crispy on the outside and fluffy, not dry, on the inside. The citrus garlic dipping sauce they came with? I would drink that with a straw if they had brought me one.  This was probably the best dish we ordered.

Cornbread & Beans

I love cornbread.  It's essentially an excuse to eat butter and honey in heaps.  Everyone likes their cornbread differently. Some like it dense and substantial. Others like it fluffy and more cake like.  Some prefer it served hot, others feel it's better at room temperature or even slightly chilled. I like mine warm, and somewhere in between the dense and fluffy consistency. For me, the cornbread at Brasa was too dense and too cold.  It also lacked any flavor standing on it's own.  It was significantly improved by the butter and honey (but really what food isn't?). The baked red beans were perfectly cooked, but again lacked the intense flavor I'm looking for in Creole inspired cooking.  They didn't have that deep molasses flavor that's balanced by the starchy beans and tang of BBQ sauce. 

I know it might read as if I didn't enjoy my meal at Brasa.  Don't get me wrong, the food was good, I'd venture to say most people who eat there would say it is really really good.  But as someone who has had exceptional creole inspired comfort food, I just wanted to take the flavor nodule on everything and crank it up, up, up!