BaGu Sushi & Thai — Restaurant in Minneapolis

(3.5/5)

I've got mixed feelings about BaGu, I was worried that the fusion of what seems like southeast asian and more japanese cuisine would provide a mediocre representation, and, I was sorta right. I thought the food appetizers and entrees tasted better than the sushi.

The Sunset and Crunchy Spicy Tuna (CST) rolls tasted generic, like if I went to a sushi buffet, this is what I would expect. Know what I mean? The Sunset one was very mellow and sweet, but didn't have a "wow" factor. The CST one was more interesting because of the play on textures, crunchy, sweet, fresh, creamy, salty but I was left unimpressed as both were nearly $20 a roll.

Karage - this seemed to have SE Asian flare on it as the the most dominant flavors were ginger and salt. I would use a tad bit less salt, but the choice to use dark meat was smart and kept the chicken moist and add richness. One thing to note is that the dish came out in a large clump and needed to be manually separated into sharable pieces.

Gyoza - nice hard pan sear and meat had sweet notes. Would use more green onions + white and black pepper. Accompanying soy sauce had some variation of vinegar mixed in and it contrasted well against the saltiness.

Public Service Announcement Spice levels are on the Asian Richter scale, so if spice isn't your forte, order one level, or two, down from what you usually do.

Drunken Noodles - order with wide noodles, it makes a difference. The dish was SPICY (learn from me, I didn't ask which heat scale it was) but very, very flavorful. Savory all around with notes of holy basil and sweet seared crab. Chewy and crunchy textures.

Pad Thai - okay, this is like a stereotypical dish, but nonetheless, always a viable option. The dish was nutty and sweet, almost caramel like, and balanced the spice.

Overall, BaGu is pretty expensive and I'd go back for the food, but not sushi. I still think the sushi buffets are a better bang-for-your-buck...

Yesterday, I saw some friends had gone to try this restaurant in Minneapolis so I wanted to try too. It’s a smaller joint so seating can be tight if it gets full. It used to be Thai owned but is now Hmong owned. It’s like Japan smashed into Thailand. Little bit of a drive for me but totally worth it. I wanted to try as many things as I could off the menu. I got their kapoon, papaya salad (Lao style), chicken pad thai, chicken fried rice, pork eggrolls, and sticky rice. They offer spice levels 1 - 5. I ordered the papaya and pad thai with a spice level of 2 since I can’t take much spice. The waiter was super nice and attentive. The food came out in a timely manner and was fresh, hot, and well presented. And the taste? 😍 Omg it was an explosion of flavors in my mouth and I’m a picky eater. The kapoon was sooo good, like your own homemade kapoon. Not too much or too little coconut milk. The papaya salad had a good kick to it and was sooo refreshing. The pork eggrolls were really fresh and was delicious with their dipping sauce. I was worried about the pad thai not coming up to my standards but after squeezing lime juice over it and mixing it all together, it was phenomenal! I was sooo excited and happy to find another place that had 💣 ass pad thai. The fried rice had that burnt wok taste which means it’s legit. Sticky rice was only on the side to go with the papaya. Overall, I would rate the food 8/10 that I’ve tried so far. I didn’t do any of the sushi/seafood so y’all are gonna have to try it yourself to see if you like it. But for the Thai food, I would definitely recommend. I’m already anticipating going back again bc the food is so good. I literally dreamed of eating the food all night, that’s how...

I wanted to like this place so much more, but unfortunately some dishes just fell short. The service was great and friendly. We had edamame, egg rolls, pad thai, and a spicy pork belly broccoli dish. The place itself is on the smaller side, but that wasnt an issue as we were one of two groups there. The staff were super friendly and attentive without interrupting our meal. The service/staff truly saved this rating. The edamame was not great. It wasnt cooked enough for the pods to easily separate and some of the pods tasted off...which is weird with edamame. The egg rolls were also problematic. The pork inside was dry and crumbly, the outer shell crispy but a bit overcooked, and the noodles and other filling kind of mushy. Very disappointing. My date complained to me after the meal that her pad thai was bad too. She didnt enjoy the frothy/foamy fried tofu pieces, and the pad thai itself was also not enjoyable comparativily to other thai spots we've been to. However, my pork belly chinese broccoli dish was good. My only critique is some of the broccoli stalks were very thick, but they were cooked well enough where it wasnt a problem. The pork belly and spice level was pretty good. My two takeaways are that the fryer grease/oil may be dirty and that could explain the dark tinted fried items and although service was super friendly, the food left a lot to be desired. I will probably give this spot another shot at some point and hope it...