MINARI & The Pikok Lounge — Restaurant in Minneapolis

IMMACULATE!

Found this place from social media and went shortly after opening on Jan 6 2025. This is my first Google review - it was THAT good.

What to expect: LOTS OF FOOD! Don’t eat too close to your reservation time. Dark atmosphere with friendly wait staff -Delicious drinks Again, lots of yummy food Take your time! Don’t rush and enjoy your food

How to order: Get lots of small plates and share with your party. Not worth getting individual meals For a family of 3, we ordered 1 plate from each section of the menu (there are 4 - the first three are basically appetizers, last section is entrees). Save room for the Dim Sams that come around, but don’t be shy about order the main menu items.

Korean & Mexican Influences: I was a little suspicious of the fusions - mostly because both culinary typologies are extremely unique, special, and dependent on their own characteristics, flavors, and ingredients. But WOW was I wrong. This was the best culinary fusion I’ve ever experienced. Each dish had incredible flavors, bright, vibrant characteristics of both cultures. I have tried a lot of food from both cultures, but this experience perfectly blended the two.

Seating: Lots of comfy looking booths - for big and small parties, and lots of stand-alone tables. We were seated next to the kitchen, which I’m normally not a fan of, but this was great. It was generally very dark inside but the light from the kitchen helped balance the darkness. It was also great to see how the kitchen operated and the efficiency that took place. No yelling, no F*ck You’s, everyone was clean and professional - it was really a joy to see the kitchen staff and their level of efficiency.

What my party ordered: Dim Sam: Shrimp cream cheese wantons (extremely flavorful, tender, and crispy exterior), Chicken (very delicious and tender), Appetizers: Apple Salad - very light, fluffy, candied ginger bits were super yummy, and all ingredients felt fresh; poached scallops- incredible. I normally don’t like scallops, but these were amazing and the hazelnuts were perfect, as well as the sauce; pork jowl (pig cheek), was very fatty but the sauces and lettuce wraps were perfect. Entrees: Mapu Tofu - I personally don’t like tofu, but the flavors were really good and the pork and shrimp toppings were great. Tofu was very squishy and had a texture issue with it, but my parents said it was the best tofu they’ve had in recent memory. Korean Fried Chicken: Honestly the best chicken I have ever had. Very trendy and juicy. Sauces were incredible. However, they basically give you an entire chicken cut up into smaller pieces, definitely need to share with your party.

Atmosphere: The setting is very relaxed, fantastic interior design with very calming lighting and seats. My only complaint was the music. At times it could be loud and distracting from conversations. A lot of rock and roll and contemporary music (which is what I personally like), but for a Korean-Mexican restaurant, I expected music along those lines. Even Jazz or Bluegrass would have fit the atmosphere better. Sometimes a little hard to see due to the lighting. A brighter table lamp would be better than a small candle.

My big suggestion to owner / manager: Tables need a lazy Susan in the middle. I was a party of 3 at a 4 person table, and found it hard to pass the sauces and toppings across the table, especially since each flavor is so good that everyone wants a little bit. Would be extremely helpful to have a 2-tier lazy Susan in the middle (no more than 4-5 inches off the table). It was hard to see all the toppings, sauces, dippings, etc because there were so many that were often hiding behind larger plates. … And turn down the music a tad or change the style.

If this restaurant had been around for years, I would give it a 9/10 …. but since it’s so new and are inevitably still working things out, this was a 10/10 (more like a 14/10 if I’m...

Minari is a very fun, upscale dining experience in northeast! TLDR: very busy but a hip and cool vibe, great service with friendly and helpful staff, and delicious food and drinks. My partner and I visited for our monthly date night and had a really good time.

We arrived on a Friday and had a reservation at 8pm. It was quite busy and we still ended up having to wait about 20 minutes after our reservation time to be seated at our table. I will say this is probably the longest I've had to wait for a table when I had a reservation. However this wasn't too much of an issue for me personally since my spouse and I were able to grab seats and order drinks at the bar while we waited. Since this didn't really negatively impact my experience, I still think this restaurant is overall a 5/5, but I would keep this in mind if you plan to visit on a weekend evening. I also expect the longer they are open they'll get a better sense of how quickly their tables turn over so hopefully this won't occur as much in the future.

The host came to get us at the bar once our table was ready and our waitress gave us a run down of the menu. Notably, they have fun dim sum carts which come by the tables with food like dumplings and jelly noodles (both of which were delicious!), and they'll check off on a card at your table which items you've gotten. This was a super fun system and I would really love to come back just to do the dim sum and drinks. Which… speaking of drinks, these were great! The real standout cocktail for me was the “Kumiho,” which was super unique but sort of reminded me of an espresso martini. My partner ordered it as their first drink and I got it as my second because I thought it was so amazing.

Beyond the drinks, their food was incredible! I loved all the dim sum dishes we tried, as well as the pork jowl and Korean fried chicken we got as entrees. We definitely ordered too much food (two apps and two main dishes) since we also tried three of the dim sum, but we just couldn't resist when those dumplings came by 😋 The pork jowl was also particularly rich, but it was incredibly good so I definitely recommend it. We ended up taking some leftovers home, which our waitress kindly boxed up for us along with accompanying pickles and sauces, and we unfortunately didn't have room for dessert. On our next visit I'd personally probably order fewer mains and appetizers, and try more of the dim sum plus the dessert.

Overall, despite the wait for our table, we had a really great experience. The ambiance was really cool—I like the red lighting throughout the bar and restaurant—and the service was very good. I definitely recommend checking out Minari for a...

I was really excited to try this place after seeing all the pictures and videos on social media. Finally went for dinner last weekend and our experience was pretty subpar.

The atmosphere and decor was nice and romantic for a nice dinner out. Their bathrooms are single stalls which you don’t see often. Appreciated that!

The dinner & dimsum concept is great but I felt that it took forever for the servers to walk around with the dimsum cart. Our waitress didn’t explain how the dimsum service worked right off the bat — I had to ask and that was because I looked up this place. They need to come around more frequently.

The Noboru cocktail was delicious! Very light and refreshing and didn’t have a strong gin flavor.

FYI if you’re going to order the soju, don’t expect to receive a bottle or even a decent amount. It’s a small shot because they pour it like it’s a liquor. Would have been nice to know that before ordering it on the menu. $9 for half a shot glass.

Beef tartare 7/10 — okay flavor but wasn’t our favorite.

Scallops 7/10 — the dish had a VERY STRONG fish sauce smell upon arrival and it was pretty overwhelming. Kind of expected the scallops to be mixed or covered in the sauce but it seems like it was just plopped into the butternut squash mixture.

Galbi 5/10 — on the menu online it says “boneless galbi” but as you can see it is connected to a bone. The flavor is what you would expect from a galbi marinade but the meat itself was almost inedible. So much fat and the texture of the meat was extremely tough. Felt like we were just chewing and chewing. Not worth the $30-40 it was

Wagyu strip loin 4/10 — the meat was a bit more chewable compared to the galbi but still pretty chewy. We had to add all of the sauces on top to make it taste better. Didn’t feel like it was wagyu. Not worth $65 in our opinion.

The sauces that came with the bbq meats were delicious! Probably the best part of that dish. The gochujang sauce was 🤌🏼 10/10.

Now for the dimsum.

Chicken shumai 6.5/10 — basic and extremely salty

Shrimp shumai 7/10 — pretty standard as well. Tasted better with the bbq sauces. I would avoid dipping in soy sauce.

Duck and fois gras 3/10 — all the reviews loved this but the flavor was very overpowering. It tasted almost artificial upon the first bite. It had a strong star anise flavor. Would not recommend.

Dinner was...