Owamni by The Sioux Chef — Restaurant in Minneapolis

This was a meaningful dining experience with delicious food! Surely one of the most unique places I’ve ever dined, and I hope to eat, decolonized indigenous food from this land again and more often.

The space itself is bright and fresh and beautiful with great views. We were able to get seated right away at a table right by the window. I’d make reservation’s (Resy). The server was helpful in deciding what to get and helping us make great choices. It was fun to watch the people cook from the open kitchen, I can imagine eating at the bar is super exciting.

sweet potatoes with maple chili crisp – this dish is one of the legacy dishes at the restaurant. It was also one of the largest dishes that we had. Big portion! While the maple chili crisp was delicious if it hadn’t been on the sweet potatoes, I’m not sure that this dish would’ve been our jam. The sweet potatoes were extra starchy and earthy, nothing like the processed over cultivated sweet potatoes we normally get. We had a lot of these left over at the end and took them home, they made the perfect compliment to eggs and bacon in the morning!

The corn taco – the corn taco was super fun and wasn’t to hard to split between two people. It was really cool to have corn in three different ways! Oh wait four!

Elk Poyha-this was like an elk meatloaf with the most gorgeous berries and sauce on top. The first bite, scrambled my brain because I’ve never had anything quite like it. It was less gamey than I thought it would be but certainly had some game taste to it and the sauce was sweet, it worked so well with the meat. Every bite I took after that got more delicious. It was nice to eat it with the starchy sweet potatoes.

Spoon bread-I think in our heads we thought this would have links to fry bread, but that doesn’t make sense because fried bread is a super colonialized food. The bread was actually like maybe a bread pudding? The delicious beef and sauce on top and that crunch element are lovely to put inside the tortilla, such lovely corn flavor on those tortillas!

Sauces- get sauces! They’re delicious and sort of complete the dishes. We loved the not hot “hot sauce” and the chili crisp aioli (nice fat element to have)

-the duck breast – THIS was the BEST DUCK OF MY ENTIRE LIFE ! I thought I did not like duck and I’ve had it so many ways from France to China, Michillen star spots and holes in the way but this was something completely different. I thought maybe it was overcooked from appearance, but no it was cooked perfectly with a crispy skin and the best flavor to it. The tamale offered a element to the savory of the duck and the sauces work so well with it all. Don’t fear that zany huitlachoche because there wasn’t much in it and it does add a really beautiful umami element to the whole thing. I would come back just for this dish and I think I’ll probably never have duck that good again.

-Berry cobbler: this is nothing like the cobbler you have in mind . There’s a berry situation that is next level and really delicious but without all that sugar and no fat it really wasn’t our favorite dish. The sweet potato sorbet wasn’t a sorbet but more of a purée. We took this home and paired it with vanilla dairy ice cream and it was so good lol

I highly recommend making reservations for this place and if you eat during the day, you can see the beautiful outside area. It looks like they have an outdoor deck which is closed in the cold winter, but must be so nice in the summer. This would be such a cool place to eat with season nine and see what shifts and changes. Eating the rainbow has never...

Amazing native dining experience... as long as you adjust your expectations! My group of 2 did not have a reservation, however we decided to stop at the restaurant anyway on a Saturday early evening, & we felt lucky as they had a table opening up shortly. We waited less than twenty minutes!

Our server Tayne was incredibly kind & extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of their menu, plus very gracious as we respectfully asked for guidance on the appropriate amount of items to order too. The tables are well spaced within the restaurant too - we were seated along the window wall & had a beautiful view of the bridge & river (minus the current bridge construction project at this time)

We went with The Garden salad, the Elk Taco, the Ashela, & the Smoked Bison Ribeye. For dessert we chose the Spoon Bread.

The Garden was a beautiful combination of tart dandelion & other types of greens with green beans, crunchy fried crickets (Yes, crickets... and they were GOOD!), & charred tomatoes that evened out the bitterness of the greens quite well. The minimal style of salad dressing gave a nice hint of flavor to compliment the ingredients.

The Elk Taco was wonderful - I had never had Elk burnt ends before, but I want more of it again soon!

The Ashela was very satisfying as I kept going back for more between the other dishes, although I had a tough time finding the flavor of the duck in it. The corn mush itself with the sunflower seed is what I noticed most, and I was very happy with that still.

Smoked Bison Ribeye... This is a 2-person entree as they state on the menu, & it was just perfect for the two of us as we were hungry. It was a beautiful cut of meat with so much flavor! The braised collard-style greens & sweet potato mash paired perfectly with the bison as well. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

We really weren't planning on dessert, however we couldn't resist trying the Spoon Bread after our server's recommendation of it. It reminded me of a filling oatmeal style texture with honey & berries on top. Very filling, but worth it!

I am so excited to come back to Owamni again... Remember, this is not just any regular restaurant though! This is an establishment that demands the respect of their ways & will not adjust much of their menu's offerings. If you keep that respectful curiosity in mind during your visit, it will be a much more...

They focus on a small plate menu complimented with shareable. Their brunch menu is full portions that would be comparable to a typical restaurant; our party of 3 found each of our brunch dishes to be substantially sized and were full before finishing.

Very tasty, and they have a great way of modernizing the spirit of Native American dishes. It is an exceptional blend of cultures without any goal of being something it’s not. Plus they have a pun in their name, what’s not to love??

I had made a reservation for a Saturday in July for 3 a week in advance; the only option available was for 3 PM so we organized our day around a late brunch (they seemed to have better availability on other days).

The unfortunate part of the day experience was the service; we arrived 20 minutes early but were willing to wait as long as necessary. We were sat within 5 minutes and given a server who was scheduled to be off at 3. She was very friendly, gave us a great intro to the restaurant, and answered all our questions.

After we placed our order, we were only talked to again by our server 15 minutes later as she informed us that her shift was over and would be transferring our table to another server; our empty water cups were not refilled at that point or any other point.

The new server may have not realized that we were assigned to him, and proceeded to greet all the other tables in the section except ours when he arrived. Our food came out hot and delicious, and was very tasty, brought out by one of the kitchen staff.

The closing of the unfortunate experience was when we had been completely finished with our meal for 10-15 minutes before our first interaction with the server. He came over, introduced himself, and asked if we needed anything; we mentioned that we didn’t need boxes, and were ready to pay. We payed promptly and tipped, but it was rather weird tipping someone who only came to collect payment on our tab; I hope the tips are shared.

In summary, it was an exception meal with an alternative flavor profile but still very delicious, and worth the experience. I would not recommend coming at a time when a shift change is happening, and hopefully you receive a server attentive...