Red Rabbit Minneapolis — Restaurant in Minneapolis

As an east coaster raised in a heavily Italian area, I wouldn’t compare this place to my view on “Italian” or the “Red Cow”. 6/5 stars for crowd pleasers, happy hour, and comfort food. Best-valued Oysters. Why spend $4-6 a pop anywhere else in the city or Wayzata for either the same farm or variety or raised within 50 miles away of their PEI oysters, or something of lesser quality. I worked in oysters bars out east and am not overhyping for any reason. They serve 2 or 3 house made sauces (mignonette etc) with the oysters, even if you order a half rack. I’ve noticed MSP people aren’t use to 1-2 dozen at a time, but you’d never get 2-3 sauces for a few oysters out east like they will give you here. NOT COMPLAINING THO. That amount of sauce feels like overkill, but they all are incredible and worth trying. Their HH oysters are insane and they don’t have just 1/3 varietals on HH, you can pick any of there 3 varieties. Always 1-2 out of the 3 are from PEI, which are along with ME generally the most revered oysters on the east coast. Small to medium size and light to medium brine (saltiness), I’ve made my midwest friends come here to try oysters for their first time. Haven’t seen any ME options here yet, but I wish they would. Restaurants out east have “buck-a-shuck” 1$ dollar oyster nights to get people into restaurants on slower week nights like Mon-Thurs where I’m from (yes for the same exact oyster farms as Red Rabbit serves) so adding a dollar for transportation costs to MSP, $2-3 per oyster for HH + their sauces plural is a VERY fair deal. No complaints so far. HH martinis are incredible, but their bartenders can also make much more than a standard martini. Neapolitan-esque 14 in pizzas are wicked good for the price and unorthodox topping options. Only other neo-style that tops it in the cities is San Jusan’s crust, but the toppings there are much less soulful than Red Cow’s. Neapolitan pie’s are called “thin crust” or “wood or coal fired” in the midwest if you haven’t tried that style yet. Give them a shot here. Meatball sub. If i brought one of my friend’s nonna’s here and she heard ‘pesto’ on a meatball sub she’d probably have a heart attack. It was just a little drizzle, but it was just enough and with their pomodoro sauce and bread it was one of the best I’ve had. Salads & veggie options. I’m 90% pescatarian still & an ex-vegan here. All of them are mad good. Pear Gorgonzola and their dates or cauliflower are my faves so far. Simple and fresh and done well. Brought my aunt from LA here that’s lived in Italy and Boston for extended amounts of time here, it was her favorite place we went to when she was here. And we went to much ‘bougier’ and or ‘ethnic’ spots. Red Rabbit isn’t super old school italian or yuppie new school italian, let alone the fair prices in this economy. Reminds me of an east coast vibe in MSP. The Minneapolis fusion-centric + creative food with servers that actually don’t mean mug you every time they come to the table and you ask about or for something. Great service and food is always worth trying here. I always come here when I’m feeling homesick for their east coast take on comfort food. Arancini. PLEASE BRING IT BACK. Or a different set with it. Maybe it was seasonal? They had the BEST arancini over saffron. Light crunch over light spice, the texture and flavor was almost overwhelming. Never had something like it and I’m a snob for arancini/suppli in NY’s Little Italy and Boston’s N. End. It was in my top 3 favorite apps I’ve had in the last few years. Compliments...

Staff do not do a communicate with each other and it impacts customer experiences. I have worked in service positions for the majority of my working career and am very understanding of when staff are busy, however my experience tonight was unfortunately quite bad. We were seated at a middle table near the back surrounded by nine other tables meant for parties of two. We were the middle table when you are first walking down the rows, this area was very tight and didn’t allow for much movement between tables as there was not much room. When food was brought out to us the food runner dropped a container of marinara on the floor and it splattered getting all over me, coating my dress and jacket. I am not angry with the server and understand it was a busy Friday evening. The server brought me extra napkins and sparkling water to help get the sauce off of my clothes. Someone later came and wiped up the remainder of the sauce which was in a pile on the floor. Then the next server walking through almost tripped because the area was wet (with no wet floor sign). Following this, the next person did trip and spilled espresso martini all over my arm. It was almost comical. After that mess was cleaned up they put a wet floor sign out. My server was clearly never told about these incidents and never checked in with us about them. We felt rushed to leave and the check was dropped while I was still eating. I understand having a large staff as a way to run things smoothly but to ensure good customer service and satisfaction staff need to be communicating with each other to prevent accidents like this. There was nothing done to remediate the situation for us other then offering a napkin and assistance with wiping off the espresso martini. I will likely not be back to this location and will stick to the one in Saint Paul as it seems to run smoother there and the seating is less cramped. This review isn’t to sway you from going because we do like this restaurant and they have great food, it is more a critique of how they can improve and better their...

Red Rabbit is a refreshing return to the typical Italian restaurant. You can stop reading this review now and safely make it your next meal if you are in the mood for Italian food. If you are more curious about the dining experience and this local guide's opinions on the menu, just continue reading below.

I spent a lovely evening with my significant other Thursday night and was pleased with the incredible service and incredibly delicious food. My SO had visited the establishment before and wanted to be sure I started with their Pizza Rolls as an appetizer, and boy did she know what she was talking about. The name of the dish made me think of some kind of "Totino's adjacent" mini calzone style pizza bites, but that could not be further from the truth. A cast iron tray was brought to our table with dough-wrapped pepperoni bites, smothered in a healthy layer of melted cheese, with a separate serving dish for the marinara sauce for dipping/spreading. Needless to say the rolls disappeared in mere moments from the instant they hit the table.

When ordering our main course, I was disappointed to see no pesto option on the menu. With oyster's being the only "seafood" option, I was worried that this would simply be an "Italian restaurant" in name only, and simply a place that serves generic pizza and pasta with tomato sauce; however, Red Rabbit yet again surpassed my expectations upon my first bite of their fettuccini alfredo. Rich, creamy, and utterly decadent. The added layer of breadcrumbs over top giving it a fantastic texture to the pasta and sauce. Between that and the pizza rolls we had earlier, there was no way I could finish the entire plate of pasta. Which brings us to the final test: how does it taste upon reheating? I have just finished my lunch break with the leftover meal and it is just as delectable as it was the night before.

Red Rabbit was far and away my favorite Italian experience since having moved to Minneapolis. As I said at the start, if you're looking for a delicious Italian meal, this should be...