This restaurant was the MOST pleasant surprise I have had since my move to Minnesota. My parents and younger brother are visiting me in Minnesota this week and today was the last day they were staying, when we went to go out for dinner we decided to try out a place that my boss from work had recommended and it was the most perfect ending piece for my family's road trip journey here to Minnesota.

THE CULTURAL IMPACT: Ann Kim is the daughter of a Korean immigrant and has achieved a James Beard award. I am the son of a Korean immigrant as well which made this restaurant feel so special to me. Right away as we walked inside and saw the dishes laid out in front of us my mother pointed out that they were dishes that her mother had when they had moved into the Americas before I was even born. Already you could tell the similarity in lifestyles that Ann Kim and my mother might have had growing up. For immigrants like my parents this had a lasting warming impression on them and was everything for a perfect finish to their visit here in Minnesota. I was so happy to have the experience I had here because of this. Thank You.

THE PIZZA: The pizza was fantastic, we had gotten the tavern pie and the umami mami. The tavern pie was a unique pizza dish that is masked with a plain common looking appearance. At first you might think it's just a pepperoni pizza with some jalapenos, but what did it for me was that there was honey drizzled along the top of it. You may have heard of honey on pizza but the kicker is the jalapeno. Spicy and sweet are clashing flavors, so this eccentric flavor combination actually distinguishes the two flavors extremely well in your mouth and gives you an intense impact from both sides. If this is your first time going here, I would give this a go. The Umami Mami was also a fantastic dish, if you don't really know what umami tastes like then this will let you understand. The first bite is always the most impressionable, when I bit into it I was just expecting a regular mushroomy like flavor but boy was I wrong. Its savoriness was competitive and strong in a pleasant way. Its hard to explain but something you just have to try for yourself.

THE DESSERT: The softserve ice cream with sea salt and olive oil is something you see on the menu and think "how odd, lets try it." And sure enough it is going to be a high risk that feels like you got the high reward. Whenever I use olive oil to cook, put on my salad, or dip my bread in I can taste it but its flavor is very little to mild and you can't really tell what the flavor is. But when you try it with vanilla ice cream the flavor of the olive oil is brought out like no other. A metaphor I would put with it is like salt, you can pick up a grain of salt and it is physically small, but the taste is an explosion. The sweetness of the icecream brings out the taste of the olive oil like you have never tasted it before. It really felt like I was tasting olive oil for the first time. You can't go wrong. Get it.

THEY CARE: The impression I had with my server was that of the best. Not only were they informative on the history and story of the restaurant, they were kind and caring. They would let us know if something might take a little bit of time to come out but went all the way to make sure that we had gotten what we needed in a certain amount of time. Not only that there is a menu item called "photo booth" that you could get and it lets you take a photo in the photo booth in the back then hang it up on the wall.

THE BATHROOM: I know that this might sound odd but to accentuate my comment above about how they care, THEY REALLY DO. That light in my gallery there shows a beautiful large light bulb, and that was in the bathroom along with an amazing brass piping design that wrapped around the bathroom. The iridescent lighting shows that of a soft and gentle appearance that can do wonders for a wonderful photo.

I recommend this place 100%