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A lobster roll sits on a white plate next to a few lemon wedges.
A lobster roll from Coastal Seafoods’ cafe.
Coastal Seafoods

These 16 Twin Cities Grocery Stores Have Really Great Cafes Inside Them

The best grocery stores and markets serving tacos, kebabs, banh mi, and more

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A lobster roll from Coastal Seafoods’ cafe.
| Coastal Seafoods

The Twin Cities are full of great indoor markets and grocery stores, many of which are essential shopping spots for immigrant communities in Minneapolis and St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs. These are ideal places to stock up on canned lychee, imported cookies, or fresh butcher cuts and then sit down for a hot meal. From silken hummus to freshly pressed tofu, killer mohinga to unlimited banchan, here are the best places to shop and dine in the Twin Cities.

Note that these restaurants are listed geographically.

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Ha Tien Super Market

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Housed in a former Lunds & Byerly’s on Suburban Avenue in St. Paul, Ha Tien’s second location offers a well-curated selection of fresh meat and produce, plus a refrigerated section with noodles, dumplings, tofu and vegan meats, and more. The market’s deli has a hot bar for lunch, as well as banh mi made with crackly baguettes from the in-house bakery. Order the Lao sausage, laab, or roast pork and sticky rice — and don’t forget to ask for extra jalapeños.

Hmong Village

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A sprawling shopping center just south of Lake Phalen, Hmong Village has an excellent produce section, and is a great place to stock up on lemongrass, fresh chiles, mangos, and hefty Hmong cucumbers. Sidle over to the food court for Hmong sausage with purple sticky rice, steaming bowls of khao poon, and chicken wings stuffed with bean thread noodles, herbs, and ground meat. Get there early on weekends — the parking lot fills up fast.

Original Karen Market

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On one end of this Eastside St. Paul store, there’s an entire wall of fridges stocked with vegetables and herbs. On the other are towering shelves of dry goods like coconut milk, canned lychee, tea leaves, and shrimp snacks. You’ll also find packages of mohinga (fish soup with rice noodles), fresh salads, and mote let kauk (chewy rice-flour donuts with a hardened brown sugar syrup). Burmese restaurants are scarce in the Twin Cities, despite the approximately 20,000 Karen people who live in the state — all the more reason to stop by the Original Karen Market.

Supermarket shelves stacked with canned goods.
Rows on rows of canned goods at Original Karen Market.
Cecilia Johnson

El Burrito Mercado

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This westside mercado is a St. Paul institution. Since opening in 1979, El Burrito Mercado has expanded into a one-stop-shop, adding a bakery, butcher, and restaurant to its traditional grocery offerings. The restaurant boasts one of the few remaining happy hours in town — $5 margaritas and nachos — but the real culinary catch is outside, at the elote stand in the parking lot.

Hmongtown Marketplace

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Housed several large warehouses, Hmongtown Marketplace has an indoor/outdoor green market and vendors selling everything from clothing and ceramics to imported snacks and dry goods. Nestled in a back corner is the can’t-miss food court, which dishes up searingly spicy-sour papaya salad, balls of vermicelli waiting to be dunked into simmering pork broth, roasted duck rubbed with chili and herbs, and sweet, refreshing bubble tea.

Dragon Star Oriental Foods

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This spacious grocery store has been serving St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood for years, and it recently added mochi donut and Korean hot dog counters. Soga Mochi Donut sells a rotating selection of rice-flour sugar bombs — a chewy, exciting new entry to the Twin Cities’ doughnut scene. A few feet away, grab some crunchy-topping-covered hot dogs or cheese on a stick.

Cecil's

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They should write songs about pastrami like Cecil’s. But brined beef is only one of the highlights at this dependable deli, which sells hot meals, sandwich supplies, and bakery treats. If you’re sitting down to eat, you’ll likely meet dining room maestro Aaron Leventhal or one of his kids before tucking into a bowl of matzo ball soup. If you’re ordering at the counter, add a couple poppy or almond hamantaschen — triangular cookies named for the Talmudic villain Haman — and thank yourself later.

Andale Taqueria & Mercado

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With a specialty bakery, butcher shop, and cold deli attached to a large selection of produce and grocery items, this Mexican restaurant and marketplace is well worth the southward trek to Richfield. You’ll find some of the best tamales, tacos, and tortas in the Twin Cities metro at Andale. Whatever you pick, top it off with a selection of housemade salsas, from a fresh smoked-jalapeno to the eye-wateringly hot chile de árbol.

A red plate with a quesadilla, sour cream, refried beans, and rice.
Don’t sleep on the quesadilla platters at Andale.
Andale Taqueria & Mercado

United Noodles

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United Noodles’ UniDeli may be retired, but the pan-Asian grocery store still sells freshly made banh mi sandwiches for lunch and dinner. This former warehouse building also has aisles upon aisles of fresh noodles, frozen dumplings, meat and fish, and tropical produce like Thai bananas, Korean melon, and dragonfruit. If you’re looking to stock up on rice, this is the spot — grab a 25-pound bag.

Coastal Seafoods

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This local seafood mainstay is bigger and better than ever following a recent expansion. After moving into the same warehouse as United Noodles, Coastal’s Minneapolis location now boasts a counter-service restaurant in addition to its classic fish counter and upscale grocery wares. It’s a joy to investigate the catch of the day, dine on crab cakes and lobster rolls, and peruse the classy cookies and olive oils.

A cafe space with tables, a bar with stools, and a counter.
Coastal Seafoods’ new cafe.
Coastal Seafoods

Seward Community Co-op - Franklin Store

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Don’t sleep on the co-ops. Seward gets the nod here thanks to its herb-crusted rotisserie chicken, a ready-to-eat wonder of fatty, crispy skin and juicy meat. (Take a seat in the dining area and crack into one on the spot.) But you can buy a salad, sandwich, or hot meal at most of the member-owned grocery stores around the metro area: the Wedge, Eastside, and so on, with vegan and keto options galore.

Caspian Bistro and Gourmet Marketplace

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At this Persian grocery store near the University of Minnesota, sweets are king. The market offers a wide variety of imported cookies, dates, yogurts, and canned goods. At the airy cafe in the back of the store, there are options for vegetarians and meat lovers alike, from charbroiled kebabs to herbed grape leaves. All entrees come with velvety hummus, saffron-spiked basmati rice, grilled tomatoes, and warm pita.

Holy Land

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After a challenging few years, Holy Land’s flagship location in Northeast Minneapolis is still serving Middle Eastern and Mediterranean staples to the local community. On the grocery side, this Central Avenue spot is stocked with fresh produce, labneh, olives, and spices, plus butcher cuts from the halal meat counter. The counter-service restaurant has an extensive menu of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, from baba ghanoush to kufta kebabs and falafel salad.

Dong Yang Oriental Food

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A Korean grocery store located in Columbia Heights, Dong Yang crams its aisles with imported snacks, shelf-stable condiments and spices, and a huge selection of rice and packaged noodles. At the small deli attached to the store, a rotating selection of banchan accompanies your meal: vinegary daikon, top-of-class kimchi, sweet fish cakes, and bean sprouts drizzled with toasted sesame oil. Order the dolsot bibimbap and get a heated stone bowl of crispy rice, salt-pickled vegetables, and a fried egg still sizzling when it reaches the table.

Good Deal Oriental Foods

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The second a chicken noodle soup craving strikes, get thee to Good Deal. This north Minneapolis grocery has everything you need for khao piak sen, the warming Lao soup, including freshly made khao piak noodles and Hmong chickens. (Not to mention the housemade chili crisp, quarts of Hmong tofu, and a bountiful pan-Asian produce section.) Good Deal’s deli also serves a zippy papaya salad, a gorgeously funky sai krok (fermented Thai sausage), and both cooked and raw beef laab.

Waterside Market

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Plenty of African stores and delis line Brooklyn Boulevard in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, and Waterside Market — named after the biggest market in Monrovia, Liberia — is one of the best. The grocery stocks plentiful plantain chips, fufu flour, palm oil, and frozen fish. At the adjacent Waterside African Kitchen, enjoy flavor-packed dishes like toborgee (Liberian stew), roasted fish, and goat meat soup. The menu rotates daily. It’s worth noting that on Sundays, Waterside serves jollof rice, a West African specialty. 

A dish of rice and meat stew in a bowl next to a bowl of greens and a small bowl of sauce, all against a dark wood background.
Waterside Market is a Brooklyn Park treasure.
Waterside Market

Ha Tien Super Market

Housed in a former Lunds & Byerly’s on Suburban Avenue in St. Paul, Ha Tien’s second location offers a well-curated selection of fresh meat and produce, plus a refrigerated section with noodles, dumplings, tofu and vegan meats, and more. The market’s deli has a hot bar for lunch, as well as banh mi made with crackly baguettes from the in-house bakery. Order the Lao sausage, laab, or roast pork and sticky rice — and don’t forget to ask for extra jalapeños.

Hmong Village

A sprawling shopping center just south of Lake Phalen, Hmong Village has an excellent produce section, and is a great place to stock up on lemongrass, fresh chiles, mangos, and hefty Hmong cucumbers. Sidle over to the food court for Hmong sausage with purple sticky rice, steaming bowls of khao poon, and chicken wings stuffed with bean thread noodles, herbs, and ground meat. Get there early on weekends — the parking lot fills up fast.

Original Karen Market

On one end of this Eastside St. Paul store, there’s an entire wall of fridges stocked with vegetables and herbs. On the other are towering shelves of dry goods like coconut milk, canned lychee, tea leaves, and shrimp snacks. You’ll also find packages of mohinga (fish soup with rice noodles), fresh salads, and mote let kauk (chewy rice-flour donuts with a hardened brown sugar syrup). Burmese restaurants are scarce in the Twin Cities, despite the approximately 20,000 Karen people who live in the state — all the more reason to stop by the Original Karen Market.

Supermarket shelves stacked with canned goods.
Rows on rows of canned goods at Original Karen Market.
Cecilia Johnson

El Burrito Mercado

This westside mercado is a St. Paul institution. Since opening in 1979, El Burrito Mercado has expanded into a one-stop-shop, adding a bakery, butcher, and restaurant to its traditional grocery offerings. The restaurant boasts one of the few remaining happy hours in town — $5 margaritas and nachos — but the real culinary catch is outside, at the elote stand in the parking lot.

Hmongtown Marketplace

Housed several large warehouses, Hmongtown Marketplace has an indoor/outdoor green market and vendors selling everything from clothing and ceramics to imported snacks and dry goods. Nestled in a back corner is the can’t-miss food court, which dishes up searingly spicy-sour papaya salad, balls of vermicelli waiting to be dunked into simmering pork broth, roasted duck rubbed with chili and herbs, and sweet, refreshing bubble tea.

Dragon Star Oriental Foods

This spacious grocery store has been serving St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood for years, and it recently added mochi donut and Korean hot dog counters. Soga Mochi Donut sells a rotating selection of rice-flour sugar bombs — a chewy, exciting new entry to the Twin Cities’ doughnut scene. A few feet away, grab some crunchy-topping-covered hot dogs or cheese on a stick.

Cecil's

They should write songs about pastrami like Cecil’s. But brined beef is only one of the highlights at this dependable deli, which sells hot meals, sandwich supplies, and bakery treats. If you’re sitting down to eat, you’ll likely meet dining room maestro Aaron Leventhal or one of his kids before tucking into a bowl of matzo ball soup. If you’re ordering at the counter, add a couple poppy or almond hamantaschen — triangular cookies named for the Talmudic villain Haman — and thank yourself later.

Andale Taqueria & Mercado

With a specialty bakery, butcher shop, and cold deli attached to a large selection of produce and grocery items, this Mexican restaurant and marketplace is well worth the southward trek to Richfield. You’ll find some of the best tamales, tacos, and tortas in the Twin Cities metro at Andale. Whatever you pick, top it off with a selection of housemade salsas, from a fresh smoked-jalapeno to the eye-wateringly hot chile de árbol.

A red plate with a quesadilla, sour cream, refried beans, and rice.
Don’t sleep on the quesadilla platters at Andale.
Andale Taqueria & Mercado

United Noodles

United Noodles’ UniDeli may be retired, but the pan-Asian grocery store still sells freshly made banh mi sandwiches for lunch and dinner. This former warehouse building also has aisles upon aisles of fresh noodles, frozen dumplings, meat and fish, and tropical produce like Thai bananas, Korean melon, and dragonfruit. If you’re looking to stock up on rice, this is the spot — grab a 25-pound bag.

Coastal Seafoods

This local seafood mainstay is bigger and better than ever following a recent expansion. After moving into the same warehouse as United Noodles, Coastal’s Minneapolis location now boasts a counter-service restaurant in addition to its classic fish counter and upscale grocery wares. It’s a joy to investigate the catch of the day, dine on crab cakes and lobster rolls, and peruse the classy cookies and olive oils.

A cafe space with tables, a bar with stools, and a counter.
Coastal Seafoods’ new cafe.
Coastal Seafoods

Seward Community Co-op - Franklin Store

Don’t sleep on the co-ops. Seward gets the nod here thanks to its herb-crusted rotisserie chicken, a ready-to-eat wonder of fatty, crispy skin and juicy meat. (Take a seat in the dining area and crack into one on the spot.) But you can buy a salad, sandwich, or hot meal at most of the member-owned grocery stores around the metro area: the Wedge, Eastside, and so on, with vegan and keto options galore.

Caspian Bistro and Gourmet Marketplace

At this Persian grocery store near the University of Minnesota, sweets are king. The market offers a wide variety of imported cookies, dates, yogurts, and canned goods. At the airy cafe in the back of the store, there are options for vegetarians and meat lovers alike, from charbroiled kebabs to herbed grape leaves. All entrees come with velvety hummus, saffron-spiked basmati rice, grilled tomatoes, and warm pita.

Holy Land

After a challenging few years, Holy Land’s flagship location in Northeast Minneapolis is still serving Middle Eastern and Mediterranean staples to the local community. On the grocery side, this Central Avenue spot is stocked with fresh produce, labneh, olives, and spices, plus butcher cuts from the halal meat counter. The counter-service restaurant has an extensive menu of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, from baba ghanoush to kufta kebabs and falafel salad.

Dong Yang Oriental Food

A Korean grocery store located in Columbia Heights, Dong Yang crams its aisles with imported snacks, shelf-stable condiments and spices, and a huge selection of rice and packaged noodles. At the small deli attached to the store, a rotating selection of banchan accompanies your meal: vinegary daikon, top-of-class kimchi, sweet fish cakes, and bean sprouts drizzled with toasted sesame oil. Order the dolsot bibimbap and get a heated stone bowl of crispy rice, salt-pickled vegetables, and a fried egg still sizzling when it reaches the table.

Good Deal Oriental Foods

The second a chicken noodle soup craving strikes, get thee to Good Deal. This north Minneapolis grocery has everything you need for khao piak sen, the warming Lao soup, including freshly made khao piak noodles and Hmong chickens. (Not to mention the housemade chili crisp, quarts of Hmong tofu, and a bountiful pan-Asian produce section.) Good Deal’s deli also serves a zippy papaya salad, a gorgeously funky sai krok (fermented Thai sausage), and both cooked and raw beef laab.

Related Maps

Waterside Market

Plenty of African stores and delis line Brooklyn Boulevard in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, and Waterside Market — named after the biggest market in Monrovia, Liberia — is one of the best. The grocery stocks plentiful plantain chips, fufu flour, palm oil, and frozen fish. At the adjacent Waterside African Kitchen, enjoy flavor-packed dishes like toborgee (Liberian stew), roasted fish, and goat meat soup. The menu rotates daily. It’s worth noting that on Sundays, Waterside serves jollof rice, a West African specialty. 

A dish of rice and meat stew in a bowl next to a bowl of greens and a small bowl of sauce, all against a dark wood background.
Waterside Market is a Brooklyn Park treasure.
Waterside Market

Related Maps