A beloved Ukrainian bakery, delicatessen, and restaurant, Kramarczuk’s first opened in Northeast Minneapolis near the Nicollet Island bridge in 1954. Anna and Wasyl Kramarczuk came to Minnesota from Ukraine as refugees in the late 1940s — several years after settling in Minneapolis, they bought one of the city’s oldest butcher shops and made it their own. Today, Kramarczuk’s is beloved for its vast array of savory sausages and its restaurant menu, which features favorites like pierogi, borscht, and hefty pastrami brisket sandwiches. The James Beard Foundation named it an America’s classic in 2013.

Chef Kamal Mohamed opened Stepchld in Northeast Minneapolis in 2021. Stop by for inventive dishes like salmon sambusas, lavender nori shrimp, and berbere-spiced birria tacos. The restaurant might be the best spot in the Cities to get a glass of orange wine (there are eight on the menu). It also serves a great burger — the “Cooper Burger” is served with an impressive layer of Cooper’s white American cheese, tangy, thick-cut house pickles, and aioli made with mitmita, an Ethiopian spice blend.

A longtime Northeast favorite, Emily’s Lebanese Deli is a family-run operation serving Lebanese dishes in a small building on University Avenue since 1973. Order a few salads to go, or sit in and enjoy fresh grape leaves stuffed with lamb and rice, a fried kibbi sandwich, or flaky spinach pies warm from the oven. Save room for baklava (Emily’s has prominent notes of rosewater) and crema, a Lebanese orange blossom custard.

Beloved takeout operation Nixta’s dine-in space, Oro, is now open. Chef Gustavo Romero’s Mexican menu preserves and celebrates heirloom corn varieties, which have suffered in recent decades due to hybridization and industrial tortilla production. As tasty as Romero’s dishes are for takeout, they shine in a plated, dine-in format. Tender hunks of pollo rest in a chocolatey pool of mole; pork belly is served with a tangy pastor adobo. On Oro’s menu, masa takes a number of unique forms: chochoyotes (potato-requeson dumplings), tetelas (triangular nixtamal cakes), and tlayudas (large, crunchy tortillas) alongside tacos, sopes, and tamales.

Young Joni, by James Beard award-winning chef Ann Kim, is known for its exceptionally crackly thin-crust pizzas. The spicy lamb sausage pizza is finished with fresno chili, feta, and mint; La Parisienne is a prosciutto-and-gruyere homage to the City of Light. Also notable are small plates like Korean sweet potatoes and charred savoy cabbage. After dinner, slip into the back-alley speakeasy for cocktails.

Ideal Diner, a tiny, sunshine-yellow diner on Central Avenue, has served Northeast Minneapolis since 1949. Today, it’s one of the few spots in the Cities you can get a cup of coffee for $1.75. Breakfast dishes are served all day — the Polish Man breakfast, a combo of eggs, Polish sausage, and hash browns, nods to the neighborhood’s Eastern European immigrant roots. The buttermilk short stacks are served with a generous dollop of butter.

Chef John Wipfli’s Animales serves exceptional barbecue out of a food truck at Bauhaus Brew Labs in Northeast Minneapolis. These ribs don’t come slathered in sweet sauce — they’re dry-rubbed, a bark of crushed peppercorns and salt stealing nothing from the meat’s oak-smoked flavor. The menu changes often, adding pork shoulder congee bowls, beef cheek banh mi, and hot beef sandwiches to the mix. Get there early, as Animales often sells out.

Centro is a fast-casual restaurant with a succinct menu of tacos, quesadillas, nachos, and enchiladas. Try the carnitas en adobo tacos or the nopales, made with cured cactus and mushrooms. Save room for a chocolate mole cupcake. Chef Jose Alarcon and co-owner Jami Olson’s other ventures include next-door Vivir and a new Eat Street location.

From a verdant, intensely savory banana blossom salad to herbaceous beef laab lettuce wraps, James Beard-nominated chef Christina Nguyen has crafted a compelling menu at Hai Hai. Take a look at the cocktail menu: The rotating selection of slushies (think passionfruit and lychee) and jackfruit sangria are a must. Grab a seat on the patio or in the restaurant’s breezy interior, dressed in tropical hues of emerald and turquoise.

El Taco Riendo might just serve the best chicken tinga in the Twin Cities. This marinade doesn’t overload on heat — it balances the tomatoes’ tang with the chipotle peppers’ smoke, rounding it all out on a slightly sweet note. Order it on tacos or up the ante with a chicken tinga chimichanga, which pairs well with an ice-cold horchata. El Taco Riendo is a cornerstone of Northeast’s Central Avenue dining corridor — owner Miguel Gomez rebuilt the restaurant after it was severely damaged in a fire in 2020.

Vegan restaurant Francis is up and running in the former Sen Yai Sen Lek and Dipped & Debris space in Northeast. The Francis team — Lindsey Johnston, Garrett Born, and Brendan Viele — serves a vegan bar food menu (think Impossible burgers and bean burgers, chicken sandwiches and nuggets made with a seitan-tofu blend that’s breaded and fried, and crispy french fries). There’s also a bar with fully vegan cocktails.