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Skewers of meat next to pickled vegetables and red sauce on a wooden plate.
Sanjusan in the North Loop.
Wing Ta

15 Twin Cities Restaurants That Are (Surprisingly) Open on Monday Night

Great bets for Monday night dining

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Sanjusan in the North Loop.
| Wing Ta

Many restaurants close on Mondays, taking a break on what’s typically the slowest business day of the week. This can make it tricky to score a reservation for a date night or special occasion — but more Twin Cities restaurants stay open on Monday than you might think. Here’s where to start the week at restaurants around Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Note that these restaurants are listed geographically.

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Broders' Pasta Bar

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Broder’s is worthy of a Lady and the Tramp pasta moment. Try the classics — like the spaghetti carbonara, the bolognese, or the gnocchi pomodoro. (A simple eggless pasta with tomatoes and olive oil is available for vegans.) Broder’s is elegant but not overly formal — the wooden wrap-around bar is a great place to share a cozy dinner.

Martina

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Chef Danny del Prado’s Linden Hills restaurant Martina serves Argentinian and Italian cuisine. Order the potato churros to start, which balance a soft, creamy interior with craggy, crispy fried edges. From the grill, try the pork chop with corn puree, or the parillada for two, made with bavette, sweetbreads, chorizo, and bone marrow.

A white bowl filled with spaghetti with red sauce and lobster.
Spaghetti and lobster from Martina.
Kevin Kramer/Eater Twin Cities

Khâluna

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Khâluna by chef Ann Ahmed, one of Eater’s best new restaurants of 2022, serves mieng paa (a small plate made with puffed rice, banana blossoms, and peanuts), duck larb, and whole fried red snapper with mango tamarind slaw. Ahmed’s rainbow rice, when sprinkled with lime, turns from delicate blue to lavender. The bar menu offers cocktails with flavors of passionfruit, persimmon, and makrut lime.

Sooki & Mimi

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James Beard Award-winning chef Ann Kim’s Sooki & Mimi serves dishes like Korean and Mexican-influenced dishes made with heirloom corn — think mushroom birria tacos, yellow squash tamal, and galbi jjim served with tortillas. Tepache is fermented on-site.

At the center of a large room with sunny gold light is a curved bar with large, round, black leather topped stools.
The bar at Sooki and Mimi.
Jes Lahay

P.S. Steak

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Housed in the 510 Groveland building near Loring Park, P.S. Steak serves some of the Cities’ best steaks in an opulent dining room and lounge. The Denver steak is exceptionally tender — the grilled asparagus with truffle vinaigrette and sauteed mushrooms are ideal veggie foils for P.S. steak’s hefty cuts of beef.

Sanjusan

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Chef Danny del Prado and Shigeyuki Furukawa’s marriage of Japanese and Italian cuisines shines in this sparse dining room on North First Avenue. The menu features vibrant dishes like crimson-hued beef carpaccio, squid ink pappardelle, and a variety of small plates and thin-crust pizza.

A white plate close up of ravioli under shredded cheese.
Sanjusan in the North Loop.
Sanjusan

Spoon and Stable

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Chef Gavin Kaysen’s North Loop restaurant, which dates to 1906, was once a horse stable. The menu changes often, keeping pace with Midwest seasonality, but still manages to feel timeless. Expect dishes like cappelletti with butternut squash, striped bass with collard greens, and a delicate strawberry and sorrel mille-feuille.

A delicate green and pink mille-feuille dessert in a white dish.
Strawberry and sorrel mille-feuille from Spoon and Stable.
Erin Kincheloe

Maison Margaux

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Chef David Fhima’s new North Loop restaurant is styled as a French brasserie. On the menu are French onion soup, steak au poivre, and racks of lamb served with Dijon cognac beurre blanc; the basement bar, cloaked in red velvet, serves burgers and lobster deviled eggs. Wine is the focus here, with more than 860 selections in house.

A pear tart topped with whipped cream and a sprig of mint on a white and green patterned plate resting on a blue table.
Maison Margaux’s pear tart.
Tim Evans/Eater Twin Cities

Bar La Grassa

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James Beard Award-winning chef Isaac Becker’s sultry Italian restaurant is a North Loop classic. Start with the soft eggs and lobster bruschetta, infused with intoxicating truffle oil. Then it’s onto the pasta: Mafalda bolognese, crab ravioli, or red wine spaghetti sprinkled with pine nuts. Bar La Grassa’s open-floor dining room is elegant and a little crowded, which gives it a convivial feel.

All Saints Restaurant

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Upscale All Saints puts veggies at the forefront: roasted carrots are served with bulgur wheat and dates; a salad of tender gem lettuce is dress with a buttermilk vinaigrette. But there are plenty of meat dishes on the menu too, like duck confit with bitter greens and New York strip.

STEPCHLD

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Chef Kamal Mohamed opened Stepchld in Northeast Minneapolis in 2021. Stop by for inventive dishes like salmon sambusas, lavender nori shrimp, burgers, 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).

Estelle

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Estelle, an upscale but understated restaurant on St. Paul’s St. Clair Avenue, pairs breezy Spanish and Portuguese dishes like patatas bravas, shrimp al ajillo, and beet escabeche with comforting Italian pastas. The pasteis de nata, a classic Portuguese egg tart, is a flawless sweet note at the end of the meal. 

A plate of grilled prawns and grilled baguettes next to a plate of shaved ham and grilled baguettes, with a cocktail on the table.
A spread from Estelle.
Estelle

Handsome Hog

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Chef Justin Sutherland has a steady hand at the smoker. Handsome Hog’s dry-rub spare ribs or smoked beef brisket, both served with Texas toast, are great bets. For brunch, stop in for chicken and waffles, or rock shrimp with grits. Even a bloody mary takes a Southern twist with an infusion of bourbon.

Moscow on the Hill

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Moscow on the hill serves comforting European dishes in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill — think borscht, buttered pelmeni stuffed with pork and beef, and tender chicken Kiev. Horseradish, pepper, and caraway-infused vodkas clock in at just $5.50 a pour.

Pajarito

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Pair a habanero margarita with sweet corn esquites and wood-fired octopus at Pajarito. The shaved beef torta, oozying jalapeno cheese, is sliced in half and served standing up in a dish of salsa roja. Pajarito has a great happy hour, too.

A sliced in half sandwich stuffed with beef and red pickled onions sits on its side in a low-edged bowl.
Pajarito’s popular torta.
Kat Peterson/Eater Twin Cities

Broders' Pasta Bar

Broder’s is worthy of a Lady and the Tramp pasta moment. Try the classics — like the spaghetti carbonara, the bolognese, or the gnocchi pomodoro. (A simple eggless pasta with tomatoes and olive oil is available for vegans.) Broder’s is elegant but not overly formal — the wooden wrap-around bar is a great place to share a cozy dinner.

Martina

Chef Danny del Prado’s Linden Hills restaurant Martina serves Argentinian and Italian cuisine. Order the potato churros to start, which balance a soft, creamy interior with craggy, crispy fried edges. From the grill, try the pork chop with corn puree, or the parillada for two, made with bavette, sweetbreads, chorizo, and bone marrow.

A white bowl filled with spaghetti with red sauce and lobster.
Spaghetti and lobster from Martina.
Kevin Kramer/Eater Twin Cities

Khâluna

Khâluna by chef Ann Ahmed, one of Eater’s best new restaurants of 2022, serves mieng paa (a small plate made with puffed rice, banana blossoms, and peanuts), duck larb, and whole fried red snapper with mango tamarind slaw. Ahmed’s rainbow rice, when sprinkled with lime, turns from delicate blue to lavender. The bar menu offers cocktails with flavors of passionfruit, persimmon, and makrut lime.

Sooki & Mimi

James Beard Award-winning chef Ann Kim’s Sooki & Mimi serves dishes like Korean and Mexican-influenced dishes made with heirloom corn — think mushroom birria tacos, yellow squash tamal, and galbi jjim served with tortillas. Tepache is fermented on-site.

At the center of a large room with sunny gold light is a curved bar with large, round, black leather topped stools.
The bar at Sooki and Mimi.
Jes Lahay

P.S. Steak

Housed in the 510 Groveland building near Loring Park, P.S. Steak serves some of the Cities’ best steaks in an opulent dining room and lounge. The Denver steak is exceptionally tender — the grilled asparagus with truffle vinaigrette and sauteed mushrooms are ideal veggie foils for P.S. steak’s hefty cuts of beef.

Sanjusan

Chef Danny del Prado and Shigeyuki Furukawa’s marriage of Japanese and Italian cuisines shines in this sparse dining room on North First Avenue. The menu features vibrant dishes like crimson-hued beef carpaccio, squid ink pappardelle, and a variety of small plates and thin-crust pizza.

A white plate close up of ravioli under shredded cheese.
Sanjusan in the North Loop.
Sanjusan

Spoon and Stable

Chef Gavin Kaysen’s North Loop restaurant, which dates to 1906, was once a horse stable. The menu changes often, keeping pace with Midwest seasonality, but still manages to feel timeless. Expect dishes like cappelletti with butternut squash, striped bass with collard greens, and a delicate strawberry and sorrel mille-feuille.

A delicate green and pink mille-feuille dessert in a white dish.
Strawberry and sorrel mille-feuille from Spoon and Stable.
Erin Kincheloe

Maison Margaux

Chef David Fhima’s new North Loop restaurant is styled as a French brasserie. On the menu are French onion soup, steak au poivre, and racks of lamb served with Dijon cognac beurre blanc; the basement bar, cloaked in red velvet, serves burgers and lobster deviled eggs. Wine is the focus here, with more than 860 selections in house.

A pear tart topped with whipped cream and a sprig of mint on a white and green patterned plate resting on a blue table.
Maison Margaux’s pear tart.
Tim Evans/Eater Twin Cities

Bar La Grassa

James Beard Award-winning chef Isaac Becker’s sultry Italian restaurant is a North Loop classic. Start with the soft eggs and lobster bruschetta, infused with intoxicating truffle oil. Then it’s onto the pasta: Mafalda bolognese, crab ravioli, or red wine spaghetti sprinkled with pine nuts. Bar La Grassa’s open-floor dining room is elegant and a little crowded, which gives it a convivial feel.

All Saints Restaurant

Upscale All Saints puts veggies at the forefront: roasted carrots are served with bulgur wheat and dates; a salad of tender gem lettuce is dress with a buttermilk vinaigrette. But there are plenty of meat dishes on the menu too, like duck confit with bitter greens and New York strip.

STEPCHLD

Chef Kamal Mohamed opened Stepchld in Northeast Minneapolis in 2021. Stop by for inventive dishes like salmon sambusas, lavender nori shrimp, burgers, 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).

Estelle

Estelle, an upscale but understated restaurant on St. Paul’s St. Clair Avenue, pairs breezy Spanish and Portuguese dishes like patatas bravas, shrimp al ajillo, and beet escabeche with comforting Italian pastas. The pasteis de nata, a classic Portuguese egg tart, is a flawless sweet note at the end of the meal. 

A plate of grilled prawns and grilled baguettes next to a plate of shaved ham and grilled baguettes, with a cocktail on the table.
A spread from Estelle.
Estelle

Handsome Hog

Chef Justin Sutherland has a steady hand at the smoker. Handsome Hog’s dry-rub spare ribs or smoked beef brisket, both served with Texas toast, are great bets. For brunch, stop in for chicken and waffles, or rock shrimp with grits. Even a bloody mary takes a Southern twist with an infusion of bourbon.

Moscow on the Hill

Moscow on the hill serves comforting European dishes in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill — think borscht, buttered pelmeni stuffed with pork and beef, and tender chicken Kiev. Horseradish, pepper, and caraway-infused vodkas clock in at just $5.50 a pour.

Pajarito

Pair a habanero margarita with sweet corn esquites and wood-fired octopus at Pajarito. The shaved beef torta, oozying jalapeno cheese, is sliced in half and served standing up in a dish of salsa roja. Pajarito has a great happy hour, too.

A sliced in half sandwich stuffed with beef and red pickled onions sits on its side in a low-edged bowl.
Pajarito’s popular torta.
Kat Peterson/Eater Twin Cities

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