Northern Kitchen (Bloomington, MN)

The Twin Cities has not historically had much of a regional Chinese restaurant scene. There’ve been some very good Sichuan restaurants in the metro over the years (Grand Szechuan and Legendary Spice, most notably) and there are some acceptable dim sum options—depending on how charitable/cranky you’re feeling (Jade Dynasty and Yangtze are the best of the bunch). But there’s not much else beyond that of note. Or so I thought till this past summer when blog reader Michael C emailed me to recommend two Chinese restaurants I had not previously heard of. The one that particularly caught my eye was Northern Kitchen. This both because it’s located in Bloomington—a little closer to us than the Cities proper—and because their specialty is Northern Chinese cuisine. Given the rigors of my summer travels and then the start of my college term, it took us a while to get out there. We liked our first lunch—eaten the weekend before last—so much that we went back again this past weekend to eat more of the menu. Here’s a quick look at both meals.

Northern Kitchen is located in a strip mall on Portland Avenue in Bloomington, right off the 494 freeway. If you have trouble spotting it in the strip mall, just look for the larger sign for the Relaxing Healthy Center. This is a spa owned by the same people. If you go in the door and turn to the right you can get a massage; if you turn to the left you can eat some delicious food from Northern China (as well as some popular dishes from some other regions). The restaurant is bright and has a fair bit of seating. There are some booths in the front, more booths and tables in the back, and a couple of larger round tables in a room that’s reserved for larger groups. At the first lunch it was just the four of us and so we got a booth in the front.

Lunch 1

The menu is not over-large but it’s not very short either. I had looked at it online and figured that I would ask our server for guidance on selecting some Northern Chinese dishes. Alas, while our server was very friendly, she had only a little more English than I have Mandarin and it was a bit of a struggle to try to figure this out (though she did tell us that the restaurant has been open for about four years). As at the Northern Chinese restaurant we ate at in Seoul in May, we ended up with a mix of Sichuan and Northern Chinese dishes. Please excuse my inexact nomenclature—I’m not knowledgeable enough about the broader cuisine to be able to say with confidence which parts of Northern China particular dishes might be from; if you do, please educate me in the comments.

On our table were the following:

To start: Northern Kitchen Jelly and Beef Roll . The former featured mung bean noodles and cucumber and other vegetables tossed in a vinegary sesame dressing. It’s a cold noodle salad and is very tasty if you like this kind of thing. The beef roll turned out to be what I’d hoped it would be: sliced beef rolled up with hoisin sauce, pickled veg and cilantro in a crisp flatbread (all but indistinguishable from some Indian parathas). Our one knock on this is that it was a bit too greasy but it was very tasty indeed. Both of these are Northern Chinese dishes.

Next to arrive were another Northern Chinese dish, a Sichuan dish and another that might be one or the other. The indisputably Northern Chinese dish is called Fried Pork in Scoop . What it is is thin slices of pork encased in crisply fried batter and tossed in a tangy-sweet sauce. We went through this at a rapid rate. The Sichuan dish was Eggplant in Garlic Sauce/Fish-Fragrant Eggplant but it was better than any version we’ve had at any Sichuan restaurant in the metro. The eggplant was intricately sliced, perfectly fried and the garlic sauce was complex and delicious. The dish of uncertain origin was the Cumin Lamb . On the one hand, there’re a lot of lamb dishes of this kind in the north; on the other, we’ve had similar dishes at many Sichuan restaurants. The most important thing, however, is that this was delicious too. The last dish to arrive was the House Spicy Beef . Given the name, I’d hoped this would turn out to be a Northern Chinese dish as well but what showed up was essentially a very good rendition of the classic Sichuan water-boiled beef.

For a look at the restaurant, the menu and everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much this meal cost and for a look at our second lunch which was more extensive and focused entirely on Northern Chinese food.

All of the above plus some tea came to just over $132 before tip. We took leftovers home and thought it very good value for the quantity and quality.

As I said, we made prompt plans to return the following weekend.

Lunch 2

On this occasion we were joined by three friends from our usual eating out crew and we had one of the large round tables in the inner sanctum. This time I had done my research ahead of time, using the Chinese names of the dishes on the physical menu at the first meal and we had an almost-entirely Northern Chinese meal.

The one dish that kept it from being an all-Northern Chinese affair was the Pan-Fried Dumplings , which turned out to be regulation dumplings (and quite tasty). Joining the dumplings on the table in the first wave were Spicy and Sour Potato , Braised Beef , Dried Tofu with Green Pepper and Triple Vegetables . The potato dish—barely cooked shreds in a tangy dressing—was similar to the “Seven-Second Potato” at Grand Szechuan and was very good. So were the braised beef and the dried tofu with green pepper. The former was actually a cold dish of sliced braised beef served with a soy dipping sauce; the latter featured wide strips of dried bean curd sauteed with peppers and served in a mild, starchy sauce. The star of the round, however, was the unassumingly named triple vegetables. This featured chunks of eggplant and potato plus peppers, deep-fried and tossed in a tangy-sweet sauce. The eggplant, in particular, were fried to perfection. None of this lasted very long.

Arriving in the next wave were a bunch of larger dishes. They included Braised Beef Noodles , Fillet with Stew Sauce , Lamb Spine Stew , Cumin Chicken Rack , and Pork with Sour Pickle . The only problem with this part of the order was that it included three soupy/stewy dishes. These were the braised beef noodles which features thick wheat noodles in a mildly spicy broth topped with chunks of braised beef and bok choy; the lamb spine stew, which features a lot of lamb on and off the bone in a mildly sour and spicy broth; and the pork, which featured a massive pork hock in a pungent broth made with pickled cabbage. The first two were uniformly popular at the table; the pork divided the group with some finding it a bit too pungent/strong on the nose. Everybody was united, however, in appreciation of the fillet with stew. This is a fish dish featuring sauteed white fish with bean sprouts in a soy dressing with some very hot chopped peppers tossed around for the unwary to discover. Just an excellent dish. The last dish also divided the table. The cumin chicken rack turned out to be extremely bony pieces of hacked-up chicken carcass, battered and fried to a crisp and tossed with ground spices (heavy on chilli and cumin). I couldn’t get enough of it but only one other member of the party was as enthused about chomping up the bones.

For a look at this meal, launch the slideshow below and then scroll down to see how much it all cost.

The total for all of the above plus tea and a couple of soft drinks came to just over $257. That includes tax and tip, which was automatically added on for our large group. We took a lot of leftovers home. It would have been enough food for 10 adults, which puts the effective per head cost at $26. Again, very good value.

By the way, at this meal we discovered that some of their menus are formatted differently than the ones we were given at the first meal. It’s all the same stuff, just in a different order. There are still some other Northern Chinese dishes on the menu that we haven’t tried and so there’s a very good chance we’ll be back again in early 2027. In the meantime, if you haven’t yet been yourself, do go and give it a try. Many thanks again to Michael C. for the tip—I’ll hope to get to the other place early in 2027 as well, if not sooner.

Alright, coming next: another report from Seoul. I was supposed to post my review of my dinner at Masque in Bombay on Tuesday but life got in the way. I’ll hope to get that out over the weekend along with another report from Hokkaido. Let’s see how it goes.

Northern Kitchen (Bloomington, MN)

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