29-30 March 2024
One of the things you notice if you travel a lot is that when you rely on stuff you find online when you do your food research, you get some gems – and you get some duds. I’ve had plenty of duds recently, and sadly, I have to add two more now. And these are all “trendy” places.
If you read my previous review on that excellent dinner at Kado no Mise in Minneapolis, you’ll note early on I mentioned I had lunch at a trendy place that went rather subpar? Sadly the place in question was the highly-raved Union Hmong Kitchen.
I got there not long after it opened on this Friday and ordered. It was quiet as it was early, so I just chilled out trying to plan what I was going to do due to the ice changing my plans. Then my lunch arrived.
My heart sank. The pork belly looks sad, really sad. They were some of the worst roast pork belly I’ve had. Stringy, at times all fat, and almost no flavour. It’s like someone forgot to season this. This does not even compare to the amazing Hmong pork belly I’ve had at places like Union Market in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which had some of the best Hmong meats I’ve ever had, or more recently, Hmong Express in Appleton, Wisconsin.
I will say the sausage, which I took away, was far, far better. But this belly dish was just a cry for help, I’m sorry. I love Hmong meats, especially the pork belly, but this looks ridiculously lame compared to the stuff you can get at any small Hmong store in Wisconsin.
The next day I headed out of icy Minneapolis before dawn, as I planned to spend part of today in northern and north-west Iowa. I was amazed that merely 15 miles south of the Twin Cities there was very little snow or ice left. So I had a very productive day as I moved south, then south-west, then west through Iowa and eventually into South Dakota.
I drifted into my destination, Sioux Falls, at an earlier than expected hour, so I had time for a late lunch. I have this love for chislic and would grab it at every opportunity I get, so I decided to try this place called Urban Chislic.
I hesitated because it was featured on that crappy “DDD” show hosted by that gasbag who I will never forgive for what he said to me the night my restaurant closed. But I nevertheless took out an order each of the beef and lamb chislic and opened them up. Honestly, it don’t matter which one this was cuz they looked the same.
My heart sank again. This was really poor. Once I bit into it, I was even more sad. They forgot to season it. I called for no sauce because that’s the tradition, but these were dead plain. Worse, it was cold, 90 seconds after they brought it out from the kitchen? This also tells me they are not making these fresh. The lamb suffers more with that bad temerature than the beef, but both were awful.
Well, I got burned on both of these. Sad, as these places have amazing potential with great concepts, but the products I received are half-assed at best, shows no care. It won’t put me off pork belly, Hmong food, or chislic, but it will put me off these two establishments next time I visit Minneapolis or Sioux Falls.
Sigh…
Union Hmong Kitchen (Lake Street)
901 West Lake Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Urban Chislic
431 West 85th Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
melhuang1972 