The 5 best things our food writers ate this week

“With the winter season slowdown, we’ve been able to get more creative with the menu,” said Soul Lao co-owner Eric Phothisan. That means in addition to their usual menu of Lao comforts, the chef has a few new dishes that blend cultures and tempt food fans to the small restaurant inside St. Paul’s Sibley Plaza.

The KMG crispy chicken sandwich ($20 with fries) borrows the flavors of khao mun gai, a dish Phothisan and his co-owner/wife Sabrina Boualaphanh enjoyed while traveling through Laos. It’s been a menu mainstay since their early food truck days.

The new twist is a large breaded chicken thigh that’s seasoned, fried and served on a brioche bun with lettuce, house made pickles, and their proprietary $$ sauce. Trust me when I say Colonel Sanders never dreamt of achieving this level of flavor. That sauce is the mix of fermented soybean, white pepper, garlic and ginger from the KMG dish (those familiar with Hainanese chicken will recognize it). Here it’s mixed with Japanese mayo and a little Soul Lao-specific magic.

It’s best enjoyed immediately, while that skin is still crunchy and the inside juices are hot and dipped in sweet chili sauce that’s served on the side. Soul Lao’s space has a few tables, but there are even more inside the neighboring Wandering Leaf Brewing Co. taproom. It’s a lush space filled with trailing vines and greenery. Tuck this plan away for next week, when all the fancy dinner reservations are snapped up for Valentine’s Day. A pint of Super Lao Key rice lager and a shared KMG makes for a special kind of date night. (Joy Summers)

2465 W. 7th St., St. Paul, soullao.com

Not much has changed at this Minneapolis diner over the past 80-plus years: same building footprint, 20 or so seats, one flat-top grill, a menu of breakfast and lunch classics. Longtime owners Danny and Oksana Ziegler work perfectly in sync behind the counter, both from years of experience and out of necessity; there’s no room to spare. And everything about it is spectacular.

The awning proudly touts their “World’s Best Hash Browns,” and while I lack global hash brown experience, they are among the best I’ve had ($4.95), crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. A few shakes of salt and pepper is all I needed to dive right in, but the option to add vegetables and cheese could make it a standalone breakfast.

However, I was there to satisfy a lingering pancake craving, and this short stack of scratch-made, plate-sized beauties hit all the marks ($9.75). They had a slight crisp from the grill that yielded to a light and fluffy interior specked with blueberries (an upgrade) and topped with scoops of butter that melted on contact. A splash of syrup added the requisite sweet touch.

Thanks to a side of sausage and the world’s best hash browns, half the pancakes were boxed up for lunch later that day. It was the best breakfast (and lunch) I’ve had in a long time — that is one lucky neighborhood. (Nicole Hvidsten)

813 W. 36th St., Mpls., our-kitchen.com

Ever since St. Louis Park’s Texa-Tonka strip mall got a refresh that turned it into something of a restaurant row, I’ve hoped the owners of other suburban shopping centers would take note. So when I saw last fall that one of Golden Valley’s strips of stores along Olson Hwy. was getting a new restaurant and doughnut shop, I was excited by the possibilities.

Nagoya Japanese Bistro has all the usual takeout favorites: sushi rolls, teriyaki bento boxes, miso soup, gyoza, ramen and poke bowls. But dine in, and you’ll be treated to a tranquil yet enormous dining room, and the ability to order AYCE, or all-you-can-eat (adults $40, children 4 and up $20, children 3 and under free). You get to sample a bit of everything if you wish, and the low-stakes way of ordering makes it easy for curious diners to try some things they’d otherwise skip.

The tamago nigiri was a big hit with my kids, and something we now know they’ll order again. I tried a couple of special rolls plus some other odds and ends, and a favorite was the Angry Dragon with shrimp tempura and avocado inside, and flambéed lobster salad on top ($17 when not doing AYCE).

Dessert is included, and you can choose from three flavors of mochi ice cream. But if you want something more, housed inside Nagoya is a counter selling Mochinut mochi doughnuts (not included in the dinner). You can order them at the table or get one to go on your way out. (Sharyn Jackson)

8030 Olson Hwy., Golden Valley, nagoyasushigoldenvalley.com

Gatherings Cafe has been around since 2016. But after closing for a year as part of a major renovation of the Minneapolis American Indian Center on E. Franklin and Bloomington avenues, it’s back with a fresh space that includes a larger kitchen and dining room. The menu at the weekday breakfast and lunch cafe has been revamped, under the helm of executive chef Vernon DeFoe, while still emphasizing healthy bites that infuse Indigenous ingredients and flavors.

The bison melt available at lunch that comes with a choice of a side salad or chips and salsa ($18) is a delectable example. We appreciated that the meat was a steak cut, rather than ground as we’re more used to finding on restaurant menus for bison in sandwich form. Here, the steak is thinly sliced to finely coat the house marinade and give pieces a nice sear when cooked on a wood-fire grill.

It reminded us of a great chopped steak or Philly cheesesteak, and caramelized red peppers and onions as well as melty cheese (smoked gouda, in this case) further brought similar vibes. However, the kitchen clearly has made the dish their own with the use of leaner bison substituting for beef. The sweet, tangy house aioli infused with blueberry and horseradish as well as the bread, which line cook Linus Yellowhorse makes in house using wild rice flour, are no afterthoughts, either. (Nancy Ngo)

1530 E. Franklin Av., Mpls.; maicnet.org/gatherings-cafe

When meeting a family member for dinner recently, I suggested we head to a place in Eagan that he was a fan of. Stepping inside, this strikingly cozy and design-savvy spot in the Promenade Place commercial plaza instantly drew me in. The menu, drawing from American comfort and global flavors, was just as intriguing.

At first, the cluck slider ($6), a buttermilk-marinated chicken breast with a citrusy ponzu slaw and kicky habanero, seemed the shoo-in for favorite dish. That was, until the Vietnamese pork belly rice plate ($21) came to the table. It’s one of Kitchen and Rail’s top sellers (according to our server), and the particular menu item that my dining mate will — and has — traveled across town for.

It’s a dish swimming in flavor. Pork belly slices are smoked low and slow for tender, juicy results. But that would count for nothing if it weren’t for the flavorful glaze. Ingredients such as brown sugar and coconut water (also a meat tenderizer) bounce sweet notes while chiles give off heat. The pork belly is then served on a bed of rice to mop up all that goodness and topped with cilantro and fresh habanero slices. With every tasty bite, I started to plot a return trip, just as others before me. (N.N.)

3344 Promenade Av., Eagan, kitchenandrail.com