Figlio-A Restaurant and Bar

Can’t wait for this spot to re-​open in an even better location. Watch out, I may just reinstate my regular status.

Great Sunday Funday Happy Hour! All day Sunday happy hour and it is great. Miniburgers, fries and always the game on.
I like to grab my girlfriends and hit Figio’s for a day of fun! Their service always seems acceptable and the food is tasty. Good place to go to for reliable food and service.
BUT — I hear they are currently closed for renovations.

Just a note before I get into this: Figlio is closed for renovations for the next two months or so (check the date on this review, do the math, and if you’re not sure, call ahead).
I agree that the food is decent. I always leave happy that I chose to eat there and I’ve never had a bad experience with the service. Victims of my company are always pleasantly surprised that I’ve chosen a «normal» restaurant for once. I last visited with my mom and she liked that she could get a half-​order of the pasta dishes. She’s a very picky lady and she usually insists on the same restaurant every time (Mongo’s in Maple Grove). We shared a bucket of mussels and it came with two slices of the most delicious bread I’ve had in my life.
I don’t want to oversell Figlio because it’s not at all adventurous or exceptional. It’s solid, and that’s worth three stars to me.

I honestly love this place! It has a great atmosphere that will draw you in as soon as you enter the building. Because of its large, open areas it can get loud so if you are planning a romantic dinner try to find a time where there are few people or just go elsewhere. The staff is usually above average and have great, playful attitudes with the exception of a couple of servers I’m sure have been weeded out since the last time I was there. The prices were average to slightly above average, but the quality of the food was higher so I’m happy to pay a buck or two more for that.
As everyone else has written, happy hour is amazing! Well priced, stiff drinks and inexpensive, tasty food is always a plus in my mind. This is the time that it really gets crowded and noisy because a lot of people come here to start off their nights, but you will be caught up in the positive energy that this place has.
I’m in love with a lot of their drinks and food, especially their cheese ravioli. Forget that powdered cheese ravioli you get at the bland restaurant down the street from your house, the ravioli here oozes cheese in your mouth with every bite and has a mouth watering sauce that you can’t get enough of. I love it and would marry it if I could.

I went to Figlio with my boyfriend for a night out and we had a good time. I had a really good glass of Riesling and my boyfriend, who choose against alcohol for dinner, had a great root beer! :) Our dinner was good, but the portions were huge! There was no way I could have finished my food, but left overs are always a plus right. I had the lobster ravioli and my boyfriend had the baked ziti. Our server was friendly, but a little distracted. Our bill was a tad bit high for the food, but we enjoyed ourselves, which is really all that matters.
I did see on their menu that they have a really great happy hour, so I think that is the next time I will go back.

We went for the happy hour, and sat on the sidewalk since my wife thought there was a funny smell inside. She can be crazy sometimes.
Anyways, $ 3 beer/​wine/​apps from 4 – 6 isn’t bad. Don’t bother with the mini pizzas, but the mini burgers come with surprisingly tasty fries.

A quick review of all reviews will show that happy hour is what this place is about so going there for lunch, I did not expect fireworks. The salmon nicoise salad had unrealized possibilities. Service was blah — nothing to complain or rave about.
Was disappointed that they could not seat a party of 6 on the patio… ahem, on the sidewalk. Which is fine if the message came with a smile and ‘we’re so sorry but we cannot do that” instead of a matter-​of-​fact statement delivered without emotion.
OKAY captures it. For food, service and ambiance.

Like others have mentioned Happy Hour is the time to be here.
I finished off my little happy hour bar crawl here on Monday because it runs from 11:30 am to 1:00am. Its not really a HH if it goes all day, but I will take it.
It was a little cool outside so all the outside seating wasn’t taken yet, so we asked to be seated out there. Its a perfect spot to people watch due to the location. Server came around quick to take the drink order which included the $ 3 taps. I had been drinking for the past few hours so I needed to get some food in me, luckily the HH special is $ 3 plates of simple bar food, so I order the Italian meatball sandwich and the sloppy joes. Drinks came quickly and the food followed shortly there after.
The only negative was the fact that the server brought out mini burgers instead of the sloppy joes, but she quickly fixed that. By the way, the sloppy joes are just the Italian meatballs smashed up with an onion slice on the bread. The HH mini burgers and sandwiches come with fries so it was a filling meal for only $ 6. My friend ordered the mini pizza and cod slider and he said it was really good.
I will definitely be coming back here to enjoy the HH more.

Happy hour! Whoo!
Definitely the best part about this place. Gets crowded and fun during happy hour. I can’t speak for the rest because we moved on after happy hour ended! But it definitely was a great place to start. Shared a mini-​app-​pizza with friends and was good. Would like to stop back for dinner. Definitely a easy place to go in Minneapolis.

The best thing about this place is how people pronounce its name.
(Me at the big bus stop in uptown)
High school girl: Umm do you know where Fig-​lee-​os is?
Me: What?
Girl: Fig-​lee-​os? Is it down the street?
Me: (Holding back chuckles) Yeah! It’s down the street. Take a left… yeah take a left to go to fig-​lee-​os.

I have always been fond of Figlio. I recently visited for lunch and had another excellent experience. I had a small serving of Tagliatelle with chicken, snow pea pods, sun-​dried tomatos in a cream sauce. Absolutely delicious. I think it was $ 7.50, which is a terrific price for the lunch portion. My friend had the Tortellini and it was equally as delicious and well priced. Service was outstanding.
Their new spread that comes with the bread is a nice change from the standard Italian oil. I should have asked what it was.
They are currently offering several «recession specials» that seem like a really good deal. Good option for lunch and happy hour.
It can get pretty crowded during happy hour and dinner service, so I wouldn’t recommend it for an intimate dinner date, but for a long lunch date, it is perfect.
Only one thing I would change — I wish they served non-​alcoholic wine.

The quality and service you’d expect. Food is fine, service is fine, atmosphere is fine… yeah, just fine.
Best thing is their Happy Hour.

Wow! It’d been years since I was last here. And recently, I went to meet up with friends after a job interview. It was just what I needed. A flavorful glass of red wine and friends. The cheap prices during happy hour were a big plus. I had one of their little pizzas and my friend had the little fish sandwich. We both were happy with our choices, and thankful later on after a few more glasses of wine… Because it was not until about 10pm that we finally got around to getting a table to have dinner. I ordered some pasta with a pesto cream sauce and shrimp — it was amazing. I ate my fill and brought the rest home for a satisfying meal the following day. I must get back to this place a bit more to try some other dishes…

Went here for dinner with family on a recommendation. I could see why people speak so highly of it — good food, great location and atmosphere, great crowd.
We had mostly pasta with appetizers, which were all good. The calamari especially as an appetizer is excellent. Overall the food was very good.
The only thing that kept me from giving this a higher rating was the service. Don’t get me wrong, the foodservers were all very polite and for the most part attentive. Two things really bugged me though. First, we had plates and trash from early in our meal — appetizers on — on the table throughout the entire meal, nothing was cleaned off or taken away. Second, we purchased two bottles of the same wine throughout the meal and except for when I tasted each bottle we poured every glass of wine ourselves. I know these are small items; we could have asked someone to clear the table and it is not a huge deal to pour your own wine. But c’mon, in the restaurant they are trying to be appetizer plates and old napkins should have been taken away as soon as we were through with them. And the wine — I’ve been in worse restaurants where there is no way any customer would have a chance to touch the wine bottle once it was opened.
Again, good experience, I will go back and recommend it — just for what we paid I expected a higher standard of restaurant service.

hhmmmm… it’s difficult to review figlio because having grown up in minneapolis i have eaten there more times than i can count… for homecoming in high school, Prom, birthdays, happy hours back from college, a quick bite to eat on a sunday afternoon in summer… and really, the only thing that comes to mind is inconsistency.
Figlio’s is one of those places that has been around FOREVER. their menu basically stays the same, with some seasonal changes like heirloom tomatoes, snow crabs, etc etc. I must admit, i have had some excellent dishes here — including the crispy crust pizza, plank salmon with spaghetti squash, heirloom tomato bruschetta and they DO have FABULOUS cocktails… especially the martini with a sugar rim and pureed strawberries. yummers.
my last experience here however was extremely disappointing. our waitress, although nice, was a total space cadet and i could see down her shirt. normally this would not phase me but really… waitress boobies at dinner with my parents? no thanks.
my parents and i split the artichoke/​spinach dip… which was fantastic once i got over realizing it was more like soup than dip. but honestly, it was great and i could have eaten it with a spoon.
i ordered my default order for when i can’t make up my mind… butter lettuce with beets, cayenne nuts and gorgonzola dressing. add chicken. no joke, i’ve had this nine thousand times. but this time there was something v v v v v wrong with the dressing… like it went bad or something. so i sent it back and ordered (i think) the canneloni with veal and ricotta/​mozzarella. i am telling you, i need three days of no sodium eating just to bring my body back to equilibrium. WOW, if my dish had been a body of water it most certainly would have been the dead sea.
now…enough berating of a restaurant that i surely will return to… perhaps it was an off-​night? Maybe i was just upset because when i woke up that day the temp read –12? perhaps i was still reeling from the vikings loss? whatever it was, figlios disappointed the other evening.

Figlio is the definition of «default restaurant,» which means I’ve been here more times than I can count simply because it fits nearly every social situation and appetite. Their amazing pastas, pizzas, burgers, meat dishes, and salads are always consistently prepared and served. I usually go for the cheese ravioli in a light, sweet tomato sauce or the prosciutto tortellini tossed with peas in a heavy cream sauce ’cause I’m a pasta kind of lady. When in a big group – or even on a date – definitely order the calamari!
This place is useful if you just want appetizers, and their happy hour specials are cheap (unfortunately, you’ll be tripping over post-​work yuppies and polo shirts the entire time). I would have given Figlio 4 stars, but then I would have had to overlook the terrible pop music and the fact that their burgers, though delicious, are $ 10.95 and don’t come with a side of fries. Those are New York prices! And Figlio, you need to know your place.

What a great Happy Hour.
First time there, last night, and it will certainly not be my last.
The four of us do Happy Hour often, we’re seasoned pros, and we end up ordering most everything on the HH menu and circling it all around the table.
Last night was no exception.
Sweet potato fries = very good
Mini burgers = very good, fries perfectly done
Flat bread pizza = very good, excellently cooked
Meatballs = little spicy, but tremendous flavor
Good drinks too, they know how to make a drink.
Excellent excellent place.
For four people to eat and drink well for $ 65 (when 1 appetizer and round of drinks was ordered pre-​HH), you can’t beat $ 16/​person.
Since Rossi’s closed, this might be my new spot.

The first time I was in Minneapolis was just about a year ago… labor day weekend. My hungry husband and I arrived and went looking for some lunch… we tried several businesses downtown on a Saturday and all were closed! Therefore, I found it quite comical when visiting Minneapolis the Monday after July 4^th weekend that all the lunch spots Sarah P and I tried to dine at were closed. What’s up with that? Does Minneapolis just shut down the days before/​after holidays? But after 2 strikes Figlio came thru for us (3^rd times the charm) because they were actually open for lunch!
As we were being seated at our table I couldn’t help, but noticed the HUGE piece of chocolate cake the man at the table next to us was enjoying. Sign me up for a piece of that! I didn’t end up going for the chocolate cake, but I did have the small greens salad, which was especially tasty with the dried cherries on top. Sarah seemed to enjoy her beet salad as well. We also split a Mediterranean flat bread pizza, which was delicious! I may be from Chicago, but I like my pizza’s crust to be as thin as possible and Figlio delivered this well.
No room left for chocolate cake, but that’s just an excuse to go back to Filgio next time I’m in MSP!

Other than the crowds, I have nothing bad to say about this place. I think Alison M hit the nail on the head with saying «the quintessential word for the place is ‘decent’.» It is. And it’s been here so long that I can’t even remember NOT having a Figlio’s. I think I had one of my first dinner dates here even. Can’t say I’ve been here to dine recently… but I do occasionally stop by for the happy hour cuz it’s fab. $ 2 taps, wines, and apps. I love the gorgonzola shoestring fries (but they sometimes skimp on the cheese) and the cheese pizza. I’ve been known to eat a full meal and have a couple drinks for $ 10. Not bad at all.
If your into sports (I’m not, but husband is), they have it on ²⁴⁄₇ in the bar… even when there’s really nothing to watch. Last night they were airing the Pepperdine/​Long Beach State volleyball game. Totally random, I thought, but hey, why not?

I’m not really sure how the other Unilocalers define «hipster,» because I get more of a frat vibe than a hipster vibe. As a poor grad student, the daily $ 2 good $ 2 be true happy hour is the only reason I would come here. Pretty much all their beers on tap, a decent choice of wines, and well drinks are all… you guessed it: $ 2. A decent list of appetizers are $ 2 as well. The 2 sliders w/​shoestring fries are the best deal on the menu. If you share 4 or so apps with a friend, you’re good to go. Skip the pizzas, they’re basically like tortillas topped w/​cheese and sauce. Also, be prepared to either sit very closely or repeatedly ask, «What did you say?» because it gets LOUD during the popular happy hour.
3.5 (.5 for the value)