Kinsen Noodles & Bar

Good service and nice ambiance. However, all three of the dishes we tried were lacking in flavor. We got the brown curry with noodles– all i could taste was the squishy noodles and a hint of all spice– don’t think any coconut milk/​cream was used at all. Teriyaki beef– the sauce was too watered down to coat or flavor the meat or veggies. Gai Pad Krapow (thai basil chicken) was just alright. Definitely had better. The only good part of the meal was the green tea ice cream.

I’ve been here for dinner, lunch, drinks, and done take out many times, and I like it. I like the décor, that it’s all about noodles and not rice, the flavors, their generosity in accepting all kinds of rebates, and that when giving change they don’t do coins but just round up in the customers favor.
Curry Triangle — somewhat bland, like mash potatoes but with interesting apple sauce like sauce. Guay Jab — good. Asian braised short Rib — how can you go wrong with pickled beat. Green Curry — excellent. Cream Cheese Won Tons — good. Vegetarian Egg Rolls — fine. Fried Banana — great, but I usually don’t pay $ 5 for a banana. Cheese Cake — warning, it’s incredibly small. Fruit/​cream thing — good. Calamari — good. Edamame — good. Steam Bun Sliders — good. Chicken Wings — very good. Thai Papaya Salad — try it! Khanome Chine Namya — yes. Shrimp Kung Pao Chicken — certainly.

Some friends and I went for a late dinner post-​class. I do occasionally go out to eat at a normal time. My friends already picked Kinsen since they have a good selection gluten-​free options.
A friend and I split the steam bun sliders and samosas. I had the asian slaw side salad.
The place was pretty empty — it was 845 – 9 on a Thursday night so our server was super attentive. One of the folks at our table asked for a fried egg on her curry after seeing a delicious looking fried egg on another plate. Server gave a shout to the kitchen and an egg was on its way.
Everyone seemed to enjoy their food. I enjoyed the sliders, but thought $ 8 was steep for 2. The samosas were tasty, but I prefer Indian samosas that are as big as my fist rather than little triangles. My slaw was very tasty, but by the end, felt like I was over-​salted.
I’d like to try the food again. Some of the noodles or the tacos with the plantain shells.

They have PORK BELLY. I prefer my pork belly more melt in your mouth like, and they serve their pork belly more on the crisp side. If you like it that way, then you’ll like this place, it’s just my personal preference.
Baboy LOVED it so before left the state, we had to stop back here for the pork belly buns… OH NO. They didnt have ANY buns ready! We had already waited for about thirty minutes so in another thirty minutes they would be done. We decided to wait. The chef hooked us up with an extra bun and a comp’d meal for waiting! Great customer service!

Cinco bebé de estrellas. I loved this place. My wife and I had a $ 50 Groupon here and we decided our Saturday lunch date would be in Uptown.
We entered about noon and were the only ones in there. I started off with a cool grapefruit soda martini while perusing the menu,
So many choices! We decided on a shrimp spring roll, peel and eat shrimp, and I got calamari Drunken Noodles. I ordered a Sapporo on tap to go with the meal.
The peel and eat shrimp were hot and flavorful. The chili-​lime sauce had the perfect amount of tanginess. So awesome! The spring roll was about the size of a Taco Bell burrito, I think I would have preferred a couple of smaller spring rolls instead of one huge one. #EdinaProblems but it was still good. The peanut sauce was tasty, but for some reason the dipping bowl was kind of goofy. #EdinaProblems It made it tough to dip the spring roll without getting sauce everywhere. I guess I was not demure enough.
Okay, the drunken noodles. The fat Chow Fun noodles (Chow Fun Noodles would be a good name for a band) with the perfect calamari pieces were AMAZING! I ordered hot, as in spicy, but this was Minnesota hot, I should have gotten Super Hot. The al dente noodles were just the right amount of starchy and tender that mixed with the rubbery (Not in a bad way) calamari. The veggies and spices were out of this world. Probably top 5 dishes of the year for me.
We had 6 bucks left on our Groupon, so I got one more Sapporo to finish off the perfect lunch.
The prices are reasonable for a higher end looking atmosphere in Uptown where I could imagine a hundred hipsters hanging out before their movie on a Saturday night at the Uptown theater.
The service was amazing! Such a great guy too. Plus he had ESPN2 on. Score!

Came here to meet up the girl’s friend. I’m so glad that this place was opted for lunch. Before going back home to Vegas, I made a mental note to get back here before leaving.
I am a pork belly fanatic! Get that shit in my BELLY!!! I troll around asian restaraunts serving this piece of heaven and sample it in every way possible.
Every order had pork belly in it. To me, Kinsen is doing their pork belly right. The pork belly was served crispy in every dish.
For appetizers, pork belly sliders in a steamed bun. Oh My Christ!!! This was the reason why I had to come back here before going back to Vegas. A thick piece of crispy pork belly, a slice of a pickle, and some greens in a steamed bun. GROSS!!! (This is almost up there with Great Bao’s pork belly in Vegas. Chef Sheridan is still holding it down). Our second time to Kinsen, we had to wait a bit for the buns to be cooked, but it was worth the wait. Chef comps our meal for waiting. I told him he didn’t have to do that. The management cares for their customers. Big Ups Chef!!!
I had the pork belly ramen. The ramen was good and had all the makings. The egg, the nori, and of course, a thick crispy slab of heavenly goodness. Again, the pork belly set this dish on FIYAH!!! I can still remember that thick slab of pork belly meat chillen on top of the ramen. If you don’t like the mushy texture of pork belly in ramen dishes, definitely try Kinsen’s pork belly ramen out. You will not be disappointed.
The girls had a pork belly rice dish with broccoli. Thick chunks of pork belly and broccoli drenched in a thick spicy sauce. I was not a fan of this dish, but I did peck off the last remaining pieces of pork belly on her plate.
Kinsen, you make me feel like a pork belly slut.

Came back because I had a groupon and the menu has been updated. It now has more thai and japanese stuff things as well as new desserts too. The samosa app is amazing, next time I’m gonna order two of those! The ramen was good and the décor is still cute. I think the new menu items have improved the place and the service is still good.

Were going to the Lagoon so stopped here since both of us had been to Abilene next door already and wanted to check this out.
We eat got curry noodles, I had the Green Curry and she got the Red Curry.
First off we were seated by a server that didn’t tell the other server he placed people in his section. So we waited, and waited, and waited… about 15 minutes for the guy to come over. He promptly brought us water and my beer.
We ordered our noodles and he asked us how hot we wanted it. They had a scale of 1 – 5. We both got number 5 (the supposed hottest) and were really disappointed, it cleared out the nostrils but little more than that. I think Taco Bells fire sauce is spicier.
The noodles were tasty but not worth the $ 13. My curry dish had chicken and I counted 4 small pieces. I wasn’t terribly impressed. My girlfriend fared better with some decent pieces of beef brisket in hers. About the only thing I can say was I was full afterwards.
Also, Monday’s are happy hour all day… but is that just drinks? or appetizers? or what? Nobody ever specified.
I half expect to spend $ 40 on two people at Stella’s in Uptown, but for 2 entrees and one beer… not so much

Been here a few times and the first time was probably better than this time. .
Bought a groupon for the 2^nd time — it was a coursed menu, app, two dinners, drinks and dessert.
We got the calamari and it was pretty good. The two dinners were from their «entrée» menu — which i probably wouldn’t order normally as they seem pretty spendy and to be honest, the noodles and the rice dishes look better.
Typically the «entrée» choices are $ 19. I got one with shrimp and my bf got one with fish and fried rice. His whole dish tasted really metallic — it might just be the sauce, but regardless, it was bad. Mine was pretty decent, but not sure why the prices are so high on these? It wasn’t that great — basically nooodles and 5 shrimp?
We got the sangria — that was pretty nice.
Dessert was a fried bannana and you can’t really go wrong with that.
The server was a ditz — and screwed up the bill w/​the groupon — we paid about $ 5 more than we should have, just wanted to get out of there at that point because the service was pretty slow but kinda annoyed at the same time that they screwed it up.
Would I go back? Meh — Moto I kills it in ramen and dishes and drinks in general — so probably not.

The first time my food came, I wasn’t sure if it was what I order because the ingredients didn’t seem to match. I asked the waitress, would seemed to think it was because I didn’t know what I ordered. She asked me to spoon through the soup in search of the missing ingredients before she would take it back.
She did send it back, and when my new bowl arrived, it was still missing several ingredients and was not thoroughly cooked.
In the end it was still pretty good food, but the service – not so much.

Terrible service and food to match.
I was excited to use a groupon for this restaurant, I’ve passed it 100 times and always wanted to try it. Things started bad and got worse.
We were seated in a booth, and it took 30 minutes for a server to come by for the first time! As soon as she stopped by we immediately ordered, not wanting to wait for her to come back. It took 10 more minutes to even get water.
The calamari was a little over cooked, not bad and honestly, the sauces were pretty tasty. Then the main dishes came…
The shrimp were rubbery, the meatballs were the same, on the menu things are all listed as «noodles» but apparently most of them are Phở, which we were not expecting. The broth of one of the dishes was inedible and none of us could figure out what made it so awful. The one dish that wasn’t Phở the noodles were really over cooked, it was a pile of stuck together and tough noodles, not good.
The manager was nice and took care of everything, but didn’t seem surprised that we had such a bad experience. It was a friday night in uptown and this place was not busy.
Overall we were there for almost 2 hours and had to go home and make more to eat because we didn’t get a meal at this place.
Not sure what to do with my groupon now…
Needless to say, do not go here, there are 2 dozen better restaurants in walking distance.

Solid but not remarkable.
Lunch prices are ridiculously reasonable. I had a $ 30 groupon and two of us struggled to spend that much even with beverages, an appetizer, lunch and dessert. In fact, we still came up 60 cents shy of $ 30 after everything we ordered.
We started with the spring rolls (fresh, huge, delicious) and then each ordered a bento box.
The bento boxes are HUGE. You get an appetizer and half a sandwich or noodle dish. I got the cream cheese wontons and Pad Kee Mao. The menu said the Pad Kee Mao was really spicy so I was hesitant to order it but it was not really spicy at all (and I’m from Wisconsin so it’s not like I have a high spice tolerance). The tofu I added was overcooked and rubbery, but the rest of the dish was good with fresh brocooli and red peppers that were not overcooked.
My friend didn’t fare qutie as well. He ordered the egg rolls which looked enormous and he said were good and then had ½ the Pork Banh Mi. The pork on his sandwich was pretty much all fat and he literally ate only one bite. However, even with him splitting my ½ order of Pad Kee Mao, we still had more than enough food for the both of us.
We ordered dessert (still trying to spend $ 30!!) and had fried bananas with a scoop of ice cream. The fried bananas were unremarkable but the ice cream is Sebastian Joe’s which was delicious.
Our server was really prompt and friendly, though it was lunch and there were only a handful of other tables. I liked the space, too — it seemed fun and funky w/​o trying too hard.
Definitely a good lunch spot (especially since they pay for your first hour of parking).

Meh, disappointing.
I took a friend to eat here last night, and used a Groupon I bought a week or so ago. I am glad I did, because I would have been even more disappointed had I payed full price.
It wasnt too busy, so we scored a table outside, which is basically on the sidewalk of Lagoon St. I think its hilarious their «Happy Hour» is all day… only in Minneapolis!
We started with some drinks (Sangria — good, for sangria, and the «Dirty Geisha» — a muddled raspberry and gin drink that tasted like… watered-​down gin, AKA: nothing) and a spring roll (the best part of the meal)
We had some confusion about menu items/​symbols — most importantly: does the GF symbol mean it is available GF, or IS GF; and does everything else on the menu contain gluten, if not marked? This needs clarification. My friend is/​has Celiac, and knows her gluten; and when we chatted with the «chef» that brought out our food, it was confirmed that he was confused about GF, or at least misinformed. Apparently this is pretty common in restaurants, my friend tells me.
The food was just «OK». As mentioned, the spring roll was good. It was fresh and the peanut dipping sauce was tasty. Unfortunately our main courses were not so tasty. We had a green curry noodle and a Pad Thai, and in both cases the noodles were seriously overcooked. The tofu in the Pad Thai was bland, and there was a strange, subtle aftertaste. The green curry noodles were like eggdrop soup in that the noodles just had a mere suggestion of one day having been solid, but were now in a nearly liquid form.
The service was pretty good. We were greeted and seated immediately, and the servers were attentive; however, our waitress seemed vacant, distant and annoyed or confused by my questions about the GF label.
Overall, Id say skip it. Ill give it another try in 6 months, but I dont have much hope. Sitting outside pretty much guarantees you will get harassed by two elderly drunks at minimum; and loudly cackling, chain-​smoking, twenty-​something girls that probably live in the immediate (overpriced) neighborhood.

I was able to snag a
coupon for Kinsen a couple of months ago and finally decided to cash in on my wise investment.
I called ahead to make a reservation (they’re not on
) for a Friday night. Parking can be a little challenging in the Uptown area; so, plan a few extra minutes ($ 2/​hour for street meters).
When we arrived, we were greeted with a huge orange door, which I thought was pretty cool since orange is a favorite color of mine. When you walk in, directly on your right is the bar, which had a blue lighting effect on the glass shelves. Very cool and very appropriate for the décor. Directly ahead and to the left is the main seating area and the open kitchen. We were seated at the front of the place, next to the floor to ceiling windows; which is awesome for people watching since Uptown can have a few interesting characters around.
The menu is simple, yet filled with a variety of dishes. There are daily specials list on a chalk board above the open kitchen (Friday night was sake night). We decided on spring rolls, short rib and chicken pad thai.
The spring roll was presented on a large plate, very simple and classic. It’s served as a single large roll (think two spring rolls combined into one) with a side of peanut sauce and crushed peanuts. Nothing super special about this appetizer, on par with many other Vietnamese places. The ingredients were fresh and the rice wrapper wasn’t dry or too wet (meaning doesn’t stick to your fingers).
Our main dishes arrived shortly after finishing our spring roll. Just like the spring roll, the presentation was simple and classic on large white dishes. The short rib was presented on top of jasmine rice with steamed broccoli and string pickled beets. The color combination and flavors were simply fantastic. The short rib was simply amazing (one of the best I’ve had in the Twin Cities). The rib had the right balance of fat, tenderness and maximum flavor (I would’ve gnawed on the bone if it was socially acceptable). Combine the huge flavor on the short rib with the beets, rice and broccoli and you get an amazing dish. The chicken pad thai was also fantastic. You can get pad thai just about anywhere in the Twin Cities and Kinsen does it very well. They combine the usual ingredients of chicken, bean sprouts, carrot and tofu into a well balanced peanut sauce. The dish had the right amount of peanut sauce and flavoring; many places will over do the sauce or simply not have enough. Kinsen provides a great balance in this dish with fresh ingredients.
Overall, a great experience and a place I would’ve never chosen on my own if I didn’t know about it.

As others have indicated, the curry triangles are where it’s at. The food is fresh and the presentation is nice… although I’ve been slightly disappointed with the fact that the noodles dishes are often ‘clumpy’ (I know it’s hard to keep noodles from sticking together like that, but it can be done).
I’ve never had problems with the service. The waitstaff are generally friendly and I’ve never had to wait an unreasonable amount of time.
That said, the daily specials are some of the best I’ve encountered in Uptown… wait…*ever*. Unbeatable value, good food and a chill, casual modern atmosphere.

I liked the overall look and feel of Kinsen. It has a modern feel and décor. Its location and décor make it a suitable date location. The food was just ok, nothing blew me away.
The reason this is a 3 star review and not a 4 is the food. Its not that the food was bad, it was just ok to pretty good. Nothing really blew me away with flavor. I liked a couple of items (curried triangles and spring rolls were solid) but didn’t like a couple other items. The pork belly steam rolls were $ 8 and you only get 2. Should definitely be 3 or 4 with the $ 8 price tag. We had Pad Kee Mao for main course. It was a lot of noodles with some peppers and chicken, not much flavor but alright. Disappointing considering it’s a «noodle bar.» Really disappointed with the wontons. They were the dreaded soggy variety.
It was a good experience, nice décor, decent food and good service. Nothing im going to go running back for but it was a good experience.

I think the best thing about Kinsen is that each day, they seem to have a crazy-​good special.
When I was there, they had 2−4 – 1’s all day and $ 3 appetizers all day. That’s the Wednesday special, I believe. That meant that my girlfriends and I got to try four different appetizers for $ 12. Awesome! Plus-​they don’t give out smaller portions due to the deal.
We had the curry triangles, cream cheese wontons, calamari, and the quail eggs. The curry triangles were delicious. I think Heavy Table described them as kind of like Thanksgiving in a bite. I agree. The calamari was okay-​not the best I’ve had, but it came with fried jalepeno slices. My friend and I were definitely eyeing each other for the last one.
The best, though, were the quail eggs. The chef came out and told us that they take the yolks out, then add spices and inject them back in. I’m not quite sure how that works, but I do know that I adored them.
For my entrée, I got the boat noodles. The broth was very flavorful; the meatballs that many people mention as being sort of tough were tough, but I’ve had meatballs like that in similar dishes elsewhere, so maybe that’s just how they are supposed to be? Either way, it was delicious.
We actually had the cream cheese wontons after our dinner, which was actually smart, because while they were good-​they were very sweet-​more dessert-​like than other kinds I’ve had.
I also had two Crispins for $ 6. Score!

Kinsen has a lot going for it; great specials, decent service. If you’re not afraid of Pan Asian cuisine, then this place would be four stars. Three stars if you’ve ever had an authentic bowl of real noodles.
Thursday nights have a Cheap Date Night special: $ 45 for an appetizer, two entrees, a bottle of house wine, and dessert. This is a pretty good deal since you can order anything from the menu and they subtract whatever amount to make it $ 45.
The spring rolls are very fresh; fat and full of quality veggies. I would say that they’re superior to Amazing Thailand. No chicken or shrimp option though, but you won’t miss it. $ 6 is kind of a lot for this kind of spring roll however.
Jared ordered the peanut noodle and I ordered the Tonaktsu ramen. Both used the same egg noodles. They were cooked fine, but I miss the springiness and chew of a good ramen noodle. The peanut noodle was presented beautifully but the sauce was a little bland. I thought the peanut sauce that came with the spring rolls were much better.
The ramen was okay. I loved that they actually put toppings on it; bamboo shoots, fish cake, and seaweed. There was an AMAZING egg that was soft-​boiled and silky in the mouth. I could eat ten of these alone. Also, the fried round of pork belly was so good; crispy and fatty, like super bacon. However, the bowl was only large enough to fit the noodles and toppings so there wasn’t a lot of broth and the broth itself was kind of thin and clear for what I expect from a traditional bowl of tonkatsu ramen. However, it does make for a decent noodle soup.
For dessert we shared the pavlova. The meringue was light and crunchy with fresh berries and cream, but it was sort of ruined by the pre-​made strawberry sauce. It tasted like ice cream topping and was too sweet.
Overall, the mix of highlights and lowlights make it hard for me to condone or condemn Kinsen. If you’re in the area and feeling hungry, you should consider this place among your choices of restaurants. However, I wouldn’t make the drive out here if you’re not in Uptown.

I was very happy with the noodles I ordered, I have been craving them ever since. Went with a large group and everyone seemed to be very satisfied with their meals. The interior is very trendy and nicely decorated. It was Friday and they had a very good deal for half off sake all day, and their other weekly specials seemed like good deals as well.
The only downsides were that the service was pretty slow as there was only one waitress working, and the food is a little overpriced, more so than you would find at the typical family owned noodle restaurant. Definitely would go back.

Just got back from having the sunday special at Kinsen: half price on dishes with spice or egg and $ 3 bloodys and screwdrivers.
I got the shrimp tom yum, a kinsen iced tea (thai iced tea) and a bloody. Everything was super delicious. The tom yum broth was really, really tasty: spicy, good depth of flavor, with just a touch of fish sauce. Our server was great — answered a lot of our questions (what are the specials on other days? do you do take-​out/​delivery? tell us about the owners.) and kept our water glasses very full (necessary for me with spicy food!)
Oh, yeah: ask for spicy sauce and you’ll get a trio of sriracha, chili vinegar (YUM) and chili flakes. LOVE that.
It was fairly quiet on the Sunday night but I really hope they do well, because this is going to be a go-​to neighborhood place for my boyfriend and I from now on.