HAI HAI Minneapolis

Hai Hai sits at 2121 University Ave NE. The room runs smart and elegant, serving a menu rooted in Vietnamese and South East Asian cuisine. The kitchen holds a 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest.

While it is a twenty-five-minute walk from the manicured paths of Boom Island Park, the distance from the Mill City Museum is exactly why you choose it. The restaurant trades the tourist-heavy polish of the riverfront for a sharper, more focused approach to regional flavors. It feels more intentional than the nearby dining rooms that lean on a river view to distract from a lack of acidity or heat. Where others in the city settle for a vague "Asian" fusion identity, the menu here succeeds by ignoring those broad strokes entirely.