Midori's Floating World Cafe

Midori’s Floating World Café is a little known Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis with a large menu and plenty of vegan options. Japanese food isn’t all fish and rice - they offer everything from vegan tempura, to big bowls of soba noodles. The waiters are attentive and are very accommodating if you tell them you are vegan. The restaurant is small and cozy – but I went with a group of eight people and they were able to accommodate us.
Midori’s is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday, dinner on Sunday, and is closed Mondays. They close at 2pm after lunch and reopen at 5pm for dinner. Also, they just changed locations, but only a few hundred feet from the old location.
Though Japanese cuisine is known for the use of fish in just about everything, Midori does a wonderful job of preparing great, vegan meals. A big bowl of steamy edamame, sprinkled with course salt is my favorite thing to start a Japanese meal with, even with the large selection of hot and cold appetizers on the menu. To drink, I had one of their beautiful “art teas”. Whole flowers bloom in the bottom of large, clear mugs to create a flavorful and appealing drink. For a main course, I ordered the vegetarian sushi dinner, which includes: ten pieces of rolled sushi, six pieces of nigiri sushi, salad, and a shiitake broth soup.
Though everything I tried was delicious, if you just can’t decide, I would recommend trying one of their bento boxes. You can get them with vegan tempura and sushi, and they all come with soup, Japanese pickles, salad and a few other things.
Other than the sushi and bento boxes there is udon and soba noodles, donburi, onigiri, soups, salads, and, if you have room, deserts.
I highly recommend Midori’s Floating World Café. It’s a great place to experience a wonderful Japanese meal.

the sushi at midori's is honestly the best ive ever had in the twin cities, and possibly the best i've had outside of japan. i know that sounds like an exaggeration, but it was just marvelous. i was also so pleased to see mugicha (roasted barley tea) on the menu, as well as onigiri (rice balls). the onigiri are cheap, too. they also have mochi ice cream, for those of you not vegan; i used to love that stuff! anyway, excellent menu and variety of foods. we got so full because we just wanted to eat everything! lastly, if you tell your server you are vegan, they are very accommodating. we ordered the chef's selection of veg sushi, and we didnt get anything with egg since we said we are vegan. very nice servers.

I love that Midori's has a separate, all-vegan menu (you have to specifically request this menu, of which they have only two copies). I went to Midori's twice, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke that the food was so good. Midori's, along with Tanpopo in St. Paul, are the two best Japanese restaurants in the Twin Cities.

Their edamame is fresh and they also have authentic Japanese plum wines (tastes like almonds!) and beers. I normally don't like vegetable tempura, but their tempura batter is special---it's light, crispy and subtle, allowing the flavor of the vegetables to stand out (Midori's uses interesting vegetables such as pumpkin, squash and bell peppers). They also have a wonderful curry dish (available Wednesdays only) that is savory and filling, with artful presentation of long asparagus stalks, carrots and other vegetables. Finally, their kitsune soba soup bowl was not the best I've ever had, but it was certainly serviceable (Tanpopo wins on noodle bowls).

My only complaint is about their service. Both times we went, our waitress was not attentive, and it took forever to order and even longer for the food. Also, the first time we went, all of our dishes came out at the same time, so we had to quickly eat the appetizers and main courses all at once, while they were still hot. Other than the faulty service, the food is excellent and prices are reasonable. This is a great place.

My son and I had eaten here a few times before, but we've become regulars since finding Midori's all-vegan menu (available upon request). Rather than searching through the main menu and asking follow up questions, it's all available on two pages, with lunch and dinner specials. I was delighted to discover the vegan tempura vegetables, which can be ordered as an entree, or with soba or udon noodles. Presentation and service are always top notch as well.