Lotus Restaurant
Hours
Profile
$ - inexpensive
Vietnamese
Vietnamese food for people in a hurry
Lotus Restaurant (aka Lotus To Go Go)= is a restaurant with a deli/fast food atmosphere. You can order at the counter (or ffrom your table) and the food comes out really quickly, but there is seating. The food is served on real plates but with plastic silverware.
The guys who run the place are very friendly, and they're happy to tweak what's in a dish to make it vegetarian or vegan.
They have vegan pho and a large selection of other vegetarian entrees.
Next to Rainbow Road, in the same mall as a liquor store and an SA.
Added by v.e.g.a.n. on Jan 4 06 (updated Jul 18)
Reviews
The food here is pretty good, and very cheap. The service is fantastic. They are very accommodating about making dishes vegan, and the four brother who are sons of the owners are all amazingly friendly.
I particularly like the mock duck and potatoes. Normally it is made with oyster sauce but they're happy to substitute garlic sauce instead. The potatoes are very thinly sliced and deep-fried. Delicious!
They also make pretty good spring rolls.
Lotus To Go-Go was one of the things in Minneapolis that made me excited about moving here! Yum, so delicious, inexpensive, and fast. The people that run Lotus are so nice and really know their customers. I like mock duck and broccoli, soups, noodles and spring rolls. They are really nice about customizing dishes (for instance I always say extra broc in my noodle dishes). Do not confuse this with the other area Lotus restaurants, they are not related. In my opinion, none of the other Lotuses are nearly as delicious.
I was excited to try Lotus based on several veggie recommendations. It really wasn't all that great, in my opinion. I really wanted this to be good, I appreciate the basic no frills atmosphere, and know it's popular in the neighborhood. It just didn't taste great to me... also, although they market some soups as "veggie", I asked about the broth and low and behold, it's the ever present beef/chicken juice thing. To their credit, they were very upfront about it, no misleading about this information when I asked. The counter person was actually apologetic, and I sensed this was an ongoing issue with their menu. The staff is very friendly, and I know the prices are reasonable, it's just the food itself that doesnt do a thing for me.
One of my favorite take-out restaurants. Too bright and poor atmosphere to be a good sit down restaurant, hence it's "go-go" name! Good spring and egg rolls. I didn't like the vegetable lo-mein, but that was what I ordered the first time I went there, which was many visits ago. I usually order the fried rice, vegetable or tofu, both are good.
The spring rolls are below average, but the curried mock duck was really good. The service was excellent - the food came out so quickly, I was amazed. The server gave us extra rice, veggies, and chopped peanuts at no extra charge. Maybe we lucked out, but it makes me want to go back.
Lotus is decent at best. They give large portions and have a number of vegan options, but the food doesn't rise above its strip-mall setting. There seems to be a lot of industrial salt and oil and generic flavors, with no special spices or subtle sauces. This place is good for a quick, cheap dinner on a night you don't want to cook, but don't expect to the food to amaze you.