Krik's Picks

Whenever my wife and I talk about going out for sushi,  Ama Sushi Edina is the first place we think of. The sushi is made from the freshest fish, and the presentation is beautiful. The price is reasonable and a great value. The only hitch - they don't take reservations, and it's so popular that we often have to wait to be seated.  I don't mind waiting. But the last time we went, it was bitter cold which made the wait very uncomfortable. We've kind of decided that in the future, we'll go when the weather is more tolerable so we can stroll the neighborhood while waiting.  When you do get seated, the first thing they bring you is a bowl of miso soup. When you place your order, it doesn't take long for the food to appear. On our most recent visit (when it was so cold), we accepted a seat at the bar. Not ideal, but it got us out of the cold. After the miso soup, we shared an order of squid salad. One word - Great! For my dinner, I had a sushi combo - 7 pieces of sus...

 I love finding a neighborhood restaurant that checks all the right boxes.  Family friendly Comfortable ambiance Good food Reasonable prices Risata Cucina in Robbinsdale (northwest Minneapolis suburb) fits that description.  My wife and I took our son and his family there for a Saturday night dinner. There were six of us - 2 grandparents, 2 parents, 2 teenagers. With a group that size, we were able to try a variety of items on the menu.  We started with appetizers - fried calamari and arancini. We were served a generous portion of the calamari; everyone could get some. An order of arancini is four; our server brought us an extra half order so everyone could get one. I liked the calamari, but my favorite was the arancini. They were mushroom arancini and the earthy mushroom flavor was great.  Everyone ordered from the pasta menu for our main dishes. My son and his daughter had casarecce scampi. The pasta was short, twisted noodles with smoked bay scallops, lemon...