Va Lor

371 University Ave. W
St. Paul, MN
(651) 224-0889

Category: Asian, Laotian, Hmong

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 9
Service: N/A (order at counter)
Ambience: 1

Recommendation: Excellent. A hidden gem in the Twin Cities’ culinary scene. Incredibly unique and great tasting Asian cuisine (Laos/Hmong) makes this University Avenue hole in the wall one of our favorite ethnic eateries. As an additional bonus, no dish is greater than $9.

The Twin Cities might not have a Chinatown but we have University Avenue. The stretch between Fairview Avenue to the Capital contains a variety of Asian ethnic eateries and grocery stores. This stretch puts Minneapolis on par with NYC where ethnic cuisine is concerned. Va Lor is a recent addition. Va Lor, the namesake chef and owner moved to the US more than 15 years ago from Laos. She learned to cook from her grandma when she was just 10 years old. Her cooking style is homely Laotian/Hmong cuisine that you won’t find anywhere else in the Twin Cities. The menu is not too large (around 20 dishes) but includes a variety of Curries, Egg Rolls, Fried meats, Chicken Wings, Ribs, and Tapioca. Up until now, her primary clientele is the Asian community where she is famously known for her “Super Excellent Papaya Salad.” We’re hoping that changes with this blog. J

The restaurant itself is hard to find as its tucked amid a bunch of brick buildings on University but look for #371 and you should be able to spot it. There isn’t much to say about the ambience..in short, there is none. You order off of a pictorial menu up on a wall (which is very helpful) and your food is brought out to your table by Va Lor herself. This is a popular place for carry out but we ate at the restaurant. The food is just like mom’s home cooking and served with as much warmth as you will find in mom’s kitchen.

We started out with of course, the famous Papaya Salad. This one is slightly different from the ones you get at Thai restaurants in that it has a heavier tamarind based sauce. You can see Va Lor make it right behind the counter in a stone mortar. The Salad came with a spicy kick to it that we loved. The crunchy papaya was thinly sliced and served in a tamarind sauce along with fish sauce, chilies, tomatoes, lime. We didn’t detect any peanut or cilantro that is so commonly found in Thai recipes. Due to the tamarind, the sauce is a lot heavier than we are used to, however, amazingly good. If you have a more mainstream palette, try the Fried Sausages with purple sticky rice. The sausage is greasy but beautifully done..crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. The purple rice tasted like any other sticky rice. Our main dish was Chicken Curry Noodle Soup and was the only dish we weren’t completely satisfied with. Although, it had a yellow curry flavor which we liked, we found the dish to be pretty bland. One of our favorites was Laag (#4 on menu). It was a minced mixture of beef and Cow’s stomach, flavorfully done in a rich spicy mixture along with onions, green onions, lemon grass, and cilantro. We plan to go back just to get this dish again! The stomach was soft and chewy with little criss-cross indentations that helped soak up the flavors. For dessert, we had Tapioca noodles in a sweet Coconut milk gravy. The noodles were soft and bright green, orange, and red and the dish was served in cold slightly diluted coconut milk with a hint of sugar. One of us (Natasha) loved it but it was not sweet enough for Nick. For those from India, this dessert reminded us of Kulfi Falooda, but much less sweeter.

We've had friends tell us that this place is pretty unreliable in terms of when it is open. Given that it is family run, its hours are sporadic so call before you go.