Chef Yia Vang’s restaurant Vinai is getting even more time in the sun: The northeast Minneapolis eatery has been named among the world’s best new restaurants by a global publication.
This week Condé Nast Travel released the Best New Restaurants in the World: 2025 Hot List, which spotlights 34 restaurants around the world from Bolivia to Sydney and Kenya to Paris.
“Named after the Thai refugee camp where chef Yia Vang was born, Vinai serves up authentic Hmong food in a way most Americans have never tasted. There’s fried catfish, grilled lamb heart, and his signature Hill Tribe chicken, all paired with fresh produce (often from his parents’ Minnesota garden) and family-recipe hot sauces,” according to the write-up.
“Those unapologetic flavors pay homage to both his heritage and America’s largest Hmong population, which is based in the Twin Cities ... Every dish and cocktail on the menu—which features both Hmong and English languages — has a backstory, and Yang is often on hand to tell the tales."
Since opening last July, local and global accolades have poured in for Vang’s Vinai, a restaurant he calls a love letter to his parents. Just last month, it made Time magazine’s annual travel list of 100 of the World’s Greatest Places. The restaurant was named one of the Minnesota Star Tribune’s 2024 restaurants of the year and was highlighted as one of the New York Times’ favorite restaurants in America. It was also a semifinalist for the national Best New Restaurant award from the James Beard Foundation, and Vang was named Esquire’s chef of the year.
Reservations at the restaurant, 1300 NE. 2nd St., Mpls., remain a hot commodity, but the bar and lounge are both first come, first served.
