The secret joys.

2003/12/26

Categories: Personal

One of the great joys of life is knowing about something wonderful which most people don’t know about.

One of the few greater joys is sharing these things.

With that in mind, I must call your attention to August Moon, the best restaurant in the world.

I am not much of a person for fancy or expensive food. There’s exceptions. There’s a restaurant near my house called W. A. Frost & Company. (I have no idea why their main page says “click here to enter”.) It’s one of my favorite restaurants. It’s the restaurant where my spouse got a $10 bowl of maccaroni and cheese which was worth the money. It’s where I had to make a conscious effort to set my fork down, rather than dropping it, as the best steak I ever had overwhelmed my nervous system so I could barely hold silverware.

August Moon is about that good, and cheaper. They’re not as fancy. If you want a fancy dining experience, go to Frost’s. If you want awesome food in a fairly casual atmosphere, go to August Moon. My favorite is the Spicy Imperial stir fry, with beef. They let you pick a sauce and a protein. None of this “we do spicy beef and bland chicken” stuff; any of the stir fries can be done with any of the meats, or tofu, or combinations. Jesse had “mock duck and tofu”.

They’re a bit hard to find. You have to take the Park Place/Xenia exit, then circle around. (If you’ve ever been to Metropolitan Ballroom, it’s the same parking lot.) I don’t know how much they advertise.

But they have great food, I mean, really [i]great[/i]. The servers are friendly, and very good. They’re also pretty informal; if you like to maintain a master/servant relationship, you might not like it here. If, on the other hand, you like people who will offer real advice on the food, and make jokes about the artwork on the walls, it’s the right place to be.

So… If you live in the Twin Cities area, and you have ever imagined that there could exist Asian food that you can stand, go to August Moon. I strongly recommend going on a very empty stomach; you don’t want to be forced to stop eating just because you’re full. The food is just too good, and you want to leave room for some of their wonderful selection of interesting ice cream. I like the cinnamon chocolate.

Also, if you ever want a moderately formal dining experience (I wouldn’t show up in jeans and a t-shirt), and you don’t mind paying a bit extra for absolutely incredible food, try W. A. Frost & Company. The atmosphere is quite amazing; we went there for our anniversary one year, and they were playing Christmas music. It was December 26th, which means we’d been bombarded with Christmas music for roughly two months. The music was pleasant, and not at all tiresome. This is, frankly, an incredible accomplishment.

Two of my favorite places to go. Just thought it’d be fun to share. It’s really hard to compare them, or say which is better. They’re both excellent.