Hai Hai

Hai Hai builds its menu for the middle of the table, and the lettuce wraps prove the point first. Bun cha, the grilled pork and vermicelli pairing that anchors Vietnamese lettuce-wrap traditions, arrives meant for assembly by hand, which sets the tone for how the whole meal moves: shared, sequenced, unhurried by design even when the room gets busy. The adobo pork ribs push the menu past a straight Vietnamese read into the Southeast Asian range chef Christina Nguyen has built her reputation on, and they land as the dish most likely to anchor an order for two or a group of six. Banh mi rounds out the core trio, a reference point that lets the kitchen show restraint where the ribs and wraps show ambition.

This is Northeast Minneapolis, a corridor better known for breweries and the Ecuadorian businesses along Central Avenue than for a chef-driven Vietnamese room, and Hai Hai has carved out real space in that mix. Nguyen won Best Chef: Midwest in 2024, the first Vietnamese-American woman to take the award, and the menu here reads like the case for it: confident with fish sauce and lime, willing to borrow from the Philippines and Thailand without pretending those cuisines are interchangeable with Vietnamese cooking. Pricing sits in the moderate range for a room this considered, which keeps it viable for celebration dinners and Tuesday-night group meals alike. The format rewards parties of three or more who order across the menu rather than solo diners hunting a single plate.

Service is the variable worth naming. The cocktail program draws consistent praise, and the food itself keeps its flavor even when the room runs at full volume, but the pace of service has grown less consistent than the kitchen output, with some visits moving quickly and others requiring more patience than a room at this price point should ask for. The food remains the reason to book.