7 Minority-Owned Minnesota Restaurants to Support Now

Going out to eat in Minnesota is a global culinary experience that should be celebrated. Despite recent events, many restaurants remain open for business and ready to serve customers a memorable meal. For diners looking to support minority-owned or severely impacted eateries, here are some suggestions for restaurants serving up great food and advocating for the communities around them.

1. Afro Deli - Multiple Locations

This Somali-owned fast-casual restaurant started as a coffee shop that also sold East African pastries and has blossomed into a multi-location Minnesota chain known for outstanding chapati wraps, crispy sambusas and tasty steak sandwiches seasoned with African spices. All dishes here are made halal and are considered “pan African” in origin. In 2023, owner Abdirahman Kahin was named the National Small Business Person of the Year, and is often cited as the quintessential “American Dream” success story.

2. Boca Chica Restaurante and Catina - St. Paul

One of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Minnesota, Boca Chica on St. Paul’s heavily Hispanic West Side delivers authentic guisados with tender pork and cactus strips and top-notch margaritas as part of an extensive menu. The place is owned by the Frias family and has anchored the neighborhood for more than 60 years.

When I saw a sign on the front door one recent Sunday night it was closing early, my heart sank. I worried that may lead to complete closure, but was relieved that my husband and I ushered in for a full dinner at the bar. It felt a bit clandestine and a touch rebellious to be dining behind locked doors in solidarity with the employees. 

3. Diane's Place - Minneapolis

Chef Diane Moua is known for her pastry skills and her debut restaurant, Diane’s Place, showcases those talents but also highlights her Hmong heritage. At the grand opening ceremony in 2024, Moua spoke passionately of her farm-fresh food and supportive family as her parents beamed beside her. Diane’s Place was nominated for a 2025 James Beard award and declared Food & Wine’s 2025 Restaurant of the Year, and landed a spot on the New York Times list of the nation’s 50 best places to eat.

The mini scallion croissants are divine and duck stew is delicious from the dinner menu. Make another trip back for the brunch offerings of Diane’s Hmong sausage with sticky rice or the Spam and nori croissant.

4. El Tapatio - Willmar

This Mexican restaurant in the small central Minnesota city of Willmar made headlines after government ICE agents had lunch there one afternoon and returned later that evening to arrest some of its workers. El Tapatio is still open, however, and serving typical Mexican fare including chilaquiles and burritos. The large menu includes premium nachos, quesadillas and vegetarian selections as well.

5. Pimento Jamaican Kitchen - Minneapolis

The story of how Kingston, Jamaica native Tomme Beevas started this BBQ joint in 2012 out of a pop-up tent and using his backyard grill is charming, and the food is equally impressive. Beevas’ family recipes employ French cooking techniques for sweet and salty dishes that satisfy. Try the fried plantains with slow-roasted jerk pork or braised oxtail with the signature “Kill Dem Wid It” habanero sauce.

6. Owamni - Minneapolis

Chef Sean Sherman, known as The Sioux Chef, is an innovative creator and visionary activist who has tapped his Oglala Lakota heritage to build this unique award-winning restaurant with a menu of “decolonized” ingredients (no dairy or wheat flour or cane sugar) as well as his North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems nonprofit organization promoting Indigenous food access.

Try the crickets and popcorn, the mushroom chowder, or the stuffed poblanos as starters and splurge on the bison ribeye for dinner. There’s also a brunch menu for adventurous eaters.

7. Vinai - Minneapolis

Chef Yia Vang's Hmong heritage informs this Minneapolis restaurant named both one of TIME’s World’s Greatest Places of 2025 and  the New York Time’s 50 Favorite Places in 2024. Vang is a friendly, personable entrepreneur who shares his stories of coming to the United States as a child from the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand, where his parents met and where he was born. His traditional Hmong dishes are fresh and vibrant and full of rich flavors with offerings ranging from fried catfish to curry rice balls and a series of hot sauces to drizzle over everything on the menu at Vinai. 

Here at Only In Your State, we love championing small businesses, especially minority-owned restaurants. Minneapolis is a dining destination for a range of global flavors and we highly recommend each of the above minority-owned restaurants in Minnesota.