Caspian Bistro & Marketplace

Friendly service and nice outdoor seating.
I ordered one of the steak kebab dishes. The meat was clearly expired. It had that sour rotten meat taste. I ate a few bites and ended up in the bathroom for the next 24 hours. At least the rice was good :-/

I’ve tried this place 3 times now and I think their food and service is probably just OK but definitely not great and nothing special.
It’s certainly not the place to get introduced to Persian food. I think their only good item was barg (actually it was great).
Barg: awesome! Really tender and tasty.
Koobideh: not bad but nothing special
Jooje: disappointing, cold, only bones + some skin and not tender
Rice: very mediocre and low quality rice with some fake saffron on top (food coloring instead of saffron)
Torshi: awesome!
Mast-​moosir: good but a bit pricy
Kashk bademjan: a little sweet (not my favorite)
Tahdig: stay away!
Gheime: I don’t recommend
I took my american friend (her first time trying Persian food and she doesn’t like beef) and we tried jooje, kashk bademjan and also tahdig with gheime … I was super embarrassed by the quality of the food

Caspian is a wonderful little restaurant/​grocery located near the university of Minneapolis campus. The grocery store is linked to the restaurant and is completely separate from the restaurant experience, so don’t let the name fool you into thinking that it’s a restaurant in a grocery store.
Caspian serves delicious, flavorful and authentic Persian from standard middle eastern food staples like gyros, hummus and kababs. I ordered a kashk e bademjn which is an eggplant based appetizer and «gourmeh sabzi», a lemony stew with beef, which was excellent.
The owner was really friendly, we had a nice chat about Iranians who live around the area, he offered complimentary green almonds when I mentioned that I had never tried them before.
The atmosphere, the staff and more importantly the food all make this place worth your while.

It’s a cozy little restaurant that gets very busy at dinner time even in the middle of the week.
They appear understaffed, with only 2 waitress working the room. We were told it would be a 5 minute wait, but it was 15 minutes wait actually.
The waitresses takes forever to clean off the tables, they could easily remove dishes from your table as you’re done eating, but that doesn’t happen.
As we were finishing several appetizers, it was almost comical, as the waitress stood there flustered wondering what to do with our entrée since there was no room left on the table (because she doesn’t clear the several empty old dishes we’ve completed eating from, duh).
Our orders were mixed up, I had the rice, not the fries. The main course entrée itself was bland. The appetizers were decent, although the cheese is also dry and bland. The sweets were sugary but dry.
Can’t say I personally loved any of the courses, and on top of that, they don’t even serve alcohol either, so I’m really not too tempted to return here.

Great food and service and the atmosphere is nice. Extremely clean as well. The whole broiled tomatoes are a nice touch. Lamb and chicken dishes are tasty as is the rice. Market is also a plus.

I absolutely love Caspian! Best rice ever! I had the Z’s four season with chicken on the bone. It was juicy and delicious.
The service was amazing, super sweet staff who really knew Persian culture. The owners were great and helpful too.

Very good. I always come with my Persian friend, so I’m not sure what we order (she always orders for us) and we split some sort of a lamb kabob dish. SO YUMMY. I also love the feta cheese platter for an appetizer!

The first thing caught my eyes when I entered was the the amazing decoration. I’m an Iranian and I’m telling you everything is absolutely authentic which makes you feel you are in a nice restaurant in Tehran.
I ordered the Kubideh kabob which is my favorite Iranian dish. It was pretty good with a reasonable price but it was not excellent. Maybe I was expecting too much looking at the decoration.

Delicious steak. I went with the Solanti entrée — my description might not be the best, but I’ll try my best below.
Atmosphere — friendly wait staff, big open room for patrons to eat with very cool Middle Eastern inspired murals. Upon entering, there’s also a grocery store with a lot of Arabic foods. It was pretty cool browsing through there before going to eat.
Food — The Soltani (number 29 on the menu) more or less came with 2 steak options (one with pieces of filet together, the other more or less a delicious steak meat stick) bordering a long bed of lightly seasoned basmati rice with a grilled tomato on the side. The steak was pretty good, maybe a little too medium well for my liking, but it was still good. For reference, I typically like my steak medium rare to medium. It also came with a side salad that was okay, basically lettuce and a light oil dressing. The mango tea I had to drink was AMAZING. Sweet and refreshing, but not overly so. The desserts were even better. We all shared some baklava and a homemade Iranian ice cream that had pistachios and saffron. It was nuts! Pun intended.
Price — seemed pretty fairly priced considering how much food I got. Maybe a little bit on the pricier side, but the portions were good.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend it if you’re feeling adventurous and looking for some good dessert. The grocery store was also pretty cool, and I’m hoping to have more time to explore it next time I go.

I completely just love coming to this place… The food is always terrific and they always seem to have the prettiest wait staff. I highly recommend dining here

While visiting the TC area looked up options for Persian food. Caspian surfaced on Unilocal and while there are pictures, it would have been helpful to have at least a base menu posted online. We proceeded with a phone order all the same for pick-​up later in the day. Signage at location is a bit of a challenge due to construction in the area. Parking in the back worked well. It did take awhile to transact the pick-​up due to small staffing it seems.
Ordered rice which was plentiful for all the dishes and what is Persian food without rice. The lamb shank were nicely done where it was fall off the bone tender and spiced right. May have been to much sauce added though. The Kobideh filet was a good as well and cooked just right. The Kobideh was a bit dry but spiced right. Their Borani yogurt was as advertised with good taste. The Ghormeh Sabzi was also a good complement to the meal. Pick-​up was challenged due timing, keeping it all warm, and packing it right by the staff.
Pricewise it was a bit high based on being from SF Bay Area where there are significantly lower options. While the food quality was there, it was a bit of a surprise for the amount of food for our pick-​up to come just under $ 100 total. Would I return here on my next visit, slight ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance. Eating in the restaurant will most likely be the next consideration to give the overall quality a chance. Would say the staffing issue is challenged based on other reviewers input here for both in the store area and restaurant.

We arrived with my Iranian uncle and a party of 16 with two under 6yo.
They had absolutely no issue serving a large unexpected party.
The service was great, the food was great, the Baklava flown in from Turkey was a favorite with the small kids.
I was told by my uncle it was a fair representation of food from home, but it seemed a tad Americanized; for me it was great.
Come, eat, buy some figs. Be sure to try the Baklava.

I have to say that this place has its pros and cons. I have to say that I am Persian so I personally have a lot of experience with the food and how it is traditionally made.
Let’s start with the pros…
The service was good and atmosphere was great as well. The owner happily welcomed us in in Persian which was really impressive. It was great that they were offering hot tea from the beginning of the meal. Other than that, the joujeh kabob was tender and juicy which passed my standards.
Now let’s talk about the cons…
First of all, the food came to us cold, which was really disappointing. The table was too high for the bench seats so it was pretty uncomfortable to sit in. Another problem that there was a limited appetizer menu.
Overall I think that if you are Iranian or have any experience with Persian food, this may not be your best choice in terms of food quality. Other than that, if you haven’t had Iranian food you might want to try it out and see for yourself.

Absolutely fantastic! I’ve made the trip up from Omaha JUST to visit the Caspian a number of times!

Wanted to try something new, the reviews were good and the store looked clean. It was a great experience, Great environment, great service, excellent food (especially the meat and ice cream)

Just found out about this place through Unilocal and wanted to give it a try since I am Persian and this is one of the only Persian places out here. Walked in to the grocery store, picked out a bunch of stuff cuz I was very excited. After about ten minutes of browsing I got to the cashier realizing that there is no one to help us checkout. Walked in to the restaurant part of the business to get someone’s attention so a waitress came to us and asked us if we wanted to be seated. We said yes just so we can try the food also thinking it would give them some time to get someone to help us make a purchase after we’re done eating. The food came out of the kitchen. Absolutely tasteless. The kashke bademjoon appetizer was not even the color that its supposed to be and it tasted like… I can’t even think of anything that useless! Then I ordered the boneless chicken kabob thinking they won’t be able to mess that up even if they tried. But I was wrong. They brought a cooked yet colorless chicken kabob that didn’t get the treatment it needed. The khoresh sabzi was the only one that was decent. Also the waitress was good but the whole experience was terrible. Walked back to the grocery store to find someone to help us make a purchase only to find no one there again. Left my items on the cashier and walked out. My first and last time there. Terrible customer service and tasteless food.
Good luck!

This place, y’all. This place!
I walked into this place and immediately noted that the majority of the customers were Middle Eastern. This place is LEGIT. It’s always a good sign if an ethnic restaurant is filled with expats, and I was not steered wrong here.
Our server was a little, well, ditzy, but I had the impression she was new, so I’ll chalk it up to that. The food was so unbelievably tasty. The house tea was a perfect blend.
The best part, though? The market! Oh my gosh, the guy behind the counter at this market was outstanding. Out. Stand. Ing. I’ve been on a hunt for dill oil to make a cucumber salad (And seriously if you know of somewhere to get that, send me a message!) and struck out here. However, this guy, whose name I forgot to get because I’m a horrible person, gave me the recipe for Persian cucumber salad, helped me round up the ingredients, and patiently confirmed my repeating of the recipe back to him.
Now THAT’S customer service!

The fact that my mother was a chef for the entirety of my existence (29 years) and that she has made authentic Persian food for our family for many years, while working as head chef at her own restaurant in Saudi should be considered. I grew up loving Persian food of all kinds. Being Middle Eastern meant knowing the different dishes, flavors, spices and herbs that were used in all the different kinds of dishes, throughout the Middle East. We were taught to know the difference between Saudi, Yemeni, Iranian, etc. With that said, please keep in mind that I went to the restaurant KNOWING the exact way Persian rice, bread, and everything else is cooked.
There was only one server for the entire restaurant, which was idiotic to begin with. My mother (a world-​famous chef 70s-​90s) and I sat ourselves because the server was no where to be found. She finally came over with menus. I told her that I was planning to have my family reunion (about 40 people) at the restaurant on the 25^th (christmas day), and that we were there to sample some foods. She was aware of this because I had called ahead that day. We asked her for water, which took her 11 minutes. She finally arrived with the water, and then took our order. The food didn’t take long, which was nice (so we thought). The rice was incredibly dry, really fat rice, and there was no fragrance of the rice at all. Oh, I forgot to mention that the bread they bring in the basket is pita bread from a bag (huge no-​no). The chicken was also dry, not at all charbroiled (as promised), and completely flavorless. My mother and I spent the entire meal talking about how we would correct the food, and what we would have done differently. They messed everything up. I mean, this was the kind of food that a person with no taste or one who has never experienced authentic Middle Eastern food might find decent or even «good,» but it is far from such.
And now, the service: The server was okay-​ish at best. She was very busy, yes, but she wasted time standing by the kitchen waiting for orders to come up, when she should have brought us the water and the (disgusting) bread. She was a bit short with us and barely earned the tip we left her. The owner (Hassan, I think) was a total jerk. There was this table behind us with about 4 or 5 people, and the entire staff, including the owner/​s were treating them like royalty. Of course, that’s not an issue because they could be friends or loyal customers or both, but when I noticed them walking around saying, «assalamu alaikum» (Islamic greeting) to other people at the restaurant and not to us (we’re Muslim and it’s very obvious), we were sort of confused. Yes, every group has some racist idiots, but should the owner of an establishment be racist towards the people that bring him money? Should he not consider the fact that on a day when they would have been completely empty, we were going to be there with 40 people and spending hundreds of dollars? Maybe showing some decency and a little customer service would have actually helped him get that money? Anyway, he and I made eye contact several times, but he didn’t even bother with a smile, even a fake one. When the server told him that we needed to talk to him about the arrangement on the 25^th, he turned his back and walked away. Of course, we had already decided that we we weren’t going there anymore, but he didn’t know that at the time. It took about 15 minutes just to get the check and leave the restaurant after we were done with the disgusting food. No one said «Thank you» or «We’ll see you soon» or «Thanks for coming in.» Nothing. It was as if we were never there.
I am going to post a picture of one of the dishes we had at caspian, and one of the exact dish at my Iranian friend’s Persian restaurant in Alabama. Look at the difference. Without even tasting the food, it’s very obvious that caspian lacks everything. Don’t bother with this place. I plan to tell anyone and everyone I come across about my experience at this dump, and when you’re the daughter of a retired, famous chef and have a business tycoon for a father, you’re lucky enough to be blessed with an insane amount of connections.

Stopped here for dinner the other night and just have to say that I loved it! I’m not sure if there are many Persian restaurants in MN but I have only had Persian food in southern California. When you walk in, you’ll see there are two sections of this place, the grocery store and the restaurant. The grocery store has a ton of goodies that include turkish delights, pistachios, olives, yogurt drinks, and a ton of different fruit drinks and snacks. I should note this is also the only place I have ever been to that sells sweet lemons. SWEET LEMONS ARE THE SHIZ. It’s like eating lemonade. No joke.
The restaurant itself is pretty nice, maybe 15 – 20 tables with pictures of Tehran on the walls. The menu is straightforward but a little overwhelming if you have never tried Persian food. Luckily, there was a pro with me so he lead the way. We ordered the Mast O Moosir (yogurt dip with shallots… ie french onion dip but not as thick or salty), Lahmajun (Mediterranean style pizza on a flatbread), Olivieh Salad (potato salad with eggs, chicken, and carrots/​peas), and Kebab Barg (filet mignon and saffron butter rice) with a side of Joojeh (grilled chicken kebab).
My favorite was the Olivieh salad — this is so flavorful and very light for a potato salad. It was my favorite dish I tried in California so I am so happy there is a decent version of it here in Minnesota! The filet mignon was cooked very well and the butter rice was rich and delicious. I didn’t care too much for the joojeh — it was way too citrusy for me and the mast o moosir was bland for me. As far as the pizza, it was not as flavorful as the lebanese equivalent that you can get ta Emily’s deli. The food came out fast and the servers were really nice and helpful.
Parking is easy, there is a huge lot behind the restaurant and it’s free! You can enter in through the back of the building, just walk up the cement steps through the unmarked doors. Kind of creepy if it is your first time, but it’s better than walking around the building to go to the front.

Service was quick, efficient, and friendly — though I had to chuckle when I realized the front of house staff were all blonde PYT’s.
The food was delicious & filling, though I would have killed for some kind of sauce. We both had the #41 and while I thought, when the entrees first arrived, that it wasn’t going to be filling it turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Pleasing in it’s simplicity, I would absolutely recommend this quaint little bistro to anyone, from the beginner to the experienced in Iranian food.
Now I’m excited to hit the market side for some of the delicious looking baklava.
We’ll definitely be back.