Rainbow Chinese Restaurant & Bar

Gem! Rainbow is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis. Sauces are the most delicious and flavorful, and ingredients are of the highest quality. Rainbow also happens to be the only Chinese restaurant where I will actually eat all of the meat. The chicken is fresh, white, clean and absent of fat, strange consistencies or parts. Praise.

Honey Walnut Shrimp. Yes. Full Stop.
Peanut noodles, good noodle, overpowering peanut flavor. Calarami = portion not big enough to share even as an appetizer for more than two people. Egg rolls = americanized Chinese as good as it gets.
Service = meh. Good attitudes, a little slow.
Why the tiny water glasses? Why???
Atmosphere and location = works for me. good for two, good for families/​kids (no kid menu, so good for kids who like Chinese like food), good for larger groups, good for the older people in your life who are a little freaked out by the fact you still live in the city.
More of a 3.5 for me. I’ll definitely eat here again, but I’m not quite a fan.

Americanized Chinese — if you are looking for authentic Chinese food, this is not the place. It’s usually full and the demographics indicate they cater towards those who like Asian-​ish food.
Ambience and service is okay, food not compelling and on the greasy side.

The owner is so nice and the food is amazing. The interior is nice and has a cool fish tank to stare at. If you go with a large group they will seat you (esp if you reserve the group ahead of time) at a large round table with a huge lazy Susan the middle that is awesome for sharing meals with everyone seated. Great place, fun drinks, and I’m sure the happy hour is not one to miss!

Food was good, it’s hard to go wrong with honey walnut shrimp, the service was meh, could have been more attentive considering there were only 3 other tables in the whole restaurant. I’ve been a fan for years, I’ll def be back next time I’m in town.

Rainbow has lost another good customer. I’ve been a regular here for years, but no longer will be after two TERRIBLE service experiences here in the past 3 weeks, once eating in the restaurant and once for takeout it’s looking like a pattern not a fluke. Their manager is completely unapologetic for slower than slow order prep, skimpy portions and blatant errors in the orders. Last night they completely forgot to give us rice with our entrees which was not discovered until after we got home with the food. This was on top of standing in the restaurant lobby waiting an additional 30 minutes (I timed it) beyond the time our online order receipt said the order would be ready for pickup. When we called to (respectfully and calmly) report our disappointment to the manager she made it clear we were bothering her on her busy night (a Tuesday?!?), was full of excuses on why our expectations were too high and never apologized or tried to make up for our poor experience (except to offer to send a driver out to our house with some white rice which would have taken another 30 – 40 minutes). I’m done paying twice as much for the food to have a bad experience. I think I’ll be going with the cheaper, friendlier and more efficient strip mall takeout places from now on. Too bad, I liked their food but we all deserve better service for that price tag.

This restaurant used to be much better but you can still get very good food if you know what to order. The Szechuan wontons are very good as are the big bowls of noodle soups. If you order the wrong things this restaurant would definitely seem like three stars.

Ordered food through bite squad. Food arrived hot and fresh. Not impressed with any of the food items ordered.
Cream cheese wontons — very small, bland flavor. No sweet flavor you think of when you have cream cheese wontons.
General Tso’s chicken — bland flavor. Requested medium spice. Not spicy at all. More of a savory dish with no sweet undertones.
Mock Duck and broccoli with fun noodles — unimpressive, bland, poor vegetable to mock duck ratio
Chicken Lo Mein — sauce very bland with no seasoning
Overall impression: All food lacking flavor/​seasoning. Not impressed. Will not eat here again. Portions small for price. Chicken meat quality was ok without excessive fat.
I do not recommend this restaurant to others.

Oh boy what a waste of money.
First things first I added a side of noodles to my entrée– I got ACTUAL spaghetti. Like Italian spaghetti with sesame oil. Gross. And mad I paid extra for that!
The spring rolls were big and good — weird texture but overall good.
The cream cheese wontons. Pretty good! No complaints!
I had sesame chicken and it was fine. Bit bland and not like any sesame chicken I’ve ever had before (didn’t taste like sesame). The batter on the chicken is so thick it’s pretty disgusting.
I would not eat here again so I wouldn’t recommend it to someone I liked.

Our waitress Tammy was very nice and spunky. Very attentive and the food is awesome :)

I’ve been eating here for years. This restaurant never disappoints– the food is always fresh, the atmosphere is great, and it reminds me of a place out East. Not your typical greasy, over cooked Chinese food.

Fried pork dumplings. Fantastic. Squid, pickled mustard greens in black bean sauce. Unbelievable! Service? Phenomenal! It has been a dozen years since our last visit and Rainbow Chinese is our favorite.

That calamari! It’s all about the five spice calamari. Always tender, never greasy, simply delicious. There is no better calamari dish in the Twin Cities, I swear. I’ve been eating this dish for over 15 years now and it never ceases to amaze me.
Now add a classic Rainbow Martini. It doesn’t really matter what you order next cause you will be one happy, possibly tipsy customer.
But if you are looking for recommendations, try the Szechuan dumplings, the Hong Kong style noodles, shrimp in tamarind sauce, scallops with cashews and basil, the green beans. Heck, it’s all good.

Amazing, fresh and authentic Chinese cuisine that go great with unique hand crafter cocktails. The hostess Nina, provides by far the greatest front of house service I have ever had. She is beautiful and has a sparkling personality.

Best fried rice I’ve had in Minneapolis so far! Great service friendly staff and comfortable seating make this place great.

Thanks Unilocaler’s, you’ve given me another great meal! There were 4 of us, so we ordered a wide variety of items to share. All of it very pleasing. Double Sautéed Pork, Chicken w Pineapple, Chicken Fried rice, Curry Chicken, pan fried Pork Dumplings, Egg Roll, we’re all excellent. I must be getting old too, because I found the generous portions of veggie’s in each dish to be fresh, crisp & a tasty treat. I think Rainbow may have just bumped Pei Wei down on our Mpls, Sunday after church, Asian restaurant list

Best hot n sour soup in the cities.

I’ve eaten here a few times. I was pleased with my visits. The people there appear to do a great job at running the place. The ambiance there looks nice, which is more comforting to me. I like that they have a restaurant area along with a bar. I don’t know of many other chinese places that have those two choices the same way as this place does. I love that they have big eclectic-​looking fish in their aquariums.
The servers there did a great job at serving me at a timely manner. They appear to know what they’re doing. They were helpful at making good recommendations with my order. I think the longest I’ve had to wait for my food was not even ten minutes, which I think is reasonable. My favorite plate there is the spicy chicken with rice. I also love their wontons. The people also do a great job at keeping everything clean.
I’ll admit; by looking at the building from across the street, I never would have guessed that it was a chinese food place. I had a hard time figuring out what exactly the place is until I went inside. I’m glad I took the trip inside when I did.
This place has won me over as a customer. I will keep coming back here when I’m in the mood for some good chinese food.

My sister is a connoisseur of Asian food, and in her words, «this is the best Chinese cuisine I’ve ever had.» I have to agree, Sis.
Tammy, the owner, was our server. She is one of the sweetest women you could meet. She spent the evening talking with us about her sauces, her deliciously unique dishes, and her story.
I’m vegan but my family eats meat. We started with Lavender Tea with ginger syrup that Tammy made. Delicate, spicy, aromatic and the perfect start to our meal. Then, she recommended a peanut sauce noodle with rice noodles instead of egg noodles since I’m vegan. Everyone had a taste, delicious.
My family enjoyed a couple of chicken egg rolls as well. From how quickly they disappeared they seemed pretty yummy.
The main dishes arrived:
Mom got a staple of Chinese, Beef Chow Fun. It was good (and honestly, from what I’ve seen, seems to be good anywhere we go).
My sister got Tofu with Mixed Vegetables in Black Bean Sauce. Really good. Salty but slightly tart. It tasted way better than most any dish I get in Chinatown in Chicago (where I live).
My dad got the Spicy Pork with Cilantro. This dish is unique (and I mean that in the best possible way). The cilantro, rather than being a spice or a garnish, is actually the green for this dish and sets it apart from any other plate I have seen. This is the one that launched my sister over the moon. I think Tammy’s giving other Minneapolis establishments a run for their money with this one. And this is just from seeing my family’s response!
I had the Mock Duck with Eggplant, Onion, and Tamarind sauce. One of the best faux meat dishes I have ever had. It’s a lightly tart, pleasantly salted, robust veggie dish. It’s got me promising you that I’m coming back to Rainbow every time I visit Minneapolis. She’s got other veggie dishes I’m hankering to try. So, enough said there.
We ended the evening with a chocolate wonton dessert, which was amazing, and a story from Tammy about her first experiences in New York with cooked black peppers.
To top it all off, the décor and atmosphere perfectly matches the food (edgy yet inviting with no possibility for denying the authenticity). Tammy’s accommodating warmth also really exemplified how the Captain sets the tone for the ship.
Toss in a bar that looked like a fun place to sit for an hour or two and bellies full of delicious Chinese cuisine and we didn’t want to leave at the end of the night!
On top of all of that, we ordered Turnip Cakes with Egg and Scallions to take home. We couldn’t help it, we all had to have a taste when we got home (I eat egg once in a while) and well, we are the whole thing! Who knew that the dish we brought home as an extra would turn out to be one of the best dishes of the night!
Rainbow is a must for anyone who even remotely likes Asian food. If they’re still open, go tonight!
Cheers,
Jeff

I maintain that Taste of Thailand has the best spring rolls in the Twin Cities, but Rainbow is easily a VERY close second.
I live on the other side of the metro, so I had never even heard of this Eat Street joint until a friend recommended it last month. Now I’ve been to Rainbow twice in the last three weeks!
I dig any place that has a lovingly crafted cocktail menu, and Rainbow does not disappoint. The cocktail menu is truly awe-​inspiring, and every drink I tried was delicious. (Fresh mango juice? Jasmine? Hibiscus? Infused vodkas? Yes please.)
The first time I came I was feeling a little under the weather and craving soup, and holy cow – a giant menu of big bowls of noodle soup, customizable in endless ways. Add wontons! Add cilantro! How about portobello mushrooms? My only teensy quibble was that I wanted it to be way spicier than it was and had to request sriracha a few times (they brought it out in tiny dishes – I need a LOT of sriracha).
But I’ll definitely be back. This would be a great date-​night destination.