Beirut Restaurant and Deli - West St Paul, MN

CLOSED October 12, 2024 this location and RELOCATED to Rosemount

https://www.facebook.com/BeirutRestaurantWSP

1385 Robert St

Established 1983

Visited February 11, 2008

I walked into Beirut with a notion I was going to order the Shawirma or gyro. Beirut as their menu states offers a "truly authentic Lebanese dining experience."

Lucky China - West St Paul, MN

CLOSED June 29, 2021

https://www.facebook.com/LuckyChinaRestaurant 

1375 S Robert St

Visited September 14, 2010

I chose the Seafood Cham Pong, just shy of $8. Cham (rhymes with “I’m”, ch abbreviated and close to a j sound) Pong with a long o (that’s what she said) is a Korean noodle dish with a spicy broth. The waitress asked if I could take the heat and I replied with a timid hesitant yes wondering if I chose wisely.

Pho Saigon - West St Paul, MN

CLOSED September 15, 2020

https://weststpaulreader.com/2020/02/19/asian-eats-west-st-paul/

1720 S. Robert Street

Established 2010

Visited November 11, 2010

Pho Saigon by name would seem to be an exclusively Vietnamese restaurant yet the menu shows a predominance of Chinese food with a buffet set up. Tempting and cheaper as the buffet was, I had to partake in pho.

Los Arcos - West St Paul, MN

CLOSED 10/06/2014
360 Bernard St W

This was No. 33 Carnitas Salsa Roja Verde at a penny under $10. The pork was amply tender but not quite melt in mouth and the flavor had marinated to the core. The spiciness was a ways below tolerance level. The sauce had a tinny bitterness that nullified all sweetness, a somewhat odd sensation. Anyway it was gone too quick leaving me to sop up the sauce with tortillas.

JT's Hamburgers - West St Paul, MN

CLOSED Nov 2016(?). Story on closing

1224 Robert St S

Dive! Dive! Dive! This is classic dive food with commensurate dive quality. It's classic dive cheap at $4.99 for a Deluxe combo with a drink.

Dino's The Greek Place - West St Paul, MN

CLOSED

1221 Robert Street S

I've been slowly working my way through Roberts Street, and I had been wanting to try Dino's for awhile but hadn't because I thought Dino's was a national chain yet a web search shows that it's a local chain. Is there a Greek restaurant chain that has similar graphics?

We ordered the Gyro and Falafel sandwich (pita bread) combos at $7.89. Sides chosen included fries and onion petals. Both were good sloppy eating with fillings squirming their way into our hands with every bite, but the "meat" of these sandwiches was left wanting. The gyro meat was skimpy as was the falafel sandwich with only 3 pieces of falafel. Whimpy, whimpy, whimpy. What I wanted was hefty, hefty, hefty.

Dino's is to gyros as Culver's is to burgers. Dino's serves gyros that fulfill a quick fix need and they do a decent job just like Culver's does a decent job with burgers. Will Dino's ever win a best gyro contest? Will Culver's ever win a best burger contest? Highly improbable.

For my taste buds, Ali Baba's King of Gyros down south a block on Roberts does a better job with gyros and offers tons more meat. Beirut Restaurant a few more blocks south in my judgment serves the gold standard of falafels.

Grand Buffet - West St Paul, MN

CLOSED 2015(?)

2015 S Robert St

A larger percentage of the customers were Mexican families and so it makes sense Grand Buffet caters to the majority providing a number of trays with ingredients for building tacos.