Young Joni - Minneapolis

I heard this place gets swarmed so I booked a reservation about a month in advance--the only spot left on Saturday was 4:00 PM. No problem! We were able to park in the restaurant lot and there were a few people waiting outside when we arrived. This place is worth the hype! The atmosphere is so nice inside. Tons of cool decor, comfortable seating, moody lighting. It does get a little dark towards the back of the restaurant; luckily, my BF and I were seated near the large windows facing the street. I got the Margherita pizza--I have a bit of a Margherita pizza obsession and this was hands-down one of the best I've ever had. Perfect crust, perfect flavor, perfect amount of basil, and the olive oil was a really nice addition. My BF got the Tavern Pie and loved it as well. I also tried one of the cocktails, the Rickey, which is lemon, tarragon, plum, and vodka. The flavor was very delicate and complex--reminded me of how the air smells at a farmer's market stand. That said, for $15, I'd probably skip the drink if I'm ever lucky enough to be in Minneapolis again and head back. All this is to say: if you like pizza, go. It's so worth it!

Ok.... So admittedly I'm someone who likes their food to be more on the traditional side. So when I looked at this menu I was going to err on the side of caution and get the Old Reliable. I mean, the name says it all. DUH! But something was nagging at me. Try the Broccolini! But I was like, almonds on a pizza??? That's madness!! Eh, I can pick them off. So I ordered the broccolini and daaaaaang. It was amazing! I didn't even pick the almonds off! They added a crunch I surprisingly liked. And the pizzas came out super fast! I will definitely be back. Oh and if you can't get a reservation, show up and grab a seat at the bar. That's what we did.

I couldnt find a recent review....so here you go. If you are wondering if Young Joni is worth the hype...the answer is heck yes! The pizza, the ambiance, the service, the drinks....all Fi-yah! I had to book my reservation a month out. Worth it! We were with o e other couple. We were seated on time. Food came out fast. Service was stellar. Not sure what else I could say. The pizza was truly unique and more importantly delicious! Go! Go now! The back bar was closed....we wanted to check it out....but maybe next time.

The good: cool atmosphere, deliciously creative food and drinks, and my favorite little speakeasy in the back. I always take friends here when they visit the twin cities, and so far everyone has been impressed! Definitely worth a visit! The bad: I did have a pretty bad experience with the staff. I was hoping to take a small group there for my birthday, and a couple weeks ahead of time I called to ask if I needed a reservation on that specific date/general time. It happened to be a St. Patrick's Day weekday, so I wanted to be safe. I was assured that everyone could walk in in fact, they would not take a reservation. When everyone arrived the hostess looked appalled and rolled her eyes at us, saying in a blatantly mocking/condescending tone that people there made reservations for that day MONTHS ahead of time. She could not believe we had the audacity to just walk in there. After talking this place up to my friends for ages, this was so embarrassing and disappointing. It was probably an honest mistake that the person on the phone made, so the day of hostess could have at least pretended to be nice when she turned us away. Still giving it 4 stars because thankfully this just just an isolated incident.

Had a pleasant experience with the woodfired pizza here. I was excited to taste some asian flavors on pizza and it was great! : My taste buds were pleasantly surprised. However, as a Korean, none of these were really all that different from regular Korean food flavors. The Korean BBQ pizza was definitely something new. But the kimchi and sweet potato? Tasted pretty basic and normal to me as a Korean from LA. Didn 't really feel worth it. The restaurant seems to just cater to an audience that has never experienced these flavors with a hefty upcharge. Besides that, the food overall was delicious. I had a great time. The ambience was a 10/10 and the pizza dough was absolute perfection.