I don’t have hard numbers on this, but I suspect that the North Loop is home to Minneapolis’s highest concentration of buzzy restaurants regularly featured in your “foodie” friend’s Instagram stories: Parlour, Bar La Grassa, Spoon & Stable, Guacaya Bistreaux, Black Sheep, Dario, Porzana, Billy Sushi—and of course, Sanjusan and Kado No Mise.
Chef Yo Hasegawa honed his skills at the latter, where he worked for many years alongside James Beard-nominated founding chef and co-owner Shigeyuki Furukawa. The two even teamed up last year for Yo Monday Cafe, a more casual weeknight dining pop-up at Kado No Mise that highlighted donburi, udon, and soba.
Now, Hasegawa has expanded upon the central focus of that pop-up to bring the North Loop something it doesn’t have yet: a counter-service noodle shop. Meet Cafe Yoto, which opened just half a mile from Kado No Mise and Sanjusan (listed on its website as sister restaurants) earlier this month.
Located in the downstairs Duffy Building space that was briefly an outpost of doomed plant-based burger chain Stalk and Spade, Cafe Yoto is bright and light, with white tile offset by blue booths and chairs. It’s a counter-ordering setup, so peruse the selection of udon, donburi, and temaki on the bigscreen menu, then place your order and set your numbered placard atop one of the available tables.
Udon is the main attraction at Cafe Yoto, with bowls of chubby noodles served up in a kelp and bonito broth, then topped with karaage, or ribeye, or Japanese mushrooms. But perhaps the real star is the restaurant’s noodle machine, which you can watch as it chugs away behind the front counter. Made by Yamato Manufacturing, it takes into account everything from temperature to humidity to make sure each and every noodle achieves bouncy, chewy perfection. Eater Twin Cities reports that, if the machine were to break, Hasegawa would have to fly in a technician from Houston to fix it.
And if bouncy, chewy noodle perfection is what you’re after, you’ll find it here, in the Ebi Ten (shrimp tempura) udon bowl ($18). For this bowl, the tempura shrimp and vegetables come on the side—I assume to combat potential sogginess—which almost makes it feel like two dishes in one. You can sink your teeth into the fat noodles or slurp broth by itself, getting a sense of what those who’ve ordered the just-noodles-and-broth Kake bowl ($12) would experience, or you can toss in the crispy mushroom, peppers, and shrimp.
If you’re not into chubby noodles (can’t relate, but OK), Cafe Yoto also has a wide selection of donburi, available with many of the same vegetables and proteins as the udon bowls. We opted for the Karaage Donburi ($17), and while Cafe Yoto’s karaage isn’t as thickly breaded or crispy as you might expect, it’s really flavorful, with tender seasoned thigh meat fried to its platonic ideal and topped with sesame seeds and green onions. Which helps explain why you can also order it in an udon bowl or by itself, from the kozara (small plates) menu, for $11.
And if you also don’t want a rice bowl—well,what are you doing here? OK, fine, there’s also something for you—maybe from the tamaki menu, where handrolls include spicy tuna, salmon and avocado, eel and cucumber, and also karaage. From the kozara menu, we loved the Wakame Kyuri ($6.50); with slippery seaweed and crunchy cucumber, it was the perfect veggie snack to round out lunch. But you could also grab fried tofu or a bowl of miso soup.
A hot tip if you’re craving something sweet: Cafe Yoto also features a selection of exclusive Marc Heu pastries, including several varieties of cream puffs and a black sesame cake I will be back to try.
Oh, and if any interested parties are reading... please bring back Kado No Mise brunch.
Cafe Yoto
Address: 548 N. Washington Ave. Suite #105, Minneapolis
Hours: Open daily 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.
