We came. We saw. We ate. We wrote notes like “weird aftertaste” and “I hate this” and “unnervingly flaccid.” And now, we bring you this: the definitive guide to the official new foods and vendors of the 2025 Minnesota State Fair.
As always, we’ve evaluated the new fair foods according to our peerless, pitiless Scarf!, Shrug, Skip system. (Accept no substitutes.) Did the Uncrustaburger live up to our charitably optimistic expectations? Could Union Hmong Kitchen stage a State Fair comeback? What did Gov. Tim Walz think of the Bison Meatball Sub? Did the review crew, in our sugar- and grease-induced stupor, eat berries off of a bush we found along Dan Patch Avenue? Read on to find out.
All italicized menu descriptions courtesy of the fair’s PR team; all photos by us.
Birthday Cake Cookie Dough On-A-Stick
Price: $10 at Kora & Mila’s Cookie Dough
Cake batter cookie dough made from scratch and covered in a crunchy cake confetti shell. Topped with rainbow sprinkles and served on-a-stick. (Vegetarian)
There’s a genre of TikTok ASMR video where people tap on wax-encased objects before eventually squeezing and cracking their thin shell. The Birthday Cake Cookie Dough On-A-Stick from Kora & Mila’s would be the perfect subject for one of these—it’s made to be fondled, just maybe not with your mouth. Play-Doh-like in texture and taste, it holds its shape worryingly well; you’ll look back moments after biting into it to see the striations from your teeth are perfectly preserved. The cake confetti shell, while perhaps pleasing on an ice cream cone, doesn’t work so well with the dense dough. But hey, it does make the sensation that you’re biting into model clay more acute!
Verdict: Skip
Flauta Dippers
Price: $14 at El Burrito Mercado
Seasoned shredded chicken stuffed in rolled corn tortillas and fried. Served in a cup filled with mild tomatillo salsa, sour cream and crumbled cotija cheese.
Flautas at the fair? Feels like a no-brainer: They’re self-contained, crispy, meat-filled, dippable. Easy to transport, easy to eat. And yet. The issue with these flautas from El Burrito Mercado, which is celebrating its second year at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, is that not just the tomatillo salsa is mild—it’s all mild, from the soft cotija to the sour cream to the underseasoned chicken (which we also found bone dry). Two members of our group did say they taste “exactly like Don Pablo’s,” so if that’s a well of Tex-Mex nostalgia you wanna draw from, you should! Otherwise, while it pains us to do this as El Burrito Mercado stans, these flautas are a flop.
Verdict: Skip
Green Apple Sucker Ice Cream
Price: $8 at Granny’s Apples + Lemonade
Tart green apple ice cream with swirls of sweet caramel – flavored like a caramel apple lollipop – served in a cup. Created by A to Z Creamery. (Vegetarian, Gluten Free)
A sleeper hit! Let me tell ya, we did not expect much, watching Granny’s staffers spoon this stuff into a small cardboard cup. But we should know better than anyone that bells and whistles do not a “Scarf!” make, a lesson we re-learned as we sank our spoon into the Green Apple Sucker Ice Cream for the first time. It’s as if A to Z Creamery, the Hopkins ice cream-maker that developed this flavor for Granny’s, took a bunch of Caramel Apple Pops and, through some kind of dairy alchemy, turned them into ice cream. It’s a delightful balance of tart and sweet, with ribbons of rich caramel spiraling through it.
Verdict: Scarf!
Bison Meatball Sub (Editor’s note: Gov. Tim Walz dictated this review to Racket)
Price: $17 at Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop
Bison and bacon meatballs, from Minnesota-based Eichten’s Bison and Hidden Stream Farm, topped with bison gravy, quick-pickled cucumbers, crispy fried onions and sour cream. Served on a toasted wild rice hoagie bun.
I’m a bison guy. I’d argue I’m a bison connoisseur. I order it every time my team goes to Montana. I’ve had bison steak, bison chili. It’s a health thing—lean meat, traditional meat. The Farmers Union Coffee Shop crushes it every year; the pork schnitzel, the BLT that one year from Birchwood Cafe. The Bison Meatball Sub has great texture, and I love the bun, too. Pickles are great. It’s not overpowering, but the sauce brings out the bison. You’re not getting a burger meatball, you’re not getting a pork meatball—it tastes like bison. Lot of protein, good protein. I’ll ramp down my eating after this, but the hope is about 11 o’clock I’ll get to the Dairy Barn and have the shake. I think it’s best to start early with the Bison Meatball Sub. It’s when a lot of folks are doing coffee, I’ll get my Diet Mountain Dew. We’ll pace ourselves today. This is a hearty Scarf! I’ll come back for this one.
Verdict: Scarf!
Chimney Cakes
Price: $15 at Magdalena’s Chimney Cakes
Magdalena’s Chimney Cakes serves Chimney Cakes (a rotisserie-baked Hungarian pastry shaped like a cone) filled with vanilla ice cream and choice of Nutella® or caramel spread and toppings (crushed OREO® Cookies, rainbow sprinkles or frosted flakes).
We found the chimney cake was best enjoyed by, as one member of our party put it, “eating it like a calf at the udder.” And hey, if that doesn’t sound appetizing to you, you’re reading the wrong set of fair food reviews, pal. The uh, “teat treat” (sorry, sorry, reading jokes from my notes here, I’ll stop) worked that way because all of the delicious melted ice cream and fillings sank to the bottom of the chimney cake cone. And the cone itself was delicious—kind of caramelized and sweet, and cased in sugar—but we were left wanting more of it, and less of the ice cream and everything else.
Verdict: Shrug
Caprese Curds
Price: $12 at LuLu’s Public House
Mozzarella cheese curds breaded with Italian seasoning and deep fried. Served over a bruschetta-flavored blend of tomatoes and basil, and drizzled with balsamic glaze. Served with a side of crostini for scooping.
To paraphrase Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ian Malcom: “Your cheese curd scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” State Fair food concocters love gilding curd lilies, but the payoff is almost never worth the fuss. And curds dolled up to attend a Sardinian garden party? C’mon, man. The balsamic-forward bed of diced tomatoes coulda been worse (nice flavor, unlike many Sysco-grade watery ‘matoes), and, sure, the superfluous crostini crunches with nice garlic notes. But our curds arrived wilted, tough, and salty, perhaps the victims of too much time under the heat lamp. LuLu’s is a heavyweight vendor; we loved last year’s big swing with deep-fried ranch, which is still available in 2025. For curds, however, just stick with Mouth Trap.
Verdict: Skip
Tandoori Chicken Quesaratha
Price: $15 at Holy Land
Spiced tandoori chicken layered with a blend of Monterey Jack & mozzarella cheese and a mixture of sauteed onions, mixed bell peppers, jalapeños, corn, cilantro and green chilis. Folded inside paratha (pronounced pa-rah-tah) bread and griddled on a flat top grill. Served with a side of Holy Land’s Avocado Cilantro Lime Sauce.
The quality of Holy Land is on display for all to see, with a dedicated crew grilling up expertly seasoned kabobs, gyros, and shawarmas right behind the register. Year after year, it’s one of the safest and most delicious bets you can make at the fair. And this year’s new menu addition—a fun, portable, and dunkable Middle Eastern riff on the quesadilla—is a home run. As expected, the freshly cooked tandoori chicken mixes wonderfully with the diced and grated toppings surrounding it. But that paratha bread steals the show. Crackling, flaky, and yet, somehow, still substantial enough to survive dunks into the brightly refreshing green sauce, it exceeds most tortillas we’ve ever encountered. Don’t overthink things if you wanna lunch stroll through the nearby Agriculture Horticulture Building, admiring humongous pumpkins as you munch—this quesaratha is the solution to all your problems.
Verdict: Scarf!
Cinna-sugar Crust Tidbits
Price: $10 at Sara’s Tipsy Pies
Freshly baked flaky pie crust strips covered in cinnamon and sugar. Served with a side of whiskey-flavored caramel dipping sauce. (Vegetarian, Vegan upon request)
OK, we think we get what Sara Tipsy Pie is doing here. Let’s presume that pie is the preferred dessert of the American patriarchy: Women tend to spend hours laboring over it; entitled men love to gobble it up—and sometimes more, if we’re to believe teen sex comedies (and why wouldn’t we?). There’s the patriotic phrase about the apple variety that conservative male politicians often spout. Plus, the best kind requires dead animal product; therefore pie is manly. With open misogyny again on the rise in our culture, this humble (very humble) dish is resistance. “Here, you greedy asshole pie-eating sexists,” it says. “Take the scraps that you deserve: the dry, hard crust scraps, coated with overly large sugar crystals to scrape the roof of your mouth. Because we can’t help but still be a little bit nice, you may also have a tiny cup of caramel sauce for dipping.” We applaud the statement, but Racket readers deserve real pie.
Verdict: Skip
Hot Honey Pizza Ballzz
Price: $10 at Green Mill
Three pizza dough balls stuffed with cheese curds, pepperoni, herbs and Parmesan cheese. Brushed with garlic butter and topped with more pepperoni, herbs and Parmesan cheese. Finished with a drizzle of hot honey sauce.
We arrived skeptical. I mean, how many form-factor repackagings can pizza endure? And Hot Honey Pizza Ballzz? Come on, at first glance that name is chasing a semi-distant trend, and at second glance it’s almost… sexual? Like, “Oh yeah baby, gimme those hot honey pizza ballzz.” You’re better than that, Green Mill! Also, when you melt cheese curds inside pizza dough, it just becomes cheese! You’re better than that, too. However, then we bit into these suckers and, honestly, they’re pretty good. Yes it’s a glorified pepperoni roll, but who cares: Pepperoni rolls are tasty as fuck. And yes, it’s been 10 years since hot honey was relevant, but maybe that’s enough time for it to come all the way back around the clock. Hot honey… right when I think I’m out… YOU PULL ME BACK IN! Note: They’re a bit dry and could use some dipping sauce, but, still, for 10 bucks you get three of these tasty little golf balls and they’re a mildly fun shareable snack. Anywhere else 10 bucks might sound expensive, but given the price point of everything else at the fair this year, it’s actually a decent value.
Verdict: Shrug
Pot of Gold Potato Dumplings
Price: $13 at O’Gara’s at the Fair
Cheesy garlic mashed potatoes folded into flaky dumplings, by Twin Cities-based Saturday Dumpling Co., and deep fried. Served with a side of Top the Tater® “The Original” Chive Onion dip.
We love Saturday Dumpling Co. Really love, even! So it pains us to say these dumplings suuuuuuuuuck. They’re dry guys, with a too-thick shell that almost feels sandy on the exterior. Inside, you’ll find a noxious slurry of box-grade mashed potatoes and cheese. “It’s the texture of what you’ll be barfing up,” offered one friend/peer from a competing publication. Here’s a notebook dump of our additional dumpling commentary: “stanky,” “weird aftertaste,” “starchy goo-fest,” and, as something of a departure, “cute dumpling.” (Hey, at least they got that going for ‘em.) Even our lil tub of Top the Tater proved too cold for easy dunking! And to dunk, critically, on these rolly poly Irish fusion duds? It’s also not easy, considering the absolute pros behind ‘em. Maybe next year Saturday Dumpling Co. debuts at the fair on their own terms.
Verdict: Skip
Uncrustaburger
Price: $14 at Coasters
A 4 oz. hamburger patty with cheese, pickles and special sauce, sandwiched between two deep-fried peanut butter & grape jelly Uncrustables®.
We’ll eat crow here because, frankly, that sounds much more appetizing than another Uncrustaburger. Earlier this summer Racket predicted, “You know what… Coasters might be cookin’ with this seemingly outrageous concept.” Nope! No, no, no. Not even close. Coasters pushed its chips in on this “talker,” a sorta over-the-top monstrosity that must make coastal elites stroke their chins and lob their “why I’ll nevers!” at our extreme Midwestern gastronomy. Executing a high-concept experiment while delivering on taste is a tough needle to thread, but it is possible—just look at the amazing things LuLu’s did last year with deep-fried ranch. The big difference? LuLu’s took great care acing the details, whereas Coasters squishes a gray, lifeless cheeseburger patty that’d draw icy reviews in a hospital cafeteria between two (nicely!) crisped Uncrustables. The first bite was almost impossible, requiring python-like jaw theatrics to even angle this thing in under the teeth. The problems accelerate from there. The pockets of the Uncrustables trap grease, which then swirls with the fillings, and good luck not having that explode all over your face. Logistics aren’t there. Quality isn’t there. Flavor ain’t there. And value? Not there! Only get this grotesque gut-bomb if you’re really determined to make a mess on Instagram.
Verdict: Skip
Deep-Fried Tofuego Bites
Price: $8 at Rooted and Wild Snack House
Bites of breaded tofu, deep fried and tossed in a tangy, spicy sauce. Served on a bed of pineapple and napa cabbage slaw. Topped with sesame seeds and scallions. (Vegan)
These were not easy to procure on Thursday morning—even at 9:30, the wait was long—but the Tofuego Bites arrived fresh and looked just like their preview picture. The tofu is the star here, as it should be, fried to perfection with a crunchy exterior and soft inside. The veggies are great too, crunchy cabbage and bits of green onion were sauced from the cubes but not soggy (no pineapple was spotted in the mix, however). But it’s that sauce that’s a letdown here; it tastes exactly like Thai Kitchen’s Sweet Red Chili Sauce. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s nothing you couldn’t whip up in your own air fryer.
Verdict: Shrug
Dill Pickle Iced Tea
Brewed black tea infused with dill pickle flavor and served with a dill pickle spear. Garnished with a rim of chamoy, Tajín, salt and dill. (Vegan, Gluten Free)
Price: $7 (cash only!) at Loon Lake Iced Tea
Kombucha is great. A splash of pickle juice in a light beer? Revelatory. A homemade shrub in the summertime? So tasty! This dill pickle iced tea should be an easy win, right? Wrong! Turns out when you mix tea with “dill pickle flavor” it kinda cancels out everything. The dominant taste here was the spice of the chamoy rim and water—that’s weird! This seemed like such a good idea. Alas, Fred and Carrie, it turns out you can’t actually pickle everything.
Verdict: Shrug
Freaky Fryday
Chicken-fried vegan bacon served with vegan fried chicken strips infused with bacon flavor. Optional toppings include mini donut cinnamon sugar & maple syrup, pickle seasoning & ranch dressing, spicy buffalo sauce & dragon dust – or a combination of all three. (Vegan)
Price: $19 ($21 with all the sauces) at The Herbivorous Butcher
It seems kinda odd to come to the fair and order up chicken tenders. But if you’re a vegan or vegetarian, “chicken” tenders that actually taste good are a rarity. And finding vegan bacon that isn’t just a thin piece of rubber doused in liquid smoke is even harder. But ol’ Herbs nailed the textures and tastes here. The crust is reminiscent of real fried chicken, with dustings of cinnamon sugar, dill pickle, and spicy dragon dust (not all at once; we ordered the sampler) and the sauces are tasty. The price is steep, but the portions are huge; our group of nine struggled to make a dent. The nonvegetarians of the group seemed pretty “meh” on this one, but veg heads who miss a KFC bucket will dig it, and Freaky Fryday is definitely a huge improvement over last year’s really weird Raging Ball.
Verdict: Shrug, but an encouraging shrug!
Smashadilla
Price: $12 at Gass Station Grill
Smashed seasoned ground beef and Gouda cheese grilled on a flour tortilla. Served folded and dressed with caramelized onions, lettuce, pickles and Gass Station Grill’s homemade burger sauce.
Smashburger quesadillas are all the rage right now. The Smashadilla at Gass Station, on the other hand, is just all rage. This thing looks like an open dirty diaper and doesn’t taste much better. (I assume.) The meat was pale gray and the Gouda barely melted. You know what cheese would’ve melted perfectly though? American cheese, the only cheese that ever belongs on a smashburger. But that’s a controversial take for another day. Sadly, not even the perfect chemical reaction of a Kraft single could save this fusion fiasco. Even the pickles sucked!
Verdict: Hard skip
Afro Bean Pops
Price: $8 at Afro Deli
Savory deep-fried bites of ground black-eyed peas, onions, jalapeños, cilantro and seasonings. Served with a spicy red chili sauce. (Vegan)
Anyone who’s had a proper hushpuppy knows that even plain-ass fried balls can strike a magical balance between elements that are crisp and crunchy, tender and moist, or salty and sweet. Unfortunately, these fried lumps from Afro Deli are almost spectacular in their ability to taste exactly how they look. Sauce offerings try to add razzamatazz to the fried black eyed pea batter, but unfortunately the trio—mild Creole mayo, a tomato-based medium, and a spicy jalapeno green salsa—were too one-dimensional to rescue the black eyed pea batter from tasting like anything more than a faint fart from the future. Ugh.
Verdict: Skip
Grandma Doreen’s Dessert Dog
Price: $14.50 at West End Creamery
Vanilla ice cream, created by Minnesota Dairy Lab, sandwiched between two pieces of Grandma Doreen’s Coffee Cake – a family recipe from Elgin, Minn. – made by Wrecktangle Pizza. Skewered on-a-stick and drizzled with house-made strawberry rhubarb jam. Garnished with cinnamon toast-flavored crispy treats, whipped cream and sprinkles. (Vegetarian)
You’ve never had an ice cream sandwich quite like this. The two slabs of coffee cake alone would be worth the drive down to Elgin to see grandma, and Minnesota Dairy Lab’s was easily the freshest and tastiest of the many vanilla ice creams we’d consumed that day. (There’s a good reason we asked them to devise a Racket-affiliated ice cream, Racky Road.) You get to watch someone assemble this aesthetically pleasing creation with care, and the skewer keeps your precious little fingers clean—at least until it’s time to scoop up any of the cinnamon crumble and jam that may have fallen off the sandwich.
Verdict: Scarf!
Chicken Fried Bacon Fries
Price: $12 at Soul Bowl
Beef bacon strips double-breaded in tempura flour and fried. Garnished with fresh parsley and served in a cup. Choice of two dipping sauces: Cashville Hot, a brown sugar Nashville-style hot sauce; or 24k Gold BBQ, a passion fruit Charleston gold barbecue sauce.
From the description above, you’d think these would be a slam dunk. And they are! As long as you’re slam dunking them… into the trash! This was one of the worst things (if not the worst thing) we ate all day, and we refuse to believe the recipe for this came from a human brain. This thing has ChatGPT written all over it. The bacon was somehow even more flaccid than a tray of uncut Timber Twists (see below). If you’re looking for a snack that looks like calamari but eats like fried earthworms, then these are definitely for you. Harry Singh’s is only two stalls down from Soul Bowl after all—go get a double and thank us later. After that, go apologize to a cow.
Verdict: Skip like you’ve never skipped before
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Price: $8 at Urban Glow Mocktails
Urban Glow Mocktails, by Urban Growler Brewing Company, serves craft mocktails.including: Dirty NoTini (lemon, dill pickling spices & olive brine); Nojito (minty-lime with a hint of molasses); CosNo (cranberry, orange & lime); Grilled Peach No Fashioned (caramelized peach garnished with peach & cherry); Autumn Mule (apple, warm cinnamon & spicy ginger); Pineapple Upside Down Cake (chilled pineapple slushie); Bonspiel Blue (cucumber, lemon & blue tea); and Nitro Cold Brew (cold brew on tap, carbonated with nitrogen, with assorted flavor shots).
Those of us who spend the fair beer-free have plenty of alternatives these days—gone are the days when you were left to guzzle flat fountain cola and like it, dammit. So if you’re going to make N/A alternatives your whole project—and require us to trudge up to an out-of-the-way fair region at that—you’ve really got to be on your game. And the Pineapple Upside Down Cake—essentially a virgin Pina Colada slushie, overly sweetened with honey—while refreshing enough, wasn’t quite worth the trip. Urban Glow has several other options (I’d also considered the Bonspiel Blue) so we wouldn’t rule them out just yet. But we’d have to be in the neighborhood.
Verdict: Shrug
Bacon Cheddar Tater Kegs
Price: $10 at Greater Tater
Greater Tater serves Tater Kegs – jumbo deep-fried tots stuffed with savory fillings – in five flavors: Bacon Jalapeño; Bacon Cheddar; Breakfast Skillet; Cheese Bomb; and Reuben. Served with choice of sauces: thousand island, blue cheese, Top the Tater®, maple syrup and ketchup. All Tater Kegs are gluten free.
Ah, the inexpensive and versatile potato. Each year State Fair vendors believe they can work some new magic with this humble staple crop, yet rarely do they succeed. New kid on the block Greater Tater isn’t rewriting the potato recipe book, though their kegs are indeed larger than the average tot (on their way to becoming tater tweens). But the nicely crispy outsides don’t prepare you for the dry, mushy innards; there’s a decent bacon cheddary flavor, with a hint of chives, but no real texture. Sure they taste fine dunked in Top the Tater, but what doesn’t?
Verdict: Skip
Ube Butter Banana French Toast Lumpia, Pizza Lumpia
Price: $12 at Lumpia City
Lumpia City serves lumpia – traditional Filipino fried spring rolls –in two fusion flavors: Pizza Lumpia (mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, pizza sauce and Italian herbs); and turon-inspired Ube Butter Banana French Toast Lumpia (French toast strips soaked in ube butter syrup with caramelized bananas, dusted with powdered sugar).
While most new vendors are left to compete for a prime spot at the fair, Lumpia City was actually invited after they won the Wisconsin State Fair’s annual Sporkies competition. And we could taste why. Crispy, light, and fresh, the lumpia wrappers alone tell you these folks mean business. The Pizza Lumpia was like a deconstructed, upscale pizza roll, with a sauce that lots of Italian joints would envy, and we could have downed dozens of ’em while watching the game. (They come in servings of four apiece.) But the French Toast Lumpia is the real treasure. The deep purple ube and the banana complement each other both flavorably and visually to create a sweet breakfast treat for any time of day. There was no line at Lumpia City when we stopped by, but we’re guessing that’ll change some once word gets around.
Verdict: Scarf!
Land of 10,000 Cakes
Price: $14 at Bridgeman’s Ice Cream
A Bridgeman’s Marble Sundae of Butter Brittle Ice Cream layered in a cup with a trio of mini Nadia Cupcakes – Creme Brulee, Loaded Pistachio and Chocolate Bliss. Topped with whipped cream and a cherry. (Vegetarian)
Bridgeman’s is a quality bargain ice cream and a local sentimental favorite, but each year their attempts at innovation kinda let us down. The problem with this sundae is architectural: The damn thing is structurally unsound, with many of the cakey treats buried beneath scoops of adequate butter brittle so you can’t get to them—we wound up knuckle-deep in whipped cream while failing to reach the layer of chocolate syrup at the bottom with our spoon. And really, building a workable sundae should be the least we expect from an ice cream parlor, no?
Verdict: Skip
Hot Honey Jalapeño Popper Donut
Price: $8 at Fluffy’s Hand Cut Donuts
Hand-cut yeast-raised donut frosted with homemade jalapeño cream cheese. Topped with crumbled bacon, pickled jalapeños and drizzled with hot honey.
One reviewer described it as simply “revolting.” All hope fled the scene immediately as we were handed something that was chilly to the touch and had been fully drenched-to-order with (not) hot honey. Its supposed “jalapeño cream cheese” frosting tasted more like a thick mayo (which could explain-not-excuse the refrigeration?) while the non-creamy, non-cheesy frosting’s jalapeño component arrived in the form of full-sized, pickled pepper wheels with a pungency that crushed our palates and souls. Also the bulk of this behemoth seemed more akin to a par-baked dinner roll, which ultimately raised the question, “What the fuck did we just eat?”
Verdict: Skip
Sweet Squeakers
Price: $14 at the Blue Barn
White cheddar cheese curds coated in a funnel cake batter, deep fried, and topped with a scoop of fresh lemon whipped cream. Finished with a drizzle of berry sauce. (Vegetarian)
Can cheese curds, a savory delight, be turned into a sweet treat? They sure can. The cheese here is neutral, think mascarpone or a chewy paneer, but like the vanilla in an ice cream sundae it’s but a mere vessel to get the delightful fixins into your gullet. The lemon cream is refreshing and light, the berry sauce is tart yet sweet, and the cinnamony goo below the curds (a product of the funnel cake batter?) is buttery sweet like a Cinnabon. It’s all just a really solid balance of flavor that somehow isn’t heavy or too sugary.
Verdict: Scarf!
Hula Kalua Pork
Price: $14 at RC’s BBQ
Slow-smoked pork collar caramelized with Hawaiian barbecue sauce, inspired by the flavors of traditional Hawaiian Kalua pork. Served atop a charred banana leaf with banana chips and Japanese quick-pickled cucumbers on the side. Finished with a sprinkle of coarse red sea salt.
RC’s Hula Kalua Pork might not be the most flashy or gimmicky addition to the food list this yea, but the basic barbecue elements hit. The three generously sized pork slices are thick and tender, with a tasty ratio of caramelized charred bits to tender, pork-belly-adjacement meat. The flash-pickled cucumbers provide welcome acid to accompany the sweet Hawaiian flavor, and the banana leaf and chips make for fun presentation and texture variation. In past years, we’ve quibbled with the toughness of some RC cuts, but not here. The carnivore in your life will leave happy.
Verdict: Enthusiastic shrug
Pizza Cheese Curd Tacos
Price: $18 at Richie’s Cheese Curd Tacos
Pepperoni, sausage and pizza-flavored fried cheese curds in a crispy flour shell, topped with marinara sauce and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
It’s obvious that much attention was paid to the components of these alt-tacos from their sturdy, chalupa-esque shells and the classic stack of meat-lover toppings. So, with all these flavors—plentiful cheese curds, actual fennel seeds festooning the sausages, marinara sauce that tastes like it might have been stirred with a wooden spoon, and pepperoni that gets an award just for showing up—they chose to be not salty? We’re talking not a grain of the good stuff in sight! And for EIGHTEEN AMERICAN DOLLARS?! The good news is salt is cheap and there are 11 more days left to rescue these tacos.
Verdict: Skip
Fawaffle
Price: $11 at Baba’s
Falafel – a traditional Middle Eastern fritter of chickpeas and herbs – pressed in a waffle iron, topped with tahini butter, and served with cherry tomatoes, traditional hummus, green shatta, mint and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. (Vegetarian)
What a crushing disappointment. Even for our band of vegetable- and nutrient-starved fairgoers, the Fawaffle’s perfectly ripe tomatoes and fresh-picked mint couldn’t save this highly anticipated dish from falling to soggy pieces. The dish’s biggest problem wasn’t its flavor, but a base of crosshatched, mealy mush where we needed crispy and herby chickpea canyons. Forming a centerpiece was a button of faintly flavored tahini butter, framed by watered down squiggles of Baba’s famous (and generally excellent) hummus. Unfortunately this Fawaffle? She’s fawawful! (Sowwy.)
Verdict: Skip
Somali Street Fries
Price: $15 at Midtown Global Market’s Oasis Grill & Hoyo Sambusa
A blend of Somali Beef Suqaar – spiced beef, vegetables, cheese and herbs – piled atop a bed of french fries. Topped with white garlic sauce and green jalapeño hot sauce. (Aug. 21-26 only)
The Somali Street Fries from Oasis Grill are a bona fide knockout. The fries themselves could have easily been an afterthought but instead worked as a delightfully crispy lattice of starch from top to bottom, no sog in sight. Layered throughout was richly seasoned beef that had been chopped into perfectly tender cubes, plus pockets of gooey cheese and garlic sauce that kept us pleasantly surprised at each new fry pluck. A slash of perfectly bright and acidic green sauce (4.5/5 on a Minnesota Spice Scale) crowned off this achievement. Despite the humungous portion size, come ready to fight your friends over the last fry.
Verdict: Scarf!
Pimento Cheese Puffs
Price: $12 at Shanghai Henri’s
Pimento cheese – a blend of cheddar cheese, mayo and pimento peppers – wrapped in puff pastry and deep fried. Served with a side of pepper jelly. (Vegetarian)
Of all the dips, spreads, and sauces we’ve been deep frying these days—ranch dressing, butter, Nutella—pimento cheese really makes the most sense. These golden triangles work like a fried mac ‘n’ cheese bite: crunchy on the outside, chunky and gooey on the inside. The cheddar has a smokiness more reminiscent of a Gouda while the pepper jelly is seed-forward (is that a raspberry base?) with paprika (more smoke!), and a pleasant vinegar tang. If you’re looking for a new way to eat fried cheese or your favorite picnic dip, this is an easy option.
Verdict: Scarf!
Banana Smore Patisserie
Price: $9 at Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop
Banana S’more: Baked brown-butter crumb cake with bananas, marshmallows and chocolate chunks. Topped with a graham cracker streusel. (Vegetarian)
By the time we got to the Farmers Union Coffee Shop, they were already sold out of the apple strudel variety of their two new treats from Patisserie 46, and upon tasting the banana smores variety, we can see why. Sourced from a beloved south Minneapolis bakery, these pastries are definitely meant to be enjoyed with morning coffee. In theory, this little cake should work: smores = good; banana bread = good; Farmers Union = historically good. However, in theory communism works… in theory. And upon biting into this little cake we were left underwhelmed. For one thing, it’s a pain in the ass to get out of the paper housing it’s baked in; you end up mangling the thing and losing about a third of the product. And then there’s the fact that it’s essentially a $9 banana nut muffin dressed up with a fancy french name. The smores element isn’t detectable, and the graham cracker streusel was almost entirely absent. This patisserie is meh as heck, we don’t want s’more of it!
Verdict: Skip
Red Osier Dogwood Berry
Price: Free at the corner of Dan Patch & Cooper
Oh, just some white berries we found then googled.
These berries were far too bitter. All samplers instantaneously spit them out. Even though they’re free and won’t kill you, Racket cannot recommend eating these random berries we found growing on the fairgrounds. Do as we say, not as we do, kids!
Verdict: Shrub
Athena’s Whipped Feta
Price: $10 at Dino’s Gyros
Whipped feta topped with schug (pronounced SH-ugh) – a Middle Eastern green sauce made with jalapeños, garlic, cilantro, parsley and fresh herbs – drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with crunchy toasted wild rice. Served with deep-fried pita bread tossed in Dino’s signature seasoning. (Vegetarian)
In ancient Greek mythology, Athena was among the most powerful goddesses of all. Known for her infinite wisdom, she was known to be a strategic thinker and master problem solver. In modern State Fair mythology, Athena has been reduced to a pile of goo in a paper tray surrounded by pieces of fried pita that are far too thick to ever be considered chips. Has anyone from Dino’s ever tasted Greek food? Have they ever tasted food? Do they even have taste buds? Athena’s Whipped Feta was bland and boring, but it was at least edible, making it leaps and bounds better than Dino’s crime against humanity from last year. They may not owe all of the Greek islands an apology in 2025, but they should at least make things right with Athena. Those Greek gods hold a mean grudge.
Verdict: The epitome of a shrug
Timber Twists
Price: $13 at Giggles’ Campfire Grill
A savory mixture of Italian sausage, mozzarella, cream cheese and barbecue rub piped into three large manicotti shells, then wrapped in bacon. Cooked in a wood-fired smoker for an infusion of smokey flavor. Served with a side of Giggles’ signature barbecue sauce.
Giggles’ Campfire Grill is usually a guaranteed scarf. But they also don’t usually serve food that looks like a tray of uncircumcised dicks—proving once again that nothing in this life is guaranteed. Looks aside, the bacon was limp, the sausage was bland, and there’s just something fundamentally wrong about dipping pasta in barbeque sauce, especially one as cloyingly sweet as Giggles’ “signature” barbecue sauce. With every dip, my head was on a swivel, half-expecting to get my ass kicked by anyone with even a whisper of Italian ancestry. These things had no redeeming quality aside from the giggle we all had about their… uncut appearance. So Giggles’ at least lived up to its name.
Verdict: Skip! (But don’t skip Giggles’ entirely; they have plenty of other delicious, less phallic foods to choose from.)
Shrimp & Pork Toast On-A-Stick
Price: $15 at Union Hmong Kitchen
A mixture of ground pork and shrimp combined with Hmong aromatics – lemongrass, ginger, garlic, shallots and Thai chilis – seasoned with fish sauce, spread on Texas toast and deep fried. Served on-a-stick with a side of apricot jelly hot sauce.
After last year’s disappointing Grilled Purple Sticky Rice, we were all cautiously optimistic that Union Hmong Kitchen would come out swinging. Folks, they knocked it out of the park! The Shrimp & Pork Toast On-A-Stick was a unanimous Scarf! from our first bite. All the complexities of Hmong cooking really shine in this dish, and every ingredient makes itself known, creating a beautiful balance of savory, herby, and spicy. The apricot jelly hot sauce brought a perfect amount of sweet heat to the party and would be a great addition to tons of other fair foods. If there’s one downside to these bad boys, it’s that they were scarfed way too quickly by our review crew. If you plan on sharing them, don’t. Or get two orders.
Verdict: Scarf! Maybe twice!
Triple Chocolate Mini Donuts
Price: $12 at Solem’s Cheese Curds and Mini Donuts
Chocolate mini donuts dusted with powdered sugar, drizzled with chocolate icing, and topped with chocolate sprinkles and mini milk chocolate chips. Served in a bucket rimmed with more chocolate icing and sprinkles.
We’ve said it before and we’ll probably have to say it again: There is no improvement to be made on the classic Tom Thumb mini donut. That said (once more!), if you’re craving something very chocolately, you could certainly do worse than these. Twelve bucks buys a shareable bucket of fluffy cocoa-laden mini donuts, topped with a generous portion of rich sauce (the description says icing; we would have believed ganache) and mini chips that add two more layers of flavor and texture to this indulgent chocolate extravaganza. It’s impractically messy to eat, but could satisfy at least two hunger-raging American children, if that’s something you need to accomplish.
Verdict: Shrug
Beignets and Cold Brew Stinger
Price: $16 for six beignets, $9 for the Cold Brew Stinger at Beans & Beignets
Beans & Beignets serves freshly made beignets (deep-fried pastry dough topped with powdered sugar), plus a variety of iced and hot beverages, including tea, coffee, chai lattes and espresso drinks.
Despite the cooperation of a sweltering sun, we just were not mentally transported to New Orleans by these beignets. We don’t say this often about a dessert item at the fair, but here it goes: They’re not sweet enough. They didn’t have much flavor. The texture was fine, though the pastry was too dry for the powdered sugar on top to stick, and much of it wafted away on the breeze along with our Big Easy dreams. As for the “beans,” we tried the Stinger: iced cold brew with whipped espresso honey, cayenne, and a splash of cream. The whipped honey was bitter and unpleasant, and just sat thickly on top of the liquid. Spice is apparent in the aftertaste. Not terrible for novelty coffee, but not particularly recommended.
Verdict: Shrug
Dubai Chocolate Strawberry Cup
Price: $20 at Chocolate Strawberry Cup
Chocolate Strawberry Cup serves fresh strawberries in a cup with toppings in four flavors: Dubai Chocolate Strawberry Cup (layered with Belgian-style chocolate, pistachio butter, kataifi (pronounced kuh-tay-fee) and pistachios); Matcha White Chocolate Strawberry Cup (layered with matcha white chocolate and melted chocolate topped with marshmallow sauce); Chocolate Strawberry Cup (covered with melted Belgian-style chocolate); and Chocolate Strawberries & Cream (covered in melted chocolate and topped with a tower of whipped cream and chocolate drizzle). All strawberry cups are gluten free, except the Dubai chocolate cup.
Capitalizing on trends is a longstanding fair tradition—and so is bombing the execution. With Dubai chocolate, the pistachio and the kataifi are supposed to provide crunch along with flavor, and neither is very apparent here. There was a vaguely pistachio-tasting cream along with the chocolate sauce covering the strawberries, but zero actual nuts. The topping of crispy shards of kataifi (a phyllo-like pastry) was so scant it was barely there. A real Dubai chocolate bar might be able to justify a $20 (!!!) price tag, but this concoction cannot. Still, the berries were good.
Verdict: Skip
Cherry Bigfoot Limeade Float
Price: $12 at Tasti Whip
Limeade juice topped with cherry Dole Soft Serve, garnished with a lime slice and a cherry. (Vegan, Gluten Free)
Just as no one can prove the existence of the elusive woods-dwelling creature, no one knows why this thing is called a Bigfoot. What we can tell you is that it is the best new beverage at this year’s fair. Maybe that’s cheating a little, because it’s actually a float: fizzy limeade topped with a deep pink swirl of cherry Dole soft serve (a dairy-free product that tastes similar to sorbet). It was a pleasingly tart antidote to the overly sweet concoctions from some other vendors. Garnished with a fresh lime slice, a maraschino cherry, and a cute paper umbrella, it’s cute, delicious, and just as refreshing as expected, if not more.
Verdict: Scarf!
Croffle Cloud
Price: $12 at Spinning Wylde
Croissant pressed in a waffle iron and topped with fresh whipped sweet cream, a drizzle of fruit puree and a cloud of cotton candy. Choice of three flavors: Banana Caramel – caramel drizzle with banana taffy cotton candy; Yuzu Meringue (pronounced yoo-zoo and mer-RANG) – yuzu puree with lemon meringue cotton candy; or Coconut Cream – coconut drizzle with coconut cotton candy. (Vegetarian)
Spinning Wylde seems to understand young people. And if we were 12, we would love this adorable stand. Heck, we’d love it at 80! The walls are bright pink plastic, and after ordering you’re given a giant plastic token that you then slide into a neat coin slot, all while watching colorful spinning cotton candy being made in front of you. The whole experience has a video game feel to it: It’s chaotic, random, and, crucially, pretty fun. And this crazy cloud croffle thing? It’s giving summer. (“It’s giving” is a thing ya’ll still say right? Did we do it right? Please say we did!) Visually the croffle cloud—a fun puff of sparkly tart cotton candy on top of whipped cream, custard, and croissant—begs to be posted. Per staff suggestion, we opted for the yuzu flavor, and now we gotta say… wezu like this yuzu. It’s delish! Pro tip: After you’ve taken pictures to your heart’s content, fold one half of the croissant onto the other, crushing the cotton candy like an accordion into the middle. It makes the thing a sandwich, and the family that owns the stand assured us that it’s the best way to eat it. You’ll be on cloud croffle nine!
Verdict: Scarf!
Gelato Nachos
Price: $11 at Mancini’s al Fresco
Cannoli chips topped with a scoop of cannoli-flavored gelato. Finished with chocolate sauce, rainbow sprinkles and a cherry. (Vegetarian)
Cannoli? More like cardboardy. We predicted that the strength of this dessert would depend upon the strength of the cannoli chips, and so when we bit into our inaugural cronch, we were pretty bummed that they tasted a bit like stale communion wafers. And OK, yes, that’s the holy body of Christ, but no theologians ever vouched for how transubstantiation tastes. (Please don’t smite us god.) And that’s not all: The gelato is flavored like—wait for it—cannoli? What does that even mean? Like, Italian… flavor? Sugar nothing? It tastes like sugar nothing. Maybe Mancini’s is going for an uninspired take on that birthday cake trend from a while back, what with the rainbow sprinkles and all, but the whole thing smacks of low effort. Skip this and just get some gelato. Or just go get another friggin croffle cloud from Spinning Wylde. Those things are fun as hell.
Verdict: Skip
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