While I cheered for the grilled cheese guy, (because I love a good grilled cheese and not everyone can make them folks. Turns out, the contestant couldn't either.), we quickly switched our allegiance to Jaman from Detroit who could cook up mean waffles and fried chicken. While the investors kept pushing for Jaman to make soul food healthy, we thought he got a unjustly raked over the coals a few times for trying to turn soul food into something it's not. I mean, there's only so much you can do before you change the food to fit another genre. (which is what the Indian food guy did.)
Dave got the assignment to be an iPhone foodie for his station, and we tagged along to test Soul Daddy's wares. I grew up eating soul food before I knew that's what it was even called. So to say the standards were rather high would be an understatement. I thought the food was fine and some dishes were tasty, but it wasn't any kind of soul food I've ever eaten....and something tells me Jaman would agree. THEY WOULDN'T LET HIM KEEP FRIED CHICKEN ON THE MENU. The ridiculousness of not having fried chicken in a soul food restaurant is probably the equivalent of McDonalds not serving big macs. Sure, there's other foods that are soul food, but fried chicken is the soul daddy of them all.
I told my friends here the place is a lot like, no surprise, Chipotle...which are on every corner in Minneapolis. Sure, you'll check out the place on your lunch hour....but you aren't going to drive out of your way to go to one.
PS...Jack did not like Soul Daddy's. He ate raisins and left a good portion of them all over the floor. My apologies to the staff.
If you’re looking for finger-licking, button-popping, “leave me alone with my plate”, soul food, this is not the place for you. But if you want a good meal, fast, with pleasant (but not too strong) flavors, Soul Daddy’s is a great choice.
Let’s first start with the service. When we got there at 5:30pm on a Saturday the line was just almost out the door. We were moved through quickly, greeted by a very warm and helpful service staff and found a seat (table for two with child) within 15 minutes.
I had the ribs with black-eyed pea salad, corn bread waffle and cheesy grits. The ribs had a nice crust and still managed to be juicy on the inside. They were seasoned on the outside, but certainly not overpowering so you could really taste the good smoky flavor that slow cooked ribs should have.
While the ribs were palate-pleasing by themselves, you have your choice of three sauces; (and can sample all three) ‘Soul Daddy BBQ’, ‘Molasses Mustard’ and ‘Jamawn’s Hot Sauce’. I found all three very good although the hot sauce was not particularly hot.
The cheesy grits were fantastic. They had a wonderful cheese and butter flavor, had great texture and were not gummy—and I should add that I am not usually a fan of grits. My wife (who is a true southerner, from Arkansas) also liked them.
If you know a southerner, you know they are very picky about three things: grits, cornbread and sweet tea. She loved all three at Soul Daddy’s.
The cornbread waffle was the understated contributor to this meal and was AWESOME. If you’re used to very sweet corn bread (almost like a dessert bread) then you haven’t really had good corn bread. Real “southern” corn bread is not sweet, but rather a little bland and designed to help soak of the flavor of the meal. Soul Daddy’s nailed this side perfectly.
My wife had the baked chicken with sweet potato salad the whole grain biscuit and we shared the wild rice salad.
The baked chicken was solid. The skin had a rosemary herb mixture and was very juicy. As Bobby Flay said in the America’s Next Great Restaurant finale; if you’re not going to fry the chicken make sure it’s the best baked chicken ever.
He also said he was disappointed that Jamawn Woods’ menu didn’t have fried chicken. I was too.
The two salads, like the rest of the meal, had very mild flavors; easy to like, but not necessarily memorable enough to ‘have’ to come back for.
Soul Daddy’s is to soul food what Chipotle is to Mexican; not authentic but a great alternative that will allow you to leave happy and full.
It's good food, fast. And because of that, it will likely live up to its billing as America’s next great restaurant.
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