Nupa

From what I could gather by searching Google, this is the first and only restaurant blog for Rochester, Minnesota.  Outside of columns in the Post Bulletin available on their website, I could not find another, independent restaurant blog in the town.  It is exciting to have the opportunity to be the first voice on restaurants in Rochester and to be able to use my knowledge to see how the restaurants stack up, regardless who they are, how many awards they have won, how many billboards they advertise on, or how long they have been in business.

The first restaurant review for this blog is for Nupa.  While Nupa has not been around for a long time, and it recently opened a second location, it is certainly one of the best food options in town.  I have an unofficial top five restaurants in Rochester list and Nupa is on it.  Hopefully soon I will be able to assemble my official top five restaurants in Rochester list and I am sure Nupa will appear on that one as well.

For those who don't know of Nupa, you need to check it out.  It is tasty.  They are a quick service Mediterranean/Greek restaurant run by the people that have Mac's restaurant downtown in the Peace Plaza. Someone had the ingenious idea of turning an old eyeglasses store into a restaurant.  They did well.  It is like Chipotle, but their food is better and Mediterranean/Greek instead of Mexican-like.  Nupa's food is what you would expect from a Mediterranean/Greek restaurant and it is made well.  They have your typical selection of Gyros, Hummus, Pitas, Avgolemono soup, various salads, Kabobs, wonderful Tzatziki, Dolmades, Baklava, and so forth.

Their Gyro options are quite expansive, from the traditional beef and lamb combo, to chicken, steak, shrimp, calamari, falafel, and veggie.  As a nice bonus, they pack the pita with far more meat than it can hold so they surely do not skimp.  Having tried the traditional beef and lamb variety, the chicken variety, and the calamari variety, I can recommend all of them.  I was pleasantly surprised with how well the calamari was cooked when I tried that one.

Last night I stopped at the Nupa off of Civic Center Drive on the way home from work to eat some dinner.  As soon as you enter the building you are promptly greeted by one of the friendly staff members.  They are always welcoming and willing to help you in any way possible.  As a side note, I have heard many women talk before how they enjoy going there because the male employees that tend to be Greek are handsome.  Take that for what it is worth.

You place your order at the counter and it is rung up.  After you pay you get a number and find a seat.  As you can tell in the picture above, they have a menu board.  Their full menu, however, is not on their menu board.  They have hard copies of their entire menu at the counter so take a look at one of those if you want something more substantial, like one of their dinner plates.

Beverages are self service.  Unfortunately they have Pepsi.  Fortunately, however, they have among the tastiest water I have ever tasted.  They make cucumber water and it is free.  It may sound weird, but it is wonderfully refreshing and utterly delicious.  And free.  Because of their cucumber water I can look past their Pepsi offering.  They also do have a few different bottles of beer and some wines.  I have never inspected their wines too closely, but I think some or most or perhaps all are from Greece.  Their beer selection is a couple offerings from August Schell brewery in New Ulm, Minnesota, Schell's Dark and their wonderfully delicious Firebrick, and some other "beers" that Minnesotans love, like Michelob Golden Light and the like.  They do not serve hard liquor, but I don't know of any quick service restaurants that do.  Between the free cucumber water and Schell's Firebrick they have fine beverage choices and if they swapped the Pepsi machine for a Coke machine their beverage selection would equal their food selection.

The food tends to take only a few minutes until it is delivered to the table.  I have waited longer at name whatever fast food restaurant and the food at Nupa is much better.  Last night I got the Chicken Divan Pita meal, which is a pita with marinated, charbroiled chicken and honey mustard sauce (a love of mine), topped with Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, served with Tzatziki sauce, one of the best rice sides I have ever tasted, and a Greek salad consisting of lettuce, tomatoes, Feta cheese, onions, cucumbers, Pepperocini pepper slices, and a Kalamata olive dressed with a vinaigrette.  It was all delicious, as it always is at Nupa.  They are consistently great.

One of the critiques I have always had with Nupa's Greek salad is that the Kalamata olive is not pitted.  I know this having eaten many of them at Nupa before, but I think they should take the pit out of the olive.  When I eat I eat under the assumption olives have pits, but I am guessing not everyone does.  Other than that, the salad is always fresh tasting and delicious.  The Greek vinaigrette is nicely acidic, the Feta and Kalamata both sharp and salty, and the crisp greens and tomatoes give the salad a wonderful freshness.

I cannot say anything bad whatsoever about the rice.  In fact, I have tried to duplicate it at home and have yet to get it right.  It is immensely flavorful and perfect.  It is cooked well and seasoned even better.  I am sure it is cooked in chicken broth, lemon, and thyme.  I can see lemon zest when eating it and the herb presence is obvious as well.  Oregano makes more culinary sense since it is used predominately in Greek cuisine, but it has the look and flavor of thyme. 

On to the Chicken Divan Pita...it was wonderful as usual.  The chicken was charred, moist, juicy, and still hot and the vegetables inside provided a nice contrast in both texture and temperature.  The honey mustard sauce is a delicious compliment to the nice charred flavor of the chicken and the freshness of the vegetables.  Wrapping the whole delicious package together is a warm, tasty pita.  If you peel down the tinfoil while you eat it, it is fairly easy to keep it together when eating.  Like usual, when I got the entire pita eaten I had at least half a dozen chunks of chicken left over that the pita could not contain.  My only complaint is with the size of the chicken.  Some of the pieces were cut a little large to be considered bite size.  I didn't have a problem eating the chunks in one bite, but people with smaller mouths may have had trouble.  Certainly this doesn't change the flavor of the overall pita, but it may play a factor is the ease of eating.  If the size of the chicken chunks is my only complaint, I really have no complaint. 

I didn't have any Baklava last night, but I have had it many times in the past.  It is a tasty Baklava, though I have noticed some inconsistencies with it before.  They use orange in it, as is evident by orange zest when eating it, and it gives it a unique flavor that I don't recall from other Baklavas that I have had.  Some of the times I have had it, though, it is not as I remembered it being.  But the next time I have it, it is as good as I recalled it being. It has the wonderful, crunchy Filo you would expect, the luscious honey syrup, and nuts.  If you have it once and don't care for it, try it again.  You may have gotten the inconsistent batch like I have noticed.

Overall, Nupa does things right.  The food isn't complex, but it is well made.  They hit the Mediterranean/Greek flavors well and understand flavors, textures, temperatures, presentation, and consistency.  The service is excellent and quick.  Most items are under $10.  And they have free cucumber water.  The restaurant on Civic Center Drive is pretty small, but it is painted bright and there are tons of pictures hanging on the walls.  They also decorate with potted herbs.  The location near the south Hy-Vee is larger, but it seems much emptier and they need to decorate it a little more.  Both locations, however, are always super clean and hospitable.  It may be a quick service restaurant, but the food would be worth a 15 minute wait. 

To recap....

Food:  Great.  Very consistent overall, great flavors, textures, presentation, temperature contrasts, and so forth.  It's not necessarily super unique food or an unpredictable take on Mediterranean/Greek food, but it is well made and they can make rice I cannot duplicate.  Instead of fussing around with a beef and lamb mixture or making my own pitas from whatever else, I would much rather go here and support a local business while eating some fantastic food.

Service:  Great.  Friendly.  Prompt.  Very hospitable.

Drinks: No Coke, only Pepsi.  But they do have wonderful cucumber water, beer and wine, and even a very tasty, locally made beer, Schell's Firebrick.

Ambiance:  Small, cozy place (at least the Civic Center Drive location), but extremely welcoming.  Always clean.  Interesting pictures on the walls.

Conclusion:  One of Rochester's top five restaurants.  Well worth it!

Jordan