Best Restaurants for Chefs-Table in Minneapolis (2026)
Chef's Table · Minneapolis · 7 counters ranked · Updated June 2026
A chef's table is the best seat a restaurant can sell: a stool at the counter where the cooking happens in front of you, the chef talking you through each plate, and the meal becomes a show you are inside. The Twin Cities have an unusually deep bench of counters, led by Demi, where the entire room is a twenty-seat counter wrapping the open kitchen, and the omakase bars of the Warehouse District. This list ranks by the quality and intimacy of the kitchen access itself, not by fame, with no Michelin Guide in Minnesota to lean on. These seven, ranked, put you in the front row.
The ranking
1. Demi — Contemporary tasting menu · North Loop
212 N 2nd Street, North Loop · tasting about $150, near $250 with pairing · chef-proprietor Gavin Kaysen, James Beard Best Chef Midwest 2018, opened 2019
The purest chef's table in the Twin Cities, the whole room a counter around the kitchen. Book the front row.
Demi is the purest chef's table in the Twin Cities, where the entire restaurant is a twenty-seat U-shaped counter wrapping the open kitchen, so every guest watches the team plate in front of them. It comes from chef-proprietor Gavin Kaysen of Soigné Hospitality, a James Beard Best Chef Midwest winner in 2018, and a Relais & Châteaux member since it opened in 2019. The access is total: there is no dining room to retreat to, so the counter is the experience, which is exactly what this ranking rewards. The format is tasting-only, seven courses on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and roughly ten or eleven on Friday and Saturday, built on Midwest provenance and rare global product. The tasting runs about $150, near $250 a head with the reserve wine pairing. Book on Tock, prepaid, and well ahead, as the room is small.
2. Kaiseki Furukawa — Japanese kaiseki · Warehouse District
33 N 1st Avenue, Warehouse District · about $213 a head with service · chef Shigeyuki Furukawa, James Beard Best Chef Midwest finalist 2025 and 2026
A serene ten-seat counter where the chef personally hosts a kaiseki show. Take a guest who wants the pass.
Kaiseki Furukawa sits above the Kado no Mise building on 1st Avenue in the Warehouse District, a serene ten-seat chef's counter where chef Shigeyuki Furukawa personally hosts a multi-course kaiseki, a James Beard Best Chef Midwest finalist in both 2025 and 2026 and the only Minnesota chef nominated in any 2026 category. The access is among the most intimate in the city: a literal seat at the pass, ten guests, the chef working the progression in front of you. The format is a roughly ten-course seasonal kaiseki, symbolism-laden and ingredient-led, served on Tuesdays with two seatings, while the same counter runs omakase the rest of the week. It is a true counter rather than an open kitchen you happen to see, which lands it near the top. The kaiseki runs about $213 a head including service. Book on Tock, prepaid.
3. Kado no Mise — Edomae omakase · Warehouse District
33 N 1st Avenue, 2nd floor, Warehouse District · counter omakase $138 or $192 · chef Shigeyuki Furukawa, Kado no Mise opened 2017
A second-floor omakase counter where fish is cut and rice pressed in front of you. Take a guest who loves sushi craft.
Kado no Mise runs a Tokyo-style Edomae omakase at a second-floor counter on 1st Avenue in the Warehouse District, from chef Shigeyuki Furukawa, open since 2017 and carrying the same James Beard finalist pedigree as the kaiseki room upstairs. The access is the appeal: fish cut and rice pressed directly in front of you at the bar, the itamae setting the pace. Three set menus run, but only the Take at $138 and the Matsu at $192 are offered at the counter, while the entry-level Ume is dining-room only, so book the counter tiers to sit at the pass. Seatings run Wednesday to Sunday, early evening and late. It is a literal sushi counter rather than an open kitchen, which keeps it high on this list. The counter omakase runs $138 or $192 a head. Book on Tock, where the counter reservation is listed separately.
4. Tenant — New American tasting menu · South Minneapolis
4300 Bryant Avenue S, Kingfield · about $100 a head for six courses · chef de cuisine Cameron Cecchini, opened 2018
A tiny room with a six-seat counter where the cooks narrate each course. Take a guest who wants the kitchen close.
Tenant is a tiny twenty-seat room on Bryant Avenue South in Kingfield, built around an open kitchen with a six-seat counter facing the pass, where the cooks themselves serve and narrate each course. Chef de cuisine Cameron Cecchini runs the kitchen with GM Grisha Hammes, having taken the space over from Doug Flicker, and it has been a Twin Cities tasting-menu darling since 2018, still active with its rotating numbered menu series confirmed running into 2026. The access is the case for it: the six counter seats put you directly at the pass with the people cooking your food, so request the counter when you book, as it fills months out. The format is six rotating seasonal courses, from handmade pasta to slow-cooked dishes and local meats. It runs about $100 a head. Reservations are through the restaurant's site, and they are very limited.
5. Spoon and Stable — Contemporary American · North Loop
211 N 1st Street, North Loop · about $90-100 a head à la carte · chef-owner Gavin Kaysen, James Beard Best Chef Midwest 2018, opened 2014
A dedicated chef's counter facing the open kitchen, bookable as its own seat. Take a guest who wants the front row.
Spoon and Stable, Gavin Kaysen's North Loop flagship, opened in 2014, was a James Beard Best New Restaurant nominee in 2015, and the chef-owner won Best Chef Midwest in 2018. The room offers a dedicated chef's counter facing the open kitchen, bookable as its own experience on Tock, separate from the standard dining-room reservations. The access is real and flexible: unlike the tasting-only rooms, you order the regular menu, the beef tartare and the seasonal pasta program, but from a front-row seat over the pass, which suits a guest who wants the energy of a full restaurant with a counter view. The counter releases on a rolling schedule, so watch the timed Tock drops rather than assuming it is always live. À la carte runs about $90 to 100 a head. Book the Chef's Counter experience on Tock.
6. Bûcheron — French-American bistro · Kingfield
4257 Nicollet Avenue, Kingfield · about $80-120 a head à la carte · chef-owner Adam Ritter, James Beard Best New Restaurant winner 2025
An intimate bistro with two chef's counters facing the kitchen, bookable on Resy. Take a guest who wants a kitchen-side seat.
Bûcheron on Nicollet Avenue in Kingfield won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2025 and made the New York Times list of the fifty best restaurants in America that year, a French-American bistro from chef-owner Adam Ritter and Jeanie Janas Ritter, open since 2023. The access is built into the room: an intimate roughly thirty-eight-seat space with both an internal and an external chef's counter plus bar seats facing the kitchen, some held for walk-ins, the counter seats giving a direct kitchen view. Select the Chef's Counter when you book on Resy to sit at the pass, with special tasting events offered separately on Tock. The cooking is North-Woods-leaning French bistro fare that rotates with the season, from trout to duck to seasonal tartes. À la carte runs about $80 to 120 a head. Book on Resy and choose the counter.
7. Giulia — Italian · Downtown Minneapolis
215 S 4th Street, Rand Tower Hotel · five-course chef's counter $95, pairing +$45 · executive chef Brandon Hurley, opened 2022
A five-course chef's counter tasting at the edge of the kitchen, two nights a week. Take a guest who loves market-driven Italian.
Giulia sits in the Rand Tower Hotel on 4th Street in downtown Minneapolis, a market-driven Italian room from executive chef Brandon Hurley, open since 2022. The access is a specific, bookable offer: a dedicated five-course chef's counter tasting called L'Orto, presented tableside by the chef and team every Tuesday and Wednesday at five and seven, where guests dine at the edge of the kitchen. The seats are limited and the menu runs in seasonal installments, so the counter is its own ticketed experience rather than a walk-up. It is a genuine kitchen-side tasting rather than an open kitchen you merely see, which earns it the seventh spot on a deep list. The five-course tasting runs $95 a head, with wine or non-alcoholic pairings an extra $45. Book the Chef's Counter Tasting Menu experience on Tock.
Where the counter is an afterthought
Myriel — St. Paul. Chef-owner Karyn Tomlinson won the James Beard Best Chef Midwest award in 2025, and her eleven-course tasting is outstanding, but it is a seated dining-room experience with no kitchen counter or pass. Superb for tasting-menu lovers, it is not a chef's-table seat, so it sits here rather than in the ranking.
Indígena by Owamni — Minneapolis. Sean Sherman's landmark, whose original Owamni won James Beard Best New Restaurant in 2022, relocated into the Guthrie Theater for a 2026 reopening, but it is now a large two-hundred-seat dining room with no dedicated chef's counter. A landmark to eat at, not a counter seat.
Vinai and Khâluna — Minneapolis. Both are elite, award-cited Twin Cities rooms, Yia Vang's Vinai and Ann Ahmed's Khâluna, but both run as family-style, shareable dining-room concepts with no chef's counter or counter tasting. Skip them if the seat at the pass is the whole point.
How to book a Twin Cities chef's table
The Twin Cities split their counters by neighborhood, so start with the kind of access you want. For a full-room counter, Demi in the North Loop seats the whole house around the kitchen on a prepaid Tock ticket, while the Warehouse District holds the literal Japanese counters, Kaiseki Furukawa on Tuesdays and Kado no Mise's omakase bar Wednesday to Sunday, both on Tock. For à la carte counters, Spoon and Stable and Bûcheron sell dedicated chef's-counter seats, on Tock and Resy respectively, and Tenant's six counter seats and Giulia's Tuesday-Wednesday L'Orto tasting both seat you at the pass when requested.
Two rules run through this list. First, book the counter specifically: at Kado no Mise only the higher Take and Matsu menus are served at the bar, Spoon and Stable releases its counter on timed Tock drops, and Tenant, Bûcheron and Giulia all treat the kitchen seat as a separate request, so reserve the counter rather than the dining room. Second, mind the calendar, since the tasting counters fill months out for a weekend. Verify any borderline room against its current booking page before you plan, as Twin Cities openings move quickly.
Frequently asked
What is the best chef's table in Minneapolis?
Demi in the North Loop, where the entire restaurant is a twenty-seat counter wrapping the open kitchen, so the chef's table is the only seat there is. It comes from Gavin Kaysen, a James Beard Best Chef Midwest winner, with a tasting around $150 or near $250 with the reserve pairing. For a literal Japanese counter, Kaiseki Furukawa's ten-seat chef's bar in the Warehouse District is the other front-runner.
How much does a chef's table cost in Minneapolis?
It ranges widely. Giulia's five-course chef's counter is the gentlest at $95, and Tenant runs about $100 for six courses. The à la carte counters at Spoon and Stable and Bûcheron land near $80 to 120 a head. The Japanese counters run $138 to 213 at Kado no Mise and Kaiseki Furukawa, and Demi's tasting is about $150, near $250 with the reserve wine pairing. Pairings add to most.
Which Minneapolis chef's tables have won James Beard awards?
Several. Gavin Kaysen, behind Demi and Spoon and Stable, won Best Chef Midwest in 2018, and Bûcheron won Best New Restaurant in 2025. Chef Shigeyuki Furukawa of Kaiseki Furukawa and Kado no Mise was a Best Chef Midwest finalist in 2025 and 2026. For context, Karyn Tomlinson of Myriel won Best Chef Midwest in 2025, though Myriel is a dining room rather than a counter.
Does Minneapolis have a Michelin Guide?
No. The MICHELIN Guide does not cover Minnesota, so no Twin Cities restaurant holds a Michelin star, and any listing claiming one is wrong. The credible benchmarks here are the James Beard Foundation awards, which recognize several of the chefs on this list, and the reporting of the Star Tribune and Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. This ranking uses those, plus each room's own counter format, not Michelin.
How far ahead should you book a Minneapolis chef's counter?
Book the earliest window you can. Demi's twenty seats and the Warehouse District omakase counters open weeks to months ahead and sell prepaid on Tock, while Tenant's six counter seats fill months out. Spoon and Stable releases its chef's counter on timed Tock drops, so watch the schedule. At Kado no Mise, only the Take and Matsu menus are served at the counter, and at Bûcheron and Giulia you must select the chef's counter specifically when booking.
Related rankings
Featured in
- Minneapolis dining guide
- Best fine-dining restaurants worldwide
- Best Japanese restaurants worldwide
- The full RFK rankings index
- Demi review
- Spoon and Stable review
Affiliate disclosure: RFK earns a commission on bookings made through partner platforms (Tock, Resy) marked with a “Reserve” link. Sponsored listings are clearly marked with a Sponsored badge and are not eligible for editorial ranking. The seven venues on this list were ranked editorially and no booking partner influenced the order.