RFK Rankings · Minneapolis
Best Rooftop Restaurants in Minneapolis 2026
Rooftop & high-floor view rooms · Minneapolis · 6 tables ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 15, 2026 · Updated June 15, 2026
Minneapolis is not a rooftop city by climate, which is exactly why its best ones are worth knowing. For half the year the open decks shut against the cold, so the rooms that matter are the enclosed glass rooftops that run through January and the seasonal terraces that pack a full summer into a few warm months. The food caught up to the views only in the last decade, led by a Loring Park dining room that landed on a national best-of list and a Four Seasons terrace over the Mill District. The six below are ranked on the plate first and the skyline second, with each room's season noted.
1.Gai Noi
Ann Ahmed's Lao kitchen earns a national best-of nod from an enclosed Loring Park rooftop. Go year-round for the curries.
Gai Noi opened in May 2023 in Loring Park, the work of chef Ann Ahmed, the Twin Cities' best-known Lao chef, who built a glass rooftop with a tropical-room feel and views toward the Basilica. The kitchen cooks the Lao food of her childhood: basil wings, a Panang spaghetti and red, green and yellow curries, most plates between fourteen and eighteen dollars, with an eighteen percent service charge added. That year The New York Times named it to its fifty best restaurants in America. Because the rooftop is enclosed, it is one of the few that runs through a Minnesota winter. It is walk-in only, so arrive early or off-peak to land a table.
Walk in early; the enclosed rooftop runs year-round and takes no reservations.
2.Riva Terrace
Chef Martín Morelli's coastal-Italian terrace tops the Four Seasons over the Mill District. Book it for a summer sunset dinner.
Riva Terrace opened in May 2024 on the rooftop pool deck of the Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis, in the Mill District by the river downtown. Executive chef Martín Morelli runs a coastal-Italian menu, a grilled Peterson Ranch skirt steak tagliata, a pan-roasted Skuna Bay salmon and an albacore crudo among the plates, with a full dinner running well over one hundred dollars a head. It is the most polished rooftop in the city, open to the public, and strictly seasonal: the terrace runs through the warm months and closes for winter, reopening in late May. Book a table near sunset on a clear evening, and confirm the terrace is open before you go.
Book on OpenTable; reserve near sunset and confirm the seasonal terrace is open.
3.Union Rooftop
Union runs Minnesota's only year-round retractable-glass rooftop over Hennepin Avenue. Go for the braised short rib and the open roof.
Union Rooftop sits on the third floor at 731 Hennepin Avenue, in the downtown theatre district, and opened in 2012 with the draw that still defines it: a retractable glass roof, the largest in the state, that opens to the summer sky and seals against a January night. The kitchen, under the Crave America group rather than a single named chef, runs a broad American menu, with a braised short rib at thirty-five dollars, a grilled prime ribeye at forty-eight and steak frites at thirty-three. It doubles as an event and brunch space, so the scene shifts by the night. Book an evening table and ask whether the roof will be open.
Book on OpenTable; reserve an evening table and ask whether the roof will be open.
4.Moto-i
Moto-i brews its own sake and pours it on a Lyn-Lake rooftop patio. Go in summer for ramen and a sake flight.
Moto-i opened in 2008 in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood as the first sake brewpub outside Japan, brewing its own rice wine on site. The kitchen cooks Tokyo-style ramen and izakaya plates, with bowls generally in the mid-to-high teens, served on a string-lit rooftop patio in the warm months. It is the most casual room on this list and the most distinctive, a genuine brewing operation rather than a hotel deck, and the rooftop is strictly seasonal. There is no single celebrity chef; the draw is the house sake and the ramen. Go on a summer evening, take a patio seat, and pair a bowl with a flight of the brewery's own sake.
Walk in or book online; come in summer for the rooftop and a house sake flight.
5.Nolo's Kitchen & Bar
Peter Hoff's North Loop rooftop pours summer shareables above a serious downstairs kitchen. Go for the burger and a sunset drink.
Nolo's Kitchen and Bar sits in the historic Gardner Hardware building in the North Loop, the warehouse district turned dining quarter, with chef Peter Hoff running a modern-American kitchen known for an award-winning double-stack burger and wood-fired pizzas. Its seasonal rooftop opens in mid-May and serves a lighter shareables menu, burrata at fifteen dollars, a crab dip at eighteen and a tuna poke around twenty, while the full entrees run downstairs. The roof is a summer skyline perch rather than a year-round dining room, so treat it as a warm-weather drink-and-graze spot with a strong kitchen below. Go at sunset for a rooftop table, then move downstairs if you want the full menu.
Book on OpenTable; come at sunset for the rooftop, then move downstairs for entrees.
6.Crave
Crave runs one of downtown's largest rooftop decks with a grill and sushi bar. Go in summer for rolls and skyline drinks.
Crave opened its downtown flagship at LaSalle Plaza in 2011, and its rooftop is one of the largest open-air decks in the core, a sixty-five-hundred-square-foot patio with its own grill above the restaurant's American kitchen and sushi bar. There is no single named chef; the Crave America group runs a broad menu, from a miso-glazed Verlasso salmon to a full sushi program, with most mains in the twenties to low thirties. The rooftop leans social on weekends, with DJs and a crowd, so it sits at the lively end of this list rather than the fine-dining end. Go on a summer evening for the skyline, order from the sushi bar, and take an early table before the deck fills.
Book on OpenTable; order from the sushi bar and take an early table before the deck fills.
Avoid for a rooftop dinner
Great view, wrong room for dinner
The Rooftop at the Hewing Hotel. The Hewing's sixth-floor rooftop is a skyline lounge serving cocktails and charcuterie boards, not dinner; the real kitchen, Tullibee, sits on the ground floor.
Brit's Pub rooftop lawn. Brit's rooftop is a lawn-bowling green with pub fare; the draw is the game and the beer, not a kitchen worth a special trip.
How to book a Minneapolis rooftop
Minneapolis rooftop dining runs on the calendar more than any other city on these lists. Roughly half the rooms here are seasonal, open from about mid-May to early autumn, so the year-round options matter: Gai Noi's enclosed glass rooftop and Union's retractable roof both run through winter. The hardest seats are Riva Terrace at the Four Seasons on a clear summer evening and Gai Noi, which takes no reservations and fills its walk-in line early. Book Riva and Union on OpenTable; Gai Noi and Moto-i are walk-in. Nolo's and Crave open their decks in mid-May. Aim for a seating about an hour before sunset, which runs late into the evening in a northern summer, and always confirm a seasonal terrace is open before you go, especially in the shoulder weeks of May and September when the weather decides week to week.
Frequently asked
Which Minneapolis rooftop restaurant has the best food?
Gai Noi in Loring Park and Riva Terrace at the Four Seasons are the two strongest rooftop kitchens. Gai Noi, chef Ann Ahmed's enclosed glass rooftop, landed on The New York Times' fifty best restaurants in America in 2023 for its Lao cooking. Riva Terrace is chef Martín Morelli's coastal-Italian rooftop over the Mill District. Both treat the roof as a real dining room. Gai Noi runs year-round; Riva is seasonal.
Which Minneapolis rooftops are open in winter?
Most are not. Gai Noi in Loring Park keeps an enclosed glass rooftop, and Union on Hennepin Avenue has a retractable roof that seals against the cold, so both run year-round. The open-air decks, Riva Terrace, Nolo's, Moto-i and Crave, are seasonal and generally open from about mid-May into early autumn. In winter, the enclosed rooms are effectively your only rooftop options, so book Gai Noi or Union and confirm before the other decks reopen in spring.
What is the best rooftop view in Minneapolis?
Riva Terrace at the Four Seasons gives the most polished view, a seasonal rooftop over the Mill District and the river downtown. Union's retractable-roof deck reads the Hennepin Avenue theatre district, and Crave's large LaSalle Plaza rooftop takes in the downtown core. For an enclosed view that holds through winter, Gai Noi looks toward the Basilica from Loring Park. Reserve about an hour before sunset, which runs late in a northern summer.
Does Gai Noi take reservations?
No. Gai Noi is walk-in only, so the way to land a table on its enclosed rooftop is to arrive early or off-peak, especially on weekends. Chef Ann Ahmed's Lao menu runs roughly fourteen to eighteen dollars a plate, with an eighteen percent service charge added. Because the rooftop is enclosed and heated, it is one of the few that stays open through a Minnesota winter, which makes off-season weeknights the easiest time to get in.
Which Minneapolis rooftop is best for a group?
Crave's LaSalle Plaza rooftop is the largest downtown deck and the easiest for a big, social group, with a grill, a sushi bar and a weekend DJ scene. Union's retractable-roof space also handles groups and events well year-round. For a group focused on the food rather than the scene, Gai Noi's shared Lao plates or Riva Terrace's coastal-Italian menu are the stronger tables. Book ahead for the reservation rooms, and note Gai Noi is walk-in only.
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