Stumbling upon Apoy was a happy accident while waiting for our table to be ready at Revival. I’ve been wanting to try Filipino food for a while and the hungrier we got while waiting, the harder it was to turn down the appetizers the bartender kept tempting us with. WIth Apoy firmly on the top of our list of new places to try, I was super excited when I learned about their Thursday night Kamayans and booked one immediately.
Food:
Kamayan: a Filipino feast on banana leaves where you eat with your hands
Apoy offers their Kamayan on Thursday nights. A Kamayan requires a reservation and you need to have a minimum party of 2…perfect date night!
For the Kamayan you can pick from a few options:
Vegetarian option: Green pepper, red pepper, bok choy, eggplant, tomato, squash (seasonal), red onion, yellow onion, tofu, and plantains, mango, and cantaloupe.
Meat option: Lumpia, tocino, longaniza, inihaw, lechon kawali, adobo, and veggies.
Seafood option: Lumpia, tilapia, shell-on shrimp, fish, calamari, mussels, clams, and veggies.
Or you can also get a combo of meat and seafood. He wanted the pork belly and I wanted the mussels or clams so we agreed to the combo.
For $35 a person just for food, it wasn’t the cheapest date night, but a secret about me is that I avoid eating things with my hands at all cost, so I was stupidly proud of myself for diving in and even scooping up the rice to plow it in my mouth haha.
Pro Tip: The sticky rice by itself is a little difficult to eat and more than likely you’re going to end up with a lot of that leftover. I suggest you dip the rice in the leftover mussels sauce. It is a game changer. My mouth is watering.
I’m excited to go back and try the full menu (and to eat so many more lumpias (egg rolls filled with ground pork, garlic, onion, carrot, and parsley)….so good!
Drinks:
They serve beer and wine and according to their website will be able to serve liquor soon. I’m a big fan of the nut brown ale they had on tap, but I don’t remember the brand!
Service/Atmosphere:
We had a reservation at 7pm, but because each Kamayan requires them to set it up right away to ensure the food is served at the right temperature, it did take 30 minutes for our table to be ready, which was a little frustrating even if it was understandable, because we were hungry and expecting to eat at 7. However, it was definitely worth the wait and our waiter (with possibly the best throwback 70s look of all time) promptly took a beer order for while we were sitting at the front waiting for bar seating to open up.
The bartender, who was the same one we had the first night (very deep voice – you’d know it was him) was really friendly and helpful as well.
We were also informed that they have Karaoke during the weekends and therefore I’m, without a doubt, going back!
Apoy – Minneapolis
4301 Nicollet Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55409
Sunday – Friday: 4PM – 10PM
Saturday: 4PM – 12AM
Brunch: Saturday & Sunday: 11AM – 12AM
Hipster Hack 