13 Must-try Mall of America Restaurants | Best MOA Restaurants
Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Foodie Flashpacker | September 28, 2022
It’s hard to believe that the Mall of America has been around for 30 years. A sign in the lobby celebrates Rudy Perpich, without whom the Ghermezian family would never have been able to see their vision to bring the Mall of America to Bloomington. Coincidentally, on my parents’ anniversary, August 11th (Mom was a shopper!), the Mall of America opened its doors in 1992 and created more than 10,000 jobs.
Thanks to Governor Rudy Perpich, the 34th and 36th Governor of Minnesota, and retail legends, Macy’s and Nordstroms, the mall includes the largest indoor amusement park in America (the one in Dubai is larger) and miles of space for safe power walks, regardless of weather, to explore, shop, eat, find Bigfoot, and enjoy with your family. And there’s definitely a great number of good Mall of America restaurants to dine in.
There is a strict rule that anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by someone over 21. With more than a mile of walking space on each of the first three levels, Level 4 includes The Fair on Four, The Bar, Hooters, and the B&B movie theaters.
Having lived in the upper Midwest for more than a decade, you’d think I would’ve made many pilgrimages to the Mall of America, but despite annual scrapbooking and over 400 other events held each year, it’s only been since working in Duluth that I’ve made the effort to get to know it—finally to the point where it’s no longer overwhelming. It may help you, as it has me, to view it more as a mall around an amusement park.
Best Mall of America Restaurants
To make your life easier, before you even walk in the door, download the Mall of America app, by going to the App Store and downloading “MOA” so that you’ll know the right place to park to reach your primary targets and the best places to shop and eat and play in your quest for the best possible day.
Pro Tips to Know Before You Go From MSP:
- Download the MOA app on your mobile phone
- The LightRail, which takes you to the Mall of America, costs $2.50 each way
- To estimate the time it will take you, the average walking time from when you reach the top of the escalator of the Light Rail, to the tram at the airport to TSA security took me six minutes to walk and ride. You’ll enter at the Stone Arch Café by Concourse G
Keep in mind that each of the floors is more than a mile of walking space. It’s an impressive place to walk and congregate. You can even “live” there with the nearby JW Marriott connected by their restaurant. And the Mall of America has oh so many places to eat. This was the first location I ever dined at Bubba Gump’s and enjoyed their unique brand of table service where any server who happened by was able to help. What a great concept.
There are several national and regional chains including Buffalo Wild Wings, Burger King, Caribou Coffee, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Great Steak and Potato, Jamba Juice, Johnny Rockets, Long John Silvers, Margaritaville, Nordstrom’s Grill, Panda Express, Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, Qdoba, Rainforest Cafe, Sbarro, and Shake Shack. But don’t forget if you’re hungry, and looking for furniture or houseware items, they have quite the cafeteria at the IKEA across the parking lot. With so many local and regional restaurants, you need never go hungry.
The 13 Best Mall of America Restaurants
Cadillac Ranch All American Bar & Grill
352 South Avenue // +19528541004
How many places do you get to walk under a blue Cadillac to enter a restaurant? It’s almost as much fun as the actual Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo.
Front and center, they’re advertising their beverages on tap, which the day we visited included 3 Granite City options, one Sam Adams, one Blue Moon, one Angry Orchard, one Summit, one Excelsior, and a Bud light.
For their Lunchtime options, you can’t go wrong with a wrap. Fresh ingredients, tender chicken and fresh lettuce with a tangy salsa and light cheese made for a delicious light meal to allow for more snacking across the amazing Mall of America restaurants.
Chatime Bubble Tea
60 E Broadway s343 // +1 952-456-8668
Favorite daughter likes her bubble tea, so this was an easy stop. They serve their signature milk teas, Jasmine green milk tea, oolong milk tea, roasted milk tea as well as Taro milk, Chai milk, coconut milk, Earl grey milk, and almond milk tea. And honey, strawberry banana or matcha green milk teas.
Their specialty milk teas include vanilla Chai, lavender, a cookies and cream, strawberry matcha, Sakura, or tiger latte.
They even have milk coffee in classic, hazelnut, Nutella, or vanilla.
But for those of us that are off milk, their fruit teas are the pick of the day, including mango green, Hawaiian fruit, white Peach, green or berry spritz, Kiwi, green, pink guava, black tea, passionfruit, green tea, Peach black tea, lychee black tea, pomegranate, black tea, honey, lemon green tea, lavender lemon green tea, sparkling hibiscus lemon, and sparkling hibiscus lychee.
While she went for the mango green, I tend to favor black teas that aren’t quite that sweet. So I enjoyed their strawberry banana smoothie. Other smoothie choices include mango, passion fruit, lychee, Kiwi, honeydew, Thai tea, coconut, tarot, Chai tea, strawberry, pineapple, coconut, Acai Berry, mango, strawberry, light chai, lemongrass, matcha green tea, cookies and cream, or vanilla Chai smoothie.
To finish out the choices, they did offer Chai matcha, Earl Grey, black or Jasmine tea lattes. We saw many people around us enjoying their lemon breezes, whether Violet, pineapple lemon, tropical lemon, strawberry lemon, or Peach lemon fizz.
For those in the know, with the fruit QQs, offering mango, white Peach, passion fruit, pink guava, or lychee, these five choices are popular go-tos.
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