Green Line Checklist Update Part 2: King Cajun to Black Hart
The Churn for Friday, April 18, 2025
In this week’s edition of The Heavy Table’s Churn newsletter, we learned some new stuff about seafood boils, were let down by an old friend, and experienced peak noodles.
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Lately, every crawl night starts with a gamble. Websites say “open,” signs on the door say something else entirely, and Google might as well be flipping a coin. It’s become a recurring theme—this grim walk up to a storefront, the hopeful tug on a door handle, and the crushing reality of a deadbolt and dark windows. Or worse: watching the crew inside actively dismantle the kitchen. (Slice Brothers, we hardly knew ye.)
Sure, unpredictability adds a certain amount of adventure to these nights. But when you’re hoping to be surprised by some new interesting experience instead of just logistics, the thrill fades fast. Still, every now and then, persistence pays off. – M.C. Cronin
GREEN LINE CHECKLIST UPDATE, PART TWO
We continue our refresh of our University Avenue crawl with visits to King Cajun, Ishita Ramen, Peking Garden, Master Noodle, and Black Hart of Saint Paul.By M.C. Cronin, James Norton, Becca Dilley, and WACSO
KING CAJUN | 712 University Avenue, Saint Paul | 651.493.8575
We walked into King Cajun expecting déjà vu. Luscious Crab had left us with low expectations and mildly shell-shocked (pun intended without apologies). But almost immediately, it was clear: this was not that.
For one, the place was packed. Just about every table was occupied with customers suited up in gloves, unfurling paper towels like battle banners, clawing through heaps of seafood. Tables were wrapped in plastic sheeting, ready to thwart the incoming shrapnel. There was a palpable energy here. Clearly, it has a following.
Ordering is straightforward. You pick your seafood at the counter from a vast menu. Choose from austerely titled pre-selected combos such as “Meal 1, Meal 2, or Meal 3” or build your own, if you’re feeling adventurous. You get a number and grab a table that’s prepped for carnage.
Bibs are available on request.
The space has a personality that’s part bayou, part boardwalk, part nautical novelty shop. The entry is lined with plastic fish, crabs, and lobsters floating on a backdrop of faux seaweed. Overhead, a great white shark dangles from the ceiling like it’s on patrol. Oddly, for a Cajun place, a Boston Mass sign was thrown into the mix—perhaps in the spirit of seafood representation. Giant 3D letters on an orange wall shout out “EAT SEAFOOD” as if you wandered in by accident.
It’s chaotic. It’s quirky. And it works. – M.C.
We've been seafood boil skeptics for years, having encountered plenty of overcooked, gritty, mediocre, expensive examples of the genre and few positive counter-examples to provide some shine to the category. King Cajun, to its immense credit, has helped us to see the light. Unpretentious and reasonably priced food is nice, but tasty, well-made food is even better and King Cajun shone on both fronts.
We're not actually sure what the restaurant's weeknight special is called, so we’ll go with what the menu says: Tuesday to Thursday ONLY ($40). What do you get? A bunch of stuff: a cluster of crab legs, 5 head-on shrimp, 5 peeled shrimp, 5 surprisingly detailed and bug-like whole crawfish, 5 green mussels, 1 sausage, 1 egg, 2 corn pieces, and 2 potatoes.
It's actually a ton of food for the money, and the hit ratio for this mass of edibles is shockingly high, boosted by the balanced but kicky spice rub that covered all of the food without smothering it. The potatoes? Perfectly done and delicious. The sausage? Compared to the one we tried at The Luscious Crab, day versus night - full flavored, spice-laden, beautifully textured as opposed to the Luscious Crab's almost completely neutral, instantly forgettable spin on the dish.
Of the three edible sea bugs, the peeled shrimp were surprisingly our favorite choice. Getting the crawfish out of their shells was a lot of work for a mediocre result, the head-on shrimp were better but still taxing, and the peeled shrimp were delicious and effortless. The egg, corn, and mussels all worked too. This dish looks pricey at $40, but in terms of both quality and quantity of food, it's a steal.
The restaurant's Fried Catfish and Wings ($21) feature wings that were fried a bit hard and were otherwise unremarkable. But we all agreed - as a team of longstanding catfish fans - that the crispy, pleasantly funky, full-flavored catfish at King Cajun was among the best we'd tried. – James Norton
ISHITA RAMEN | | 712 University Avenue #103, Saint Paul | 651.300.3220
If King Cajun is a seafood battlefield, Ishita Ramen is a Zen retreat. The moment we stepped inside, the vibe shifted. Black-painted floors, dark wood furniture, exposed brick, and a ceiling painted black to disappear. Everything is warm and intentional. There’s a small bar, a dining area, and just enough light to make the place feel intimate but not broody.
Accents of red and cream add interest. A wall of ramen spoons—simple, white, and beautifully utilitarian—adds a touch of art without trying too hard. Only the graphically unsubtle happy hour signage and menu graphics felt out of place.
Our server was friendly and well-meaning. We asked what we should get, and she narrowed it down to half of the ramen options on the menu.
Sure, it wasn’t the confident and direct recommendation we were hoping for, but points for effort. – M.C.
It doesn't say terrific things about Ishita Ramen that we couldn't recall the name of the spot just hours after finishing our five-restaurant crawl. But Ishita's food was uniformly acceptable, without either highlights or lowlights that beg for additional discussion.
Crab Jalapeño Poppers ($6.25) offered very little heat, insufficient roasting of the peppers, artificial crab, and, oddly, notably little cream cheese flavor despite the presence of cream cheese.
Char Siu Ramen ($15) had elements that were good - competent noodles and mellow, inoffensive broth that was pleasantly light - and pork that wasn't fully rendered, making it a bit tough and fatty.
The restaurant's Stir Fry Chicken Ramen ($14) was inoffensive and dull at first, but bits of char kept us coming back to this plate of noodles that offered a real chicken fried rice flavor profile that built interest with repeated bites.
We went one for two on the restaurant's boba drinks, with a really ass-kickingly strong coffee drink that lacked the syrupy sweetness we've come to expect (in a good way), and a surprisingly weak milk tea drink that was instantly forgettable. – J.N.
PEKING GARDEN | 394 University Avenue, Saint Paul | 651.644.0888
We’ve been here before—back when it was Mai Village—and we’re happy to report that the new owners had the good sense not to gut the place. You still walk through an impressive entrance of heavy, carved doors and cross a koi pond via a wooden footbridge to reach the heart of the restaurant.
There’s a wall with a painted stream, fake plants, and a gurgling rock fountain. It flirts with being tacky but lands just shy of charming.
Inside, the main dining area is massive, anchored by an ornate wood pergola in the center. It’s like someone built an Asian-inspired outdoor terrace inside a strip mall business center. Somehow, against all odds, it works. Though signs of wear are showing.
Then there’s the menu. Calling it massive would be an understatement. It’s more like gym equipment. It weighs as much as a small child, and it’s loaded with page after page of densely packed dishes and full-bleed food photography. There’s an entire section dedicated to squid. Just squid.
Despite the variety, the food seemed to boil down to about five foundational dishes, endlessly reconfigured with different proteins and presentations. It’s a formula they’ve clearly mastered, but it’s still a formula. And feels a bit like food-service trickery rather than cuisine mastery. – M.C.
We had a tremendously positive experience at Peking Garden years ago, and were looking forward to visiting Peking Garden 2.0 in the sprawling former Mai Garden space. We were greeted with a complimentary pot of tea as we were seated at our table, but things went downhill after that.
We were blown away by the value prospect of the Cream Cheese Wontons ($7 for 10) until we actually tasted them - we appreciated the small form factor of the appetizers and their crunchy texture, but they were somewhat oily and packed no discernible flavor whatsoever.
The Fried Quail seemed like a steal at $7 and we enjoyed the kicky spice of each fried bird half we tasted, but felt let down by how thoroughly dried out the thigh meat was once we got to it.
Speaking of being let down: $27 seemed like a lot for the Sizzling Duck, but we were ready to be blown away by a big dish with a ton of personality. What we got was a soupy mass of standard food service Asian-style vegetables and a handful of reasonably tasty chunks of duck. For $12-14 we could've seen the bright side of this over-touted dish but the small portions and utterly forgettable flavor was crushing at a price approaching $30.
The Mock Duck and Vegetables ($18) was basically the same dish as the Sizzling Duck, minus the duck, plus some chunks of seitan. We were expecting and hoping for an emphasis on vegetables - fresh, lively greenery - and what we got were the same flavorless water chestnuts, flower-cut carrot pieces, and miniature corn cobs. – J.N.
MASTER NOODLE | 1337 University Avenue, Saint Paul | 651.369.6688
Master Noodle must have had some kind of identity crisis/trademark issue early on. Which may explain why there are remains of their original “Magic Noodle” name on the entrances and on some of the printed items like chopstick sleeves. But make no mistake, it’s Master Noodle now, and when you watch them hand-stretch the noodles, you can see that they are indeed masters of the art.
We’re thankful they put in a viewing window for the noodle-pulling “show.” The ritual starts with a big ball of dough and involves a masochistic ballet of folding, slapping, stretching, whipping, and twisting that somehow ends in a giant mass of remarkably long, thin strands of gluten. It’s an art form and amazing to behold. If you go, we highly recommend spending time gawking through the window. (Just try to ignore how grimy it is.)
The space itself is calm and pleasant. Earth-toned tile, pea-green vinyl booths that have seen better days (and a lot of butts), and hand-painted murals illustrating ancient Chinese noodle-making traditions. Someone cared and put some effort into the design. It’s not fancy, but when the show—and spoiler alert, the food—is this good, it doesn’t have to be. – M.C.
Noodles are the thing at Master Noodle, and that sort of naming bravado means that you're prone to walk into the place with high expectations.
Watching the house Noodle Master ply his trade, bending, pulling, folding and shaping great cords of dough while you watch just raises those expectations still higher.
And then you taste the noodles and... yeah. Those'll do, Master Noodle. Those'll do. The noodles themselves are lovely - chewy, toothsome, light, just all-around delightful. Beyond that, however, the restaurant’s dishes have flavors that are simple, bold, and successful.
The Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles ($14) had a tasty cumin kick and the little pebbles of pork clung to the noodles and provided a terrific textural contrast. The dish's al dente bok choy was a nice complement to the meat and pasta.
And the restaurant's Golden Sliced Beef Soup ($14) might have been even tastier, with a pho-like star anise flavor to the broth and incredibly delicate and tasty slices of meat to accompany the noodles.
Second fiddle to the noodle game but still worth reporting: the restaurant's Beef Burritos ($10) were a delightful throwback to the Beef Roll at Tea House back when the Beef Roll was great. They had all the same elements: beef, cumin, scallions, hoisin, and lovely house-made pancakes to wrap them all up and bind them together. We were a bit surprised that they were served room temperature rather than hot, but our concern melted away upon eating the first bite. – J.N.
BLACK HART OF SAINT PAUL | 1415 University Avenue, Saint Paul | 651.528.8028
From experience, we know that on Minnesota United game days, The Black Hart spills over with fans from Allianz Field. Their giant outdoor patio fills up, and the energy is top-notch.
They also regularly have drag shows, burlesque, and karaoke on their calendar, but we caught it on your average Thursday night with just a few couples and friend groups drinking, talking, and shooting pool. And it was great for that vibe, too.
The space is no-frills: a bar, a few high tops, a few tables, and an elevated pool area tucked into the back. It’s the kind of bar that doesn’t need to impress you. It just needs to be there when you need it. Friendly. Familiar.
The Black Hart is a soccer bar, a queer bar, a dive bar, and a neighborhood hangout—and it wears all of those hats at once, without feeling the least bit confused about it. A bar for people who want a drink and a space where they don’t have to explain themselves. – M.C.
The food menu at Black Hart of Saint Paul is pretty minimalist - there’s not much more than Heggie’s Pizza, jalapeño poppers, and some cheese curds. So we got cheesy with it.
And while we waited for our order of Cheese Curds ($8) to arrive, we entertained ourselves by imagining a cheese monger in the back of the bar pulling fresh organic curds from a bath of whey, passing them off to a skilled tempura master who’d lovingly coat them in a delicate batter and coax each morsel to golden, melty perfection in a pan of oil maintained at exacting temperatures.
We got cheese curds dumped from a freezer bag into a hot vat of grease, served with a side of ranch. Bar food. Exactly as expected. And completely fine. A crunchy cornmeal coating encasing a melted interior of white cheese curds. The only thing of note was the ranch dressing, which oddly came off as aggressively pungent and overseasoned.
One of the better food items of the entire night came not from The Black Hart’s kitchen but through their front door in the form of a woman selling Tamales from a cooler strapped to her torso.
Ten bucks got us four chicken tamales served with a side of green salsa. Handled incorrectly, chicken tamales run the risk of turning into bland, wet, gummy blobs. These were not that.
Each was a pocket of savory, shredded chicken wrapped in a moist, crumbly masa dough with a light, but discernible, sweet corn flavor. The green salsa dealt a citrusy kick that served as an excellent complement to each bite.
We felt obligated to try a house cocktail, so we went with the drink at the top of the list: the Ibson Negroni ($10). We don’t demand perfection from affordably priced house cocktails but we do ask that they don’t immediately make us think of Sucrets and Nyquil. – M.C. with J.N.