Liliana Pasta Bar ToDoTC.com To Do in the Twin Cities Restaurants

	Liliana Pasta Bar Date: Feb 6, 2026 10060 City Walk Dr #102 Woodbury, MN 55129 Phone: (651) 493-9089 www.lilianamn.com

We LOVE to be surprised at a restaurant as long as the surprise is good. Not like seeing the dead rat on the sidewalk we saw about six months ago on our walk to a restaurant, but I promised not to talk about something that was not actually IN the restaurant.

Liliana was that once every three or four months restaurant that we celebrate. Liliana is a GREAT Restaurant in a kind of a strip mall in Woodbury. Friday night when Stacy our wine goddess for the night at our North Loop wine tasting asked where we were going I said Woodbury. Stacy said OMG are you going to Liliana? I looked at E and she said YES! Stacy said I absolutely LOVE that place, they make their own pasta and you MUST have the Popsickle desert. This is EXACTLY why we go to our Friday night wine tasting. Well that and the kids, the dogs, the babes, the dating dynamics in the air, oh and the wine and the education. So we checked with Stacy on what we should order, tasted some wine and drove from downtown Mpls to Woodbury.

We use an iphone with Carplay to find our places. Without it we would be lost in Ostego. And unlike Lakewood Tavern just across I94, which we could see from the freeway in the last months visit, we knew not of Liliana's location until we were in front of it. But to look in the windows it is something that would fit in next to Martinas in Linden Hills. Liliana had every seat filled. Smart people FIND great restaurants! As E did too!

I parked the car feet away from the entrance and then did my photo shoot. You wont know I'm doing it as I enter a restaurant and I try to avoid faces and I'm quick. The place looked like something we might had seen in Rome a few months ago. And get this they have a demonstration pasta making station under glass that you can reserve seats at. It was cool.

And Liliana has a ANTI-CHAMBER! What's anti-Chamber? Sit next to the door at most restaurants in the northern states and you will LOVE an anti-chamber. If you work in a clean-room as many of us do, at all the medical/electronic companies have anti-chambers. An anti-chamber is a double door entrance with 6' in between the doors. It's a way to trap the air so the arctic breezes don't blow your napkin off your table as you are settling down for a great meal. They should make that 6' actually 7' so some tall idiot does not push both doors at the same time and freeze everyone in the cold air. Been there, seen that. It means your restaurant will be warm in winter or cool in the summers. If you have been sitting next to the blanket some restaurants put next to their doors in winter you'll appreciate an anti-chamber. The place was in a word COMFY!

Everyone was nice at Liliana from the Maitre D's to our servers. We had reservations for 7:45. We don't do lines. So we LOVE reservations. That said after the 6:30 North Loop wine tasting we always do, rarely do we arrive at a restaurant before 7:30 and we rarely, even without reservations, wait over a few minutes, with a few exceptions. So it's rare we don't get seated anyplace we wanted to go, even on Friday night at 7:30. At Lilianas at 7:30, 15 minutes early, we were immediately seated. I took my usual five minutes to take a few pictures before I was guided to where E was seated.

The crowd at Liliana was adult comfortable. Is that a term? What I mean is though we were five foot from another table I did not hear who they were dating, or politics or what a terrible day they had. And neither did they from us. It was nice!

We got a lit candle and water. It seems a required basic for a table but we get them about half the time in restaurants. YES we want water with our wines. Then we were handed the wine lists and menu. If you like Italian wines, which we are currently evolving to, you will be thrilled. Our Cab Savs & Noirs are making room for the Nebbiolos and the Barberas, Barolos & Sangioveses and Liliana has a great wine list, with a bit for anyone. And everything is in the $15/glass range. I didn't see beer list but I'm sure they have some. E ordered two glasses of the Vino Rosso Nebbiolo for $17 each and I ordered the Vinchio Vaglio Barbera for $16, both were very good. And they were brought in the correct wine glasses. Because it makes a difference in the taste. Palate placement and airing are important in wine and right wine glass does exactly that.

On to the menu. E usually orders for us. Ask me about training a dog to hold a point or the Hysteresis of a RADAR or pacemaker antenna and I will give you the answer. Food not so much. But I'll tell you what I like after you order it. I'm a great taster. There must have been one hundred entree' options on the menu, I have included pictures. When we know someone that has gone to a restaurant we always asked what they ordered and would they reorder it. Stacy from North Loop, who knows food and wine said: You MUST have the Garlic Bread $14, the Agnolotti $24 and Ravioli pasta $26 and AND you CAN NOT miss the popsickles $5 for desert!

First came the Garlic bread $14. It was a six inch round piece of bread, like a four inch tall bagel. Cut in five pieces and filled on the inside pizza type piece sections, like with a calking gun, with creamy cheese. It absolutely was to die for.

Next came the main entree's the Agnolotti $24 and Ravioli pasta $26. It was some of the best pastas we have had in the Twin cities OR Italy. Since the fresh pastas were made daily on site and did not not come out of a box. You can make reservations to sit in front of and watch the pasta maker do their magic. We normally do not order TWO Entree's E&I share one, saves on cost and our weight but Stacy SAID! So our bill was over $100 the limit we try to stay under.

After we finished, then came the popsickles Stacy said we MUST order. Desert in Minnesota? Did someone have a birthday or get married? Stacy said. So out they came they were ice creame sickles with sprinkles on them, our grand daughter would have loved them even more than we did. It was a good finish and they are made daily by the chefs.

Our bill for something that looked like it came from a Roman Chef was $137. Yea we were over our $100 for a couple we strive for. But remove one pasta for $26, E's second wine for $17 and god forbid the Cream Sickles for $10 and you are at $84 Triple what McDonalds would cost for top shelf food, wine and dining at Liliana.

Will we be back? Of COURSE we return to a restaurant that made our top ten of the Twin Cities restaurants and recommend.

Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com