Midwest - Good business dinner spot in MSP?

Our CEO and a couple other muckety-mucks want to have a work dinner in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. Where should we go? Someplace nice, with good food, but not too expensive and not loud.

Thanks!

Our CEO and a couple other muckety-mucks want to have a work dinner in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. Where should we go? Someplace nice, with good food, but not too expensive and not loud.

Thanks!
A little more info, please. :)

"Minneapolis" can mean a large number of things depending on who's asking. Are you looking specifically for downtown, and if so, which part? Or are you just talking about the Minneapolis/St. Paul areas? Does it include any of the suburbs?

If you're all staying at one hotel and would like to stay close to it, that would probably help the most (to say which hotel).

Also, are you looking for a traditional steakhouse, French, Italian, American/"fusion", BBQ, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, German, Cuban, Irish, etc. Lots of choices...

Heh, sorry. Let's call it downtown Minneapolis, but if there's a good spot in St. Paul or near downtown, that would work too.

Ok, let's see what I can do. :)

Starting just on the southern edge of downtown, there is a section of Nicollet Avenue (locals pronounce it "NIC-let Avenue") called "Eat Street" (http://wikitravel.org/en/Minneapolis/Eat_Street) with a large variety of ethnic restaurants in relatively close confines. Restaurants that are pretty well regarded there would be (IMO):

Market Bar-B-Que
Rainbow Chinese Restaurant
Azia (Fusion)
Black Forest Inn (German)
Ichiban (Japanese)


Within downtown itself, there's a nice Capital Grille (but I realize that's a chain). There's also Manny's Steakhouse, a local institution. It can get a little pricey there though and I don't know your budget. (You can Google all these to find their websites/menus). Goodfellows (American/Continental) is also a local Minneapolis institution and would probably be a good choice. The 112 Eatery does pretty good American/European fusions. For classic white table Italian, there's D'Amico Cucina. I've heard good things about the food at Restaurant Alma (just on the north side of downtown across the river). Just a bit further south of downtown in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood is "It's Greek to Me", probably my favorite Greek/Mediterranean restaurant. Good stuff there. Very close to that in Uptown is "Chiang Mai Thai", really good Thai food.

In downtown St. Paul, the St. Paul Grill is near the top of the list. Usually wins yearly awards for Best Business Lunch, etc.

A lot more options as you extend further from downtown (and I'm sure quite a few good options I've forgotten in downtown itself), but hopefully this gives you some ideas.

Oh, also forgot, on the Nicollet Mall downtown, it's a walking street (no cars, only city buses) and there are a number of good restaurants there. Brit's Pub is your classic British fare, but a notch or two above "pub food" despite the name. Good beer/drinks, and if the weather cooperates, there's lawn bowling on the roof. Lawn bowling! :D

I also like The News Room (American/Continental) and The Local (Irish pub) on the same street (Nicollet).

The Nicollet Island Inn has a nice restaurant in a picturesque setting, as far as downtown restaurants go.

http://www.nicolletislandinn.com/dining.html

I also like The News Room (American/Continental) and The Local (Irish pub) on the same street (Nicollet).

News Room and The Local are great places for a casual meal.

I know it's a bit of a chain, but Oceanaire (at the Hyatt on the south end of Nicollet Mall, across from Ichiban) does have some excellent seafood.

BTW, if anyone knows of any good seafood places in the Twin Cities, please let me know...I've been to McCormick & Schmick's in Edina and wasn't impressed, and like Oceanaire, but would like something closer to Bloomington...(and no, the Forrest Gump place at MOA doesn't cut it).