• Guacamole Picado Mashed avocado with tomatoes, chile serrano, white onion, cilantro and lime; served with raw vegetables and tortilla chips (shared) $7.50
• Sopes Surtidos Trio of corn masa boats with shredded chicken and chipotle crema; shredded beef with chile pasilla; roasted pablano, onion and oregano (shared) $8.50
• Camarone con Salsa Guajillo Sauteed shrimp with guajillo sauce $21.50
• Flan de Coco Coconut Flan with toasted coconut $5.00

I was very interested to go to the much talked about Masa to see what I thought. Luckily we had our friends Kathleen and Steve along so we could try all the more dishes.

It was a popular place the earliest we could make reservations was 8:30 on a Saturday and it was packed when we got there.

It is hard to pay top dollar for Mexican food when we have so much good stuff for so cheap at many places in the city. But this is not just any Mexican food this is fancy Mexican food, it is beautifully presented in a very hip atmosphere.

I am not sure the prices exactly justified the end result, but everything I had was good. For the most part I have had better of the exact same or similar things someplace else for much less.

So if you are looking for great Mexican food, I would not go here. But if you are looking for a hip atmosphere that serves Mexican food this may be the place for you.

• Puerco Veracruzana Roasted Pork shoulder marinated with lime, garlic, and chile ancho; cooked in banana leaf $17.50
• Izzy's Ice Cream $5.00

Masa is a fancy Mexican restaurant, full of hip, happening people with a modern decor. At one point, I mentioned to Renee that it was too hip for Downtown Minneapolis. She said it would be too hip if there were wine angels hoisted by ropes and pulleys to retrieve customer's wine bottles from a two-story wine tower.

So, some notes:

• The guacamole should be made table side. It was okay as it was, although it didn't taste made-to-order and it was a little expensive.
• The sopes were difficult to share among four people so that everyone could have a taste of each one, but they were made well and tasted good. We probably should have just split each one in half.
• The roast puerco was excellent, although the beans were substandard.
• It's hard to go wrong with Izzy's ice cream, the flan was pretty good, but avoid the limp, lifeless churros.

There are plenty of better, cheaper Mexican restaurants in the Twin Cities area, although you'll have to sacrifice some ambiance.