Owamni by The Sioux Chef

Owamni by The Sioux Chef is a restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It holds a rating of 4.60 from the customers who have reviewed it. The restaurant is the work of chef Sean Sherman, founder of The Sioux Chef, NATIFS and Owamni, and it has earned recognition including a Best New Restaurant Award in 2022.

The kitchen is built around modern Indigenous food. Colonial ingredients such as beef, pork, chicken, dairy, wheat flour and cane sugar have been cut out, and the menu instead highlights foods indigenous to the Americas: corns, beans, squash, wild game, birds, fish and Native plants. Purchasing is directed to Indigenous producers first, and the seasonal menus are shaped to reflect region, culture and Indigenous food identities. The expanded menu offers steaks and larger game cuts such as bison, elk and venison, a full oyster bar and expanded seafood offerings, and a bar program specializing in BIPOC-produced beer, wine and spirits alongside cocktails and mocktails. A Chef's Table seating 12 to 14 guests is available for curated tasting menus, coursed dinners and guest chef residencies.

The restaurant is owned and operated by North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems, a donor-supported nonprofit dedicated to rekindling Indigenous food sovereignty. Long-time partners include Native Wise, Red Cliff Fishery, Dream of Wild Health, Red Lake Foods, Bow and Arrow Corn and Ramona Farms. The Indigenous Food Lab Market, a kitchen and retail space, broadens access to Native-made goods and lets people experience contemporary Indigenous offerings while empowering entrepreneurs to expand their audience.

Owamni takes its name from Owamniyomni, the Dakota name for St. Anthony Falls, meaning turbulent water, whirlpool or eddy. The falls are the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River, and the site is a sacred site of peace and well-being for the Dakota and Anishinaabe people.

For Minneapolis, this is Indigenous cooking presented on its own terms, from a chef and a nonprofit whose work reaches Indigenous farmers, foragers and food producers across Turtle Island.