1st- town hall brewery, minneapolis
1st- palomino, minneapolis
5th- famous dave's bbq, minnetonka
8th- louis xiii, edina
9th- french meadow bakery and cafe, minneapolis
15th- solera, minneapolis
26th- snuffy's malt shop, edina
27th- dino's gyros, shakopee
28th- india palace, eden prairie
28th- vincent a restaurant, minnepolis

1st- town hall brewery, minneapolis (b-/c+)

downgraded. i should have stuck with the grilled cheese. instead, i got the grilled rachel. they get partial credit for real turkey slices, but beyond that, it wasn't anything special. the fries were still nothing great. the food was hot, but not very tasty. even the diet coke tasted a bit off. service was worse, too (no refills offered on anything, long check delay).

and please, get better restrooms, but not before cleaning the ones you have. it's not often that you would look at a restroom and think, 'perhaps i'll wait until i get to first avenue' (a place not known for their sparkling cleanliness). this one toes that line.

1st- palomino, minneapolis (b)

later on, a post-concert snack. i wasn't that hungry, so i had a taste of everything. i ordered a girly drink ('lucious berry lemonade,' spiked with vodka) which would have been a lot better had the overly large amount of ice not watered the sucker down so much. it can happen to you.

the people i was with ordered a pizza with chicken and red pepper, artichoke and crab dip that came with flatbread, and the pear bread pudding. someone went with the chicken salad sandwich with fries. reportedly just an ok sandwich, but i had to do some fry testing for myself. cold, not tasty, matchstick fries. avoid. however, the pizza was extremely tasty, and had chunks of real chicken. the artichoke and crab dip full of dungeness crab that tasted fresh, though was a bit salty. it was served with tasty flatbread. also good was the pear bread pudding.

service was excellent. and it is not often i would say that when i got a few fries spilled on me by the server.

sometimes i wonder how many times i use the word the in these pages.

5th- famous dave's bbq, minnetonka (b-)

'know your chicken, you've got to know your chicken.' i had a craving for bbq chicken. and lemonade... ('that cool refreshing drink...')

i like the sauce here. that's good stuff, maynard. the rest of the food... eh.

mushy corn, not great corn muffin, kinda like before. the chicken bits was kinda scrawny, but tasted fine. fries were about average, they needed to be a bit warmer. coleslaw wasn't half bad though. the lemonade was the fake kind. though i do like the huge vats of a glass they bring it out in (and the water, too). for someone as refill-needy as myself, it makes everyone's life easier.

they are getting a bit of an grade inflation thing, as the service was really good. when mr. bad restaurant karma didn't like the chili he offered, the manager offered to replace it with something. or give him a corn muffin or something like that. the server later reiterated that. that kind of thing.

since it's a franchise, and the linden hills one is smaller (they probably do more take-out, it's more of a counter-service thing), maybe they can do a bit better on the food.

chicken, chicken, chicken.

i kind of wonder where the original entry went. i wrote it, and uploaded it, and maintenant... gone gone gone.

8th- louis xiii, edina (c)

i had 'i'm henry the eighth i am' in my head for a while before, during, and after dinner. which is made all the more strange as in this french/vaguely asian restaurant, they had middle eastern music playing. why, i know not. though i do know a few king louis songs, they were not about this one (i think one's by the group betty, who was on the show 'encyclopedia' on hbo many many many years ago, and one is by allan sherman, for all you pointless fact fans).

maybe it's the same reason why they stuck a table pretty much right outside the restrooms, which have no doors (well, the stalls do) that everyone has to walk by to get to said rooms. it made me feel less bad about the room we were in, in the back on the ground floor. crowded, and strangely decorated, yes, but the basement level area... i would not want to sit there. the 'kissing booths' looked like a cross between mosquito netting and those hats beekeepers wear.

this restaurant is not fully realized yet, and i think it may not ever quite be. yeah, it just opened, so some of the kinks are not worked out yet, but there's one thing that i am guessing they may not be able to get around. the staff, for a upscalish restaurant, should not be the same folk that you would see at your local chain restaurant. however, in the vast majority of suburban restaurants, they are. that's your applicant pool.

so because of this kind of staff, when we arrived a few minutes early for our reservation, we were seated in the bar until the table was ready, and promptly forgot about, and there weren't enough people in the bar and coming in that it should have been a problem keeping track of people (that and we were sitting right by the podium thing). 15 minutes past the time we were schedule to sit, we sat.

our server knew almost nothing about the food, and nothing at all about the wine list. if you have a wine list the size of a small novel, it's a really good idea to have more than one person in the joint who knows something about it.

strangely for me, i didn't get in to most of the stuff on the menu, and none of the entrees floated my boat at that particular moment in time. and i love french food. so i got a ceaser with 'parmesan chopsticks,' to start, and had the cheese plate and frites for dinner. the salad was romain leaves with non-anchovy tasting dressing in a large bowl, which was a tactical nightmare to eat. and it wasn't that great anyway. the parmesan sticks were darned good, though. they have a bread cart server who brought around sourdough and baguette slices with flavored butter, none of which impressed me a lot.

when the cheese plate was served, the only cheese the server knew was brie, and then roquefort was mentioned, but not on the plate. at least the cheeses were served at the right temp, though they called their toasted bread croutons. sigh. the fries were good, but vincent has no worries on this account. they came with a wasabi mayo (i think), which didn't quite suit. both the frites and toast bits were wrapped in wax paper and stuck in a champagne glass. it worked for the toast, it made the frites hard to get to and messy to eat. the shepard's pie (with a random french name) and cassoulet were reportedly tasty.

dessert was a raspberry and strawberry buttercream cake with layers of chocolate sponge between them and glazed strawberries on top and creme brulee. get the first, and leave the second until you are at fhima's (the owner of louis's namesake restaurant).

the check, when it came, had a smiley face next to the servers name and 'thanks.'

so yeah, the grading's hard on this one. i had decent (not great) food, but the experience is just.... off in many ways. that being said, if you're eating in southdale and want to eat at a 'real' restaurant rather than fast food, better here that hugeass chain place.

9th- french meadow bakery and cafe, minneapolis (b)

usually packed on a weekend morning, more so for mother's day, with the ordering line going out the door. mom liked her rhubarb and real whipped cream waffle, but by the time it got to her it was lukewarm and not crisp. my breakfast burrito came sans ordered chicken chorizo (i was offered bacon instead later on, but since i don't eat it i didn't take it. nice of them to offer though) came vaguely warm, and had a bit too much white rice in it for my liking (it kind of drowned out the eggocity of the experience). they were both good despite the temperature problems. it got a b+ in the other review section, i think the sit down service (or maybe a not so crowded day) has the edge on the hectic weekend breakfast rush.

15th- solera, minneapolis (a)

yes, i was there last month, but that was more of spur of the minute visit. and it's always worth going here again. (and the bathrooms were a lot cleaner, being that the place wasn't open to the public yet.)

this visit was more of a planned one, in as much as it was technially a community education class. we got to go in, watch the chefs make things and explain how they did so, eat them, sample wine (a lot of it, well, a lot of some of it) and tour the building. we also got recipes of things that you could actually make at home if you were so inclined. it was quite nice, as most of the recipes featured were pork-free and some indeed were vegetarian things. lots of cheese featured, which i always enjoy.

but again, a lack of bread was not a happy thing, especially since sauces were a bit of the emphasis. no spoons either. the stuff is so good i would've considered plate licking in a more discreet setting. they did apologize for it when i was overheard mentioning that. from what i could gather, it's usually served. just not to me, maybe. should i take it personally?

the food and wine were all good, the chefs were comfortable in front of a crowd, and the bits of the building i hadn't seen were nice. the staff was exellent. they do need to replace a few of the cracked tapas plates, however. and i would have liked (besides a few more tapas, that is) would have been a look behind the scenes.

26th- snuffy's malt shop, edina (c-/d+)

i've been here a lot in bite me times, four, the last in november 03. gone downhill, it has.

for some reason, they redesign the menus here every so often. the the that changes the most on said menu are the prices (they go higher, of course) and one or two menu items (mostly ill-fated ones) pop up. very warm it here it was. and louder than usual, though not packed. the music was just under "have to talk really loud or no one can hear you on the other side of the table' loud.

the food. hrm. it was strangely unsastisfying. the grilled chicken sandwich, my usual, i ordered with mushrooms. which didn't arrive with the sandwich. which also had no pickle (which is should have come with). two knives accompanied three orders (they had no more, mysteriously), but no forks did (they followed the knives in insurrection?).

after speaking with the server about the general lack of things, i was brought mushrooms and pickles on the side. a vast pile o'pickle chips. maybe a tablespoon of sauteed mushrooms. the server noticed my questioning glance at the mushrooms and i told her that it didn't really look like enough to cover the sandwich. i was brought more. a whole other tablespoon or so, how so very... ungenerous of them, it's not like they were morels or even portobellos.

after all that, the sandwich was... eh. not great, not bad, not even good. just... there. condiments didn't help.

the fries came strangely unsalted (i would guess they have frequent cook changes). there were also less of them that there were in previous trips, or maybe it was part of the dinner ennui that it didn't seem like quite enough, or there were and they just were... there but not filling or good or something.

it's like everything there tasted like... nothing. warm nothing, though. it didn't taste of anything, much. very odd.

27th- dino's gyros, shakopee (a-/b+)

tried the fish sandwich for the first time in lo, my many visits. i'd rather stick with the falefel or chicken gyros or try something else, i don't think i'd get it again. it was ok for what it was, just not up my alley. does fried fish belong in a pita? perhaps not. not that it tasted bad, it just didn't somehow come together as gloriously as some othed pita foods. perhaps it was the tartar sauce.

and mmm, fries with that.

anyway, they were even apologized about my having to wait a bit for food, even though a bunch of people got there before me and ordered. nice of them.

28th- india palace, eden prairie (a)

good buffet for lunch. fresh, tasty naan. i like palak paneer, but they did the spinach with the chick peas and the palak with pea... peas. i did mix a bit together. because i can. they have the tandoori, tikka masala, etc. the chutneys. tasty mango pudding and those donut hole like things for dessert. you know, the standard fare, but done well, and replenshed often.

28th- vincent a restaurant, minneapolis (a)

if i had a bit of the sweet corn veloute that i had here every day of my life, i bet my life would just be that much happier. seriously, it was just that good. it had cream and truffle oil it in. it was sweet, creamy, tasty, sunny, lovely and a bunch more superlatives i'm too tired or lazy to think up. i was so into it it became a bit hard to pay attention to the conversation at the table. but i did let other people taste it.

morel, haricots vert, and macadamia 'salad' with a side of fries (i really want to call them pommes frites, even tho they are fries on the menu... does that make me pretentious? then again, i did drop haricots vert above, and i'm not sure if they were called that or green beans on the menu. it's a french restaurant. makes sense. got to use what you learn in high school or it drops off, i guess. and it deserves a better name to distinguish it from the things that people try to pass off as french fries. end of digression.) followed. still fry perfection. the 'salad' was very good too. got to get those morels in while you can, kids.

and let's not forget the bread. hot, fresh, kickass french bread with good butter. all the better to scrape up those last bits of soup. and mushroom juice.

i started with a predinner kir royale (yeah, an after dinner drink. i'm crazy like that.) the table ordered a bottle of a grenache syrah from chateau montroche. get this.... $16. for a bottle of wine. at a restaurant. and guess what... it was pretty good. great for the price. like beaujolais nouveau in scent and taste, only different (drier and stuff). how rare is that?

the risotto at the table was rated the best ever tasted by the person who ordered (subsequent tasting confirms this). mushroom, with butternut squash, walnut... broth? oil? something walunutty, anyway, and other tasty things. the veal shank ordered was also up there... falling off the bone tender and stuff.

dessert, the trio of creams. pot de creme (fun to say, delicious to eat), cremes brulee and caramel. yeah, great. lovely. even if you are full. i am a bit sad i was too full for a cheese.'

three a's for vincent. a record? perhaps. the only thing holding it from an a+ is a few things about the service that could have been a bit tweaked. we were told our table was going to be ready in a few minutes, so we went to the bar, and about a minute or two later they came and got us and said it was ready. which it wasn't, quite, it was another minute or two. also,

service was a bit on the slow side at times. but slow here would be speedy elsewhere.it's hard to walk the line between giving a table time to savor things and not rushing them and being a bit slow. picky of me, i know. they do get mad props for giving the same lovely discreet yet suberb service to everyone, no matter how much of the cost of dinner or how you are dressed or whatever.