1st- restaurant alma,minneapolis
5th- vincent a restaurant, minneapolis
6th- jimmy's food and cocktails, minnetonka
7th- dino's gyros, edina
8th- topolobampo, chicago, il
14th- afton house inn, afton
21st- chapati, edina
27th- the dakota, minneapolis
28th- satay 2 go, apple valley
30th- pho 83, shakopee
1st- restaurant alma,minneapolis (a)why don't i go to alma more often? maybe it's because of the location (now on the far side of the lack of bridge, not downtown, etc.). it can't be anything else. they have a killer bargain (three course dinners for $42- which saves you at least at 10 spot, though you can order individual items off the menu also), excellent food and service, use local products, have an affordable wine list, a nice list of desserts and cheeses, they bake their own stuff. maybe lack of parking? no, i go to places with lack of parking. hmmm. and the thing of it is, you're most likely thinking the same thing. why don't you go to alma more often?
i was thinking this when i got to chose a place for someone to take me to dinner. we originally scheduled for the day after the bridge collapse, moved it to today when this was the first opening on both our schedules for a weekend (easier to get over here on weekend early evenings than it is in rush hour). we both opted for the three course dinner, where you chose an appitizer, a pasta/grain course, and a main course.
my friend opted for the (start the cutting and pasting now) local grass-fed bison carpaccio with sweet-hot chili miso, scallion, baby basil, flax oil (i think, the menu changes daily, so it may have been other herbs or something). it smelled great, tasted even better. for me it was the seared ahi tuna with cabbage in a citrus soy marinade. i think her first course was better, not that mine was shabby. perhaps it was the plating, as carapaccio lends itself to better presentation than seared tuna.
for the pasta and grains course, we got what i was thinking of ordering solo. the first dish was spaghettini nero with seared calamari, tomato concasse, tarragon, and lobster fumet. we forgot to ask why the pasta was blackish. i guessed squid ink, i was right. a lovely blend of flavors, and i used bread to sop my share of the sauce. alas, this is where brk kicked in, and for a change, not for me. there was perhaps a bit of shell in the pasta, and my friend may have cracked a filling. not good at all.
the second dish was a summery sweet corn crepe with potato puree, guajillo sauce, creamed chard, and pickled onion. if you took out the chard it would've been perfect for me. i didn't like the faint bitterness with the whole sweetness of the rest of the dish, but i saw what they were trying to do. after a bite of the whole of the dish, i ate the chard solo.
we both went fish for the main course. my choice was the "gently cooked local rainbow trout" (my guess at the gentle cooking method would be sous vide, it didn't seem poached) with "fried" green tomato, thyme, prawns, and creole sauce. the fish was buttery and melt-in-your-mouth tender, some of the best fish i've had in... years? ages? ever? not that the sauteed wild white sea bass with the sweet corn ragu, bacon, balsamic cherry tomatoes was a slouch of a dish, i just liked the texture and flavor of the gently cooked trout more. it was still done perfectly.
of course my dessert was cheese. i went with a sora cora, a semi-soft italian sheep's milk cheese that was most excellent with the honey and toasted seeds on the plate, and a very very blue cheese called valdeon blue (spanish cow's and goat's milk). lots of veins in it, one of the strongest blues i've really enjoyed. i sampled the other dessert choice, a lime custard meringue cake with mango, coconut-lemongrass ice cream, and macadamia streusel. loved the streusel. the rest was good, but i could eat the streusel solo and be happy.
with the dinner, we split a bottle of the paoni prosecco spumante (we both lean towards the girlier bubbly). as we all know, sparkling wines go with everything, right? it was light and sweet. (random side note- maybe i'm a bit allergic to something in wine, as i tend not to get as red with sparking beverages, nor do i get as cheap-first-date drunk on them.)
service was good, even the discreet retrieval of the knife i suavely knocked off the table (it was strangely suave, as even with the clatter, no one looked my way, and my dining companion didn't think it was i who had done it). water and bread refills spot on, team service to get the dishes to the table. the staff knows the menu (they've eaten through it, i think) and can comment knowledgably on the dishes. they have good staff, and if i am not mistaken, a lot of them are long-term. i think i spotted at least one server that was there in january 05. (i remember random things.)
the place was packed, mostly with people older than my friend and i. the lack of bridge didn't seem to be hurting them, nor did the holiday weekend, at least on this day. however, that made the space kind of crowded and a bit on the loud side.
i am not sure what to make of the tooth-pain item. it seems so un-alma, they're usually about being perfect with the food. i mean, my experience was an a all the way (with the loud and such it wasn't quite an a+ experience, i like the space more on slightly less crowded evenings), and even with that my friend was all about coming back again and didn't want to bring it up to the staff (not that they're shy, it's the opposite). so i think a - for the shell bit. that seems fair?
5th- vincent a restaurant, minneapolis (a)
back for more sweet corn veloute. this one was a touch better in texture (smoother), but for some reason the person who brought it out didn't bring bread with it. odd. the bartender (i was sitting at the bar again) made sure i got some. the crowd was much larger, as it wasn't raining. the soup was it for this time... do i dare attempt another go at it?
6th- jimmy's food and cocktails, minnetonka (b-)
bread, tons of good bread- three kinds in the basket (flatbread, honey wheat, and a white, i believe), mrs. brk's angus steak sandiwch (with tons of lovely carmelized onions and i think house-made steak sauce) was on a lovely ciabatta bread... however, the supposedly grilled foccaccia bun that my chicken sandwich with maytag blue and mushrooms was on couldn't stand up to the juice or the flavor, and was, well, flavorless.
i suppose it went well with the slightly chewy, non-plentiful chicken that was overwhelmed with cheese and had the mushrooms cut so they slid off quickly. quel disappointment. me, queen of the bread eaters, getting crap sandwich bread. 'course i'm used to such things. good thing i ate a lot of other bread, as i didn't eat most of the foccaccia. they subbed the parmesan truffle fries for no extra cost for the regular fries, that was nice. mrs. brk opted for fresh fruit with her steak, which was healthier, but less tasty.
service was slow and kind of annoying- they kept saying something like 'i hope everything is/was perfect,' and didn't give a chance to answer. no, it's not. it rarely is for anyone... even those of you sans brk. good, sure, great, yes, perfect? doubtful. hrm. and the server was overwhelmed in the room anyway, so it took ages to get an order in and a while to get the food. (though we did have the tasty, plentiful bread basket to amuse ourselves).
the room was weird- loud, with a very busy supper rush, and decorated mostly supper clubby, with a mural that seemed more at home in a mexican sort of restaurant near the upper bits of wall. and it was very, very loud. almost to the point where it was hard to hear each other, and we were sitting right next to each other. prices were on the high side of things. mrs. brk liked it a lot better than i did. i, however, liked it better than ike's- jimmy's is co-owned by one of the ike's folks.
stopped at dino's for lunch, as i've been wanting a greek salad with chicken gyros on it since i was here last time.
i think the way they have the place built, high ceilings and such, makes my words disappear. i said a large greek salad with chicken gyros, and got a large greek salad without. all words were ennuciated at the same level of volume and such.
they did add the chicken for free (made it more of a bargain, as i had a coupon for the place), but for some reason the salad was almost entirely without feta. healthier, sure, but way less tasty. so that was bad and wrong. it was disappointing.
i miss shakopee dino's. let me put it this way- i don't think the free fries they're giving away on mondays this month will get me back in to the edina dino's.
8th- topolobampo, chicago, il (a)
when i asked a friend more familiar with chicago than i for a recommendation of a place to eat near the house of blues (i went to go see richard cheese there with another friend... not that i didn't invite this one, btw... didn't want all y'all to think i was that evil...), she said topolobampo or frotera grill.
they're the must-go of the chicago scene more than any other. i think i saw an article in the strib a while back saying it was one of the gastro-tourism stops in the u.s.
reservations are near impossible to get. i tried for about a month or more- as soon as i knew we were going. i checked open table a few times a day, i called a few times, i even checked to see when the bar is less busy so we may eat at the bar as a last resort. finally, on the thursday night before we left (on a saturday morning), one table for two opened up at 5:45 pm. persistence paid off.
to prep, i read reviews online. they were of two sorts... the brk folks (reserved a table, had to wait half an hour anyway, and the food was tiny and not that good), and those who worshipped the joint. i was hoping my brk wouldn't kick in...
so we get there at around 5:40 pm for our 5:45 pm reservation. we are seated by 5:47 pm. good so far.
the meal starts with a free bowl of guacamole, served with cucumber and jicama slices, presented on a banana leaf in a bowl, with some folded crepe paper for decoration. excellent plating, the best guacamole ever... it takes what you like about it, amps it up, and adds subtle heat... that was the case for most of the flavors in the evening, really. the only thing missing was chips, which we would've asked for if we had thought of it. oh, well.
per recommendation, my friend and i both started with soups. i went with the crema de langosta y camarones (ancho-and-ginger-infused maine lobster bisque with steamed organic shrimp tortitas, bayless garden heirloom tomatoes and wood-grilled onion). quite nice, subtle, and lovely.
as good as mine was, the sopa azteca kicked my soup's ass. it was a dark broth flavored with pasilla, with grilled chicken, avocado, meadow valley farm hand-made jack cheese, thick cream and crisp tortilla strips. i think it was about half the price of my soup, too. no fair. this is a soup that my friend, who when discussing food preferences earlier said how much she hated soup said she would eat this daily and be very very happy to do so. (i'm not quite sure why she ordered it, but hey... life is a mystery sometimes). the broth was so concentrated it had a honey-like sweetness in the background and a bit of heat in it, too, the cheese was lovely and melty, the chicken was cooked to perfection... this soup was great. (though the sweet corn veloute with the truffle oil tops it in my book, this would be maybe the second best soup ever).
the presentation of both soups was interesting and different- you get the bowl of stuff without liquid, and the liquids are poured over the items at the table from a hot pot. this worked in the case of the sopa azteca, however i almost think the bisque would've been improved a bit with some time to marry flavors (like the tomato and onion with).
since she didn't go with the shrimp and lobster soup, my friend went that way with the main course- a langosta en pipian de pinon (pan-roasted maine lobster stuffed with rock shrimp, roasted tomato and fennel in ancho-pinenut pipian; three sisters garden greens). it was plated so that the lobster halves were stuffed with the items. she thought it grand, though not the best lobster she's had. me, i think i may be allergic to lobster. or possibly shrimp. i hope lobster, however, as i eat a lot more shrimp than i do lobster.... that's about it for the brk, btw.
as soon as i tried hers, i got some reaction (beginning of hives, for one), despite being on two allergy meds right then. but you're hear to read about food, not my continuing allergic reactions. so. i thought it good, but as her soup was better than mine (per me, at least), my entree better than hers (also per me).
sounds odd, as she had shrimp and lobster, and i got enchiladas. enchiladas a la plaza, to be exact- street-style red chile enchiladas filled with three sister's garden huitlacoche (it's inky corn mushroom, and also an outside shot at the thing i was allergic to), chilied vegetables, tangy napa cabbage, crispy potatoes and a dusting of mexican aged cheese. if you look at the ingredients, you don't think... wow, this'll be just huge flavor and contrasting textures, and it'll be so much better than the lobster! do you? i didn't, but this was my second choice on the menu (also recommended), so i went with it. and lo, i was glad.
what's interesting in that both in the starter and main course, the least expensive option was the tastiest. it was also nicely plated, with a halo of the cripsy potatoes topping it off.
so hey, let's take time out and give mad props to alyssa, the person o'recommendation supreme.
and now, back to our story.
we both paired a champagne margarita with the food to start, which was quite good, though hard to navigate without getting salt on one's nose (it's served in a champagne glass). besides those two things and lime, i am not sure what was in it, their beverage list is not online on the web site, nor is the drink menu, nor the dessert menu, nor the prix fixe menus, nor the tequila menu, which my friend sampled a shot from. (they have lots of menus, which they are working on getting down to a reasonable number). you can also do a tequila tasting, by the way. they have hundreds to chose from, or something like that. the sommlier's available to help you with the booze.
for dessert, my friend opted for a coffee cocktail, nice. i went with a steamed lime pudding cake sitting in a raspberry sauce that came with a crispy spiral nutty cookie (see: menu not online), and they brought another small pot to the table with the fresh chunky peach sauce. it was light and fruity and very summery, not overwhelming. a nice ending.
service was a bit snooty (the people who were ordering the prix fixe got a lot more face time with the main waiter than we did with our brief visitatation, and the couple who spoke spanish got a few extras we didn't from other staff), but within reasonable range (a.k.a. it wasn't enough to piss me off) but the whole of the staff is very knowledgable. they've all tasted the whole of the menu, which changes frequently.
the room is done up with low lighting, and browns and oranges, with hints of blue. the tables are a bit too close together (we felt like we were kind of dining with the people on each side of us, also), and the music was up a bit loud for the finer dining of topolobampo. it could be because it shares a space, sans doors, with the more family-friendly (and less spendy) frontera grill. as we were near the divide between the two, it felt more like we were half and half. i will say that's a bit of a disappointment with the very high topolobampo prices. (think the d'amico brothers masa, versus more of a salsa a la salsa, say).
it was an interesting dinner, with some excellent flavors and i am glad i went. would i go back? maybe after i've tried more of chicago's offerings, and maybe i'd hit frontera first.
14th- afton house inn, afton (c)
we decided to get here via mapquest directions instead of the ones on the restaurant's web site. mistake- and the first time i actually was on a detour that was detoured... so let's just say the drive was more scenic than we intended. why we were going all the way out here in the first place- mrs. brk or i (can't remember who) got a gift certificate from the tco tuesday organization. otherwise, it's not a place i'd find myself, even off-season.
the room was maybe a third full when we left after 7 pm, and there was only one table full when we got there. why they decided to put table three right next to us, i don't know. service was flaky, they kept taking tableware and not replacing it, spilling things, not filling water. the brunch menu on the table offered 'mini petit hours,' which is a funny typo (especially in the small, small hours, i bet, or when you're eating petit fours). the typo had sat out on tables at least a week, no one had noticed so far. service was nice, but not great or even good. trying for ok, perhaps.
this is supposed to be kind of an upscale place (as opposed to the bar in the other part of the building- there were people there for their anniversary, for instance), if mrs. brk's friends and the menu prices are to be believe. between the service, food, and the somewhat odd bits of decoration (they tried hard, i think, with the decor, but it's somewhere between way too many empty wine bottles and a recent design school grad's idea of sophistication on a budget without an ikea nearby, with some fishing theme elements scattered throughout, that's the best i can come up with).
i thought it would be more jax-style old school (especially given the emphasis on things lit on fire on the menu, such as steak diane, bananas foster, etc.), but nope. you can't even see the water from the place... at least in the dining area.
as i have no idea if i am allergic to lobster or shrimp, and apparently all fish co-mingles, fish was out... i ended up with the seared duck breast, with what was supposed to be wild mushroom risotto but was really the saffron rissoto (with mozzarella, manchego, parmesan di parma, and gouda cheeses) that they put a few mushrooms in, plus some asparagus. the duck was supposed to have a honey-lavender glaze, but that was undetectable. the searing was not too successful (the inside was a shade more done than it was supposed to be, and the skin didn't crisp up, alas), and as much as i liked the risotto, a less cheese-filled one (say, a wild mushroom one, for instance) would've made more sense.
mrs. brk had the almond-encrused walleye with potato puree and asparagus. it said it was in a browned butter sauce, but there was way too much of it. strangely rich for a fish dish. i kind of liked it, mrs. brk wanted something plainer, i think. the breadbasket was kind of disappointing, too.
maybe it's different in summer, but with entrees in the $20 and up range, mostly, and it being so very far away, i am not willing to go out there again without another gift certificate.
i've been wanting to eat here a while, since they've opened here, which is probably at least a few years (i'm old, i can't remeber things that aren't pointless). i've not been to the branch in northfield, but i've heard tons about it, and all good. so yeah, high expectations.
which is probably why i was disappointed. i had the lunch buffet, so i sampled a variety of things. some they do very well, like most of the sauces for the dishes, and a an eggplant dish that was great (they said it was raigan mirch, which i can't find anywhere, so i'm not sure if it's rogan they're spelling differently or what, it may be a baigan bharta as the recipes i've seen look to be the correct ingredients and such), but details were off. the chicken in the tikka masala was tough, the chana masala had something in it that wasn't quite cleaned enough (i got a lot of tiny branches from spices in my dish, plus something else that seemed inedible), and a lot of the naan was burned.
they do get points for having garlic naan, however. i don't recall seeing that in a buffet, and ditto on the lemon rice. however, minus points for no paneer dishes at all. most things were ok or so, but they're saved from mediocrity by the sauces, i think. service was decent, and the people who run the place seem nice.
27th- the dakota, minneapolis (c)
another disappointing go-round, like chapati. though i didn't have high expectations, like my dining companion did. they had gone to a sample circuit tasting here, and said the food was wonderful. i hadn't been since almost a year ago, at the bar. i remember being a bit underwhelmed with the place then.
with the strains of the jazz show on the other side of the curtain (it seems odd to hear but not see that), we split a dinner, more or less. we ordered from the appetizer and salad menus, as i was kind of underwhelmed (or allergic) to all of the main courses. water and bread hit the table first. they do a nice warm baguette, with decent and spreadable butter. i mention the water as i believe i overheard a server say it's house-filtered... so very amusingly pretentious, that.
the salad course was a whipped brie, pear, and radicchio and some sort of butter lettuce (i think, and as their online menu isn't up to date, i can't verify, or cut and paste, as is my wont) salad with a honeyed dressing. that was a nice flavor combo indeed, and probably the highlight of the meal. but one thing- when i looked at it, i didn't think it was a $12 salad, which is the menu price. at $8 or even maybe $9, sure, but it didn't seem to be $12 worth of salad in my book.
next up, to do a bit of a comparative tasting, we had the sweet corn soup. it had corn kernels, creme fraiche, roasted mushrooms, herbs, and a few other things going on. the soup was nice, but too busy. it needed at least one less thing going on, and i would vote the corn off the island. to go all top chef on you, why bother to have this lovely velvety soup made of corn, then throw chunks of corn back in it? what's the point? contrast in textures? you have that with the mushrooms. in fact, i'd say if they would've left the mushrooms off too, it wouldn't have been an entirely bad thing in my book. they were good, not sure if they went with the soup. compared with the cost (and taste) of vincent's version, also overprice (i think it was $9).
we went with a three-cheese pumpkin risotto for the main course. this also seemed to have too much going on... three cheeses (really?), arugula or dandelion or some sort of spicy greens on top, pumpkin cubes... one thing too many. the pumpkin added not a lot of flavor to the party, and if no one had told you it was pumpkin risotto, you wouldn't have guessed it. it could've been left out without missing it. it was supposed to have pancetta on it too, we left that out entirely... and i am not sure where that flavor fits in here. it was nice and creamy, however. not bad, not great. but once more there was a pricing issue- it was so not a $21 dish. not. the entree serving was more of what i thought an appetizer serving should be, so i'd hate to see how tiny that was. not that i want a huge portion, but it seemed very stingy.
yes, cheese plate for dessert. a creamy goat's milk, a cow's milk (a tomme, i think), which the server billed as creamy but wasn't, and a blue, all stateside cheeses. it was served with some honey, golden raisins and a few nut crumbs, plus a few tiny sticks of toast with large holes in them that fall apart when you put cheese on them. we asked for more real bread instead. we got a tiny bit of the creamy, tasty goat's milk cheese, an average size of the cow's milk, and a huge slice of the blue. not the best-looking plate i've seen, and they went all odd on the rest of the plate. it was $10 for the plate ($15 for five cheeses, and no, you don't get to choose your cheeses out of the five, odd.).
when the plate hit the table, our server disappeared. we couldn't get them to get us more bread, bring the check, get more water, or anything, so we asked the table runner for these things. service wasn't tops to begin with, ok at best, but took a nose dive for sure. with the prices they charge, that's unforgivable. yes, the server was knowledgable, but they were also pretty absent and thus the grade reflects that. and even with $25 off (gift certificate) the bill, it seemed way spendy for the food quantity and quality. this is not a place i'd likely return for any sort of high-end dining, with all the better choices on the block.
28th- satay 2 go, apple valley (a-)
after last night, i wanted something lighter, fresher, and way less complicated, so i went for some mee goreng here (an indo-chinese dish of smaller egg noodles, chicken, tofu cubes, egg, and veggies stir fried together). it's like lo mein, only different. the ingredients were fresh, the dish was light, and it was flavorful (though i wish it were a bit hotter- i asked for medium and it tasted milder than i had hoped). the tables and chairs have been spruced up a bit, but it's still pretty much a family run storefront pan-asian (indian, japanese, malaysian, chinese, etc.) place. and yes, i'm still taking the sweet red bean paste buns home to stick in the freezer when needed.
i really wanted to like this place, as shakopee suffers from a lack of non-chain, non-american restaurants, and i like to eat at the few good ones that aren't either (though this place is a bit far for lunch). as is my guideline, i ordered the namesake food, the pho. chicken pho.
the pho was, well, better than you'd get out of a packet of noodles and broth. but the broth they used wasn't flavorful, and the chicken was overly poached, rendering it chewy. which is a shame, as there was rather a lot of it. after i added the bean sprouts (fresh), mint (fresh, but with with quite a few unusable leaves due), a tiny bit of lime, and jalapenos, i think i had rather close to a liter and a half to two liters of soup, or enough so i took at bit under a liter home with me. i would've tried or taken away a bahn mi, but they only appear to come in various shades of pork or beef. or beef with pork, and of course... pork with beef.
and speaking of, apparently it's now a trend to ignore people at the end of the meal, or my brk is back with a vengeance. after waiting over 10 minutes just to get someone's attention to get a container, (the bowl at the side of the table, spoon in down position, etc.) i waited 5 more minutes, staring at guy at the counter before i just put on my coat and went up to pay, as he was no where near getting me a bill because he refused to look my way. then again, they plopped the plate of bean sprouts, etc., without a word of explanation.
also, i am not sure how much i like the decor, as i spent most of my time staring at the flies and box elder bugs near my table (they had the door open and no screen). um, not so healthy, that. another odd thing about this place- pho, vietnamese, right? but i guess they want to be everything to everyone, as over half the menu is chinese-american. that's not right.
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