2nd- starbucks, bloomginton
4th- morimoto, philadelphia, pa
5th- delilah's at the market, philadelphia, pa
11th- nick and eddie, minneapolis
15th- asian hon, shakopee
16th- porter and frye, minneapolis
19th- red stag, minneapolis
20th- bunny's bar and grill, st. louis park
25th- familia mexican buffet, brooklyn center
30th- whitney bistro/onyx bar, bloomington
2nd- starbucks, bloomginton (d+)
ah, airport food. i wanted something vaguely healthy, and had some starbucks gift cards, otherwise i'd have packed a lunch or something. i had a 'fruit salad' of pineapple, very sad squishy split red grapes, cantaloupe, and kinda tasteless strawberries. this was around $2.99 i think, for a medium-drink container-sized bit of fruit. for aroud $3.50 i got some yogurt with berries and a few tiny bits of granola. the yogurt was a bit too lumpy. also the water was not surprisingly hideously spendy, but hey, that's the airport for you. $2.49 for a s mall is what i recall. blah.
4th- morimoto, philadelphia, pa (a-)
we went to lunch here, as it's a bit less spendy than dinner for omakase (lunch starts at $40, dinner twice that), which some of us intended on ordering.
we all started with edamame, with some very tasty sea salt ($4). both kids ordered from the 'lunch box' menu, a ginger teriyaki grilled chicken breast with steamed rice and chinese broccoli were indeed brought out in a little box. first you get a good-sized tasty salad with what i think were fried onions, tomatoes, and greens in a viniagrette dressing (yuzu, maybe) plus the best miso soup i've tasted, with large chunks of creamy, fresh tofu. though the chicken could've used a bit more cleaning up, it was well worth the meal price of $13.50
then... omakase. my sister and i both got the low level ($40) one, my brother in law got the mid-level ($60). for that he got two extra courses, and a better grade of fish in some dishes, and some different dishes in other cases. i'll say what my sister and i had, and what i can remember of the other. i was taking notes on tiny paper (i need a bit bigger notebook i think) so my handwriting is just a bit more illegible than the usual level of illegible.
to start, we had yellowfin tartare in a soy/onion broth with caviar on top. the toro was in almost a large cone shape (with the top flattened) with the caviar on top, sitting in the broth in a bowl and some fresh wasabi in it, too. the bowl was on a plate with a palate cleanser of a japanese fruit that was referred to as some sort of peach (it had a bit) but was kind of like a raspberry. for the main dish, you're supposed to get a bit of each in every bite, so i kind of knocked it over and went with it that way. boy, was it good. maybe because of the broth, which was nice and salty, and had the good qualities of onion soup mix (crunch and salt), but it was all freshly done. my favorite dish of the night. my brother in law had much the same thing, but with toro.
my sister and brother in law had ordered other rolls besides the omakase, and they came out second. both i think got the spicy tuna, my sister the usual sort, my brother-in-law, a handroll. the sushi roll of the version (the only one i tasted) was the best i've had, with large chunks of the tuna, not the ground-up leftover bits you usually see. it tasted so very fresh, and the fattiness of the chunks gave the roll a better mouthfeel than the other version. i'm not sure i can go back after tasting this, really. my brother in law had red snapper sashimi served at the same time as the handroll. i didn't taste that, but he spoke highly of it.
we had skipjack salad next, with onion and microgreens and i think shoyu dressing. it was once more an interesting texture and flavor combination, and very delicate. rock shrimp came out for the higher level version, which i didn't (and shouldn't) eat. apparently it wasn't the highlight of dinner. it was nice, but the bro-in-law likes his with smaller shrimp, and these were on the large side.
next i had a different course, as the sea bass in black bean sauce with shaved ginger and lemongrass that the brother in law and sister got had shellfish in the broth or someplace else, apparently. since i did let them know about my shellfish allergy, they worked around it. i did taste a bit of the bass from the top of the dish, and was surprised i liked quite a lot more, was a halibut in crispy tofu skin with some sort of mushroom, which i can't find mention of on the online menu anyplace. even without morimoto present, the kitchen knows how to improvise well, as the flavors and textures of this one stood out from everything else, with the earthy mushrooms, the crisp, almost-dairy-like taste of the tofu skin, and the halibut, a fish i am not that fond of usually as it's a bit... fishy... who knew?
sashimi time then, with bluefin, bass, striped jackfish, squid, and more. desipte being kind of bummed about the lack of eel, i coped. once more, top quality choices. the brother in law got a few more pieces than we did.
at some point, my sister told me i had to get a drink, so i went with the mc2, champagne, midori, and lime juice. and interesting combo, but not something i'd try again with the food. not quite a match. my sister was way into the togarashi, which was a chili-pepper infused tequila with shochu, caplico, and yuzu juice (the last ingredients available at an asian grocery near you). interesting flavor profile on them- they started sweet, and ended with a kick of chili. nice. not sure how it complemented the food, though. all were $12. i would've been better off with a moscato d'asti, but they only had it by the bottle. and i should've asked about that and/or the moscato. or tried a different cocktail, as my sister did when she ordered the white pear cocktail but didn't quite like it. but oh, well. it was something new. ice teas and sodas were $2.50 each, a double espresso, $8.
for desserts, my niece got the apple miso shortcake ($11), with fuji apple compote, whipped cream, and sweet neri miso. dusted with a bit of powdered sugar. it was interesting. the flourless chocolate tortes with whipped cream, a rice tuile, and white chocolate/miso glaze were quite good.... except the miso needed to be far away. it just didn't go with the whole thing. after scraping it off the plate, you could get on with your dessert. it was bad and wrong, and if you look at his cookbook (like i did, though i only saw it after i ate), the miso isn't mentioned anywhere in... creativity doesn't always work. this was the desesrt that came with the omakase. the best overall dessert was a chocolate pot de creme with whipped cream and carmelized banana ($10). way tasty, and you get enough to share. you did on the shortcake, too, but no one was too into it.
service was mostly what you expect for the money you spend- pretty excellent... though the bar was sometimes a bit slow. when my sister didn't really like a cocktail she ordered, they whisked it away, didn't charge her for it, and replaced it with one she did, as mentioned. they catered to the kids, they timed the dishes coming out well, despite the difference in what was ordered, there was never someone with nothing to drink, and such. they even handled a person taking pictures of everything from every angle (a blogger, my guess, or a very intense tourist) with calm.
and the design is also very cool, with your table lit up from below with an array of changing colored lights, contoured walls. my niece was taken with the sinks in the bathrooms, with the draining on an angle so that it goes out on the far end of the sink via gravity (though one of the stalls lacked tp, and something set up to dry hands didn't appear to work). this extended to the plates and silverware, and even the plates. some thought went into all platings. you didn't just get a slice of lime if you asked, they were fanned out on a special sort of plate when presented to you, for instance.
all in all, well done for a 'famous name' restaurant operating larger sans the famous name. not perfect, but they get points for the misses being interesting, i think. if the miso on the dessert weren't so nasty, i'd probably go with an a, but it was that bad. i do wonder a bit that since it was a holiday and the place probably wasn't as packed as usual for lunch or probably dinner, if we got better than most omakase lunches? since it'll be a while before i am (a) in philly and (b) and probably afford such an indulgent lunch again, who knows (the most i recall spending on my lunch ever, by the way, though worth it).
5th- delilah's at the market, philadelphia, pa (c-)
i can see where they were going with this. the cheese blend is nice, it's got the crunchy bits in it. the 'real' stuff is apparently oprah's favorite mac and cheese. alas, at their market stand, it's sitting in a steam table for a bit, so it gets a bit lumpy, i prefer a creamy sauce. i also had to perk it up a bit with salt and hot sauce, but that may be just me.
i didn't hate it, but i was disappointed for what it costs ($4.50, the highest price of all sides... ah, the price of fame. at that i should've just thrown in a few bucks more and gotten a meal with it as a side...). such is life. i would try it again at the 'real' place though, not just the stand they have at the reading termina market. though i'll say the rest of the offerings looked tasty, especially the fried chicken and turkey chops in gravy, and cornbread.
11th- nick and eddie, minneapolis (c)
since i started off disappointed in the place (they were out of their oft-touted chicken liver about an hour into the lunch service... i'd guess they just hadn't made it yet or some such), i wasn't surprised when the server was way more obnoxious than called for. if you say the grilled salmon is a special, and someone asks you the cost of the special, just bloody tell them. don't open their menu (which hadn't been, being that we just sat down) and point out the fish special. so yeah, very small tip, especially as they never filled water glasses (others had to do it) or did anything remotely resembling average service, let alone good. (though the host was nice.)
i did end up with the grilled salmon, which came with a cucumber/carrot/dill (?) relish sort of thing on top that was tasty and fries (with that) ($12). the salmon was a bit farther along that i like but was still quite decent. the fries were of the sort that start out hot and good, but a few minutes later just turn out to be sort of ok. i
my dish was the best of the lot, but the turkey burger with rhubarb chutney and fries served inexplicably on an english muffin ($8) had some nice char on it from the grill (they do grill nicely here) but needed a bit more something on it to bring out the flavor. on the bland side.
the smoked turkey sandwich with avocado and bacon, side of fries ($8.75) was even more bland and used some weird bread that was very tough and chewy and the turkey didn't taste so very smoke. the bread tasted like it's freshness date and come and gone a few days ago.
generally the food was bland and unimpressive, especially as the head chefs have good pedigrees. the menu looks good, but not especially interesting. solid, maybe. i'm not quite sure what the theme is. nor am i sure about the decor. light walls, dark booths, dark wood. one of the walls had velvety wallpaper, the rest didn't. the restrooms were very odd. the womens/handicapped restroom lacked a coathook (not sure of the men's room, which was not handicapped accessible).
when you get your bill you get 'homemade' (or at least not out of a box) cookies with your bill. my peanut butter with a bit of chocolate was good. but one of the others (a chocolate one) just tasted bitter. blah. this is what you want to leave your patrons with?
ever since i was forced to see 'kung fu panda' a while back, i've been craving chinese food. this was my first opportunity to get to it. i had gone to the lunch buffet back in december, and gave it a b-. the food was ok to a bit better than average.
it was less weird than last time, though i was the only person there when i got in (a bit after noon). four others joined me. i'm surprised the place is still open, they must do a stunning take-out business. and i could see where they may use the buffet (a takeout order was a bit late, so some fried rice from the buffet was pressed into service as take-out).
anyway, they get a bit of an upgrade, as the food was labelled in more or less the correct place, condiments were out, and the price dropped a few buck for what i think is the cheapest lunch buffet i've seen recently, $4.95. same food, more or less (general tso, veg lo mein, white and fried rice, another sort of chicken, fried chicken, cream cheese puffs, egg rolls, hot and very sour soup, soup with dumplings, etc.). the food was still quite decent. but i did have to get my own water, and no one bussed the plates. (btw... how much of a tip do you leave on a buffet where the only time you saw a person was when they put water on the table?)
there was still oddness here and there. the dessert portion of the buffet had a can of whipped cream on it. there didn't look to be any whipped cream friendly foods at the time (desserts out at the time were cookies and grapes and some melon, if i recall correctly). maybe they were to make a later debut.
anyway, it's not the best food ever, but for the price it's quite decent.
16th- porter and frye, minneapolis (b-)
even though they sent me a $50 gift certificate after i had such a horrid experience last time i was there (in a sample circuit event that went very very wrong), i wasn't so sure i wanted to return. nothing about the experience seemed like anything could be redeemed.
but then.... i heard something that made me reconsider. supposedly doug flicker (see: auriga in the bitedex) is cooking on the line here. that made me think... well, maybe there's hope. at least as long as he's there. i trust his cooking, and his cooking instincts way more than i trust steven brown's at this point.
a lot of what was on the menu in march for the sample circuit didn't survive for this incarnation of the menu. the chicken with bitter marmalade, french onion soup, scallop with butterscotch, and the pork terrine were the things that were on the dinner menu. i had none of those, as i recall most of them weren't something i'd want to eat again ever.
the things that replaced it looked like they could be better better. they used to have cheeseburger sliders, which seemed cute, a high-end version of the white castle classic. there were tuna sliders on the menu, and we decided to start with those. i thought would be like perhaps yum's were (or would that be yum!'s) or something like seared tuna. all you get on the menu was ingredients, so i had the these words to work with 'tuna sliders madras curry kaffir lime fried shallots.' (no puncutation here, nope.)
what we got was not what i pictured. they were tuna salad sandwiches on toasted buns. not so much of a lime taste or a curry taste. they were disappointing, especially as i've had (and made) much better tuna salad. it was average. the shallots were nice, like tiny onion strings, but hard to eat, except when piled on the sandwich (fingers seemed rude, fork and knife left a large scattering about). worth the $14 menu charge? nope. not even for lunch. cute, sure, plated well, sure. but sliders? not at all.
more fish for mrs. brk for her main course, a grilled swordfish with 'celery root apple butter salsify truffle vinaigrette' ($24). it was tasty, even if it was hard to tell what corresponded to what in the dish. it looked nice, the fish was slightly overdone for my taste, but the variety of things on the plate made it interesting. there were crispy fried things (salsify), a garlicky sauce, pickled truffles, celery root puree that was creamy. a nice balance on the plate.
i went for the gnocchi (and pronounced it wrong, of course) ($16) with 'bucheron nicoise olive marinara.' for potato gnocchi, they were very very light and good. the marinara looked to have some yellow tomatoes in it, plus large chunks of red. the olives were cut into tiny flecks, and there was a disc of the cheese on top. it was all tasty, and once more the flavors played very nicely together, but the dish hard to manouever to get some of everything at once on the fork.
i took some home, as i had a lot of the very good bread... the rye with raisin. tasty, but seems an odd choice with many of the dishes on the menu. of course, that never stops me. the baguette selection was one of those that was good when served warm, and just ok otherwise. they did take care with the four patterned balls (heh) of butter they bring in a dish. everything was plated with that sort of care, actually, it was very impressive. as were a lot of the plates, for that matter. even tap water is brought to your table in an interesting brown bottle with cap.
they do a nice job with the aesthetics in the place, it's a very nice looking room, and a bit different than many other formal dining areas, more modern. it's a lot less basementy than chambers kitchen, the other hotel basement restaurant downtown. though why they shoved us in the very dark corner when no one else was in the dining room yet, we'll never know. (we didn't care enough to ask for a new table). interestingly, all of the other tables they filled when we got there asked to be moved.
though for a place that went so far as to design their own paper holders for the bill, instead of giving me my smaller container of leftovers by itself, they put it in a very large plain brown paper bag (a la a grocery bag), no logo or anything. kind of odd, that. they did fold it over so it looked less huge, but still odd.
the bread and water server was good, but the main server was perhaps on the new side of things. or filled with ennui. every time they crumbed, they managed to get a portion of the crumbs on people and not all of them off the table. they didn't smile or frown or anything either. weird. i guess i expect a bit more interactivity for a high-end restaurant. even if it is a low-trafficked wednesday.
for what it would've cost sans gift certificate, it wouldn't be a place i'd go back to for a meal (the cocktail menu looked interesting, though). it didn't seem worth the money, there was nothing that seemed spectacular for the dough, the cooking wasn't anything that stood out as being new or bold or attention-getting or so very very good i just have to have more. it decent enough, but for that kind of cash, i want a bit more... something. though i think they're still working out kinks (hey, it has been less than a year they've been open). if i overheard correctly, at some point a tasting menu was offered, but they yanked it and are reworking the concept.
interestingly, some blogs, if you know steven brown personally you get the star treatment with cooking in quantity, sure, but perhaps also quality. (see also: the previous trip). the quality part is which is not a concept i am fond of. it should be kick-ass for all, not just the f.o.s. so i am left with a kind of better impression of porter and frye, just not a great one.
19th- red stag, minneapolis (b+)
points for being minnesota's first leed-certified restaurant. it's super-green. verdant to the utmost. so very much so that we were asked to fill out an impact survey of some sort (how did we get there, how far did we travel, what's our mpg, etc.) we didn't see any other table that got one. so interesting in a weird sort of way.
what's kind of odd is that the one thing on the menu that i looked at and dismissed out of hand (besides all the allergy food and the previously 4-legged food) was the tomato watermelon gazpacho ($7). i'm not so much a cold soup fan. yet my friend, who claims to hate soup, went for it straight away. the same person who got that ever so tasty soup at topolobampo. i doubt that whole soup-hating claim now. anyway, she liked it a lot. i didn't. tomato and watermelon are not things i enjoy together. but hey, wasn't my dinner.
she also had an appetizer special, three smallish cod cakes in a red piquillo pepper sauce with a few bits of some other veg on the plate ($10). they were melt-in-your-mouth sorts of cod cakes. odd, but true. tasty. i'd like to see them with a nice mayo-based sauce. but i'd like mayo with a lot of things. i am not sure how well her lemon-basil martini went with it ($9, i think), but boy, did it smell good. and taste, too.
me, since i tend to be really predictable, got the mac and cheese. i was going to get the duck terrine (quack), but it had pork in it. oh, well. it had three colors of cauliflower in it, white cheddar, and truffles. so. did i like it? yes, probably the best mac and cheese i'd had in ages- no lumps, no separation of sauce, noodles (fusilli, i think) were coated with sauce, there was a bit of melty cheesy goodness on top. i only had one problem with the dish... the price point.
when they had a lobster truffle mac and cheese, it was $10 (the server thought, though i did see a blog that quoted the price at $8). the cauliflower version was $9. and it wasn't a large amount, and i think it was truffle oil more so than truffle. i did think twice about ordering it for that price, but i was in the mood for it. and i did enjoy it but for that price i wouldn't get it again.
i would, however, get the triple-cooked fries done up with parsley and garlic butter ($5) that came with a decent enough house-made ketsup. they look like square lincoln longs more than fries, though- the experience of these isn't quite fry-like. they probably taste kind of like french toast sticks (i've not had those, just the plain french toast)- crispy on the outside, very much so, and mushy (think mashed potato) on the inside. they needed more salt (not just me on this), but i had to ask for that and pepper, which is always kind of odd.
also odd... i had picked up the last fry and the small bowl the ketsup was served it, and the plate was almost cleared from under it. the busser realized the error and put it back down... but it now had extra fingerprints on it.
i would've liked bread at that point to dip in the truffle oil at the bottom of the mac and cheese plate, but after the bread plate of house-made spiced crackers (those rock) and tiny bits of bread in a butter and i think soy bean spread was almost done, it was whisked away to make room for the entree plates. i suppose i could've asked. that would've been logical. i did dip the fries in it, though.
since i can't follow the rules well, i had a glass of a late-harvest gerwurztraminer ($10) that shall remain nameless as i can't recall what kind it was, didn't bring home the receipt, and the wine and drinks list isn't on their web site. i liked it, though not the best choice for mac and cheese. heh.
it did go very well with a dessert special of the day that we split, warm door county cherries over what i think was house-made almond ice cream and yellow cake (not yellowcake) with some almond brittle both in the ice cream and some bits wedged festively on top ($5). the tartness of the cherries and creaminess but not sweet ice cream was something i enjoyed, but i suppose others would want it sweeter. i though the almond could've been dialled up a notch more. the cake we couldn't taste too much of.
there were other things on the menu that looked interesting (i want to try the smelt fries at some point, and the triple-cream cheeses sounded good, but i wasn't up for paying $15 for them, sweet pea and goat cheese ravioli, roasted duck). the room looks like a modern supper club (no animal heads, lots of dark wood, red and black carpet) with a very comfortable banquette. alas, my friend who was sitting in the aisle kept getting her chair kicked and such, bad traffic pattern that they had to sit in.
the service was quite good from the main server. they even asked our opinon of new menu dishes they hadn't tried yet so they would know what to tell others about them, even), though the more the room filled, the longer things took, natch. water glasses did well.
i did notice that most people were quite dressed up here, more so than i've seen at any restaurant lately. there was a mix of ages, too, from the families with school-age kids, to young gay couples, to older couples to those in their 20s and 30s hanging out with friends. they draw folks from a wide demographic here.
20th- bunny's bar and grill, st. louis park (d+)
lunch instead of dinner (and who knew they did breakfast, too?). but perhaps smaller crowd weekend mid-day crowd brought about less experienced staff all around. what else could explain refilling my own glass or waiting 5-10 minutes after being told you'd get water (i got it from someplace else then)? though it was kind of odd from the start, as the lunch menu doesn't start until 1 pm. we got there at 12:45 pm or so and had to sit around 15 minutes before the order was taken. um. why not just take it and put it in then? or, hey, why not serve lunch at, say, noon?
but the grilled rachel was ok, not great, but tolerable. the side of fruit tasted like it had been frozen (and looked like the kind you get in a bag at costco, down to the fruit selections), then unthawed, but not entirely. just gross. so i sent that back, got the cole slaw, tasted much the same way, formerly frozen and not entirely unthawed, which was more of a mystery. and also gross. so i didn't eat that either, and the server never came back to check again on the status of anything.
so yeah, service sucked. and the best some of the food could manage was average. usually it's a lot better here, if i recall correctly. so maybe i shouldn't go for lunch, and shouldn't order any cold side (how the cottage cheese would turn out scares me). and i'm not fond of the fries here either, either. so kettle chips it is, i guess. or not order things that come with sides...
i went into the restroom for the first time ever here (tmi? perhaps.). they have, not surprisingly, a rabbit theme, but it's subtle. weird arrangement of stalls, though. and weird to have posters of the new kids on the block staring at you in an ad for their upcoming target center show when you're... tcb.
25th- familia mexican buffet, brooklyn center (c-)
i really wanted to like this place. it's run by some very nice, welcoming people. they had a a small, but decent, variety of food. various hot sauces. tables reserved for families with babies, even. it's rustic and homey, filled with knick-knacks. for dinner, it's a reasonable $11 for adults (including a fountain beverage), but i had a two for one card, so it was an ultra-reasonable at $5.50 per person.
alas, the food was not so good. but i suspect it's because what i can/do eat vs. what was on the buffet. i was told by the person i was with they had some most excellent ways with pork (3 kinds). and beef, too (2 kinds). neither of us went for the shrimp (2 kinds), or the tilapia quarters (they looked fried, i think). so can't say anything about any of that, firsthand.. there was one protein i could pick from, chicken tinga.
the problem is that it's a stew of sorts, chicken in tomatoes and peppers (it was supposed to be spicy, but it wasn't enough for me so used one of the hot sauces on mine to make it really spicy) and this one was quite loose. so it didn't work so well with any sort of tortilla product (hot flour ones, fried corn ones, nacho chips, taco salad bowls) as it turned all foodstuff beneath it into a mushy mass if you go with food on the plate (a la nachos or taco salad) and drips out a lot in ones you use your hands with (tacos, soft or hard). so not plesant to deal with. i even tried draining it a bit. it helped, but i still ended up with a puply mass of goo by the time i got to the end of the plate.
same deal with the black olives... they were sitting in... the stuff you find in cans of black olives (black-ish watery liquid) and there's no slotted spoon in site, alas. and of course, i ended up with an avocado pit in my guacamole. so hey, they make it fresh, though it needed more of the green and less of the other ingredients (and more salt). another entry for 'food stuff.' the cheese sauce was watery and not cheesy, either.
most other standards (four kinds of salsa- mild, medium, hot, and salsa fresca), raw onion, shredded cheese, sour cream in squeeze bottles (nice touch), lemons, limes, etc. they had peach slices (canned), jello, and some surprisingly nice cookies on the dessert end of things.
yes, i had to follow my own rules of things in food that are not food=bad grade. but this one i can forgive and not go as low as usual. and if i ate beef or pork (or could eat shrimp) it'd be worth returning. if you eat them, you should try it when you're in the neighborhood.
30th- whitney bistro/onyx bar, bloomington (a-)
as i remembered to check this here web site for what i ate and what i thought of it the last time i was here a year and a day ago (i don't have the chance to or forget sometimes...), i didn't get anything with fries. and ended up with quite a good dinner. who knew that the strange little restaurant hidden in the country inn and suites, bloomington, could turn out quite decent fish entrees?
mrs. brk went with the herb crusted wild caught walleye with grilled asparagus, chive oil, and roated tomato coulis, but swapped out the polenta for mashed potatoes. most of her plate needed more salt (wasn't just me on that), but everything was quite tasty, especially the sauce. mrs. brk liked the mashed more than i did, i prefer a chunkier style. with roasted garlic, for that matter. these were more of a puree.
for a change, i ordered something that had no cheese, cream, or fried things. surprise! grilled atlantic salmon, roasted fingerling potatoes, sauteed spinach, roma tomatoes and olives in white wine and balsamic. the sauce was very, very good. loved the sauce. it made the dish. i even ate the large bits of tomatoes, something that's not my favorite thing to eat in most dishes like this. i wish i would've had a spot of bread for it, but i did get a spoon instead. (mine was in a bowl, so, hey, made sense).
only the potatoes needed a small shot of salt on my plate (and hard to go with a small shot when the salt and pepper are still in bowls that you use a tiny spoon for rather than a shaker of some sort. i still don't love that). though the outside of the salmon was spot on with the char from the grill, the inside was just a bit underdone.
plating was a bit weird (as mentioned, mine was in a large bowl, mrs. brk's was stacked up oddly). service wasn't. possibly due to the lack of people and abundance of staff. but the server suggested that they bring extra plates to do some food swapping, told us we could use our coupon (supposedly for two for the price of one entrees) on anything reasonably 'dinner' on the menu, and even filled water glasses before they got halfway full. nice.
both dishes were $18.95, and besides the two for one coupon. and they let us put the $19 or so we did pay on the twin cities originals (remember them?) card. and we got 1000 open table points for the reservation, thus taking us halfway to a $20 gift check on that one booking. so hey, score.
© The bent sun as risen