7th-sea change, minneapolis
9th- mickey's diner, st. paul
11th- satay 2 go, apple valley
12th- heartland, st. paul
20th- twin city grill, bloomington
23rd- la belle vie and cosmos, minneapolis
25th- captain jack's, prior lake
27th- solera, minneapolis
30th- lone spur, minnetonka7th- sea change, minneapolis (c-)
i recall more capers in the smoked alaskan salmon with traditional garniture ($9) raw bar plate, or something else that had a bit more acid in it. this time it could've used that (maybe red onion bits) or the horseradish wasn't as perky or something. plus they served it with cold toast. yuck. not that the toast i got the second time around stayed warm, but at least it started that way. once more i used the bread basket for the extra salmon that didn't fit on the three toast triangles... and it tasted better on the bread basket bread (which also stayed warm) .
what was billed as the "ocean trout rillette" with pernod, pickles and mustard ($10) off the starters and salads part of the menu also tasted better with the warm bread basket fare than the two long planks of grilled bread i got with it. it also seemed to be missing the pernod, pickles and mustard (which i forgot to inquire about) and seasoning. it didn't really have much flavor.
but it was very very pretty, the best looking dish i've seen in ages, with a few radish slices, some trout roe, and edible flowers scattered on top of the white bit (i would guess was creme freche, possibly mixed with sour cream or something to make it more stable) that covered the trout. alas, it'd prefer tasty buy ugly over gorgeous but boring. the creamy bit was nice, but there was way too much of it for the trout, and it made it all just sort of bland and tasteless. unfishy, oddly.
service was... adequate at best. you fill your own water, and the bread dude was on it, but the main server was not really into it.
maybe it was my fault for going there when i was pretty sure the chef was grilling outside at gastro non grata... i would've gone to that instead except i was (a) having a bad breathing day and (b) didn't want to glop on my usual pile of sunscreen needed when i head outdoors right before attending an event there. but i would expect anyone on the line to not send out already cold toast and know what ingredients should be on the plates.
9th- mickey's diner, st. paul (f)
bad restaurant karma, breakfast (for dinner) style kicked in big time. apparently i have to suck it up and start making my own bloody pancakes now. i attempted to get a short stack of blueberry pancakes, and everything went to hell a la perkins. they were good the last time here, they were. i miss that. too bad i won't be back. the hash browns ($2.50) were underdone and underseasoned. the cakes, besides a complete and utter lack of blueberries, were burnt. bleach.
yet i still ate it as we timed our visit poorly (right after a large group came in) and had to wait a freaking long time to get food and there was a pretty large hunger factor. i understand we had to wait our turn, but mucking up the order that much after that wait? no. just no. we should've gone elsewhere. they took the blueberry part of the pancakes off the order, but they were still $4.55 and not worth any penny of it. (mom liked her california burger. so what.)
11th- satay 2 go, apple valley (b+)
i needed a sure fire thing, as i was getting very bad results this week in restaurants so far. plus i required noodles. we both got the mee goreng this time (instead of just me). it needed more heat for a medium (i added some sriracha) and had a few chunks of veg that needed slicing. but about the same as the last go-round. i've not had bad restaurant karma here that i can recall.
heartland has probably gotten the best grades overall of all the restaurants i've been to... a+, a, a, a-, b (not in order as i am lazy) and this a. i've never had bad restaurant karma here, their values completely rock, as does the cooking, and the service is pretty constistantly among the best in town. so i thought i'd do one last dinner at the original heartland location on their last day.
we ordered a bottle of the prosecco, a riondo “spago nero” valdobbiadene veneto nv ($28 for the bottle, $7 per glass, but we paid $21 for all but one glass... long story short it was the last bottle left and someone had already ordered a glass earlier in the evening). it went well with everything and was just girly enough for me without being too sweet for dinner.
the amuse bouche was a mushroom mousse with raisin toast and i think some sort of cubed onion. nice. i would've liked a lot more mushroom mousse. i'm fond of fungus. well, the edible kind. probably allergic to the rest of them. odd i'm not allergic to that, then. anyway. the breads for the day were a very lovely gouda and a nice but not as impressive (i.e. it didn't have cheese in it) multigrain.
i had been watching the flora fixed price menu all week all week ($30 for three courses). i had my eye on the gnocchi with morels. (quel surprise, non?) but many of the week's menus had beets listed (i hate beets, with one exception). i was hoping that was not true of today's menu and i lucked out.
the starter was "baby arugula with cherry tomatoes, foccacia croutons and st. pete’s blue cheese dressing" and my were both the tomatoes and the dressing very very very good. the first real tomaotes of the season. i even ate the croutons, and generally dislike those (which is odd condinering my love of bread).
off the charcuterie menu, the "game bird liver mousse with preserved tomato rye croustades and baby sweet pepper jam" ($10) was calling me, so we split this as an intermezzo course. i'm happy we did as it was seriously good. the sweetness of the jam went surprisingly well with the liver.
the main was a "morel mushroom gnocchi with purple asparagus, watercress, oregano-black walnut pistou and sheep milk ricotta salata," the main course i had my eye on all week. i think the morel was in the sauce, i was expecting to see bits of it i think, but the gnocchi were cooked perfectly and it all tasted wonderful together. i would've liked to see a few more gnocchi, it seemed more starter in number than main.
dessert was a bread pudding with a honey oat florentine cookie, raspberry-tarragon jam and pink peppercorn-cocoa meringue. it was a beautiful looking bread pudding and the tarragon in the jam was an good contrast to the rest of the dessert. it wasn't too sweet, which i liked about it. the meringue seemed a bit out of place on the plate. i understand what was bringing to the party- the spiciness of the pepper, but it just kind of seemed a bit... there. sitting lonely, off to the side of the plate, it would've been even better had the flavors been somehow incorporated into the dish. too bad i didn't have a mousse in theis course, which messes with the mousse symmetry.
my dining compantion go the 'fauna' fixed price menu ($40 for three courses), starting with a "cornmeal-crusted canadian sunfish with shaved baby fennel, breakfast radish, pickled red beets and tomato-tarragon vinaigrette" which was nice, and had larger pieces of the fish than you would think. next up was the the "hill & vale farm pasture-raised lamb roast with cauliflower-potato puree, wilted red vein spinach and brandied crimini mushroom glace." i tried the puree, and it didn't really taste of cauliflower (and i mean that in a good way). it ended with a very very rich and chocolatey dessert, "chocolate-whiskey raisin gateau with blackberry coulis, vanilla custard, passion fruit curd and white chocolate." the passion fruit curd was the star of that for both of us, i think.
when they move to the st. paul farmer's market i'm sure the same quality of food and service will still be there, but it sounds like it'll be a less intimate place in scale, which i'm thinking i'll miss. but it'll be good to be able to buy some of the stuff they do here (hey, maybe the mousses, or the gouda bread.... yum) and it'll be a good option for parties or private dinners, they'll be able to set up a distribution network from their web of suppliers to bring more local quality goods to others, and maybe make more money for the owners. they deserve it.
20th- twin city grill, bloomington (d)
since i generally try to avoid the maul omerica as a general rule, i've never had anything but pie here, and free pie at that, and that was over 6 years ago. but pressed into making a reservation for father's day for a large group of people the late night before, and the place needed to be near the airport, i figured they'd like this better than italian.
alas, my brk kicked in, and it was twin city lack of grill- the grill was dead. they did call me, but i had already left to run errands before heading over. when we got there they did give us the choice of going to another 'lettuce entertain you' italian place that i had never heard of and is not listed on the web site or their mall directory (maybe it's tucci bennuch under another name?) and we had a person of limited mobility with us, we decided to stay and order off their limited menu, figuring at least there'd be good service.
meh. it was ok service, but not really the level you kind of expect in a dead restaurant that should be kind of thankful you didn't stiff them. the only semi-decent thing they did was offer to buy a few desserts for the table and pay for the dry cleaning of the two people they spilled pop on. brown pop. so there's that- i've not seen anyone offer to pay for dry cleaning for a beverage dumping (and i've had some dumped on me, not surprisingly). odd they just didn't comp the food. or they did, someone else paid the bill, i didn't see the check... though i do know that since we had 8 people, the tip was prewritten, so points off for that. oh, i didn't have to wait too long for water, i guess. there's that.
as for the food, i though the bread tasted like burnt onion soup mix on white bread that had no distinguishing flavor with butter that maybe sat out a bit too long. my toasted mac and cheese, where i swapped chicken for bacon in it (around $11-12, or way too much to pay for this particular version) had a decent crunchy topping, but was all mac and very little, yet way to grainy, cheese, plus a few dry chicken bit and a few sad tomato bits that had no real reason to be there.
i ate the top, brought the rest home, and after adding cheese, butter and salt, it was maybe average-ish. it's supposed to be a standout dish. it required no grill. there had to have been a relatively unhurried kitchen. if they muffed that under these circumstances, i have no hope for the rest of the stuff here.
23rd- la belle vie (c) and cosmos (a), minneapolis
there's a reason that i've not been here in what, four and a half years? except for the first time here, i've been kind of nonplussed with the nonstillwater version of this place, mostly as i always though they could do better for what they're supposed to be and what they were charging. and it turns out after all this time not much has changed for me. probably why i don't go here more often, logically.
from the bar menu, i quite wanted to try the crepe with "jambon royal, brie de meaux and slow-cooked egg yolk" ($10) apparently there was no way to de-ham it (so either it was in the batter already or they just didn't want to ask... either way seems odd to me). instead we started with the grilled bread with foie gras and bitter orange marmalade ($11), some version of which was on the menu in 2005 when i was last at the bar. we did get a lot of foie for the price, but i would prefered my toast to be... toasted more than kind of streaked brown. and also not cold when served. (these details are perhaps due to the lack of chef de cuisine, but again, at a top drawer place to have some sort of system where the person who stepped up would catch this sort of thing).
the french fries (also a bit cold when served, and i thought undersalted, but the person i ate with found salty enough- a common occurance) came with an excellent curry béarnaise and a spicy ketchup which i believe they said was house made ($7). i've had better, i've had worse, i'd put the fries themselves as average. i wonder how that curry bernaise would work with the house-made potato chips instead.
since i was craving very specifically a flatbread with mushrooms, cheese and truffle oil when i walked in, i was happy to see the grilled flatbread with porcini and treccione cheese ($12) on the menu. but i was thinking crisp crust flatbread, this was more like a grilled pita, plus the cheese was a bit strong and overwhelmed the mushrooms. i was hoping for a more delicate, earthy thing. this was again ok, but could've used a tiny drizzle of honey or a handful of herbs thrown on top to maybe to balance the dish more.
i half wonder if some of the food quirks were because the chef de cuisine was out doing an event... anyway, my favorite thing herewas the girly wine i got... like moscato d'asti only sweeter, a bigaro moscato brachetto frizzante rose, i believe, for $8 per glass.
service was ok. we were a bit hidden in the back room, as it's easier to chat back there, but then we ended up being a tad 'out of sight out of mind.' come to think of it, maybe the trek was why we had some lukewarm food. maybe they should use a dome or something there.
later on we went restaurant hopping for dessert. we were going to hit alma, but there was an hour wait at 8:30 pm on a random wednesday. good for them. so we ended up at cosmos, where we had a bottle of an ice wine from king estate in oregon (i think it was a pinot gris) for $24 which was more subtle in its sweetness than the bigaro.
it went quite well with the cheese plate with sconnie cheddar with spiced nuts, machengo with blueberries, and especially the blue cheese plus some very thick balsamic on the plate and wheat and white breads ($10 i think). (fyi, the cheese plate at la belle vie was $15, not sure what it had on it).
we also got the opera cake with burnt caramel bits and ice cream (forgot the flavor) too ($11 is my guess on that). it was beautifully plated but a bit overall chocolately for my taste (reminder- i like my desserts savory and my drinks hideously sweet). i did like picking up the caramel bits though. and when all three elements were eaten it did tone the chocolate down. and as always, service here was quite wonderful.
25th- captain jack's, prior lake (c-)
a happy hour for work, we split a bunch of apps during a rainstorm (the view was good, even inside before the rain). i tried four of them...the mozarella baked inside pizza dough and served with red sauce which they called 'bosco sticks' i think ($7.99 for 5 or 6) were nice and warm but kind of boring in flavor, they needed salt, even with the red sauce.
the chicken sate with peanut sauce ($6.99 maybe for four sticks) was probably healthy compared to the rest of the lot, but you don't get a lot of chicken and it was bland. the pulled chicken nachos ($12.99 for a bigass plate that would serve 4-6 people) were strangley uncheesy.
the best thing i ate all night was the wonton wrapped cream cheese sticks ($7.99 for 4)- sticks versus the pouches you usually get. the sauce with them was spicy, sweet and sticky. i also had a watered down pink lemonade ($2.75 during the happy hour- there were no food specials today during happy hour).
service was kind of half-assed, and they seemed to pressure us to leave just when the rainstorm was at it's most dangerous. odd, that. it's not like there were people queing up to get in.
another tasting menu here, this time $29 each person and you had to get at least two. this time i had $50 off $100 from restaurant.com, so we went bigger... which i should've done the first time, as both mckee and samuelson were out this go around. the food was generally fine, but lacked the finesse that either of those two would've provided (see also: la belle vie).
after getting a bottle of cristalino brut rose cava ($19 menu price) which i wish was sweeter (not surprisingly) but went with the food well, we started with one of the most balanced dishes of the evening was white asparagus (grilled, i think) in romesco sauce and a bit of lamb's lettuce. it had a bit of cheese on it too, that was unexpected. not unwelcome though.
so the cherry tomato confit stuffed with tuna and capers looked nice and was tasty, but also seemed kind of like a trip appetizer at home- tuna stuffed tomatoes. the poached farm egg with salt cod (ok, why call it 'bacalao' on the menu instead of salt cod? almost everyone has to ask) and black olive needed less olive and more toast.
steamed manila clams with tomato and sea urchin was on the menu, i asked for an allergy replacement and got instead... fried cauliflower. tasty, but not the same thing at all. and didn't seem a fair replacement. same sort of thing happened last time where shrimp was replaced by peppers stuffed with cheese. but the cauliflower seemed almost healthy for what it was (fried) and we both tolerated it, even the person who didn't like cauliflower (not me).
the grilled eggplant was more problematic- it was overpowered with san simon cheese on top, which also took out most of the tomato and garlic and some of the eggplant. and it would've been easier to eat if the eggplant had been peeled.
and once more with the foie gras this week.... this time poached with sherry vinegar and quince in the form of membrillo. nice but the toast need more toasting too. coincidence? i think not. i got all of this and an extra order of the grilled quail with honey-harissa glaze and saffron rice salad ($9.50). the quail, which was a masterpiece of sweet and spicy subtlely in the mckee/samuelson visit, was just spicy now and rather one-note.
my dining companion ate and quite enjoyed the grilled beef shortribs with saffron, lemon and cilantro (i ate some of the couscous with it) and the lamb albondigas with fava beans and sherry cream (i had some of the beans). the meat may have been tasty, but both the beans and couscous needed seasoning. which probably came with the meat.
for dessert, the other person went with the trio of ice creams ($6) with a standout lemon, and interesting thai basil (it'd make a good alcoholic mojoto ice cream drink for sure), and i think something like a creme brulee only different. they were nice and light for summer.
i once more went for the spanish cheese selection off the tapas menu ($8.50) with the mix of candied nuts with honey. once more a blue and a mahon, this time with a san simeon and not sure if it was the iberico and a garroxta. still good, but this time served breadless. of course when i asked for some, i managed to get 60% off the bread on the floor and no one checked in during dessert time, so...
kind of like some other solera trips, service started out strong and went pear-shaped. the server forgot to send in one other thing we ordered, for instance, and the later we went on the less we saw of them... disappointing.
not as disappointing as the restrooms, which were completely and unacceptably gross. .. how many of you go by the theory that the restrooms and the kitchen may be similar in cleanliness? anyway, i mentioned it to a staff member (and also sent in an email shortly after, have not heard back in a few days) because everyone who walked in there was ooked out. if i hadn't eaten before i went in, they were enough to put me off dinner.
so seriously... massive points off for that. the food was maybe ok to a bit above ok, ditto the service, but if i had walked in before i ate, i wouldn't have eaten there.and i'd think twice before i return, but for sure won't go near there during any sort of event that may draw large crowds).
30th- lone spur, minnetonka (b)
a solid dinner, part courtesy of restaurant.com again ($10 off $20). we got there early to take advantage of the happy hour specials (instead of the turkey drumsticks- and really it's not a good time to make soup with the leftovers). mom got 2 mini-brisket sliders ($2.99, not on the regular menu) plus the beef brisket dinner with slaw, fries, and texas toast ($11.95) and took the dinner brisket and half the fries home. she liked the beef, but the buns on the sliders were on the dry side. the fries have dramatically improved in that they were ok and not inedible.
i felt like dipping things in other things, so i got the cup of con queso and salsa with chips ($3.95, usually $5.45) and the chicken chili with wild rice, green and red peppers and onions bowl with chips ($3.79, usually $7.45). the queso was nicely hot and quite a decent sauce. the red chili was also hot and had next texture with the shredded chicken and rice (no beans) but wasn't as complex as some chilis can be.
the service was quite good, especially on the water, and the billing error (the happy hour prices in the computer were not the same as those posted at the table) were fixed quickly. they were even thoughtful enough to seat us in the part of the restaurant that didn't have children in it- they have a wall in it, which does keep out a lot of the noise from the kids. that's very smart.
© The bent sun as risen