date: 10/21/03
location: st. paul
grade: a-
( a guest review)

128 cafe was delish! we rated it an a- and the best thus far, tied with solera. the place was packed, which was an excellent sight on a tuesday. the service was spot-on, friendly and informative, but not clingy or flirty. some would have liked flirty, but oh well! the food and wine were great. n hazelnut-encrusted goat cheese salad with balsamic-cherry vinegar was an excellent start, shared by everyone. the entrees were an excellent chicken breast - nice and moist - with caramelized asian pears, currants, walnuts, oregon blue cheese (the best kind) and decadent buttermilk mashed potatoes. the other sampled entree was a linguine with garnet yams, leeks, craisins, pistachios and curried mascarpone cheese. one of the diners enjoyed the pasta with tiger shrimp, which looked and tasted very nice. 128 cafe does an amazing job of combining sweet, salty, sour, etc in each of their dishes. not for everyone perhaps, but i enjoy it.

for dessert we had an excellent maple-walnut bread pudding (better than n'awlins, said an expert) and a creme brulee. the bread pudding had an exotic smell to it - we thought maybe curry? or cardamom? wrong. the answer was PISTACHIO DUST. all we could say was "yum!" the espresso-amaretto creme brulee was so good, we each ordered our own after sharing one and cleaned the kitchen out of brulee. SCANDALOUS!! i'd say a quality evening can be measured by eating all of the dessert the kitchen can offer.

the only downsides were some confusion as to who exactly our server was - the water guy? the order taker? the food putter-downer? hmmm... they were all friendly, but confusing nonetheless when something was needed. despite that, each request was met speedily and with a smile. also, parking around the area is tres difficile due to increasing permit parking from st. thomas and area residents. valet parking is an excellent option at $2, however.