date: 2/7/06
location: minneapolis
grade:b-

the web site is all in flash. you're required to submit a credit card on their web site for a reservation. and when you call to make a reservation and it says they are open at 10 am for that, and you get transfered to neverland even though it's after 10 am. also, the web site mentions that if you have a party of seven or more, you get hit with an 18% gratuity (never our favorite thing)... well, it's not an auspicious beginning.

you get there and your choice is valet parking or a hike through dark streets at this time of year. it's down the block from the pretty much ever-packed bryant lake bowl. when you've had as bad luck with valets as we collectively had, you usually risk the walk. the lounge is nice-looking but on the bad size of freezing. you're led up a lot of steps to the second floor.

now, the person who made the reservation was told that it was good we wanted the bistro and they implied the restaurant part was full. it looked more like they were not booking for that space- we saw no one in there all evening. the bistro itself seemed half to maybe three-quarters full at any given time, so it was odd they only could get us in at a quarter past an earlier hour.

the whole place seems confused. for instance, on the beet variation #6... tartar of beets with goat cheese and shoestring potatoes, said the menu, but it had more than that. the bit with goat cheese was sublime, the potatoes nice and crunchy but the anonymous rest was just ok. the chicken liver i had with cripsy shallots (think tiny onion rings) was quite good, too, but the texture was grainy and chunky in a dish that would've gone down better smooth. most people liked the (overpriced) fondue soup with pureed cauliflower, gruyere and green apple, but it was too cauliflower tasting for me.

i went with the poutine for the next course. fried pont neuf potatoes under fontina cheese with onion truffled glazed chicken. it was good, but it was so not $9 worth of good. potatoes have to be more tons more impressive to rate that cash. i had thought the dish would be more like a tartiflette for some reason, but it was more like giant french fries. not that there's anything wrong with that.

a lot of the menu seemed priced out of line with what you got and seemed a bit oddly limited- one kind of salad, one kind of soup. etc. the pasta with wild mushroom ragout was nice (and meaty tasting, though vegetarian), but not $18 worth of nice. the pork tenderloin was really good (reportedly), but the spatzele it came with was lackluster and at $24 seemed spendy. rack of lamb was also decent (didn't try that either), i think that was $28. the scallops were above average. don't ask about the salmon, though, that was highly disappointing and fishy smelling and tasting in a bd way. if i recall correctly, the scallops were about the same price as the lamb, the salmon maybe about the same as the pork.

the wine list also seemed overpriced, with not a lot of affordable offerings, especially by the glass. the only one under $8 was the house wine. the dessert menu looked intreguing, but no one was really into it, possibly because we consumed mass quantities of bread (rustica bakery again, we think, with some roasted garlic it in maybe). i will say it odd that the cheese plate had one cheese only. for $12. we were wondering if they served the whole piece of it. we did get some complimentary beignets with our check, that was nice of them.

our server was doing quite well until the end, when it took maybe 20 minutes after we started waving our credit cards in the air like we just don't care until the lot was returned. the decor seemed darker than expected, someone remarked it felt chicago-like (the city, not the flick). the restrooms were most impressive with perhaps the coolest sinks i've seen outside of a showroom or catalog. (plumbing, it's what's for dinner?) but when you go to a restaurant and the sinks are the thing that leave you impressed... well...

i think we were left with the impression that five right now is kind of either an unfulfilled promise or something that hasn't found its way yet. it's not sure what it is, so we aren't either. but we know they can do better.