date: 3/18/08
location: minneapolis
grade: c

hey, why not style this after their menu?

entice: the menu looks interesting, and changes a few times a month. the decor, in a good way, looks like an upscale ren fest (huzzah) restaurant (if they had such a thing) with the infamous gargoyles (everyone mentions them), tres goth decor, dark walls, low lighting, with some serious chairs in the bar area, and local art for sale on the walls. the patio area also looks like a good spot.

also, monday through thursday you can get a five course tasting menu for $35 and a flight of four wines for $12. enticing deals, no?

refresh: the food was very light. michael kutscheid, top notch maitre'd (good service is refreshing to us bad restaurant karma folks).

nourish: well, we had nourishment, we all got the five course tasting menu, five of the group got the wine pairings (allergy person here thought it would be a bad idea with the decongestants in the system) see below for details and comments on that. the bread 'service' had a pretzel bread and another selection, both of which could've used a bit more salt, plus tasty, verdant edamame hummus and some sweet and spicy almonds. a nice touch.

first course- diver sea scallop with meyer lemon and a balsamic paint, with sea salt, served with a fume blanc. a decent wine pairing, interesting flavors with the lemon, loved the pop-rock feeling to the salt. scallops were a bit overdone, though. well, scallop. we each got one.

second course- a coconut milk-based soup with chili oil and tofu, with a fruity renwood zinfandel. for something with chili oil, it didn't have a lot of heat. refreshing, actually, but underseasoned.

third course- a bit of underseasoned, overdone orange marlin with enoki mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts and a bit of light pesto. not very successful.
flying fish merlot was served between courses. it didn't go well with the third, if i remember correctly. odd they did it like this, though. you'd think they'd ask first when you'd like the wines, between courses randomly is odd

fourth course- steak (sirloin) tartare with an unusual smoked ratatouille, which was reportedly quite good (and will probably be on their regular menu soon). two of the table opted to get an argentinean cabernet with this course for their fourth wine. they were nice enough to make something different for me, salmon. what was odd about this (besides it being once more... say it with me... underseasoned) is that for all the sauces they have on their menu, they decided to leave it bare. it would've been fine had it been maybe ever been frozen, but it was just... more or less naked salmon. and it needed a sauce badly.

fifth course- a mixed plate with probably the best machego i've had in ages, rosemary flavored, and a slice of bread for it, plus maple chipotle glaze, which made for an intensely flavored experience. they did a dark-chocolate homemade truffle with it, very sinful. three folks got port with it.

indulge: me with other comments. (well, i didn't have anything for this section, the food was pretty light and indeed springlike and not so indulgent). i think most people left kind of disappointed. half of our table had been here before, and said it's slightly worse each time they go. four at the table would go with a b or b-, someone said c- (besides the underseasoning, they know a lot about seafood, and thought theirs was frozen and under par). my grade's above, since i had the disappointing salmon, it is what it is. and from what the menu and the server described (carribean and asian flavors), nothing was particularly spicy in any way, it lacked big flavor.

and speaking of service, it was odd the server was very attentive in spots (perhaps as they served the people who had been there before), but then did things like saying the bread service would be out right away, when it was about a 5 minutes wait for that. it was hard to catch their attention, too. but they knew the menu well, and had the right personality for the job.
the maitre'd helped a lot with the table, as did another person (the manager, maybe?) midway through the meal (the other person had on a bit too much scent for getting close to the table, though i am a bit more sensitive to it) to keep the water glasses full and the silverware changed.

weird, though... the plates they use are long rectangles, and when all six of us had plates at our round table, we had to turn them the long way to eat. as they had the main food in the middle, plus tiny piles of sauce or something on either side, it made for bad planning.

i've been disappointed in the places on or near washington ave between hennepin ave and the bit of 35 w formerly known as a bridge. i've not been enticed enough by any place there to want to try them again. not that i've gone to every last one, but harry's, cue, spoonriver, and now sanctuary have been underwhelming in recent memory. but yet on the other side of washington, toast, be'wiched, etc., all good. odd.