We got served

The Lyndale Tap House

2009-11-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

Visited on Thursday, October 29th with Kate and Kyle

[I (Erin) didn't have my camera, so all photos in this post are taken by Kate of Red Apple Images - thanks Kate! No pics of the interior or exterior though, so if you want to see those, check out the Heavy Table review for more great photos]

Erin's Review
I read a few blogs/newsletters that list which restaurants are opening each week, and add places to our list accordingly. I'd added Lyndale Tap House whenever I saw that it opened, so I was interested to read Heavy Table's review of the place. While it was pretty negative, I didn't want to rule it out based on that one review alone. Kate and I quickly decided we'd go to see for ourselves if it really was that bad.

Ben and I got there a bit early, at 5:45, and were seated at a huge booth. There are a few booths in the place, and also some high top tables in the bar area with chairs that have no backs. I hate those type of chairs, so it was a good thing we weren't seated at one of those tables :) Since the main complaint of the Heavy Table review was about the ambiance and clientele of this bar, we were on high alert, but the place was pretty much empty and very sedate when we got there so there wasn't anything for us to be annoyed about, no matter how hard we tried to find it :)

I was so hungry I couldn't even wait for Kyle and Kate to get there before ordering the pretzels. In fact, they were lucky we even saved 2 for them :) (the main reason we saved any was just to get a photo) Those pretzels were delicious and I would personally be satisfied just going to this place right after work for a few rounds of pretzels and some beer (if I could drink beer, that is). I think most people know I'm 100% satisfied with Miller Lite, so I had no qualms about the beer list at all - it actually seemed to me that they had a pretty nice list that will certainly please most people who will frequent this bar, even if they didn't have many local options.

I vaguely recalled that Heavy Table said the Tap House Burger was pretty good, so I went with that. I asked if they had American cheese as I prefer that on my burgers, but alas, no. Just cheddar. I guess this MUST be a high class establishment ;) The rest of the table got Pit sandwiches, and I think I was probably the most satisfied with my meal of everyone. The pit sandwiches had an absurd amount of meat on them, especially Kate's pit beef. She also noted that her sandwich wasn't really quite hot, and vaguely tasted of cumin which she doesn't like. Everyone did love the fries, especially with the cheddar ale sauce.

Kate's Pit Beef

I can never resist dessert anymore, so I ordered the whoopie pie with warm chocolate sauce. As the cheapest item on the dessert menu, I expected it to be small, but no - this thing was ENORMOUS - far too big for us to finish. It was pretty good, but I thought it could have used more filling, and really did not need to be that big. It certainly satisfied my chocolate craving, but I probably wouldn't order it again.

One thing to note is that the SECOND Kate took out her camera, the manager came over and asked if we were with a media outlet, and kind of played it off saying she wanted to make sure she wasn't missing an appointment. We just said that the photos were for our blog and that seemed to satisfy her. After that, someone was at our table probably every 4 minutes, asking if we wanted more beer, anything else, filling water, etc. It was a little much but I guess they are just trying to be careful. Especially asking about more beer got old - it seems like this might be the type of place where people just pound beers one after another, but that wasn't really what we were going for at 6:30pm on a Thursday night, which seemed obvious to me.

We really would have no reason to go back to Lyndale Tap House because - 1. it's in uptown and thus is a pain in the butt to get to from our house, and 2. it isn't as good as other bars much closer to our house (Muddy Pig, Happy Gnome, BDP). However, that being said, I would have no problem going back if a friend was having a gathering there, and if I lived in the neighborhood I'd certainly go there for happy hour often.

Ben's Review
For some reason Heavy Table's poor review of Lyndale Tap House convinced Erin and Kate to try this place out last week. I had low expectations after reading the review, but I figured the least I could do was go and be satisfied that my assumptions were correct.

We got to the restaurant after a long rush hour drive from downtown Minneapolis to the Flat Earth brewery (W. 7th & Snelling in St. Paul) to get a growler and then from there to uptown. Not so much fun on a rainy day.

Miraculously, I found a parking spot on Lyndale about one block away and the meters there are only enforced till 6pm so I only had to throw in one quarter. This was all a pleasant surprise to me as I had expected a nasty parking situation.

I easily found Erin when I got inside as the place wasn't busy at all, which was a definite plus in my book. She was sitting along the back wall by the cook's counter in one of those half circle booths, which I love. Our server came over to get my drink order while we waited for Kate and Kyle to arrive and after trying to get a Summit Oktoberfest (it had switched to winter ale already, wtf? I hate that) I settled on a Bell's Two Hearted. I also learned that it was happy hour till 7pm, which meant half price taps and appetizers. Upon hearing that we also ordered some of the pretzels, which were one of the few things recommended in the Heavy Table review.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty good about this place. Half price taps and appetizers is a fantastic happy hour deal and the fact that it runs till 7pm is awesome, as you can basically get happy hour deals all through dinner on a weeknight. The tap selection, while not featuring many local beers, is still a great list of beers with a variety of styles so everyone can find something they like. The pretzels didn't disappoint and the cheddar ale sauce and the honey mustard that comes with them are both delicious, we even got more of the cheddar ale sauce for our fries with our meals.

I've been craving pork lately so I jumped on the pit pork sandwich with fries. Kyle order of the pit Cuban tempted me for a moment (especially since I had seen the Cuban at the Muddy Pig earlier in the week and that looked fantastic), but I stuck with my guns on the pork. The sandwich came loaded with meat as I had read about previously and it was 'OK', not awesome but certainly not bad. It made me crave a pulled pork sandwich even more :) The fries were really good and they were clearly freshly made, which I believe can make or break a meal, and were even better in the cheddar ale sauce. With our meal I got another beer, this time the Two Brother's Cane & Ebel.

Kyle's Pit Cuban

As we were getting up to leave I realized that it was nearly full in the restaurant now. I had been facing the kitchen the entire time so I didn't notice the trickle of people coming in. They have a nice long bar with several TV tuned into the World Series, it seemed like a good place to watch sports. I think if we had arrived at 7 instead of 5:45 I wouldn't have liked this place as much, but as it turns out I would come back here for happy hour or an early weeknight meal.

Service: Our server was nice, as was the manager, but they became a little overbearing after they discovered we were blogging about them.
Food: Good bar food, awesome pretzels (and only $2.50 at happy hour :)
Drinks: Great, diverse beer list and a full bar. Excellent happy hour.
Ambiance: At 6pm on a weeknight the ambiance was great for me, kind of low key as they get ready for the busy time of the night. I doubt I would ever come here on a weekend evening.
Price: Meal prices are reasonable for what you get. The beer taps are in the $5-$6 range, but are half off during happy hour.
Convenience: Even though I found a parking spot, I'm calling that an outlier. Normally going to uptown is a headache and I'll stand by that.

Deets
The Lyndale Tap House
2937 Lyndale Ave S.
Minneapolis

112 Eatery

2009-10-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

Visited on Sunday, October 25th

Ben's Review
After realizing that we hadn't been out to a place on the list for a month we decided to head out on Sunday night to 112 Eatery.

Being a Sunday night with no sporting events happening the parking situation was great in the warehouse district, with no meters enforced. I dropped Erin off at the door and found a spot and met her. We were initially confused by the door to the restaurant, as it's not labeled and there is a small sign "Please ring for deliveries" posted on it. It also appeared to enter into the main seating area of the restaurant. The handle was unlocked, so we walked in and wandered around the "cozy" restaurant trying to find the host so we could claim our reservation. We eventually found her and she was a little rude about the whole situation and then sent us on our way to the second floor for our table. To get to the second floor you have to go back out the door we came in, walk down a hallway, and take a rickety elevator. I was initially worried that we were being sent to the overflow area that would not have as good of service or decor, but I was pleasantly surprised that the second floor matches the first floor in every regard, even with its own full bar.

The second floor isn't nearly as cramped as the first floor and we found the hostess right away and she brought us to our table. We got seated right next the server's station, weakly hidden by a wine rack on a counter top. This was a little frustrating as we were walked past a perfectly set table for two, but for some reason we got the worse spot. By this point we were a little pissed at the whole experience from the confusing entrance, lack of any direction once you get inside, snotty hostess, and then being placed at an inferior table after being moved to the second floor.

Our server came over soon after we sat down to get us started, his name escapes me right now (pretty sure it was Marcus), but he turned out to be a fantastic server. I was taking my sweet time trying to decide what to order and he gave us plenty of time to think and helped us out with some questions. I eventually settled on the roast halibut with avocado and mango with the sausage and calamari risotto coming in a close second. We also ordered a side dish of salsify in a walnut pesto to share, and I got a glass of red wine (I felt bad cause Erin can't have any, but clearly not bad enough to not order it :).

The food took about twenty minutes to arrive, which was perfect as we weren't terribly hungry when we got there. A different server brought my halibut and the side order of salsify and then said that Erin's pasta would arrive in a couple minutes and could she "get her anything in the meantime." Boy, that does not inspire confidence that the food is coming soon, if they offer you something in the meantime! So we sat there and waited and chatted more and kind of picked at the salsify (which was delicious) and some pieces of avocado off my halibut. Minutes go by and our server stopped by and was surprised to see that Erin's dish still hadn't arrived so he went to check on it. I'm getting really angry by now as our food is getting cold while we wait for Erin's entree. Thankfully, our server stopped back in a minute and said it was coming shortly but that he was taking it off of our tab as "it had already been too long." What a great example of awesome customer service. He didn't apologize profusely, he simply stopped by, gave us the update (which was accurate, the food showed up a few minutes later), informed us he wouldn't charge us for it and was gone. Perfect.

With Erin's pasta finally arriving we could start to enjoy our meal. My halibut was really good and it was absolutely covered in avocado and mango. The salsify was also excellent and the walnut pesto was interesting, I'm a big fan of pesto but we usually use basil or arugula.

We had previously decided on having dessert, so that was a quick choice of the tres leches cake. This cake gets served in a bowl of sweet milk and it is seriously the best dessert I've had in recent memory. Unfortunately, Erin was full after her meal, leaving most of the cake for me to eat, which made me walk out nearly clutching my side, but it was worth it :)

In spite of the poor start to dinner 112 Eatery was redeemed by the excellent service we got from our server in general, and specifically his handling of Erin's late food arrival. The food itself was also excellent and reasonably priced for the high quality.

Service: Awesome service from our server, I didn't like the way the hostess treated us.
Food: Everything was great: the halibut, Erin's pasta, the salsify, dessert, and the bread. :)
Drinks: Full bar on both floors with a varied wine list with a good range of prices.
Ambiance: 112 Eatery is in a richly decorated, narrow space which gives it a weird mesh of classy and cramped. I did like the booths downstairs a lot and if we go back I'm going to request one.
Price: Good prices for the quality you get. Entrees in the $10-$25 range (Erin's pasta was $8 for the half order) and glasses of wine from $5-$9.
Convenience: There are some parking ramps nearby and the bus gets you pretty close as well. Easy street parking on a Sunday night.

Erin's Review
As Ben mentioned, it has been a whole MONTH since we went out to eat for the blog! Never fear, we were still dining out, just not at new places, plus we just took a trip to Portland that included many awesome food and beverage establishments. After reviewing the list, I chose 112 Eatery, since I always hear it is one of the best places in Minneapolis but we haven't ever been there.

When you hear over and over again how awesome a place is, you tend to build it up in your mind. I had pretty high expectations of 112 Eatery, and thought it would be somewhat similar to La Belle Vie in terms of food and service. We had a wonderful experience there, so I was hoping for a great time at 112 Eatery as well.

When Ben dropped me off, I went in what I assumed was the door but didn't see an obvious entrance to the restaurant. I saw people going back to the elevator, but I honestly thought there were condos on the higher floors and they were there for a party or something, so I went back outside. No other door seemed right so I just waited for Ben.

I was already a little annoyed by the time we actually got into the restaurant, so when we didn't see any indication of a host stand or anyone to actually tell us where to go, I got good and pissed. I will admit that I have a much shorter fuse lately, so under normal circumstances, I probably would have been fine. Seriously - they really should make it easier for people to figure out what door to use and then where to go to check in for a reservation. Confusing people right off the bat is never a good idea. I was kind of a snot to the hostess (I said something about how we weren't sure where to go, but my tone was not so nice) so that could have been why she was snotty back... who knows. Whatever. I was annoyed and if the upstairs had looked anything like the upstairs at moto-i (aka, no decor, clear overflow seating), we would have been out of there.

As it was, we got the worst table up there - it was annoying to be further taunted by the wine rack right by our heads that I couldn't enjoy, but more than that, I didn't like hearing the servers chatting to each other and sounding annoyed about something or other most of the time - it really ruins the ambiance of a nice dinner. I know they have to give this table to someone, but it was frustrating to see another empty 2 top further into the room that for some reason was given to a party that arrived after us.

I wasn't even that hungry, so I had a hard time choosing what to eat. I originally wanted the foie gras meatballs and pasta but after a quick google search on the iPhone, I found that was somewhat questionable during pregnancy. After asking a few clarifying questions of our very helpful server, I went with the stringozzi with lamb sugo, which is basically thicker spaghetti with a meat sauce. Ben wanted to split a side, so I suggested the salsify since we had enjoyed that in many of our courses at La Belle Vie.

We got bread soon after ordering, and Ben enjoyed his wine (it was here that I decided we will not be going to any more restaurants like this until after this baby is born - 100 days (approximately of course) to go!). We chatted for awhile, and then Ben's entree and our side of salsify came out. I too was confused about the other server's offer of "something in the meantime" but I just said no and assumed it would be just a minute - after all, it was just pasta - not exactly some elaborate dish here. It wasn't that I was hungry, it was mostly that Ben won't eat until we both have our food that made the wait frustrating. With a table of 2, it does seem ridiculous that the entrees can't come out at the same time, so it was great that the server comped my dish for being late - that was wonderful service and at least let us know that it would be awhile longer.

At that point, Ben and I just started both eating his meal and the salsify, both of which were superb. I really enjoyed the combination of mango and avocado with the halibut, and the salsify was delicious with lots of crispiness and a flavorful pesto sauce. My pasta finally came out, probably about 10-15 minutes after Ben's meal first arrived, with a heartfelt apology from our server. It was piping hot and delicious - the noodles were thick and chewy (but not overly so) and there was the perfect amount of sauce. Even the half order was way too much for me, especially since I knew I wanted dessert.

Based on Kate's recommendation, I ordered the tres leches cake for dessert, along with a decaf latte. Both came out quickly, and the latte was HUGE. This cake was absolutely magnificent. It was the perfect way to end the meal even if it did leave both of us uncomfortably full.

While we did have kind of a mixed experience here, the most important thing to me was that the food and service (minus the one hostess) was wonderful. It is a great value for one of the best restaurants in Minneapolis - even more so when one person isn't drinking :)

Deets
112 Eatery
112 North 3rd St
Minneapolis

Where have we eaten?

2009-10-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

I put together this Google map of the places we've eaten, it's kind of fun to see where we've been on a map. Move the map a little south to see Ronin or follow I-35 WAY north to Cloquet to find Gordy's Hi-Hat :)

I'm going to keep updating this map as we go to new places, so bookmark this page if you want to watch for new places in your neighborhood.

Ronin Sushi Cafe

2009-10-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Visited on Thursday, September 24th

Erin's Review
Our 4th wedding anniversary was on September 24th, and neither of us had any real ideas for what we could do. The only thing we knew we had to do was go and pick up my parents' dog Maggie in Apple Valley to watch her that weekend. Ben had been wanting to go to Ronin for the reasons he talks about below, so I gave in - I had been having major cravings for sushi and he's always wanting Thai, so it seemed like a good compromise.

When we got there, it was just us and a few families - not full at all. I think there was only one actual server working, so she was still kept pretty busy. We were seated quickly, but it took awhile to get drinks and water and to actually place our order, but the wait wasn't anything to get upset about.

The menu was pretty funny, as it had pictures of everything that for some reason looked comical to me. There were also some recommended items, such as a side of rice... lovely :) I knew I wanted sushi, and obviously my options are limited due to pregnancy. I know you CAN have raw fish from a trusted place, but I figured I'd stick with veggie/cooked rolls to be on the safe side. I ordered the veggie roll with cream cheese and spicy mayo on the side (plain veggie rolls just don't do it for me) and the dragon roll, which had ell and shrimp. As a last minute add, I threw in a bowl of miso soup since it was FREEZING in there. Good thing I had grabbed a jacket before leaving the house!

My soup came out quickly, and it was tasty despite being not very hot. I was starving so I ate it without complaint. My veggie roll came out quickly and was quite good, but would have been pretty blah without the cream cheese. The dragon roll came out a bit later and really hit the spot - it was delicious! It was also much larger than I anticipated, so Ben helped me out with it after he couldn't handle his pad thai.

I was pleasantly surprised with Ronin - it had a nice ambiance and the food was delicious. If you are in the Lakeville/Apple Valley area, check it out.

Ben's Review
After hearing the crazy story that the owner of Ronin has been through lately we decided to go there for our anniversary dinner, since we were heading to Apple Valley that night to pick up Maggie for the weekend. Ronin also came highly recommended from Bill Roehl as having the best Thai food in the south suburbs.

Ronin is located in the same strip mall as Carbone's Pizza, which opened when I was in high school at Lakeville and has some damn good pizza, as I recall. Ronin occupies a small corner of the mall on the north side, next to 160th St.

It wasn't busy when we arrived around 7pm or so on a Thursday night, there were about three tables occupied and some people squeezed into the sushi bar at the back. We were seated right away by the hostess and browsed the menu for awhile while we waited for our server.

The menu at Ronin is nice as it has pictures of nearly every menu item, very helpful when you don't necessarily know what everything means. They have a good mix of Thai food and sushi which makes it a good compromise for when not everyone wants Thai food (Erin). Falling back on the old saying "when you're at a burger place - get a burger", I ordered the Pad Thai with chicken, at the level four spiciness (out of five). The past few times I've ordered Thai food I've gone with three or four and never been too impressed with the heat of the food. Bill assured me they make food spicy at Ronin and the server also added that the particular chef that night liked to make things hot. I felt ready, and was getting excited for a big plate of Pad Thai in my belly, to complement the Fat Tire I'd also ordered.

Our food came quickly enough, maybe fifteen minutes or so, and we dug in - me with my Pad Thai and Erin with her pregnancy-approved sushi dishes. The Pad Thai started out great, the spice level was hot and the flavor was fantastic, everything I wanted in a Pad Thai. I got about a quarter of the way into the Pad Thai before the heat really started to build up and I quickly realized I was out of my league. I couldn't seem to tame the heat in my mouth and I was torn because the Pad Thai tasted so good, but every bite made my mouth heat up again. Erin eventually had to pull the dish away and force me to save it for lunch the next day (though I snuck some more when she went to the bathroom).

I did end up saving the rest of the Pad Thai for lunch the next day, but the heat was mysteriously gone after microwaving it. I had no problem finishing it for lunch and my mouth didn't hurt at all, maybe I had burnt it too bad the night before, who knows? It was still great for lunch :)

I was tempted to buy a gift card to Ronin on our way out, but we just aren't in the area enough to convince me to get it, we already have an envelope of gift cards that don't get used and I didn't need to add to the pile. BUT, they have a great deal on gift cards right now, buy a $50 card and get a $10 card free, so I would encourage you to get down there and try out the food and pick up a gift card if you live nearby.

Service: Service was OK. It took awhile for our server to get around to us, but other than that no problems.
Food: Fantastic Pad Thai, though I'll go with the level three next time, and Erin's sushi was great.
Drinks: They have beer, wine, and (I love this) "liquor available four ways - w/soda, w/tonic, on the rocks, or straight up" that's my kind of bar!
Ambiance: It was cold when we were there, but the Pad Thai helped that :) Seems like a family friendly place as we saw several children while we were there.
Price: Prices were right on par, or maybe a little under, for the Pad Thai ($8 plus $3 for chicken) and the sushi was reasonably priced as well.
Convenience: Plenty of parking available, as we were in the suburbs, and being so close to Cedar Ronin is pretty easy to get to from many places.

Deets
Ronin Sushi Cafe
7704 160th Street
Lakeville, MN

Blackbird Cafe

2009-09-27T19:00:00.001-07:00

Visited on Saturday, September 12th with Janelle and Scott

Ben's Review
A couple weeks ago we went to brunch with our friends Janelle and Scott. I was not involved with setting up the event, so I'm not sure how the locale was selected, but we ended up at Blackbird Cafe, located right next to the Malt Shop on 50th St in Minneapolis. The presentation of the restaurant is very well done. Inside and out are decorated elegantly without being pretentious. Scott and Janelle were there when we arrived so we joined them at a table near the front window. Blackbird is a smaller place, but the tables go all the way back on the right side so that they can actually fit a decent number of people at once. There is also seating at the small counter on the left side.

I quickly ordered coffee as I hadn't had any yet that morning and checked out the menu. The Huevos Rancheros were speaking to me, especially after the good experience at Good Day Cafe, but I eventually settled on the breakfast burrito. The breakfast menu is not huge by any means, I see twelve items on the online menu for breakfast, but they seem to have all the bases covered. Our server also mentioned that there were no special items yet as they had just changed menus and wanted to get their new menu fleshed out before offering daily specials.

As an aside, we really didn't care for our server at all. She wasn't pleasant or polite and every question we had seemed to annoy her. She dropped a fork and I picked it up for her and she didn't say "thank you", which seems like an obvious thing to say. She wasn't mean, but little things like that definitely have an impact.

Our food came out and the burrito was a perfect portion. It wasn't a huge Chipotle sized burrito, but it left me full. My meal also came with a small side salad with vinaigrette dressing. The burrito itself was delicious especially with the side of salsa on top, inside was gallo pinto, scrambled eggs, cilantro, and guacamole which are all top notch ingredients in my book.

The coffee at Blackbird was pretty good and even though our server was a bit rude, she certainly kept the coffee cup full. They serve their cream fresh from little cups at the table, always a nice upgrade from the creamer packets at some places. With this message on their website "our menu items are prepared from scratch in our tiny kitchen, by actual humans" I wonder if the cream is handmade as well :)

I also noticed behind the counter that they have a single beer on tap, I can't recall now but I believe it was a Rush River beer, and the website says they rotate it regularly. They also have a good selection of wines and a shockingly extensive list of beers in bottles/cans. Here's the current list in the "Fancy beer" list:

Summit EPA + Summit Seasonal + Amstel Light + Stella Artois + Bell's Two Hearted + Guinness + Paulaner Hefe-Weizen + Paulaner Thomasbrau + Ace Pear Cider + Tilburg's Dutch Brown Ale + Left Hand Blackjack Porter + Furthermore "Knotstock" + Old Rasputin Imperial Russian Stout + North Coast's Red Seal Ale + Furthermore "Fattyboombalatty" + Eel River's organic California Blonde

And they even have an "Extra fancy beer" list:

Hitachino Nest Ale + Hitachino Ginger Beer + Hitachino XH + Hennepin Ommegang + Saison du Pont

Clearly whoever runs Blackbird Cafe is a beer lover. I don't know if I've ever seen a beer list at a cafe that comes close to the variety they have, its great. I would go back for a dinner meal so I could take advantage.

Service: Not so good. Our server was rude and didn't seem to want to be helpful at all.
Food: Excellent food and its all prepared from scratch.
Drinks: Good coffee and a fantastic selection of beers.
Ambiance: Blackbird has a great neighborhood cafe feel that makes you feel comfortable and welcome.
Price: Prices are average. Breakfast meals range from $7-$10, dinners are about $12-$20.
Convenience: We had no problem parking on 50th St, but this area might be hit or miss. Blackbird is close enough to 35W so that its not bad to get to.

Erin's Review
Janelle and I have been wanting to schedule a visit to Blackbird for a long time - it is one of her favorite restaurants, and she wanted to make a We Got Served visit with us :) Her and Scott also wanted to take us out to celebrate our upcoming parenthood, so we finally set it up!

Blackbird is super duper cute - I really liked the ambiance. It was great for a brunch, but I'd love to go back to see how the vibe changes in the evening. I enjoyed sitting by the window to view the passerby, but I think sitting in the back area would be better at night.

As Ben mentioned, they had a new menu that weekend, so there were no specials offered. I can never seem to finish a whole entree, so I chose to get one pancake and a fruit cup, which was the perfect amount of food for me. The pancake was very good, but not the best I've ever had (I still think that title may go to Parkview Cafe, RIP). The fruit cup was a cup of fruit, and was just dandy :)

I won't reiterate what a snot our server was, but that definitely put a sour note on the experience. I'd still go back because I'm sure that isn't indicative of all servers there, but still... it wasn't good.

Deets
Blackbird Cafe
815 W 50th St.
Minneapolis

Good Day Cafe

2009-09-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

Visited on Tuesday, September 8th

Erin's Review
We needed a place relatively close to downtown to go to brunch after my ultrasound appointment a few weeks ago, and Good Day Cafe fit the bill. You can see this restaurant off of 394, in the same building as the Metropolitan Ballroom. When we got in, it was surprisingly large, and busy, given that it was a weekday mid-morning. I was a little disappointed that all the blinds were down, giving the room kind of a dark feel. It was a beautiful day outside, and by that time, the sun was high enough that it wouldn't have been blinding anyone to open the shades and give everyone a beautiful view of 394.

The big excitement of this meal was opening the envelope we had just been given at our ultrasound which contained the sex of our baby - so we got right to that immediately after being seated, and found out that "It's a girl!" (props to the ultrasound tech for having such cute cards on hand).

After that, brunch was an afterthought, although I was starving. Good Day Cafe has some good looking benedicts on the menu, but I'm a bit wary of raw eggs now that I'm pregnant. Sometimes I'll ask if the eggs are pasteurized, but I wasn't feeling like being that person today, thus I stuck with eggs over hard, potatoes and sausage.

I enjoyed my meal - the potatoes were crispy, and the sausage and eggs were fine. Obviously, it wasn't anything special, but it filled me up. My favorite part of the meal was actually the toast and jam - delicious! My orange juice was good, but NOT worth the $5.50 price tag. Had I read that before ordering, there is no way I would have gotten that.

The service was great - the waitress was very excited to take our picture with our "it's a girl" card, and was attentive throughout the meal. Good Day Cafe is a solid breakfast choice if you're out in the Golden Valley area.

Ben's Review
After we had our 20 week ultrasound, we went to Good Day Cafe for a late brunch to open the envelope that told us we were going to have a baby girl in February. Back when we first found out Erin was pregnant I didn't want to know the gender before the baby was born. As the ultrasound day approached I found that I was pretty excited to find out, so it all worked out for the best :)

Good Day Cafe is a large restaurant, but it was surprisingly busy on a Tuesday morning at 10:30. The soft colors and high ceilings of the restaurant give it a very laid back feel, and the employees treat you like people, rather than customers, everyone was very friendly.

After the excitement of opening the envelope, we browsed the menu a bit. They have the usual breakfast fare, but the huevos rancheros was calling out to me this day. I'm not even usually a fan, but this recipe sounded great. Chorizo sausage, salsa, salsa verde, sour cream, and two eggs however you like them. This was a delicious breakfast, and enormous, it filled me up till dinner.

We had narrowed down our choices of girl's names to two, we each had our favorites. As we finished up our food we discussed and figured out a name (guess who's name we used :). The one complaint about Good Day Cafe I had was that the coffee was not very good at all. I'm not a coffee connoisseur but even I could tell that the beans were burnt on this pot, though my cup was kept full the entire meal :)

A good breakfast, certainly one that we will remember for a long time.

Service: The service was great, everyone was friendly and our server was prompt, and even took a photo of us.
Food: Excellent heuvos rancheros, good selection of breakfast foods.
Drinks: Coffee was not good, and Erin's OJ was good, but it cost as much as a beer ($5.50).
Ambiance: As I mentioned, the building really makes you feel comfortable and the spacing between tables is ample.
Price: A little pricey, the OJ was a lot and the meals were around $10 apiece.
Convenience: There is a parking lot, but I gotta say that this area of Golden Valley is a pain in the ass for google maps. I had to call the restaurant to make sure we were going the right way. Not the restaurant's fault at all, but annoying.

Deets
Good Day Cafe
5410 Wayzata Ave
Golden Valley

Rooster's

2009-09-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Visited on Saturday, September 5th with Scott and Christie

Ben's Review
Scott had been trying to get us to go to Rooster's for awhile now, so we could enjoy his new picnic table in his backyard. We finally made it last Sunday on Labor Day weekend. Scott and Christie live close to Roosters, so we drove over there with beer in tow and walked over to Rooster's.

Rooster's is a tiny place, clearly intended for takeout but they do have a couple small tables. The menu on the website is not small, but in reality you only go to Roosters for a couple of their specialties - pulled pork sandwiches, bbq ribs, and fried chicken. After we ordered Scott and I played Space Invaders at one of those old-school video games that is set in the table.

I was starving by the time we got over there, so I went with the large pulled pork sandwich combo, which comes with coleslaw and fries. I was contemplating the Memphis style sandwich, that comes with coleslaw ON the sandwich, but I figured I could just put some of my coleslaw on top if I wanted (turns out I did). The large sandwich is completely overkill. It comes with an absurd amount of pork, I bet a quarter pound of pork fell out of my sandwich, and it still had tons of pork to spare. I ate the rest of the pork mixed with coleslaw and fries, which was a great way to clean my plate. The fries were pretty good, but they didn't retain their heat very well. The coleslaw was good, but nothing special.

(Oops, I forgot to actually take a pic of Ben's sandwich unwrapped. See below, and then add a bunch of meat)

We finished up our sandwiches outside at the picnic table and hung out for a bit before heading inside. We sampled several different beers as Scott and I had stocked up at 1st Grand Ave liquors the day before. We also admired Scott's in-progress kegerator for his homebrew. All in all a great Sunday night.

Service: Not much service at Rooster's, cause it's not needed. Order your food and move on. :)

Food: Excellent pulled pork with decent side dishes. Scott also has enjoyed the fried chicken in the past.

Drinks: Some canned sodas, not much else, Rooster's is a BYOB dinner.

Ambiance: The ambiance at Rooster's is whatever you make it. I'm guessing you are usually there by yourself as you wait for your food, so it can be whatever you want it to be :)

Price: The pulled pork combos range from $7-$9 for the combos, Erin's and my meal was an even $18. Not bad for a huge meal.
Convenience: Plenty of on-street parking on Randolph and surrounding streets, and I would guess it's not typically a long wait.

Erin's Review
Well, I don't have a ton to say about Rooster's.... we had a lovely walk there from Scott's house, they made our food fairly quickly, but not so quickly that it was apparent that it had been sitting out for awhile, so that was good. While we were waiting, a piece of French Silk Pie caught my eye, and I thought "it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine".

I got the small pork sandwich with mild sauce. It was very good. I'm not a huge pulled pork fan - it's good, but not something I crave or anything, so I'm probably not the best judge. I enjoyed the fries and didn't eat the coleslaw, so I can't really rate that. I ate a few onion rings that Scott had, and those were quite good as well.

The pie was the best part of the meal for me :) That and the mango drink that Scott provided me. Yum!

If you're into BBQ, stop on over for a solid meal.

Deets
Rooster's BBQ
979 Randolph Ave
St. Paul

King & I Thai

2009-09-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

Visited on Thursday, August 20th with Becca and Joe

Erin's Review
For about 2 months, I refused to go to any sort of ethnic restaurant because the thought turned my stomach. Finally, I was feeling up to something pretty mild and thought I could handle Thai food. Ben was ecstatic. We met up with Becca and Joe at King & I Thai at 7pm. They had gotten there early since they were bored at home, so they had a table. The space in King & I is pretty large, and kind of ugly. I really hate restaurants with minimal windows because you can't tell if it is day or night, and we were way in the back which didn't help.

I knew exactly what I wanted - an order of cream cheese rolls and some pad thai, so it wasn't even necessary for me to look at the menu. I did ask what the difference between the regular pad thai and the chef's pad thai is - apparently the chef's pad thai comes with several kinds of protein. I went with the regular.

The cream cheese rolls were a nice change from the normal wontons - I enjoyed them. The rolls allowed for even more cream cheese, which is always a good thing in my book. The waiter let us know that the portions at King & I are almost family style, and are meant to be shared. We kind of ignored that, since we all wanted different things.

My pad thai came out, and was comically large. I enjoyed it - it was not spicy at all, as I'd requested. Ben got to have as much as he wanted, and I still had enough to take home for lunch. I wouldn't say it's the best pad thai I've ever had, but it was definitely tasty.

There are SO many Thai places in the cities that I probably won't ever go back to King & I, but it's not a bad spot to hit up if you're in the area.

Ben's Review
We planned to go out for dinner with Becca and Joe a couple weeks ago and Becca suggested King & I Thai near downtown Minneapolis. We weren't meeting them until 7pm, so we went home from work and headed back downtown later on. Parking in Loring Park is kind of a pain in the ass, but I found a spot about two blocks away for free. It was a nice night so I really can't complain that much.

Finding the entrance to the restaurant was a bit of a challenge for me (I had dropped Erin off at the door cause that's the kind of guy I am), and I initially walked into the apartment building above the restaurant. You have to navigate the large patio area outside the restaurant to find the door. The patio looked like it could be pretty cool if they cleaned it up a bit, it didn't seem like it had been used in awhile, but there are several different levels and walkways to get around.

Once inside I found Becca, Joe, and Erin pretty easily as it wasn't very busy inside, even for a Thursday night. The fact that the dining area is kind of big doesn't help either, it looked sparse inside. The decor inside kind of matched the unused patio - could use some cleaning and updating.

I ordered a half gin, half vodka martini when our server came back around (he looked and sounded like Michael C. Hall), which is kind of turning into my standby drink order when I don't feel like having a beer. We chatted for a bit while we looked over the menu. I really wanted pad thai but I also wanted to try something different and I had been convinced to try Thai fried rice by my co-worker Scott. I went with the holy basil fried rice, which came at the hottest level of hot that they had, though when I asked if it was "melt your face hot" he said it wasn't that bad.

My fried rice had basil, garlic, and beef (chicken wasn't even an option, weird) and was pretty good. The heat from fried rice is different from noodle dishes because its a dry heat. I feel like noodle dishes with a sauce are hotter than this and I think I like them better, so from now on I will hitting up noodle dishes at Thai places (and I got pad thai at Amazing Thailand the next week, delicious).

Joe's Spicy Tom Kha Soup was pretty good, as was Erin's pad thai (with level 0 spiciness :). I don't think I tried Becca's salad but she seemed to enjoy it. I don't remember if Joe convinced me to have an after dinner drink, or if it was the other way around, but I got a whiskey old fashioned afterward that came in a huge rocks glass and was a great way to end the meal. Not much a dessert fan, but I will always take a drink to wash my meal down.

Service: Eh, it was ok. He forgot the spice rack we asked for, and we had to look for him several times during the meal.

Food: My fried rice was good, but I think I would have preferred a noodle dish. The pad thai I tried from Erin was definitely good.

Drinks: Full bar, not sure about happy hour. Their proximity to downtown makes me think they have specials at some point.

Ambiance: Not much on a slow Thursday night. They have a lounge area that seemed to be getting more traffic, might be a better option.

Price: Prices were on par with other Thai places, $12-$18 for a huge entree that will easily get you a second meal.

Convenience: Not too convenient with a car, navigating through downtown and finding some street parking. You could walk there for lunch if you work downtown on a nicer day.

Deets
King & I Thai
1346 LaSalle Ave
Minneapolis

First Course

2009-08-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Visited on Tuesday, August 18th with Erin T. and Nick

Ben's Review
Our friends Erin (ErinT) and Nick were visiting from New York so we planned on going out for dinner one night while they were back. Erin (my Erin) gave me a list of several restaurants to choose three from, and she sent those three on to ErinT. ErinT settled on First Course in south Minneapolis so we arranged to meet at 7pm on a Tuesday night.

First Course doesn't look like much from the outside. The sidewalk is very wide which gives them plenty of space for a patio. The restaurant is attached to the shops on either side of it, in a sort of neighborhood strip mall.

The inside, however, has a much different feel. They've decorated in a chic, urban way that almost would fit in better in uptown. One thing that I didn't even notice until later in the meal is that the north wall is mostly made of plywood, though it goes perfectly with the rest of the room, I thought it was a very clever way to make the place look cool on the cheap.

We were seated right away at a bistro table in the bar area. They also have regular tables around the restaurant as well. The one downside with our location is that we had the sun coming right in the windows into my face for the first twenty minutes or so. It took quite awhile for someone to actually greet us and bring us water, maybe 10 minutes? Once we got service the wait staff turned out to be knowledgeable and friendly.

ErinT and Nick ordered a bottle of an Argentinian wine that was really good (though I think Charles Shaw is also good, so take this with a grain of salt) while we chatted and enjoyed the warm bread. I wonder how long you could eat bread at a restaurant without actually ordering anything? There are several places I could do this and be completely satisfied, First Course is one of those places.

I decided on the cornmeal encrusted tilapia after much deliberation. They have several pastas that sounded great, but I had had pasta for dinner the past couple nights so I was hankering for something else. My tilapia came on a bed of mixed greens with other veggies and a lemon vinaigrette, the entire thing was fantastic, though if we go back I think I'd try Nick's butternut squash ravioli - holy crap that looked good!

(Squash Ravioli)

We ordered another bottle of wine and dessert to share, the warm German chocolate cake and the Tres Leches Cake from the menu. These desserts were both awesome, I'm a sucker for warm cake. We left full and I left a little tipsy, thankfully Erin is the designated driver for awhile!

Service: Not good at first, but once we got service they were great.

Food: Excellent tilapia, and the pastas are creative and delicious.

Drinks: Large wine list and a full bar, I saw no evidence of a happy hour, but I could be wrong here.

Ambiance: I felt like I was in an uptown restaurant without the loud music and annoying people, it was great :)

Price: We were there on half price wine night, so that was cool. The entrees range from $12-$25. The pastas are in the lower range, which makes them a great deal.

Convenience: First Course is located right near Todd Park with plenty of street parking (another benefit over uptown).

Erin's Review
As Ben mentioned, the process of choosing a restaurant for this evening was a little time consuming. When going through our list now, I now have to decide where I am willing to go and not have wine, and make sure there are enough entree choices with no forbidden foods on them. It's tougher than I thought!

When we got to First Course, I was a little put off by the outside appearance, it being in kind of a dingy strip mall. It was quite nice inside, however. I'm not sure I'd rave about it QUITE as much as Ben did, but it was certainly an upgrade from what I thought it would be from the outside. We were seated in the last 4 top available, the place was pretty full for a Tuesday night. It appeared there was only 1 or 2 servers working, and we waited quite awhile before even getting waters. This annoyed me a lot, but they redeemed themselves as the night went on. Finally we got our waters, and then after another long wait, got our bread. The bread was definitely fresh and warm which was a good thing after that wait.

I based my entree choice solely off the side dish offered. The gorgonzola and parmesan risotto was calling my name at that moment, so chicken roulade it was! It wasn't too long of wait to get our food, thankfully. I really enjoyed this meal - as expected, I liked the risotto more so than the chicken, but the whole thing was delicious. It was enough for 2 full meals for me, and was great for lunch the next day. Worth noting is the fact that they were very accomodating of Erin T requesting a meal with no dairy in it whatsoever - the server was very knowledgable of what could be replaced and showed no signs of being annoyed at her request.

As I watched Nick, Erin T and Ben drink their wine (1/2 priced bottles on Tuesdays!), I decided that I WOULD be having dessert, which was my primary reason for not eating more of my entree. It was tough to decide what to order, so I just went with 2 in hopes that someone would share with me - and they did :) I loved both the german chocolate and the tres leches cakes equally - the chocolate was warm and gooey and the tres leches cake was lighter and citrusy with lime zest - they complemented each other perfectly.

I loved First Course, and would definitely return there in the future! Cozy and warm ambiance and wonderful food.

Deets
First Course
5607 Chicago Avenue South
Minneapolis

Il Vesco Vino

2009-08-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

Visited on Sunday, August 1st

Erin's Review
I used to volunteer every Sunday night from 4-8, and to celebrate my first completely free Sunday, I wanted to go out to eat. Since pretty much the only thing I've been wanting lately is bland carbs, a fairly generic Italian place seemed like it would fit the bill. Il Vesco Vino was the chosen destination.

Since we were there on a weeknight, they had a $25 deal where you get a salad, entree and dessert which is exactly what I wanted. I got the bibb salad, which was delicious - fruit and blue cheese is my favorite type of salad, so I was set.

The stuffed shells is the real reason I chose this place for our dinner - what can I say, I just wanted some pasta and a lot of cheese :) I figured the spinach was just a nutritional bonus. They were pretty good, but not the best I've had. I could only finish about 1/3 of it, but that just meant I got to bring the leftovers for lunch which is my favorite part of going to places with huge portions :)

I chose the carrot cake for dessert, which was quite good. I loved the caramel drizzle especially. Of course, I was already full, but I still managed to eat most of it! Since I'm without alcohol for the next 5.5 months, I got myself a "fun drink" of a decaf latte to go with my dessert. Yipee.... :)

Not sure I would really rush back to Il Vesco Vino, but it was a fun night with good food.

Ben's Review
Last Sunday, Erin wanted to go out and she wanted to have Italian food, and for the time being, we eat what she wants to eat :) We looked over our list for a Italian places and came down to Al Vento and Il Vesco Vino. The menu at Al Vento looked a little smaller so we headed down West 7th by Xcel Energy Center to Il Vesco Vino.

When we walked in we found the host booth by the door, but no host. We poked around a bit and eventually someone came over to seat us ("Sorry, Cocktail is on TV!" was her excuse :) The place was COMPLETELY empty, there were more employees huddled around the TV than customers. Being a Sunday night in downtown Saint Paul I wasn't really expecting a big crowd, and we got great service, so I can't complain.

We were quickly served up some bread and olive oil (though no pepper at the table!) while we looked over the menus. On Sundays they have a deal for $25 that gets you an entree, a salad, and dessert which seemed like a pretty good deal. You can't have any entree; there is a select list of ones that are available with the special, but there are plenty to choose from. I went with the linguine bolognese for my entree, with a caprese salad (I'd actually been craving this for awhile, even though I dislike tomatoes), I also got a glass of wine.

The caprese salad was HUGE! I was expecting a single "stack" of tomato slice, mozzarella, and basil, but instead I got ~~five~~ four, it was absurd. Between the delicious bread (two baskets) and the ~~five~~ four pieces of cheese, I was full enough to call it a night, but I wasn't throwing in the towel just yet. The bolognese was excellent, it was another recommendation from Erin, as I was having trouble deciding what to order. I should have stopped eating sooner than I did so I could have had more leftovers for lunch, but it just tasted too good.

For my dessert I got the turtle semifreddo, which I thought was good, but not worth the $8 you would normally have to spend to get it. Overall, a great (and filling) meal.

Also, I want to mention that every Monday night during the summer, Il Vesco Vino teams up with Stogies on Grand to have a cigar and drink special on the patio. $15 gets you a cigar paired with a drink from the bar. I want to hit this up before August is over, we have to get our smoking done in the summer months in Minnesota!

Service: Great service, it helped that there was nobody else there :)

Food: My pasta was great, and I loved the humongous salad.

Drinks: They've got a huge mirrored bar behind the bartender that is FULLY stocked.

Ambiance: We ate in the bar area, but there is also a separate dining room. I liked the bar ambiance, it was casual but still felt like a nice dinner. I think the dining room might be a bit too stuffy for my taste. They've also got a patio, but it was raining that night.

Price: We ended up paying a little more because of the $25 deal, I probably wouldn't have gotten a salad or dessert otherwise. The prices are certainly reasonable though.

Convenience: Parking on a Sunday night is no problem, but it's kind of hit or miss on West 7th normally (in my experience).

Deets
Il Vesco Vino
242 West 7th St.
St. Paul

Azia

2009-07-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

Visited on Monday, July 13th

Ben's Review
A couple weeks ago, Erin and I received an invitation to attend a dinner with other local bloggers from Thom Pham, the owner of Azia and other area restaurants. We agreed, but weren't really sure what to expect, without knowing who else had been invited, or even how many people would be there.

It turned out to be a fairly small group of people - eight bloggers/guests and three of Thom's associates for cocktails and food at the Caterpillar Lounge, which is adjacent to Azia. We arrived and were brought to the bar in the Caterpillar by the hostess and were greeted by Nick, who does marketing for Thom, and he got us squared away with something to drink. In spite of the extensive list of specialty martinis I went with a normal half vodka, half gin martini (which was excellent) and Erin got some fruity concoction the bartender put together that looked delicious.

As other people started to arrive I was a little jealous that I hadn't gotten a fancier drink - several of them were served with dry ice that made the drinks appear to be smoking, it was a really cool effect. We enjoyed conversation as more people, including Thom, arrived and got drinks. Thom is a gracious host and an interesting person to talk with, he has a great story to tell of his arrival in Minnesota and starting several restaurants.

After everyone arrived they brought out appetizers in the bar. We helped ourselves to a great spread of food. There were these squash pot stickers that were fantastic as well as meat skewers, some sushi, and a couple other items that escape me at this point (I should have written this earlier). Everyone sat at the small bar tables in the back of the Caterpillar Lounge and talked while we ate. The food was excellent, everyone seemed to be having a great time.

When everyone had filled up on the appetizers, we were then moved into the dining area of the Caterpillar where were seated for a meal of family style items, some from the Azia menu and some new items as well. The invitation had said "heavy appetizers" but this was a full on meal with wine and several desserts. There were four or five main dishes that were passed around the table. I think my favorite was a tie between the Shanghai noodles, which was similar to pad thai but with very thin "cellophane" noodles, and the basil & jalapeno walleye. I was skeptical of the walleye at first, but it was absolutely delicious.

(Cranberry Curry - another winner)

After we ate Thom gave us a tour of Azia and described what it looked like when moved in (the pressed tin ceilings were covered by a dropped ceiling!) and how the corner used to be full of drug dealers, but it has now been transformed into a hip area that people love to come to. There is also a third restaurant, on the other side of Azia, the Anemoni sushi bar. They have a cool boat in the front corner of the restaurant with a table inside that I'd like to eat at someday :) He said that from any of the three restaurants you can order anything from any menu, which is great because you can choose the kind of vibe you want for the night, without having to sacrifice any of your meal options.

We only stayed a few minutes after the tour finished as it was after 9pm by this point on a Monday night and we're lame like that. The food and experience went WAY above the expectations I'd had for the night and it turned out to be a really fun night, I had a great time.

Erin's Review

When Ben told me we'd been invited to a "cocktail/appetizer" event at Azia by chef Thom Pham, I honestly thought it would be pretty lame. Even that night we weren't that excited to go, as we had no clue who else would be there or what the event would be like. Well, to put it mildly, this event FAR exceeded both of our low expectations! We were the first to arrive, and were greeted graciously by the host and the bartender. Nick the marketing guy, and Ryan (I think?) the manager of the restaurant made sure we got drinks right away. I asked for "something fruity" and was blown away by what I got! I can't remember what was it in, except for blackberry puree. It was definitely delicious!

A few other people showed up - bloggers from twin cities eats, The Food Court, and The Bloated Belly. It was really awesome to finally meet these people in person after reading their blogs for awhile! We had some great conversations about our various blogging experiences :)

After a bit of mingling we got some appetizers. I, of course, headed straight for the wontons. As with most things on Azia's menu, there was a twist to them - cranberry. YUM! These were absolutely delicious and one of my favorite things that I had all night. We chowed down for awhile, and I was already pretty much full... and then we moved on to dinner.

(My second fruity drink - complete with edible flower :)

We were all seated and got to try a number of Azia's dishes - I really loved the Sea Bass, which was served with squash, and the walleye with jalapeno basil cream sauce. Those were the two standouts to me, but honestly I was too full to really give any of the dishes justice, unfortunately! To top it all off, we then got dessert, the almond joy and some sort of banana something or other. I was a little meh about each of these - they were good, but nothing that blew me away. That was fine though - I'd definitely enjoyed enough!

This was an excellent event, and I'm so glad it finally got us out there to try Azia. We will definitely need to come back to try it on our own - I want to go to the sushi bar specifically. I loved the vibe in Azia - they have a number of sections - the lounge and sushi bar definitely feel more cozy than the huge main dining room, but the dining room is beautiful so it makes up for the hugeness. It seems like it would be a great place for a fun night out - albeit a slightly expensive one! Monday night wasn't exactly hopping, so when we go back I want to see what it's like on a weekend. Also a bonus - the kitchens of all 3 places are open until 2am!

Deets
Azia
2550 Nicollet Ave S
Minneapolis

Zumbro Cafe

2009-07-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

Visited on Sunday, July 5th

Erin's Review
Since it had been exactly one month since we went to the last restaurant on our list, we made it a point to go somewhere new this past weekend! The weather was beautiful on Sunday, so we decided to make the trek over to South Minneapolis and do a walk around Lake Harriet followed by brunch at Zumbro Cafe in Linden Hills.

After the grueling walk around the lake, we were both starving. The crowd outside Zumbro didn't look promising, but luckily when I walked in, there was a table for 2 inside that no one wanted :) Zumbro Cafe is a very cute place - not a lot of decor, but it's clean, cozy, and friendly.

The pancakes were calling my name that morning, which is pretty rare for me. I chose the "Butters" option as opposed to the 2 probably much healthier options of Buckwheat Wild Rice and Cornmeal. They were delicious! You could definitely taste the hint of cinnamon. I also got the fresh squeezed orange juice, which hit the spot.

My one bite of Ben's frittata was also wonderful. He also helped polish off my pancakes, so I know he enjoyed those as well :) South Minneapolis is a long haul from us in St. Paul, so it's doubtful we'll go back to Zumbro, but I'd definitely hit this place up for breakfast if you're in the area!

Ben's Review
It has been far too long since we had gone out to one of our restaurants, so we planned to go out for breakfast on Sunday morning. We also had several places in south Minneapolis on our list, so we went for a walk around Lake Harriet and then headed over to Zumbro Cafe in Linden Hills for brunch. Fun fact: Zumbro Cafe is the last restaurant on our list, and will likely always be last :)

We rolled up to Zumbro Cafe around 11:45 on Sunday morning and I got worried as I dropped Erin off that there would be a long wait, due to all the people milling about outside. I went and parked the car and came back to the restaurant to find Erin already sitting at a table. Turns out most people were waiting for a spot on the porch side of the restaurant, but we weren't that picky this morning so we got sat right away.

The interior ambiance of Zumbro Cafe reminded me of the Egg & I in uptown, with a fancier feel to it. The tables are close enough together so you can hear your neighbors conversations and the decoration and outside porch are similar, however there are less piercings and no clear glass coffee mugs :)

The laminated menus are relatively small (both sides of a single sheet), but they feature most breakfast options you would expect. I went with the Zumbro frittatas with the bacon and cheese option. I also added fresh spinach, which turned out to be a good choice. The frittata was large, about eight inches across, and loaded with bacon, havarti cheese and spinach. My meal also came with some roasted potatoes with green onions and sourdough toast. The potatoes were especially good, I loved the green onions and it tasted like they were cooked in some olive oil.

The first cup of coffee I had was really good, I even made Erin try some. The second cup, however, tasted a little funny, almost like the cream had gone a little bad, but it was the same cream I had used in the first cup. It's possible that the coffee was getting a little old, I'm not sure if that would cause the taste I had, but something seemed off.

Overall I liked Zumbro Cafe a lot and I would recommend them for a weekend brunch, the service and food are both great.

Service: Good service, no issues even though it was busy.

Food: Excellent food and they use local, organic ingredients if you care about that sort of thing.

Drinks: The menu doesn't have any alcohol, but they do have an espresso bar.

Ambiance: There was good ambiance because it's a small place that was full of people in good spirits.

Price: Prices were in line with other breakfast places, especially considering that they use organic ingredients. My frittata was $8.75.

Convenience: I might be off the mark here, but it seems like going to the Linden Hills area is always kind of a pain. It's not near any freeway, and there's no decent road that cuts through the neighborhood, so I would say it's a bit inconvenient. We went on a Sunday, so we weren't in a hurry anyways.

Deets
The Zumbro Cafe
2803 Upton Ave S.
Minneapolis

HomeMade Pizza Winners

2009-06-29T20:53:00.001-07:00

The contest is over and the numbers have been drawn. We randomly picked ten winners from the comments, the first five winners get a $25 gift card to HomeMade Pizza and the second five winners get a $10 gift card.

$25 Winners:

1. mrs.leah.maria (link to comment)
2. anonymous (comment was: "Mmmmm, yummy grilled pizza!.......")
3. Sareen (link to comment)
4. JL (also happened to be the 4th comment, weird.......)
5. Becca Williams (link to comment)

$10 Winners

1. anonymous (comment was: "Wow, such good deets and great pics.........")
2. abby (link to comment)
3. Solstice Mama (link to comment)
4. Fidget (link to comment)
5. Lisa (link to comment)

We'll contact you to get your mailing addresses and then drop the gift cards in the mail. Thanks for all the comments, this was really fun, we hope to do it again soon!

Erin & Ben

HomeMade Pizza

2009-06-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Update: The contest is now closed, we'll announce the winners tomorrow night!

A few weeks ago we were contacted by HomeMade Pizza, a "take 'n bake" style pizza restaurant on Grand Ave. in Saint Paul (they also have locations in Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, and Wayzata). They wanted to give us some gift cards to give away to our readers, as part of a contest of sorts. This seemed like a pretty good deal, and I have no problem giving away free stuff to people, so we agreed :)

We had never had HomeMade pizza, and they offered to give us a couple pizzas to try out before we had the contest. We wanted to make sure we weren't giving away gift certificates for crappy pizza! While this isn't like our typical review of a sit-down restaurant, it is still in the spirit of trying new places, so we think it passes muster.

HomeMade Pizza is a great combo of the quality of take 'n bake pizza with the convenience of delivery. Other take 'n bake places we frequent don't offer delivery, so this is definitely a selling point. The delivery guy showed up at our door at the arranged time with two pizzas: one meat with pepperoni, onion, and basil and a veggie pizza with tomatoes and basil. They also threw in a salad, which was a nice starter for the meal.

Two pizzas is clearly way too much food for Erin and I, so we enlisted the help of our neighbors, Nate and Molly, to help us out, since we were told that the pizzas are better if you eat them the day you get them. Nate and Molly were eager helpers for some homebrew and grilled pizza :)

The pizzas come with grilling instructions and it's really easy. You do need to have either a regular pizza stone for your oven, or a special pizza stone specifically for the grill. We have a pizza stone for our oven, which worked out just fine. We preheated the grill for 10 minutes or so and slipped the meat pizza on the stone. I was a little concerned about the parchment paper that hung over the edge of the stone at first, but the paper just turns a little brown from the heat, no big deal.

The pizza cooks in about 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees, having a thermometer on the grill helped out here. It was just as easy as any frozen pizza I've ever made, and much prettier!

Both of these pizzas were excellent. The ingredients are fresh and the presentation is wonderful. The crust is thin and has good structure when you pick it up, it can hold the weight of the toppings well. We had the salad while the first pizza was cooking, Nate particularly liked the garlic dressing that came with the salad, I think he may have dipped his pizza in it as well. I'm not even a fan of tomatoes, but the veggie pizza was great, the tomatoes were nice and meaty.

The contest

I mentioned the gift cards earlier, and this is where you come in. We have ten gift cards: five $25 cards and five $10 cards. To win a gift card you need to comment with your favorite grilled pizza toppings. If you haven't ever had a grilled pizza, just comment with your favorite frozen pizza toppings :)

We will choose ten winners at random from the comments, the first five get a $25 gift card, the second five get a $10 gift card. The comments will close on Sunday night, June 28th, at 10pm central time.

Make sure to give us a way to contact you from your comment! Leave us your blog address or email address, or something, otherwise we can't give you your prize!!! NOTE: Many people have blogger profiles that are private - make sure yours is public, or you'll have to include your blog address or email address in your comment.

Good luck!

Gahndi Mahal

2009-06-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

Visited on Friday, June 5th with Jamie and Daniel

Erin's Review
Jamie has been telling me about how great Gandhi Mahal is for awhile - we had a plan to go before our trip to Europe, but that didn't end up happening because of a few illnesses in the group - this time nothing was standing in our way! Ben goes into a lot of detail in his review below, so I won't really write too much so it doesn't get repetitive :)

A little appetizer that was brought out

I debated my order the whole day but finally settled on Chicken Tikka Masala, which is my normal Indian place order. I just love that stuff, and feel like I'll be disappointed with anything else. It's a habit I should break... but maybe some other time :)

I was very glad Jamie and Daniel wanted to split the bread basket - it was delicious! My favorite was probably the garlic naan or the puffy bread. Yum! There was plenty to go around, and Jamie even took some home. At Daniel's recommendation, I also got a Mango Lassi, which was probably my favorite part of the whole meal - slightly creamy and delicious!

The chicken tikka masala did not disappoint - it was perfectly sweet and flavorful and not spicy just as I ordered :) Plenty for me to eat, share with others, and have enough to bring home for leftovers!

I loved Gandhi Mahal and have since recommended it to a number of people! The service is great and it's a cute little place. Nothing fancy at all, which I like. It was also rated as Best Indian by City Pages this year, so you don't just have to trust our opinion! Definitely check this place out.

Ben's Review
Last Friday we went to Gandhi Mahal (I still have trouble spelling that) with Erin's co-worker Jamie and her husband Daniel. Daniel is a big fan of Indian food and was excited to go, especially since we had plans to go previously that fell through. Gandhi Mahal is located at Lake & Minnehaha, right near the old location of Midori's Floating World Cafe and a short drive from downtown as we headed there after work.

We had made reservations but you don't need them, at least not at 6pm. It's not a big place, but there were only a couple tables occupied when we arrived. I had seen on the menu that live music started at 5:30 which made me a little leery, but clearly that was a bit inaccurate because they hadn't started playing, even by the time we left.

The hostess was friendly as she showed us to our table that needlessly had a 'Reserved' sign on it. We were a couple minutes early and just perused the menu while we waited for Daniel and Jamie. I had scoped out the menu awhile ago, before we went the first time, and had nearly made up my mind then to get the Rogan Josh, described as "A traditional North Indian dish cooked in a medium hot spicy sauce and an exotic blend of spices in spiced garlic sauce", sounded good to me! I was nearly convinced to get a form of Korma on the menu by Daniel, but he offered to let me try his so I stuck with the Rogan Josh. I did switch from chicken to lamb at the server's suggestion. One thing I love about Indian food is that most of the dishes have your choice of meat and your choice of spiciness so you can tailor your dish to what you like.

Our food came out rather quickly, in about fifteen minutes, along with the bread bowl we ordered to share. In hindsight, getting the bread bowl was a fantastic decision as you get a tons of various types of naan: garlic naan, cilantro, plain, and this real big, bubbly piece on top of the pile. Naan is a great way to deliver Indian dishes into your mouth :) However, it does make you full faster.

My Rogan Josh was delicious, though next time I will bump up the spice a notch (I got mild/medium). Rogan Josh is a dark sauce so I guess the lamb is better suited for it. I wasn't impressed with the lamb itself, I couldn't really taste much of a difference between the lamb or beef, and lamb was a more expensive option. I think I'll go for chicken next time, in addition to more spiciness. I held off to leave myself enough for dinner the next night and I made some basmati rice with tumeric, which tasted really good for a Saturday night meal :)

(note from Erin: one of these two was Ben's meal... neither of us can remember now though since they look very similar :)

Gandhi Mahal was excellent and I would go back in a heartbeat. The food and service were both great and the prices were reasonable for getting two meals out of the deal.

Service: Everyone was friendly and our food was brought out quickly.

Food: Excellent food, I tried everyone's dish and they were great. The naan is awesome.

Drinks: They had a couple beers, but nothing that really interested me, so I passed.

Ambiance: It was quiet when we were there, although there is supposed to be live music.

Price: Entrees were $10-$15, but you can easily get two meals out of them. The naan basket was $12 for the whole table, it was worth it.

Convenience: Located at Minnehaha and Lake, you can take a bus, the light rail, a bike, or park off-street.

Deets
Gandhi Mahal
3009 27th Ave S
Minneapolis

Upcoming Event: Taste of the Nation

2009-05-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Twin Cities Eats just let us know about the upcoming Taste of the Nation event happening on June 12th! It sounds like an awesome event, with all proceeds from ticket sales supporting organizations that fight childhood hunger.

Check it out at the link above! Unfortunately we won't be able to make it because Ben is riding in the MS150 that weekend, but it would have been really cool to see the Mixology Duel between Bradstreet Crafthouse and La Belle Vie!

Capital View Cafe

2009-05-26T05:36:00.001-07:00

Visited on Saturday, May 23rd

Ben's Review
My co-worker Erik told me about Capital View Cafe and their fantastic breakfasts so we added them to the list. We went there on Saturday morning after checking out the St. Paul Farmers Market.

As the same suggests, you have a perfect view of the capitol building if you stand in the middle of Smith Ave. outside of the restaurant. It's pretty cool actually, considering how far away you are, and the building is nicely framed between the trees on the sides of the road.

Capital View Cafe is larger than I would have guessed and it looks like they may have expanded by purchasing their neighbors location and tearing down some walls. (Something that I hope Blue Door Pub will do soon!) You seat yourself and I chose a table by the window which lasted for about five minutes after Erin decided that the sun in her eyes wasn't going to work. Fine. So we moved to the booth she wanted in the first place :)

Erik had raved about the Cajun eggs Benedict so I knew what I wanted and Erin always gets regular eggs Benedict anyways, so ordering didn't take long this morning. The food also came out very quickly, which surprised me since they had a decent number of people in the place. The Cajun Benedict didn't disappoint. It's like regular eggs Benedict with Andouille sausage instead of ham and the hollandaise sauce is spiced up a bit. I'm not a huge breakfast fan, but this was damn good. The spicy sausage was a great substitute for the ham, I think I might work this into my breakfasts at home in the future.

Another thing that I liked was that I had a choice of potato. I don't care for hash browns, so I always feel like it's a waste when I have to get them. I substituted American fries instead and they were pretty good, but I didn't come close to finished them anyways after the eggs.

The service was very good as well, they were cool with us switching tables after getting our coffee and making them clean off the table we had used for only five minutes. One oddity is that you can't pay with a credit card unless the check is over $50. I've seen that restriction elsewhere, but I feel like the limit is usually $5 at convenience stores. At the very least they have an ATM inside so it's not a huge deal (although the ATM isn't from any MN bank, so no matter who you are you're going to get dinged with a charge to get your money).

All in all it was a great way to start our gorgeous Saturday morning.

Service: Good, prompt service and they filled up the coffee quickly.

Food: Great Cajun Benedict and good choices for sides.

Drinks: Not for breakfast, we aren't savages.

Ambiance: The restaurant is very well lit which is great on sunny mornings.

Price: Prices were on par for a breakfast place, $9 for the Cajun Benedict and $8 for the regular Benedict.

Convenience: Plenty of on-street parking, they are located in a neighborhood area. Great view of the capitol.

Erin's Review
It's been almost a month since we last went out for the blog, largely due to our 2 week trip to Europe in the middle of this month! After eating out for 10 days straight, we weren't really in the mood to jump right back in. Since we had already decided to go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, we decided to find a breakfast place in St. Paul to hit up after we got our veggies. Ben suggested Capital View, which sounded just fine by me.

When we got there, the place wasn't very full at all - it is actually pretty large as Ben mentions above. I don't think the reason it wasn't full is their fault at all - it was just a beautiful holiday weekend and most people were probably out of town!

We both got coffee - Capital View has HUGE mugs which is very nice. They don't have jars of cream and sugar though, which always kind of annoys me because then you have a little pile of trash at the table constantly with the individual creamers and sugar packets, especially with the amount I put in :)

As usual, I ordered the eggs benedict. Our meals came out fairly quickly and looked delicious. The eggs benedict were pretty good, the one weird thing was that the english muffins had a very strong cinnamon taste to them, to the point that after a bit, I just stopped eating the muffins and had the eggs and ham with my hash browns instead. It was still good, but I'm not sure who thought cinnamon was a good idea. It's not.

I really enjoyed Capital View Cafe - the service was great and it was a cute place in a neighborhood I don't often get to. I'm not sure I'd go back because it isn't exactly close to our house, but I'd certainly recommend it - just make sure to ask for your eggs benedict without the cinnamon, unless you're into that kind of thing :)

Deets
Capital View Cafe
637 Smith Ave.
St. Paul

Cafe Bonxai

2009-05-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

Visited on Wednesday, April 29th with Scott and Christie

Erin's Review
It was Scott's birthday last Wednesday, and he was paralyzed with the choice of restaurants. Somehow he and Ben came to the decision of Cafe Bonxai, which is just about a mile from our house. For some reason, despite being told by Becky and Rett at least a year ago that they liked it, I was never very excited about trying it out. Probably because that stretch of University isn't exactly beautiful, and I've never really seen anyone going into the place.

Well, the day finally arrived for me to give Cafe Bonxai a chance, and I'm glad I did. As I expected, the ambiance left much to be desired, but we were there pretty late for Minnesota weekday standards - probably about 8pm or so. It was empty, and the music was so low that you could barely make it out at all, so it just seemed silent. Good thing this wasn't a first date, or it would have gotten REAL awkward!

The menu told me that their Coconut Basil soup was voted best soup a few years ago by someone, so I wanted to try that. Plus I was feeling a bit under the weather so soup sounded perfect. I also went with the Mango Chicken for my main course.

Both the soup and chicken were fantastic. The soup could have been a little hotter, but it was so flavorful and I ate it so quicky that it didn't matter. As expected, it was very sweet, but not overpoweringly so. The chicken was basically sweet and sour chicken with a few slices of mango on top :) But it was GOOD sweet and sour chicken - crispy and tender. I tried everyone else's meals and all of those were great too - especially Christie's green tofu curry.

I really enjoyed the food at Cafe Bonxai and would be interested in returning on a weekend night to see if it's more hopping than it was the night we were there. Definitely check it out if you are in the area!

Ben's Review
I had suggested Cafe Bonxai to Erin several times in the past, being that it's so close to home and had good reviews. I finally convinced Scott to go there, so Erin had no choice in the matter. We went last Wednesday night with Scott and Christie after a martini at Axel's on Grand Ave.

(Scott's birthday martini)

Cafe Bonxai has been open for over two years so at this point I am not concerned with its livelihood, but on this night the place was dead. I think there were two other tables of people, besides the four of us. Granted it was a rainy Wednesday night, but it felt very stark that night, especially because there was no music playing.

Cafe Bonxai's web site also leaves much to be desired. The menu section has no pictures or even descriptions of the dishes, and it's out of date as the meal I ordered is not on the web site. The blog has no entries and you have no idea if they serve alcohol at all (I had to call to check). However, don't let the lackluster web site fool you, the food here is AMAZING. :)

I ordered the Hmong sausage pasta after deliberating between the pasta, a mahi mahi dish, and the General Tang's chicken which Scott ordered. This pasta dish was fantastic, the sauce was a rich, cheesy red sauce with penne and tons of sliced sausage. I could barely finish all the food but it just tasted SO DAMN GOOD that I couldn't help myself. Seriously, this was probably the best pasta I've ever had.

Every dish we had was really good. I tried some of Erin's coconut soup, Christie's green curry, and Scott's General Tang's chicken and they were all delicious. Scott even had enough to bring home, and he's not the type to leave food on plate.

The only downside to the whole occasion was that they had run out of Summit. I nearly offered to go down the street to refill their stock for them, but I settled for having a Bass Ale instead. There ought to be a law about running out of Summit for a St. Paul restaurant.

Here are my ratings:

Service: The server was a nice guy, no problems.

Food: Awesome food, just awesome.

Drinks: Beer and wine only, I wonder if they are trying to get a liquor license?.

Ambiance: Not much ambiance on the Wednesday that we were there. Hardly any customers and no music.

Price: The prices were reasonable, but it seemed like you had to spend either $9-$10 or $15-$17, there was no middle ground.

Convenience: They are located just west of Snelling on University Ave. and they have their own parking lot out back with meters on the street.

Deets
Cafe Bonxai
1613 University Ave
St. Paul

Longfellow Grill

2009-04-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

Visited on Thursday, April 16th with Kate and Kyle

Ben's Review
Summit released their new beer, Horizon Red, to a few places on April 16th. I sent the list of places to Erin who consulted with Kate and came up with Longfellow Grill as the spot for dinner that night.

Longfellow Grill is the third Blue Plate restaurant we've been to (Highland Grill and Groveland Tap being the others). All of the Blue Plate restaurants have a similar vibe and menu style, but the menu items themselves are different, which I appreciate. We arrived a little before six that night and the place was packed. It was a beautiful spring day so the patio was full as well, in fact the wait time for the patio when we got there was nearly an hour, as opposed to fifteen minutes for inside. We put our names on the "inside" list and hung around outside while we waited.

After we were seated our server told us that the number 4 news was there that night, along with one of the Summit founders, to cover the release of the new beer. We got a pitcher of the beer right away, and Erin even tried it out (she liked her Mich Golden better). I really like Horizon Red and I will add it to my rotation of beers from the liquor store. I felt like it was hoppy, but still a beer that I could drink a couple of in a given night.

I was debating between a burger, which looked really good, and the slow roasted pork shoulder with creamed corn and garlic-asiago cheese mashed potatoes. As usual, Erin knew what was best for me and told me to get the slow roasted pork, and that I could try a bite of her burger. This turned out to be a GREAT decision as the pork, corn, and potatoes were unreal. Everything came together so well that I could have mixed it all up into a pork-corn-potato paste and it would have been delicious.

We stayed for a little while longer and had another beer before we all retired to our house for a cigar and Jameson (me and Kyle) and wine (Erin and Kate). All in all a good night :)

Service: Our server was awesome and a really funny guy.

Food: Excellent pork shoulder, Erin's burger was just OK.

Drinks: Good beer and wine selection, no booze.

Ambiance: It was busy on a Wednesday night and the place had an upbeat mood, I liked it.

Price: I thought the prices were spot-on for the food you get. My pork was $14 and the burgers range from $8-$12.

Convenience: You'll have to park across the street in the neighborhoods, and turning left onto Lake sucks at this spot, luckily we head east onto Marshall instead.

Erin's Review
We met Kyle and Kate right after work on Thursday, and had originally intended to walk around taking photos before eating. However, I was beat from a long day at work and Kyle and Kate were starving, so we just headed inside right away. I'm not sure if this is normal or was due to the Summit release, but it was packed. We got a table inside pretty quickly but would have had to wait awhile for a table outside.

Once we got in, we ordered a pitcher of the new Summit beer, and watched the taping for the news. Kyle ordered a pork quesadilla for the table, which was good but nothing that outstanding. I think that pretty adequately sums up Longfellow Grill for me - it's good, solid service and food, but nothing great. Ben's meal was definitely the best of the bunch.

I ordered the "Grill" Burger (not sure why there are quotes there, but that's what it said on the menu) and again, it was fine. Not cooked medium as I specified, but oh well. I enjoyed the fries although they didn't seem to be freshly cut.

The service was great - our drinks came quickly and the server was knowledgeable and funny. He only seemed to get a little less chatty after Kate sent back a glass of wine that was apparently bad. I'd say stick with the beers at a place like this.

As Ben mentions, this is the 3rd Blue Plate restaurant we've been to, and I haven't been overly impressed with any of them. They do all seem like very family friendly locations.

Deets
Longfellow Grill
2900 West River Parkway (at Lake)
Minneapolis

moto-i

2009-04-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Visited on Friday, April 10th with Jake and Allison

(this is the only sign)

Erin's Review
I had a birthday happy hour for my friend Lisa on Friday the 10th, so decided it would be a good time to try out moto-i for dinner - killing two uptown events with one stone. We got there a few minutes late for our 7pm reservation, and were punished with a table in the very boring and ambiance starved upstairs. They don't have any music or decor up there - it really was pretty lame. They should work on that. In hindsight, I would have rather waited 20 minutes for a table downstairs or sat in the bar, but since Ben was already seated by the time I came in, I didn't want to bother.

second floor - can you feel the energy??

I was absolutely starving, so I ordered the rangoons (shocker). They were some of the best rangoons I've ever had! Light and crispy skin, delicate cream cheese mixture inside and excellent sauce. Yum. If we had paid attention to the many reviews available, we would have known that moto-i is known for their small plates and not for their entrees and would have just gotten a number of those, but alas, we did not do enough research...

We ordered one each of all the cold sakes. I have had sake before a few times (just a sip here and there) and I knew I wasn't a fan, but figured I had to at least try it again, given that moto-i is the only sake brewery restaurant outside of Japan. I still didn't like it, but that's no fault of moto-i's. Ben spilled one of them all over the place, so that was awesome, and put me in an excellent mood.

After spill - helpful sake map that explains it all

He's just being Jake.

I ordered the Thai Fried Rice for my meal because Jake said it was pretty good. It was just that, pretty good. Not great, not bad. There was a little icon next to it on the menu indicating that it was spicy. This is not the case at all. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it was anti-spicy. From me, that's saying a lot given that I normally order my food at a zero level of spicy and that even can be too much.

Now that I know that the small plates are where it's at, I would go back to moto-i, sit downstairs, and order a bunch of small plates. It's certainly not somewhere I'll rush back to though.

Ben's Review
Two Fridays ago (this is late I know, Erin's been bugging me about it) we went to moto-i with Jake and Allison. Jake had been there once before, but didn't try any sake at the time and they wanted to go back.

moto-i is right at the intersection of Lake and Lyndale in Uptown. This means that parking is a little tight, but we've had good luck finding a spot on Aldrich (one block west of Lyndale). The first floor has a large bar in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables. The restaurant is narrow, but there are at least two floors of tables and the server mentioned that they will be opening a rooftop area when the weather gets a bit warmer. I would definitely go back just to try out the rooftop.

First floor

We were seated on the second floor which was kind of a bummer because it seemed they had JUST filled up on the first floor, so we were the only table of people upstairs, along with some people at the smaller bar. Jake and Allison hadn't arrived yet so I ordered a Surly Furious before ordering the sake. The beer list isn't huge but it has plenty of variety with an assortment of Minnesota beers from Summit, Surly, Lift Bridge, Schells, Lake Superior, and Grain Belt.

Initially I was thinking that we would order our own sake but it made more sense to just order one of each and share them all. This way everyone got to try each one (we didn't order the one hot sake) and it was cheaper than everyone ordering the individual sample ($12 each). Of course I managed to spill one of them soon after they were delivered, but they were really cool about it and replaced it without charging us for it, which was great.

I've only had sake a couple times so I don't know what "good" sake tastes like. The sake we had at moto-i tasted like I'm told sake should taste and has the added benefit of being brewed right at the restaurant. I still prefer beer to sake so I think that even if I go back at some point I probably wouldn't even order sake.

Shockingly, Erin found the closest thing to cream cheese wontons on the menu and quickly ordered them for the table. We got the rangoons with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and chili sauce. These were a great appetizer, as most fried things are :)

The entrees are noodle and rice dishes similar to what you would find at a Thai restaurant. The drunken noodles sounded good, but I had just had that same thing at True Thai a couple weeks ago, so I went with the curried noodles. I contemplated substituting chicken for the beef and in hindsight I wish I had as the beef wasn't that good. To be honest, the whole entree itself was nothing special and I think that almost every Thai meal we've had for wegotserved has been better than this one. The portions were smaller and it felt like more effort went into the presentation (which was excellent) than into the taste. One thing that I did like was the spice tray they bring out so you can make the dish as spicy as you like.

I would go back to moto-i at night to try out the rooftop, but I doubt I will go back for dinner. We have so many Thai places yet to try (even though this isn't technically a Thai place, most of their entrees seemed to be Thai inspired) that I would go to someplace new instead.

Service: The service was fantastic, they replaced the sake I spilled and were on the ball the whole time.

Food: The food was OK, but the entrees not as good as other Thai places we've been. The appetizers are great.

Drinks: Good selection of MN beers and they brew their own sake. They also have wines and a full bar.

Ambiance: The first floor had a good vibe while we were there, but unfortunately we were buy ourselves upstairs for awhile :(

Price: The prices for food are reasonable, the sake is a little more expensive, but with good reason. Still not an outrageous night out.

Convenience: Might have to walk a block or two to park, but there are plenty of buses too.

Deets
moto-i
2940 Lydnale Ave S.
Minneapolis

Mairin's Table

2009-04-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Visited on Friday, April 3rd

Ben's Review
Becky and Rett gave Erin a gift certificate to Mairin's Table as a graduation present, so we headed over there on Friday night for dinner. The website says they have free parking available, which is true, but there was only one spot left when we got there so it's certainly possible that you would need to find alternative parking.

Mairin's Table is a little difficult to find, the address is on 4th St. but the restaurant faces 1st Ave. Half of the parking lot is reserved for Bulldog parking, I'm not sure how strictly that is enforced.

When we walked into the restaurant it was eerily silent. There weren't many people there yet and it seemed as if nobody was talking, it was strange. The people that were there were also spaced perfectly apart so that any table we chose was right next to someone else, so we went with the window seat by the front door. More customers kept trickling in as we were there so that by the time we left it was nearly full.

The menu online listed wine but did not mention any beer so I just assumed they didn't have any. I was glad to find that they have about ten different bottled beers to choose from (that's me inspecting the beer selection in the photo). They had Lake Superior Special Ale which I recalled from brew52 as being very good and it was indeed a tasty brew.

I had actually decided on what I was going to order before we got there in a moment of decisiveness, the chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes and asparagus. The entrees also come with a choice of soup or salad so I got a cup of the spinach and lentil soup. The soup had a great consistency to it - not too thin, I like a good, hearty soup - and it was hot, which is always nice.

Our entrees came out on plates that were loaded with food. I had a large chicken breast with mushrooms and Marsala sauce, a healthy mound of garlic mashed potatoes, two pieces of French bread, and asparagus on top. I haven't had asparagus in awhile, I forgotten how good it is. The potatoes were delicious, especially when they were slathered with Marsala sauce and mixed with a piece of chicken. After finishing all my food I was completely stuffed and ready for a nap.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Mairin's Table, but I left feeling very satisfied with the food and the experience overall.

Service: Our server was nice and she took care of us well.

Food: Excellent food and huge portions, Erin got a lunch out of her leftovers.

Drinks: Beer and wine only, with about ten beer choices and a decent list of wines available.

Ambiance: At first it was a little quiet and subdued, but by the time we left the crowd was picking up a bit.

Price: The entrees are in the $15-$20 range, but you get plenty of good food for the price.

Convenience: There is limited parking available and some meters on the street.

Erin's Review
When Becky gave me a gift certificate for Mairin's Table, she mentioned that we should try to go there soon just in case they close - she said that it was empty when she went in there (not sure when that was though) and that the person she bought it from thanked her and let her know that it's been really hard for them with the economy. So if you have been wanting to try Mairin's Table (which you should - it was quite good!) definitely head out there soon, just in case. I really hate seeing some of the places on our list close before we even get a chance to try them out.

We got to Mairin's Table at 7pm last Friday and as Ben mentioned, it was very quiet and pretty empty. By the time we left at about 8:15 or so, it was full, so that's a good sign! We sat next to the window, and I will note that if you sit on the booth side, the seats are pretty high and can get uncomfortable. I am tall (5'9'') and my feet didn't touch completely touch the ground. Just something to think about :)

Luckily for Ben, I am a keen observer and noticed the bottles of beers available at the bar. He chose Lake Superior Special Ale, which was the first beer we were able to enjoy on the porch last spring. I hope those days return to us soon. I ordered the shiraz because it was the cheapest wine on the list :) It was fine, but certainly nothing outstanding.

The menu at Mairin's Table is pretty small, but they had a number of good specials that day - I got the pasta special which had shrimp, cilantro pesto, artichokes and chunky tomatoes (this last item ensured that Ben wouldn't try to eat any of my food). I also chose a cup of spinach and lentil soup to start, which was quite good but a little bland.

The portions were fairly large - I barely ate half of my pasta, which means I also got to enjoy it for lunch today - it held up well! I liked this pasta a lot, it reminded me of the pasta I had at Trotter's Cafe. I thought Ben's meal was the winner though - the sauce and potatoes were just delicious.

Probably the most entertaining part of the night for me was observing what looked like a blind date at the table right in front of us :) I hope it went well for them! They were still there when we left, so I'm guessing it was at least ok.

Mairin's Table is a very cute place - quite small, but it doesn't feel too crowded. The decor is warm and inviting. The music is at a reasonable level where you can hear it, but it doesn't interfere with conversation. I think when we walked in there was just a strange lull, because I didn't notice uncomfortable silences during the rest of the evening. It definitely is in an unfortunate location - right behind The Front and Bulldog, but very hidden in the parking lot. I'm sure more people would go there if they could just see it.

Deets
Mairin's Table
23 Northeast 4th St
Minneapolis

True Thai

2009-03-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

Visited on Monday, March 23rd with Scott

Erin's Review
After first attempting to go to the deli at United Noodles and seeing it closed, I was STARVING. I didn't really care where we ate at that point, as long as it was close. Scott and Ben chose True Thai, which sounded perfect to me. Because of the mishap at United Noodles along with the time spent shopping, I needed to eat something fast - cream cheese wontons were ordered immediately to tide me over until our entrees arrived.

The wontons were pretty good - they seemed to have a little thicker wonton wrappers (dough?) than I'm used to having. Perhaps they are handmade and I'm used to those made using the packages of wonton wrappers you can get at the store. They certainly hit the spot for me!

I didn't feel like being too adventurous, so I just went with chicken pad thai as my entree. There were a ton of options that looked great, and I loved the menu descriptions.

My pad thai was SO good - probably the best I've had at a restaurant yet. As usual, it was a huge portion, so I ate plenty that day and still had a fairly large amount left for lunch the next day. That makes the high price for one lunch much more of a deal.

True Thai is a cute place - I was surprised at how packed it was at lunch on a rainy, cold Monday. With so many Thai places on our list, I doubt we'll go back any time soon, but I definitely recommend this place for a solid meal!

(View down the hall to the main dining area)

Ben's Review
I had been trying to get Erin to go to United Noodles for lunch for a couple weeks and last Monday I finally got her to go, with my co-worker Scott. Unfortunately when we got there we found that the deli is closed on Mondays :(. I still wanted to get a big bag of rice and some curry paste, so the trip wasn't a total waste, but we now needed to think of a new place to get some lunch. I remembered there was a Thai place (I thought it was King & I Thai) just down Franklin so we headed over to True Thai.

True Thai has a large seating area with a Thai lunch buffet towards the back of the main room. It was busy when we arrived around 12:30 with the lunch crowd and we were seated down a hallway to a separate dining area. Based on a blog post from last August it looks like this was a remodeling they did last year.

Erin predictably latched onto the cream cheese wontons as an appetizer while we looked over the menu for entrees. In typical fashion I couldn't decide if I wanted curry or stir fried dish, or if I wanted noodles or rice. The menu at True Thai is extensive with plenty of choices of soups, curries, salads, noodle dishes, and stir fry dishes. I settled on the drunkard's noodles at the normal spiciness level, since they are already a little spicier than normal dishes. In hindsight I wish I would've cranked up the heat one notch, as it didn't really kick my ass like I wanted it to, just a little runny nose.

The cream cheese wontons were good, although I wish they didn't come as a set of five; it doesn't split evenly unless you are alone or with four friends. The drunkards noodles were great as well, it was a good choice. As with most Asian dishes we get, there was plenty leftover for lunch the next day, although I did overindulge a bit during lunch, leaving me with a little less than I should have had left :)

I'm glad that there are some many Thai places in the twin cities as I've really come to love the food, but it also means that I probably won't go back to any particular place for a long time. I would like to come back to True Thai for lunch sometime to try the buffet, it would be a great way to sample a bunch of different Thai dishes in one trip, and at $7.95 it's a fantastic deal.

Service: The service was fine, although she messed up the splitting of the tab.

Food: The food was great, though I'm beginning to think that Thai food is hard to screw up. Even I can cook it at home :)

Drinks: They actually have a good list of bottled beer, with several Bell's and Lake Superior beers on the menu.

Ambiance: True Thai has a good lunch atmosphere and all the employees were friendly and happy.

Price: The buffet is a great deal and cheaper than most of the entrees. The entrees range from $9-$12, which is a little pricey for lunch for my tastes.

Convenience: True Thai is at 27th & Franklin which is pretty accessible from most directions and bus lines. I didn't see a parking lot, so you'll have to find a spot on-street.

Deets
True Thai
2627 East Franklin Ave
Minneapolis

La Belle Vie

2009-03-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

Visited on Saturday, March 14th

Notes from Erin: We have been planning to go to La Belle Vie, which is widely regarded to be the best restaurant in the Twin Cities, when I finished my masters program since last fall. I really couldn't think of another occasion when I would be able to justify the cost of the Chef's Tasting Menu, so I warned Ben far in advance that LBV was where I wanted to celebrate my graduation. It took a little warming up for him to agree to it, and it also helped that we got a gift card from my parents for Christmas to put toward this dinner. The atmosphere is subdued and we were among the youngest diners there. It took a little while for me to feel comfortable there, but after a few minutes it was fine. Everyone there treated us wonderfully from the moment we walked in the door. We had "the old guy" (as he referred to himself) as our server who was definitely a character. One of the other people waiting on us commented that they weren't sure he even knew where he was right now, and I think they might be right ;) It made for some good entertainment during our dining experience! Right away we each got a plate of 3 types of bread and some gougères - all were warm and delicious. This review is going to be formatted slightly differently than most, with us writing our thoughts under the heading of each course instead of doing them totally separately. It will sound repetitive for sure, because everything was absolutely wonderful! I wouldn't expect anything less from La Belle Vie, and they definitely delivered on their superb reputation. As with most super nice places, I was worried about being disappointed, but thankfully I was not :) This was the most expensive dinner we've ever had, and it was definitely worth it.

Notes from Ben: In the weeks leading up to our dinner at La Belle Vie, I wasn't getting too excited for the meal because I had images of bizarre French food in my mind. I don't care for exotic meals just for the sake of exotic meals, I want something that tastes good and goes well with the other items on the menu, even if the ingredients are "normal". After glancing at a recent tasting menu I was happy to see that there was a good mix of "normal" food prepared in ways that I had not had before. I was especially pleased with how much meat was on the menu and I began to get more excited to go. I agree with Erin that I was a little uncomfortable when we first sat down, but it didn't take long to relax (the huge martini helped). We knew coming in that we were going to have the Chef's Tasting menu, so we got started right away. Erin had the wine flight to go along with the meal, not being a big wine drinker I opted not to get the flight which turned out to be a great idea, since there was no way Erin was going to drink all the wine she was served. As for the food, it was all wonderful. There was not a single thing I could complain about in regards to the food, it was awesome.

(amuse bouche)

First Course: Lobster and Salsify Soup with Périgord Truffle
Wine: Lustau, Amontillado, Escuadrilla, Jerez, Spain

Erin: This was my favorite course! Kind of sad that it all went downhill from here, but it didn't go down too far, so it was just fine :) Every bite of this was like an explosion of wonderful in my mouth. There were so many different flavors in this soup, and each one was amazing! It was creamy but not overpowering, and the little chunks of lobster were delicious. LOVED this! I was not as big of a fan of the sherry, but then again, I'm not a sherry fan to begin with. It did taste better once it was paired with the soup than it did on it's own.

Ben: The soup was excellent, I love creamy soups. This was a great way to start the meal, I just wish they would give you a little more :)

Second Course: Spice Crusted Skate with Rock Shrimp and Slow-Braised Artichoke
Wine: Ruinart, Blanc de Blancs, Reims, Champagne, France NV

Erin: Probably my second favorite course - closely tied with the soup. It was kind of comical for both Ben and I with these first two courses - both of us kept saying "mmmmmmm" and "oh, wow, this is SO good" after every single bite :) The artichokes in this made every other artichoke I have ever had seem horrible - they were just so much more flavorful than the canned/frozen variety that is usually present in most artichoke dishes. Obviously. The champagne was a great pairing with this dish. Unfortunately, I'm finding it hard to remember specific details about how it tasted, but suffice it to say that it was yummy :)

Ben: Yeah, I was beginning to feel a little silly at this point, as we both kept saying how good everything was, but IT WAS. The artichokes were so much better than others that I've had, it was fantastic.

Third Course: Chestnut Tagliatelle alla Carbonara with Quail Egg and Black Truffle
Wine: Livio Felluga, Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Italy 2007

Erin: I loved the addition of the egg in this course. I'm not sure how one is "supposed" to eat this, but I ended up just breaking the egg and mixing it in with everything else. It added a richness to an already rich pasta dish that really put it over the top, but in a good way :) The Pinot Grigio was cool and refreshing and paired well. By this point, I was pretty much stuffed and already tipsy, and a little concerned with how I was going to make it to the end! I did share each of my wines with Ben too - I personally would have been unable to walk if I had drank the whole wine flight myself, but I'm a lightweight.

Ben: I also thought the egg was a unique addition to the pasta, and definitely made it better. The pasta was excellent and done just right.

Fourth Course: Roasted Poussin with Foie Gras, Salsify and Dried Cherry Gastrique
Wine: Archery Summit, Pinot Noir, Premiere Cuvee, Willamette Valley, Oregon, 2006

Erin: There were a few comments on this photo on flickr debating whether or not this was poussin or chicken. It tasted like chicken to me, but clearly my palate would not be able to tell the difference. It tasted like really GOOD chicken, but... chicken nonetheless. I enjoyed this course - it was again very rich with the foie gras. The salsify did offer a slight break from the richness. I loved this wine most of all - definitely my favorite! This wine flight did prove to me that there is indeed a noticeable difference between the cheap wine I usually drink and the good stuff. I'll try to forget that difference most of the time, so as to not go broke :)

Ben: This was my second favorite course after the veal (coming next). I liked the mix of the foie gras and chicken, and the salsify was really good. I had never heard of salsify before this meal and this was the second course that used it. I have no idea if the salsify that we had is the same as the one on the wikipedia page for it, but it didn't look like that at all :)

Fifth Course: Pan Roasted Veal Tenderloin with Stone-Ground White Polenta, Wild Mushrooms and Pearl Onions
Wine: Domaine Tempier, Bandol, Provence, France 2006

Erin: As previously mentioned, I was beyond full by this point. I did like this course a lot, but couldn't fully appreciate it due to the pain that was taking over my stomach! I loved the polenta and pearl onions, but the veal was too much for me at this point - I gave half of mine to Ben, who was all too happy to finish it for me! The wine was described as a "big red" and it certainly was - it was a very heavy wine. It worked well with the veal.

Ben: My number one course. While Erin was getting full, I was still charging forward. The courses were small enough and timed apart well enough so that I didn't ever feel really full. I certainly wasn't hungry by this point, but I had room left. This veal was fantastic, the mix of mushrooms and onions were a great complement.

Sixth Course: Gorgonzola Dolce with Asian Pear and Candied Pine Nuts
Wine: Inama, Vulcaia Apres, Veneto, 2003

Erin: Finally, some relief! I was glad to be getting to the end of the courses, and glad that this course was a little lighter. The cheese was rich and creamy and was excellent with the pear and nuts. The wine was sweet and delicious. Loved this course.

Ben: Eh, the cheese tasted ok, but the creamy consistency didn't do it for me. I liked the nuts and the pear with the cheese, it made for a unique taste that I wouldn't have thought to combine.

Seventh Course: Mango with Mint, Lemon and Mandarin Sorbet

Erin: This course was a welcome palate cleanser and was refreshing, but to me, there was nothing notable about it except how comical the tiny portion looked on the huge plate it was served on :)

Ben: Biggest plate for the smallest course, done intentionally I'm sure :) This barely counts as a course in my book, it was a spoonful of sorbet with cubed mango. The plate did not lend itself to getting the small pieces of mango onto your spoon.

Eigth Course: Dark Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta and Cava Sherbet
Wine: Toro-Albala, Montilla-Moriles, Pedro Ximenez, Adalucia, Spain 2005

Erin: After nearly 3 hours, we reached the end of the road :) This dessert was delicious - I especially loved the cake and the panna cotta - I would have liked MUCH more panna cotta, even though I was stuffed! I'm not a port fan, so the wine was kind of lost on me. I still managed to drink it though! After the dessert, the waiter brought out some more little treats, which I thought were overkill since we had eaten so much already. He also told us he was bringing it because we were "special" but since we saw him bring it to every other table it kind of ruined that sentiment :)

Ben: This was an excellent dessert. The cake was awesome, my favorite for sure. The extra treats he brought out were nice, but like Erin said, totally overkill. Now, if he had brought some more of that soup out.................

Final Thoughts:

Erin: La Belle Vie was hands down the best meal I've had in a restaurant. I would love to go back and eat at the lounge - the vibe seemed to be more fitting for us in there than in the dining room, but the dining room was a wonderful place to celebrate finishing my masters degree!

Ben: One of the best meals I've ever had, a great place to go for a quiet meal. I especially liked that they did not squeeze the tables in close together, you get enough space for some privacy even though they could fit more tables if they wanted too, it was a nice touch. I would also like to go to the lounge, it looks like a cool place to hang out and the bartender is highly regarded in the Twin Cities.

Deets
La Belle Vie
510 Groveland Ave
Minneapolis

Cosmos

2009-03-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Visited on Wednesday, March 4th with Kate and Kyle

Ben's Review
After some deliberation, we decided on going to Cosmos for restaurant week. We wanted to go to a place where the price during restaurant week would be a bargain compared to the normal menu prices and Cosmos fit the bill.

The deal at Cosmos was $30 for a set menu:

- a choice of Creamy Lobster Salad or Baby Arugula
- a choice of ahi tuna or duck for the entree
- a choice of nine layer chocolate cake or creme brulee for dessert

After reading the restaurant week menu, I assumed that the items would not be the same items offered on the normal menu. I figured they would either be smaller portions or simplified items because of the lower cost. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the items WERE the same as the normal menu. Adding up my items the food alone would have come to $50, so Cosmos turned out to be an excellent choice.

Erin and I walked through the skyway after work to Cosmos, which is on the fourth floor of the graves 601 hotel, across from Target Center. We were early for our 6pm reservations so we sat at the bar for a cocktail while we were waiting. The place was completely empty when we arrived, which made it good for photos - it's strange to see not a single person wandering around.

The bartender was a nice guy and he gave us some wasabi peas and snack mix to go along with our martinis. I had a gin/vodka martini with Hendrix gin and Effen vodka and it was excellent, and I'm not even a big martini fan in the first place. (Small side story about Effen vodka - my dad likes the Effen bottle so much that he kept the bottle and refills it with other vodka he buys, true story).

Kate and Kyle showed up a little after 6 and we were brought to our table. By this point a couple other people had arrived, so we didn't have the entire dining room to ourselves, which would have been even weirder.

I went with the lobster salad, ahi tuna, and chocolate cake options. The lobster salad was fantastic, the beet soup and the vanilla foam made it a unique salad experience. The ahi tuna came with squid dumplings and seaweed. The tuna also had wasabi in the middle of the cut which gave it a good flavor. The tuna was excellent as well, I really liked the seaweed and the dumplings.

For dessert I had the chocolate cake, which I thought had a misleading name. Nine layer chocolate cake conjures images of a tall piece of cake, maybe 6-7 inches high. This was not that cake. Instead this was a short, long piece of cake and I'm sure there were nine layers in there somewhere, but it's not nearly as daunting as I thought it would be. It certainly tasted good, no doubt about that. Also with dessert Kyle and I each had a pour of Laphroaig 10 year scotch, which was better than the cake :)

Cosmos has delicious food and great service, both at the bar and at our table. However, I probably won't be back here anytime soon as the prices are higher than I like to spend on a meal (although we are going to trump Cosmos with our meal this coming weekend). I was glad to be able to try it out at a discount and I would recommend others do the same during restaurant week next year.

Service: Great service, our server was awesome and the bartender was friendly.

Food: The food tasted excellent and the presentation was particularly good.

Drinks: Not sure what the beer list is like but they have several wine options and a full bar. Be prepared to spend some money though.

Ambiance: Cosmos is a really cool looking place, very modern. The ambiance while we were there was muted, but I think that was only because it was not busy. We were easily the loudest table in the place.

Price: Cosmos is expensive. At normal prices you'll be looking at $50 per person, just for food.

Convenience: Located in the graves 601 hotel. They validate parking at two nearby lots, which is nice, and there are buses that can get you there.

Erin's Review
Thank you to the few and the proud that responded to our Restaurant Week poll! We ended up choosing Cosmos based on the value of their restaurant week menu, and I think we made a great choice! I figured this would be the type of place Kate and Kyle would enjoy as well, so we invited them along for the ride. Kate blogged about the experience here. I made reservations on opentable for Wednesday night about a week and a half prior to our night out, and it seemed like most of the RW places were wide open - I wonder how the turnout was for other places?

As a happy coincidence, this ended up being a celebration dinner for me, as earlier that day, I received an offer (and accepted!) for a new job within my company! I'm glad that happened for a multitude of reasons, but for that night it at least semi justified what ended up being a pretty expensive dinner :)

We got there a little before 6, and as Ben mentioned, the place was totally and completely empty, including the bar. This was odd, but luckily a few others trickled in while we waited for Kate and Kyle to accidentally go to Chambers instead of Cosmos :) They got there at about 6:10 or so and thank god, the host hadn't given away our table :)

The menu that was on the MSP Magazine website for Cosmos was very simple, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the menu choices were actually the same as the normal menu and not watered down versions due to the lower price. I chose the arugula salad, duck with optional side of foie gras, and the chocolate cake. Our waitress was great - it took us awhile to stop talking long enough to examine the menu so she had to come back several times. She seemed to enjoy having the entertainment though.

We got bread right away, which was warm and nutty flavored. The waitress brought out more after we finished one basket (probably not necessary, but much appreciated). The amuse bouche came out - it had something to do with salmon tartar and was fresh tasting and a good start to the meal.

The arugula salad was pretty standard - I really like arugula, blue cheese, candied nuts, and pears so obviously I was going to like this salad. I thought the presentation of the salad was beautiful. I had one bite of Ben's salad and enjoyed the creaminess of the lobster and the beet flavor. Both choices were wonderful.

After the salad, we each got a shot of lingonberry explosion (I think) which I thought was an actual egg :) Yeah, I don't go to fancy restaurants too often. I was very glad to hear that it was just a little fruit juice that somehow had a skin around it, making it resemble an egg. This was very refreshing.

The duck came out done medium, as I requested. The main course was very rich, with the fatty duck, sweet potatoes, duck confit and porcini cake. Throw in a side of seared foie gras and I could barely sleep that night from being so full. It was all worth it though :) The foie gras was buttery and delicious. Not sure I'll order it often, but I'm glad I tried it. It was almost too big of a portion for me to even finish. Kate has a great photo of it here.

At this point, obviously I was stuffed, but I still powered through to finish the 9 layer chocolate mousse cake. I thought this cake was the perfect size - I was very glad it wasn't as huge as you'd imagine a 9 layer cake to be. The cocoa puff crisps on top were an interesting change, and that in combination with the cake and the chocolate ice cream created what might be my perfect dessert.

These came out after desesrt. Because we hadn't eaten enough.

This was quite an expensive meal with the pre-dinner martinis, glass of wine for me during dinner, and glass of scotch after dinner for Ben, so I'm very glad we came during Restaurant Week. We have so many fancy restaurants on our list that I don't know if we'll be back to Cosmos, but it is a great choice for an amazing dinner downtown. The ambiance is modern and cool, and it gets pretty crowded on weekends (so I hear at least) so it would have a good vibe.

Deets
Cosmos
601 1st Avenue North
Minneapolis

Be'wiched

2009-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Visited on Friday, February 20th with Rett, Rebekah and Adelaide

Erin's Review
Ben and I had been planning on going to Be'wiched for a weekday lunch for a long time, and we finally had a day at work that neither of us had meetings surrounding the lunch hour so we could actually be gone for a full hour. I saw that Rett's g-chat status was "@home" so I chatted to him to see if him and the family wanted to join us. They did, so off we went!

Be'wiched is in a beautiful older building in the warehouse district - both outside and inside look great. I love the large windows and warmly decorated interior. It was freezing outside, but felt nice and cozy inside with the sunlight streaming in.

After reading a few reviews, I had already decided I wanted to get the roast beef. I love havarti cheese, so this was a major deciding factor in choosing that sandwich as well. I chose to get the combo and paired my sandwich with the pasta salad. The description sounds like it could be just the average tuna salad, but it was much better than that - no globs of mayo here (not that I don't love globs of mayo sometimes...).

Both sandwich and salad were delicious. I loved the horseradish sauce on the sandwich, and the meat tasted fresh and was well seasoned. The salad had great flavor, and the tuna confit was a nice change from the usual canned tuna that is often present in tuna pasta salads. My ONLY complaint was that the "half" sandwich is really not half at all - it would be nice to get an actual half sandwich, instead of a slice that probably equates to 1/3 of the full sandwiches. The half sandwiches were a little hard to eat too - a lot of stuff in the middle and not that much bread.

We hung out for a little while after eating to observe Adelaide, who slept pretty much the entire time. I would definitely go back to Be'wiched - very nice atmosphere and great food.

Ben's Review
We met Rett, Becky, and Ada out for lunch last week at Be'wiched in the warehouse district of downtown. Even though Be'wiched is a sandwich/salad shop, they do have beer on tap as well as some bottled options. They even have happy hour specials or $2 taps and $4 glasses of wine. I nearly got a beer before Erin talked me out of it. I still had to go back and work the rest of the afternoon, so it was probably a wise choice.

You seat yourself when you walk into the restaurant, and then you order at the counter where they give you a number to place on your table. This is a great setup for a lunch place because the line moves quickly. I would rather wait at my table for my food rather than standing in line. There was a decent amount of people there when we went; nearly full but we still found a table for the five of us, with room for a car seat :)

I had checked out the menu online before we left and had pre-decided on the Italian Hero sandwich, a very dramatic name for a sandwich I would say. The sandwiches don't really come with a side dish, instead you get two small spoonfuls of side salads, I think I got the cous cous and the "pasta" from their menu. The sandwich was really good but I don't think the $9.50 price tag was justified. I would have been just as happy with the #9 from Jimmy Johns for a couple bucks less. The Italian Hero is tied with the pastrami as the most expensive sandwich, so this is not to say that ALL the sandwiches are overpriced.

I would go back to Be'wiched for happy hour and also to try some of the other sandwiches, specifically the egg salad and the pulled pork.

Service: Everyone was friendly and professional, no complaints.

Food: Very tasty sandwich and the sides were good, especially the cous cous.

Drinks: Great beer specials at happy hour and a decent selection as well. They also have wine although I don't know how many they have.

Ambiance: Everything is clean and new-looking with plenty of natural light to make it feel happy on a nice sunny day.

Price: As I mentioned the Hero is a little expensive, but there are some less pricey sandwiches. The $2 taps during happy hour are a fantastic deal.

Convenience: The parking outside is mostly meters, there may be a few parking spots near the door, but they were all taken when we pulled up.

Deets
Be'wiched
800 Washington Ave. N
Minneapolis