parkermsp's Profile
Heartland, Hiedi's, or Ngon's Entrees?
Update:
Went to Hiedi's on Tuesday. We arrived a half-hour early and sat out on the patio for a drink. My dad was a little non-plussed with the color of his ordered gin and tonic, which looked like a Manhattan on account of the house-made tonic, which he described as "weird." I thought it was good, and a pretty cool touch. Forty-five minutes later, and subsequent to the seatings of two parties who had arrived after us, I had to ask about our table, and was promptly seated. Didn't really care for that. The service thereafter, however, was clearly well-trained. Woodman was in the house, constantly referenced by our server as chef ("I love what Chef is doing with the halibut tonight...."), which struck me as a little cultish but oh well. The food was fantastic. Lamb shank, six-spiced, was a show of proper execution and flavoring. A dish to remind you why you might go to a restaurant---I can't cook lamb shanks like this, and I've tried. Duck breast with roasted fennel and cippolinis perfectly executed, as was the trio of appetizers we got: smokin' ravioli, which my dad proclaimed as "superb," the foie terrine and the pappardelle with truffles. The space is great, seating more than comfortably spaced (though I might prefer a little dimming somehow of the light shouting in from the open kitchen, which produced too stark a contrast with the dining room, it seemed to me), the wait-staff is very well-orchestrated in its delivery of things, though the times between dishes stretched to the slightly enervating. We declined dessert for this reason. It was about 9:30 by the time we finished entrees (7:30 reservation.). Overall: would go again in a heartbeat, hoping for a tad quicker pace.
Next night: Alma.
Our server here had the wide-eyed look of the soon-to-be tsunami victim, and seemed surprised by our even being there, requesting of her various things which we desired to eat or drink. It baffled in the way that everyone says it baffles who is not himself from Minnesota and is prepared for the state by a person whose origins are also not of the state but has heard tell of the Minnesota shell which, it is said, one must crack to get at the genuine person beneath. If it is said that one from this great state would love to tell you about their house but probably will not tell you where it is, for fear of you coming over, this woman seemed now to find herself in the position of people being in her house, with no idea how they got there. No small talk, no nonsense, a little passive-aggressive whose passivity is a sort of shield or spacer. But, we weren't there for her, we were there for the food, which did not disappoint. Outstanding: parmesan flan, bison carpaccio (best amalgamation of the night), slow-cooked trout, orrechiette with spicy lamb ragu; lemon shaker pie. Merely good: spring pea and asparagus soup (not very expressive of the season, in fact), the roasted duck with smoked mushrooms (Heidi's was superior). My wife and I went with the three courses, and my parents with two a'la carte; intuitively they gave us all our first dish, then skipped my parents for the second, and then delivered everyone's final dish. This was as it should be, of course, but with the waits between courses again stretching to the room-scanning, (as in, are those our dishes on the counter now?), it was a bit of a mis-step. This may have been caused by our server having, as I saw it, six full four-tops. With the average table getting about 12 dishes, that's 72 dishes she's responsible for, not to mention the wine orders. I see no reason why she has that many tables. Other mis-step, which was surprising given the pedigree of the place, was that the plates were not warmed, which made for quickly cooling entrees. My first bite of trout was room-temp.
But, outstanding, impressive food.
Between the two, I think I'd be more inclined to go back to Heidi's sooner. Maybe it's because it feels a bit more casual but the food is superb, at lower prices. Alma feels like a once every four months type place. The menu is more involved, but so is the pocketbook.
Anyways--both these places had us thankful to be in such a great food environment, and very happy to be a part of this community.
Heartland, Hiedi's, or Ngon's Entrees?
Hello all,
My folks are coming into town from Portland, Maine, for two nights. Our second night we're going to Alma.
Question is: where to the first night?
I've narrowed it down to three:
1. Heartland. Never been, I'm intrigued by the "Midwestern-ness" of it, but I've heard the goods don't justify the price. True?
2. Heidi's (I realize I've spelled it wrong up top). Went here in the old manifestation, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but not the new building.
3. Ngon. A favorite stand-by for the wife and I, but my parents likely wouldn't get anything off the "traditional" menu, and we've never had the pricier entrees. They like steak and scallop dishes just as much as they like Alma-style cooking, and I like that we wouldn't have to make reservations here, and that it's a stand-by for us (to show them where we go), but, again, we've never had the entrees. Here, or one of the two above?
What say you kind folks?
Purchasing Au Bon Canard foie
I know this is available at Surdyk's--is there anywhere in St. Paul that I can buy some Minnesota-grown foie gras, retail-wise?
Cheers,
Parker
Saigon back again...
You went by today, or last weekend? (The reason I ask is that it's Thursday, which would throw the whole hours thing into another tailspin. It's been rather chaotic there, no?)
Pho at Ngon
Not wanting to roll the dice with the moodiness of Saigon's front door, the lady and I went to Ngon for their pho last night. My past experiences have always been more along the lines of relishing the idea (of their meat and veg sourcing) more than the execution, but this was my first go at the pho. Pretty wonderful.
While I enjoy Pho Tau Bay's particular tendon inclusion to be dream-inducing, Ngon's version was enough to keep me on this side of the river, tendon or no (though, to note, the tendon at Tau Bay is a beefy scallop of sumptuousness whose deliciousness may (or not) overshadow the distant bleats one may hear from the factory slaughterhouse floor, whence this tendon came).
A follow-up: has anyone enjoyed Ngon's upper-scale entree offerings? They always sound great, but it doesn't seem to fit within the rubric of what they are, currently, as a restaurant. Or maybe I've just never been in a spendy mood when there.
-----
Pho Tau Bay
2837 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Excellent Frozen Pizza
I think you may be ignoring economies of scale, but I see your point. Still, it is a good pizza, and $3.99.
Excellent Frozen Pizza
The Trader Joe's line of frozen pizzas has always proved great---especially the Margherita. Made in Italy, no less.
In search of a really good chicken
I agree with the above, regarding Callister. They are grandly tasty. In the first few dishes I ever made with their chickens (available at Seward, where I purchase them if I'm feeling fat in the wallet) my wife and I agreed that there was some secret technique or inadvertent thing I was doing that neither of us could recognize or identify that made the dishes taste so much better than in the past, until after these few times we both realized it was the chicken itself.
Not often that a meat ingredient shines that much.
So, I vote for Callister.
City Pages - Best of 2011
I would hardly call B'Wiched a deli. It's a lunch-time sandwich shop and no more, or less. The pastrami is pretty good, but it's not superb, and the whole place lends itself to a certain feeling of rip-offedness. I've never felt fully satisfied after going there. My initial idea of their sandwiches always strikes me as having been far better than the actual sandwiches.
City Pages - Best of 2011
I haven't had the Anchor fries in some time, but at a recent visit my wife and I agreed that the Town Hall Tap's fries were killer.
Heidi's 2.0 redux
I'm excited to try this rendition out. I tried Heidi's before the fire and thought the pricing was spectacular for what you got.
I'm excited to hear that the '91 montelena was still drinking well. That's great. The oldest bottle I've had recently was a '98 Archery Summit (OR) pinot, which, given its relative lack of tannic structure, had held up all this time and was great.
Lucia's Wine Bar
As well, which I didn't mention, was that the wine I had was warm, so much so that I couldn't initially tell when it entered my mouth--it seemed the exact same temperature. This blunted much of what could have been taste.
It would be nice to have a wine bar that took their wine offerings as seriously as they did their branding of themselves.
Though King's Wine Bar, in south Minneapolis, offers a pretty good number of 10 reds by the glass, none are particularly interesting, or beyond what I could sample myself given an 8 to 12-dollar trip to a local hooch mart.
Lucia's Wine Bar
Four by-the-glass reds and five whites do not a wine bar make, and thus Lucia's is, in that category, a failure. And the decor seems on par with an Ikea meatballery.
Still, I have always had good to great bites here, and it remains a favorite of my wife and mine. Their petite tenderloin with house-made demi was outstanding, their late-night pizzas are always competent, their veggies are always fresh and vibrant, and their service is always bright and snappy.
This is one of those places that is a solid mainstay, a place that knows its spot and occupies it with reasonable flair. If only they could open up the wine offerings a bit....
-----
Lucia's Wine Bar
1432 W 31st St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sun Street Breads
I popped in here last week as well, and left without anything. I had read about a few of her offerings, like the Apple of My Eye Rye and a few others that I was interested in purchasing, but when I arrived, at 1 p.m. on a Thursday, there were four baguettes and two loaves of sourdough seemingly available.
I did not see any of the breads listed on her website there upon the menu.
I don't expect all the breads to be available all the time, but I did expect more than what was on offer. Perhaps a weekend would be better?
Restaurants everyone loves--except you
"I can get a piece of beef that's just as good at Whole Foods on Grand for 1/3rd the price ($16-$20 / lb for dry-aged rib eye, $9.99-$15.99 for regular prime-grade ribeye) and I can easily and quickly cook it as well or better than the steak house in my home..."
I would disagree with this. While great beef is becoming available to the masses, a proper steak-house has access to and dibs on the the first wave of prime cuts coming out of the slaughterhouses. As well, their cooking devices are (or, should be) capable of heat far greater than what you could produce at home, which in turn produces (or, should produce) greater carbonization, carmelization, a.k.a., Maillard reaction, a.k.a., sear, which in turn produces (or, should produce) a more complex and satisfying piece of beef.
Now, whether this is true in MSP is another question. I lived in Chicago for some time, and it was certainly true there.
-Parker
Where to get Corned Beef?
TJ's corned beef is also without nitrates/trites and is one dollar less than Whole Foods, at $4.99/lb.
Where to get Corned Beef?
Trader Joe's sells great Corned Beef, for a great price, around this time of year. It is private-labeled.
Has anyone tried Harriet Brewery?
You cannot. There is a law prohibiting the filling of personal containers (meaning, any container not marked with Harriet Brewing's logo).
Best Pho?
Pho Tau Bay all the way. I'm not from Minnesota, but it seems like when people say "Minnesota nice," they mean that so-and-so seems nice enough but that niceness did not hark a greater, nourishing depth to it.
This is what I feel about Quang. It is the Minnesota nice to Pho Tau Bay's Kentucky charm. I'm not from Kentucky either, though, so that analogy could be totally asinine.
-----
Pho Tau Bay
2837 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Has anyone tried Harriet Brewery?
I just picked up a growler this afternoon (about thirty minutes ago). I met Jason, the brewer and owner, who seemed like an ebullient and good fellow. When I showed up at their scheduled sales time of four, the door was locked and when I was let in I was told that they weren't ready to sell the growlers yet. There were three other people waiting when I got there, and I got one they found in a fridge right off the bat.
All of which is to say that logistically speaking they don't have it all together, but it shouldn't matter in the near future, because the beer I have now, the West Side IPA, a Belgian-style pale ale, with a nice spice forefront and a great downturn of bitterness at the back end, is all around quite well-structured. I'm highly enjoying it.
Right now this seems to be Jason's only offering, though this Saturday will mark the release of a Dark Abbey dubbel.
I say go and support him--it's well-made beer. $17 for a growler, which includes the growler deposit (which I'm assuming is about 5 bucks).
-Parker
Sea Change's Raw Bar
Had some oysters and langoustines last night at Sea Change's raw bar. (Actually, it's not really a raw bar at which you sit--it's the hot grill for the entire restaurant--with the salads and sauces plated elsewhere.)
We had to give the hostess a deep glare and a gruff "Oysters and apps don't constitute a dining experience?" in order to be seated at the raw bar itself; in stating that the raw bar space was reserved for "full-dining," she tried to relegate us to the bar-bar, around the corner, with four televisions blaring taco bell commercials. If I wanted to eat oysters that way, I'd go to hooters. (well, I wouldn't, but you get the point.)
The oysters from washington were fantastic (though expensive, of course, but it was a sort of celebration). Prince Edward Island's oysters didn't have great oceanic taste structure, and the British Columbia ones were wonderfully, but just too, briny.
The langoustines, doused with hot olive oil, with speckles of rosemary and chile, were of high quality and preparation, but, with a trip to coastal seafoods, this is not something you couldn't re-create in five minutes. Rosemary is a pungent flavor as well--something along the lines of lavender and thyme might work better, but they were good. Not $15 good, but good.
The main problem with Sea Change continues to be the manner in which they position themselves within the dining realm. They should absolutely encourage people wishing to eat oysters and drink a few glasses of wine at the "raw bar," as opposed to trying to shun them into an inferior experience.
Though the service, by Ruby, was great this time around--this is an absolute 180 degree difference from what I've experienced in the past, which has led me to relegate myself to just the raw bar, as opposed to the "full-dining experience."
Perhaps, though, in the end, a trip to coastal seafoods and a good oyster knife, is all you really need to re-create this. Slap some posters of playwrights on your walls and take a straight shot of rot-gut to get the bad taste in your mouth of a poor initial hostess experience, and you've probably saved yourself $65.
-----
Sea Change
806 Second Street S., Minneapolis, MN 55415
Sea Change restaurant at the Guthrie
I too have had very uninformed service, to the point where I considered how it was possible to be this uninformed and derive your living from the service industry.
The food was pretty good, but the service and staff knowledge is below an Applebee's-level restaurant.
If it's for a special occasion, I would seek victuals elsewhere.
Sea Change Rest at the New Guthrie
My impressions were that the food was very well crafted--the scallops were particularly delightful, thought all in the group (and my parents among us are from maine), but the service was particularly lackluster. Everything was served promptly, and orders were taken efficiently---but it was more of a "service by committee" type experience---a fact which very much diminished our overall feeling of the place. When asking questions about certain dishes before ordering, we were met with mushy, incoherent answers that added up to the clear impression that they didn't know very much about what they were serving.
This could have changed in the past few months, but I doubt it.
Cevapcici---anyone know where to get it?
Any place that provides this wonderful sausage in the Twin Cities area?
Birchwood Cafe + Minneapolis interior design--what gives?
Had my first meal at Birchwood this past week. The local cheese plate great, if delivered with no indication as to what cheese was what, and it came with a small smoked trout fillet that sent my wife giving me permission to cook trout again (It seems I've had my share of culinary trout bombs).
The swiss chard agnolotti in a lemon-dill butter were absolutely fantastic, although I wish there were more of them. Half-price wine gave us a Jumilla with its typical southern-spanish heat (it came in at 14.5%) and vague (read: somewhat flabby) spiciness. Although for 11 dollars what do you expect?
We sat outside.
This was the keystone to our experience. Had we not snagged an outdoor table in the particularly nice weather, I have to say that the arch of it all comes down, for the primary reason that the inside seems like something of a Soviet cafeteria.
I mean, I get that it is a "cafeteria," but it doesn't have to look like one--especially given the food and service they're doling out (fantastic).
If the owners took a moment to consider putting in something like a darkened booth atmosphere around the perimeter, making it look like some place with character in which I'd be happy to spend my pennies, I think they'd have a better thing going. I've heard more than a few people suggest it seems like more of a breakfast/lunch place to them---and the interior, I'm sure, is the reason.
I've seen this happen elsewhere around town--most recently at HauteDish, whose interior is impossibly strangely laid-out, with two large televisions above the bar, directly behind which is a Gaza strip of bad carpet and then a string of low, un-private booths. The "HauteDish" dish was good, but I felt like I was at a VFW, and am in no hurry to return.
Why wouldn't these people put more effort into the surroundings?
What gives?
-----
Birchwood Cafe
3311 E 25th St, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Roadtrip from Rockford to Bloomington, IL---any good eats along I-39?
Taking above mentioned roadtrip (actually to Robinson, IL, through Champaign) for the Fourth of July.
Any good eats close to our route down 39-south?
Anything unusual or good would be welcome.
Thanks,
Parker
Ngon--specificity?
All,
I've heard quite a few good things with regard to Ngon, with most saying it's some of the best in the Twin Cities.
Looking at their menu, I'm left wondering as to the best of what?
I get the local/seasonal aspect of it--that's a definitive plus.
However, more specifically, are most people enchanted with their higher end dinner entrees (elk medallions, and so forth)?
Or is this the type of place that gets the traditional dishes spot-on (e.g., their lower-priced pho, bun, et al...)?
With limited dining funds--always good to be armed with the proper knowledge.
Thanks,
Parker
Restaurants everyone loves--except you
I'll be the first to say this one: Bar La Grassa. Extremely underwhelmed, and we tried nine dishes.
Ethiopian-MSP?
With the apparent closing of Tam Tam's on Cedar Street (according to their website), are there any Ethiopian/African restaurants (I prefer Ethiopian-specific dishes, though Tam Tam's was a pan-African restaurant) that you all like here around this part of town of Cedar/Riverside (which I know to be dense in an African population), or, barring that, in the city of Minneapolis as a whole?
Thanks!
-Parker
Ginger Hop (MSP)
I would love to give the benefit of the doubt to any restaurant that seems like it's putting its best foot forward, but it just didn't seem like the case here. The dishes seemed to me completely uninterested in flavor (how do these dishes make it out of the kitchen tasting so bland?), rather than providing mock-"asian" food products to those intrigued by the restaurant's location. The tofu that came in my pad lao when I was there was crinkled and tough--the effect of sitting out and awaiting addition to a dish when called upon. Actions like this are unnecessary shortcuts that, at least to me, connote a not-very enthusiastic food-plan. It's a slop-together attitude that seemed to be reflected in the interview the owner gave on Heavytable.com recently.
