Meritage

As much as I would like to love Heartland I can not. My experience was similar to yours. Even the little things like the bread do count. Mine were stale also. Mt last visit to Meritage was just short of wonderful. They used to have a Tasting Menu on Sunday nights that were quite a deal. As for Famous Dave"s I agree with Big E, if I'm in the neighborhood I would not hesitate to eat there. It's as...+READ As much as I would like to love Heartland I can not. My experience was similar to yours. Even the little things like the bread do count. Mine were stale also. Mt last visit to Meritage was just short of wonderful. They used to have a Tasting Menu on Sunday nights that were quite a deal. As for Famous Dave"s I agree with Big E, if I'm in the neighborhood I would not hesitate to eat there. It's as good as BBQ gets in Minnesota, that isn't saying much. Also running for cover.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (36 Replies) (by ibew292, created January 31, 2012)

mplsean,

I'm glad your experience was so much better than mine. It sounds like you had a great time and I wish my visit had been 1/2 as nice as your's.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to capitalize STARTER. I don't believe I ever complained about portion size. I tried to give an accurate reflection of what I was served. However, I'm really jealous that your pork was over twice as thick...+READ mplsean,

I'm glad your experience was so much better than mine. It sounds like you had a great time and I wish my visit had been 1/2 as nice as your's.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to capitalize STARTER. I don't believe I ever complained about portion size. I tried to give an accurate reflection of what I was served. However, I'm really jealous that your pork was over twice as thick as mine was.As I stated in my review, I thought he pork was very good..

My issues were with timing, tough veal and a manager who freely admitted there was a problem with the veal and yet did nothing about it. I would have loved to have the chef come my table, but we couldn't even get our waiter to pay attention to us.

I've heard nice things about Meritage. As I stated in my review, on a more normal night, ordering off the normal menu things would have likely been very different. For example, as we were waiting for our food we saw what looked like a crock of french onion soup go by. Something like that would take quite a bit longer to eat that the starters we had, thus accommodating much longer timing between courses. Again, I'm not saying they should have had the soup as a STARTER, only that waiters usually time courses based on what is being served.

I do appreciate your comments.

Finally, I love a good Sazerac but they are tough to find outside of New Orleans or my brother-in-laws house. Do you happen to know what they used for Absinthe and what type of Bitters they used? So many try to get away with using Angostura and it really isn't the same.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (33 Replies) (by RGT, created March 8, 2011)

Went to Scusi on Tuesday. Nice venue, good location, poor parking.

Service was very nice. It was busy, but the young staff were all working together. After we were seated our waitress came and took our drink order. When she brought our wine (great value on bottles of unpretentious but drinkable reds, whites, & sparkling) she asked if we had ever been to Scusi before. We hadn't and she then...+READ Went to Scusi on Tuesday. Nice venue, good location, poor parking.

Service was very nice. It was busy, but the young staff were all working together. After we were seated our waitress came and took our drink order. When she brought our wine (great value on bottles of unpretentious but drinkable reds, whites, & sparkling) she asked if we had ever been to Scusi before. We hadn't and she then explained that their policy was to have the food come out when it was ready – not everyone will receive their meal at the same time. Actually, this turned out great for us, as we like to share.

First out was the Chef choice salumeria board – six or so thin slices of good Soppressata, three ¼ inch slices of a small baguette, two small slices of a nice Fontina and a teeny tiny little cast iron skillet with some home made diced pickles. Good, but nothing special.

Next came the Prosciutto Wrapped Diver Scallops. They were two perfectly cooked, nicely seared wrapped scallops. Very good.

Next out was the Espresso rubbed beef tenderloin, soft polenta, veal demi glace. Everything was hot and the food looked nice. The approx. 6 ounce tenderloin was properly cooked. Nice flavor, but a bit chewy. The polenta was very good in both texture and flavor.

The Lobster ravioli, porcini tomato sauce were brought as we were sharing the tenderloin. Four squares of 2 ½ inch ravioli with a moderate amount of lukewarm stuffing, covered with a small amount of tomato based sauce. Okay, but kind of boring.

The desserts were Raspberry white chocolate cheese cake and Wild berry panna cotta. The cheesecake was a nice sized piece of standard, graham cracker crust cheesecake with some raspberry coulis squirted on the plate. The small panna cotta had one strawberry cut in half a sliced thin.

Overall it was a nice meal, but not a great value.

My wife and I dine out quite a bit and we like to go to a large variety of places. Sanctuary, W.A. Frost, Piccolo, the Porterhouse, Bin, Kincaid’s, The Lexington (amazing happy hour), as well as Scusi’s sister places Highland Grill and Longfellow grill are of few of the place we have been to recently. We’re easy going people, but we’ve been disappointed in Restaurant Week lately. Rarely does a place put their best foot forward, usually it’s a “special” menu of stripped down dishes that will never appear on the menu again.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (33 Replies) (by RGT, created March 5, 2011)

For us Restaurant Week was a mixed bag. Three restaurants and three significantly different experiences. As they are all long reviews I will split them into three separate reviews. I’ll work my way from my highest expectation to the lowest.

On a whim, my wife decided we should treat my mother and my 24 year old daughter, so there were four of us for our Meritage dining experience. All frequent...+READ For us Restaurant Week was a mixed bag. Three restaurants and three significantly different experiences. As they are all long reviews I will split them into three separate reviews. I’ll work my way from my highest expectation to the lowest.

On a whim, my wife decided we should treat my mother and my 24 year old daughter, so there were four of us for our Meritage dining experience. All frequent travelers who truly enjoy food and dine out frequently at a broad range of restaurants. Thursday, the four of us arrived at Meritage a bit early for our 8:00 reservation and we were promptly seated. The restaurant wasn’t quite full and was a bit loud, but we were seated by the window and overall things looked very nice. Our waiter arrived and gave us the menus and asked if we wished a beverage. I explained that we would be ordering wine so we would let him know our selection when we gave him our food order.

We looked at the menus and noticed that the Slow Cooked Beef Tenderloin, Pomme Dauphine, Braised Escarole & Black Olive Oil entrée had been replaced with a Stuffed Veal and Spaetzle. Not a big deal as we enjoy veal.

Soon the waiter came back and we ordered. For a starter two ordered the Roasted Beet, Endive & Orange Salad, Walnuts & Mustard, one ordered the Oysters Meritage, and I ordered the Roasted Garlic Sausage, Lentils and Sauce Diable. Three ordered the Stuffed Veal and I ordered the Grilled Fisher Farms Pork Chop, Spicy Carrots, Polenta & Garlic Kale. For dessert we ordered all of the different desserts, doubling up on the Beignet with Pear Caramel because one of our diners frequents New Orleans and wanted to see how their version would stack up. As there were four of us and we were all red wine drinkers I knew we would likely need two bottles with the meal. After looking at the menu I ordered an inexpensive Boudreaux, ($24) and my wife asked the waiter to please bring some extra water when he brought the wine glasses because, at 86, we like to dilute my mother’s wine. We sat back and enjoy our conversation and looking out the window.

About 30 minutes later our starters were delivered and soon after our waiter appeared with our wine. It appears that during Restaurant Week “starter” is short for “amuse bouche”. My garlic sausage consisted of two lukewarm ¼ inch thick slices of a 2 inch diameter sausage on two tablespoons of lentils. The lentils were the best part. The beet salad was two 1/8 inch thin slices of beet, 3 tablespoons of endive, and a few pieces of walnut scattered on the plate. The Oysters Meritage consisted of 3 very small oysters on the half shell resting on a bit of pink salt. It was pretty and what was there tasted fine. However, even eating very slowly, we were finished within 5 minutes. (Think smaller than Piccolo sized).

Our plates were cleared promptly by the busfolks and once again we sat, and sat, and sat. My elderly mother joked that we better not drink our wine too fast as it didn’t look like anyone would be back when we were out. At about 9:00 my daughter asked a passing wait staff if they could ask where our waiter was and when our food might arrive. Soon our waiter arrived to tell us that our food would be out shortly. No reason for the wait or an acknowledgement of his being absent for so long.

The food arrived 5 minutes later. The pork dish consisted of one ½ inch thick pork chop on a bed of polenta with some kale. Three micro green topped carrots were placed on the chop. The chop was cooked well with a slightly pink tinged interior. It had nice flavor and wasn’t dry. The polenta had a slightly grainy texture and a strange bitter finish. The kale was properly cooked. The veal was a ¾ slice of rolled stuffed veal with a nice sauce ad some mini spaetzle. Unfortunately, the veal was very tough. All agreed that it had very nice flavors, but it wasn’t tender like veal should be. When the waiter stopped by for the obligatory “how is our meal?” ; I replied that my pork was very nice, but that the other’s veal was very tough. He stared and me for 5 seconds and then left. Being nice people we sat for a while and then ate what was there. Again, even eating slowly we were done eating in 10-15 min. (even an 86 year old woman chewing tough veal). Our dishes were cleared promptly and again we sat, and sat and sat. After 15 – 20 minutes I asked a passing waiter to please get my bill. Our waiter showed up and stated that he had just “asked to have our deserts fired”, I said no thank you. He then asked if we wanted them to go. Again I said no, we didn’t want to wait anymore and we just wanted to leave. He left and came back with our bill – no "I’m sorry", no adjustment, just the bill as if we had eaten the whole meal as ordered. As I’m signing the receipt, and (like a fool) still leaving him the regular tip as I figure he really will need the money, the manager appears. Nicolas, the Directeur de Salle, asks if something is wrong. I explain that everything has taken very long, the waiter hasn’t been very attentive and that when we explained the veal was tough nobody cared. He said “Yes, we have had a problem with the veal tonight” and then he asked how long was our wait. I explained that it was now past 9:30 and we didn’t have our desserts. The yahoo actually said “Well, I don’t think that an hour and a half wait is unreasonable in a restaurant like this.” I looked at him and said rather sternly “I’m not going to argue with you, but this has been one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had.” At this point he takes the bill and goes away. He comes back, and gives me his card and asks that I email him and he will make sure when we come back we will have a better experience. I open the bill and he has taken off the $24 for wine. We still paid for everything else at full price, the tough veal, even the desserts we never saw. I even tipped the waiter $25 because he looked more overwhelmed than incompetent.

Meritage was a huge disappointment. I’m sure Nicolas is correct, on a different night they may shine. However, it takes an amazingly arrogant Manager to admit “there’s a problem with the veal” and do nothing about it; and then try to argue with the customer over an hour and a half wait time.

Finally, I frequent a number of high end restaurants and have never had anything like this happen before. I wonder if this experience was a result of Restaurant Week. Dumbed down menus, added staff, different clientele and increased traffic can cause issues for the small independent places. It almost felt like they were saying “I’m doing this because I have too, but I don’t like it”. In that case, they shouldn’t participate.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (33 Replies) (by RGT, created March 5, 2011)

My husband and I just visited Meritage tonight just to have their raw oysters. We just moved back to MN from the east coast recently and seafood is one of those things we miss the most, especially oysters.
I have to say that I was not impressed. For one, I'm just not into pretentiousness. It's about the food, not how people look while eating it. Meritage is the sort of place where the snooty...+READ My husband and I just visited Meritage tonight just to have their raw oysters. We just moved back to MN from the east coast recently and seafood is one of those things we miss the most, especially oysters.
I have to say that I was not impressed. For one, I'm just not into pretentiousness. It's about the food, not how people look while eating it. Meritage is the sort of place where the snooty host gives you the once over before he greets you. C'mon dude, I make more money than you and I'm not judging you lack of skill shuffling menus so quit it with the stink eye. We ordered an assortment of different species of raw oysters. My husband tried to order a Miller Lite and the waitress looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language. That made me giggle. The oysters arrived and they were all farm raised and lacking flavor. They weren't horrible but I didn't, "Taste the sea" when I ate any of them. Just bland and therefore disappointing. Also, having recently moved from the east coast and earnestly missing the good old oyster bars where real people go to eat real oysters, from the ocean...it was a bummer to have to pay $60 bucks for 14 oysters and 2 beers, (Not Miller Lite. LOL) I would gladly have paid that much though if they had been good.

Also, for the record. We recently ate at Pescara in Rochester. I know it's outside of MSP but the food was amazing and they had the best raw oysters I've had since I was actually sitting on the Chesapeake Bay eating them.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (21 Replies) (by moonpiermama, created December 22, 2010)

Meritage Oyster Bar is now open in St. Paul in the Hamm Building. I will be there Friday to try it out. REPLY (21 Replies) (by chelle, created December 15, 2010)