Restaurant Review: Heidi's

Have I mentioned before how much we love going to brunch around here? The multitude of choices at reasonable prices, its like the best of both worlds. Our friends Ben and Angie also enjoy brunching so we sometimes meet up for a double date. One Sunday morning this Fall we all met at Heidi's on my "suggestion" as a place to try out (I will have to give props to Mpls - St Paul Magazine for the heads up).

Being smart we decided to go on a Sunday morning in hopes that it wasn't too crowded. Score one of us, it wasn't! After we were seated everyone (except me) ordered bottomless coffee, reminding us of college when people would drive 45 minutes to the nearest Perkin's at 11 pm at night and do the same thing. To put into perspective as to why anyone would drive that far that late for coffee: We went to college in a small town where everything closed at 8 pm. Got it? Thought so.

Back to Heidi's, after receiving our drinks the waiter brought us out Banana Muffins with whipped salted butter on the house! You heard that right: On. The. House. Just because. Score two for us. They were delicious to say the least. The tops were as crisp and sweet as muffin tops get, and the middle was chewy and full of banana flavor. I'm not sure what kind of salt they use in their butter but that butter was AMAZING!

Restaurant Review: Herkimer Pub & Brewery

Birthday girl with her birthday dessert
of carrot cake

I'm a little ashamed to say, that at the ripe age of 24, I can count on my hands the amount of times I've been to a bar. This past Friday, I fell asleep at 9:30 pm watching The Boondock Saints. Yep, that's me. So to say I'm a little excited to write this review is a bit of an understatement.

One night over the summer I (we) did the unthinkable and went to a bar to celebrate a friends birthday. Not only that but the bar of choice was actually my idea. Had I ever been there? Nope. Thank goodness for Google.

Mark's makeshift "24" birthday card

The place in question is Herkimer Pub & Brewery located in Uptown. Inside its hip and interesting, exactly what I was expecting. There was shuffleboard behind our table and a handful of board games to the left. After dinner, the birthday girl, KT, wanted to play Apples to Apples, which we did and Jessica ended up winning. But now to the drink and food.

Restaurant Review: Zelo

As much as I love spontaneous dates, sometimes I get disappointed with the way they turn out. What can I say? I'm a planner y'all. So imagine my disappointment when I took the bus downtown one summer day for an impromptu lunch at our favorite spot, just to learn it closed 15 minutes before we arrived.

After whining for about 10 minutes hunger took over and we hopped on over to Zelo. Given it was a hot summer day we chose to sit on the patio, perfect for people watching. We were given menus and brought out a bread basket to enjoy while we waited for our meals to arrive.

I ordered half a brazilian salad with salmon and a cup of tomato basil soup. The salad came with mixed greens, hearts of palm, celery, tomato topped with a lemon vinaigrette. To ensure that I got some protein I added a piece of salmon and was (pleasantly) shocked to see that it covered practically the entire salad. The salmon was seared to perfection and paired well with the lemon vinaigrette on the salad. The soup, while flavorful, was just too heavy for me. I felt like I was eating a bowl of pasta sauce, so I will skip this soup in the future.

Do you see the size of that piece of salmon?

Before I get to what Mark ordered I need to share a conversation Mark and I had while browsing the menu:

Me: Do you know what you are going to order?

Mark: I actually think I am going to get something lighter for lunch. *half a second later* I'm getting the lasagna.

That is probably my favorite quote from Mark ever. He didn't even take a breath between saying he was going light and deciding on probably the heaviest menu item. Maybe you had to be there to get why its so funny?

Anywho, on to his dish: lasagna with sausage. Overall, it was very 'meh'... The piece was enormous, more than any one person needs in a sitting. The sauce was heavy, the sausage wasn't predominate enough, and the ending impression was that he wouldn't order it again. The one positive: he was beyond full until dinner.

About to take on his lasagna, which is much larger
than this picture makes it seem

Zelo was perfect for Nicollet Mall people watching but just ok when it came to the food. I loved my salad and if I ever go back would order it again. However I'm not sure if that is because of how good it was or out of fear of being disappointed in my choice of dish.

8.21.12

Restaurant Review Restaurant Week Summer 2012 Edition: Meritage

Mark's Zoolander face

As Mark mentioned, when Restaurant Week rolls around we spent copious amounts of time picking out new places to try; however this time around there was one restaurant that was a shoo-in, Meritage in St. Paul. You see, a couple months ago Msp Mag released their "best of the best"restaurants issue and Meritage beat out our beloved Vincent for best french restaurant in the readers poll.

Obviously we had scope the place out for ourselves. The menu looked good, but they had some big expectations to fulfill. For starters, did they have a cool french-looking waiter to give Mark free iced tea?

Due to the fact that the restaurant is all the way in St. Paul (Minneapolis, you feel me?) and Mark had to work all week we went for dinner.  As with most Restaurant Week participants, Mertiage put together a 3-course meal menu for a fixed price of $30. So it's a nice way to try some of the best restaurants in the city for a reasonable price.

Restaurant Week menu

When we arrived it was extremely loud and busy. The place is laid out kind of like a small European cafe (not that i've ever been to Europe, just what I imagine it to be). We were seated in a tiny booth/table with no room between us and the next booth/table. Our waitress came and although she was clearly American she was nice so no strikes were given against her or Meritage. Since we had studied the menu for weeks prior we were able to place our orders right away. This calmed me immensely because it was already close to 7:30, I was starving (the three pieces of buttered bread I inhaled upon arrival did nothing to sooth my hunger pains), and the place was packed with no end of incoming traffic in sight.

Luckily, I remembered to take a picture
before devouring and asking for more

Restaurant Review Restaurant Week Summer 2012 Edition: FireLake Grill

Every time that restaurant week comes around, Tara and I spend hours researching and debating which restaurants we want to visit. This summer, we had narrowed our lunch restaurant down to a few finalists, and the winner was Fire Lake Grill. While Fire Lake isn't one of the celebrated restaurants in the Twin Cities, it had some great choices on the restaurant week menu.

We visited Fire Lake on a weekday. I got off of work, and we walked over to the Radisson hotel. The host showed us to our table where we were seated in generously-cushioned chairs. When our waitress came, we had to specially request restaurant week menus, but she was happy to provide them.

Restaurant week menu

Restaurant Review: Sweet Taste of Italy (Crystal Location)

"Please form a single file line." Anyone else remember
hearing that all through elementary school?

Way back in July, after our day at Canterbury Park with Daren and Jeff we went out to eat at a place called Sweet Taste of Italy in Crystal. I think the Crystal location is their second shop because it was tiny, like the seating area must be navigated in single file tiny. For some reason Mark and I enjoy restaurants with small kitchens connected to the order counter and limited seating. I think we were born cafe type people.

For being in such a cramped space it's got quite an extensive menu: sandwiches, pastas, wings.... All of which we wanted to try, but lets be honest Mark and I went for the pizza. We have a duty to the great people who happen to stumble upon this blog to show them the way to great Minneapolis pizza. It's a tasty job, and we are more than happy to do it. No "thank you" necessary :)

Sandwiches, pasta, and wings will have to wait for another day.

Back to the pizza. They do both by the slice and full size pizzas, which makes it a great spot for a quick snack or ordering take out. On the day we visited we were in a bit of a hurry to catch a movie so we went the pizza-by-the-slice route. This worked out well as it allowed us to try more toppings.

Mark ordered a slice of sausage & onion and I got a green pepper & onion. When our two slices came we were pleasantly surprised to see that each "slice" was the size of two normal sized pieces. They were thin crust pizza slices with a respectable amount of sauce, cheese, and toppings. And when I say a respectable amount of cheese I mean quality mozzarella oozing off the sides. As for the toppings: the green bell pepper was fresh and had really good flavor, the rings of red onion were cut thick and not skimped on, and the sausage was marble size (some bigger) and spicy.

Absolutely delectable.

We devoured them alongside a tossed salad (that makes it healthy, right?) and it ended up being the perfect amount of food for dinner.

Look at the size of Mark's one "slice" and those sausage bits.

A "slice" of pizza with 2 toppings of your choice comes at a price of $3.75. The choices available for toppings are lengthy , especially for the size of the place.

For our rating:

1. Crust: 6 - Remarkably sturdy for a thin crust but nothing to blow you away.

2. Sauce: 8 - Mild, good amount, and not overpowering. However, it wasn't on Buca's level.

3. Toppings: 7 - Both of us were big fans of the sauce & cheese but would need to try more topping to give a better rating.

Overall Sweet Taste of Italy gets a 7, the pizza was pretty tasty but the cheese and size of toppings were the only parts that really stood out. Above average and a steal for the price.

Not bad.

7.7.12