Review: Harvester Kitchen by Bryan

30 March 2024

Although I had a good day getting to Sioux Falls, it went a little pear-shaped after that bad late lunch at Urban Chislic. And my hotel was…well, very weird. It was almost like how a horror movie starts, from the check-in to the weird room and weird people staying there…

I’m hoping my dinner tonight at Harvester Kitchen by Bryan will keep the positive vibes flowing. I was surprised to see a tasting menu only place in Sioux Falls, and that excited me. I always liked Sioux Falls (despite the bad chislic today). I had an excellent evening at Parker’s Bistro a few years back, and I was hoping for a similarly good night tonight.

My “horror movie” experience continued with an odd Uber driver, but luckily the restaurant wasn’t far away. It was Saturday night and it was nearly empty. I wonder if it’s because of the price point or the concept? In any case, I was seated at a nice banquette and I relaxed and looked over the menus.

The friendly staff got things going but I also noticed no real cocktails, just barely spiked mocktails. So I got one, and it was a little meh. I could have just gone with a plain mocktail or juice, but perhaps they don’t have a full license? Whatever the case, I chose the tasting with the meat/fish dishes, but skipped the pairing and did my own.

The first dish came out pretty quickly, but where is my wine? Took another 5 minutes for them to bring it out. Lucky it was a very generous pour of the Gruet, which I love. But these oysters, well, they didn’t work. First of all they didn’t bring out utensils, and I absolutely HATE eating oysters without them. They were not shucked well, shell fragments everywhere. Part of the oysters were frozen, whether that’s from the lemon ice or not I don’t know, but it was not good. A very weak start.

It didn’t take long before the turbot showed up. Now this was a 180-degree turn, as the fish was excellent, flavourful and cooked very well. Supposedly an urchin sauce, but that was a little weak. Plus the fish was good enough it didn’t need a clashing flavour.

I switched to a non-bubbly just in time for the next dish. If anything, the wine pours were very generous.

This is the pappardelle bolognese dish. Beautiful presentation, but unfortunately doesn’t maximise the utility of the sauce, which wasn’t anything special. I ended up trying to roll the pasta out, soak it in the sauce, and eat it like normal pasta, but that didn’t help. I also tried to keep it rolled, and stuffed the sauce into it like some dumpling, which was a little better as you got more of the sauce with the pasta. But alas, I can’t say I enjoyed this dish.

The shortrib was the last savoury dish and it was extremely tender, but the consistency was odd. Was this really shortrib? I’m not going to go into it, but it was tasty enough. Still, it just added more questions about this dinner.

By this time I was a little tired and got a coffee with my dessert.

Not bad. As I was eating it and sipping on my coffee, I heard Chef Bryan Moscatello (or someone else from the kitchen) come out to greet some of the tables. And shockingly that person didn’t acknowledge me. Wow. That says plenty.

I left this dinner disappointed in many ways, from dishes that just didn’t quite work to just a very weird vibe about the place. Oh well, at least it was better than the chislic earlier…

Harvester Kitchen by Bryan
196 East 6th Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

PS: Just when my night couldn’t get worse, my Lyft driver drives past me – twice – and cancels me even though he knew he went to the wrong place. Took another 15 minutes to get a ride…