Review: Owamni

31 March 2024

Some not so great food stuff on this trip, including the odd and not-quite-there dinner at Harvester Kitchen in Sioux Falls. I headed off before dawn and there was some talk about snow, so I went north and spent part of the morning in eastern South Dakota before heading east back towards Minneapolis.

The weather held, but you can see the snow and ice melt was less and less as you got about half way to Minneapolis…then it cleared up more. I was shocked when I rolled into Minneapolis and the snow and ice was all but gone. Wow, did it rain while I was gone? In any case, I tried to catch up with some of my plans deferred from Friday.

It all went well until my rental car, a shitty Hyundai Kona – known for engine breakdowns – decided to die on a highway on-ramp. Lucky I managed to steer it to the shoulder. The rest of the day was ruined. Waited around for a tow truck to get rid of the car, and I took a Lyft to Owamni, my dinner destination.

I was early by 90 minutes and chose to sit at the counter, but they were fine. It was a busy Easter Sunday night at this popular eatery focused on indigenous ingredients and prep. I had been wanting to eat here for ages, so I was really excited about this dinner.

Odd, like last night, they don’t have a cocktail list. So I just went with wine and ordered a few dishes. I was warned they come out fast…

Almost too fast. This was the big plate I ordered, the smoked quahog clams. Really? The sofkee, which was good, was lukewarm. The clam/crab shred was cold, partly icy, and full of crab cartilage. It’s like they expected the sofkee to heat up the seafood, but it didn’t do that; instead it chilled the sofkee so the whole thing was this unpleasant cold temperature.

The venison tartare was far better, the right flavours and temperature. The chips were great.

I could not get my server’s attention for more wine. Took about a minute of waving like a madman to finally get it. Then the snack dish came out, popcorn and crickets.

This was good, but an odd mixture – especially the popcorn being sweet. Needed a spoon to eat this dish. But it was good.

That wasn’t bad, except for the big dish that seems off. But I’m ready for more!

After 10 minutes I’m no longer ready for more. I could not get my server’s attention as he was just standing around talking to his friends. I’m a big proponent of fair wages for servers, but when you take the tip incentive out of the picture, you start to get those who couldn’t care less about serving their customers. So I just asked for the bill after I had to approach another server. He finally came by and I said I was gonna order more food but couldn’t get his attention, and he had a lame “oh sorry” that he clearly did not mean.

This last exchange was so off-putting I paid and headed out for another extended Lyft wait. This trip is ending so fucking badly, from the rental car meltdown to this sad dining experience. I’m done. And as I was almost back to my weird hotel I realised I forgot my jacket on their coat rack. Damn. Screw it, I’m not going back there, that jacket needs to be replaced anyway.

What a shitty way to end a trip. Owamni could be really fantastic with some quality control – both front and back of house. Sadly there wasn’t enough of it this evening, and turned someone who had been in happy anticipation to someone drowning in disappointment.

Now for that 3.30am alarm…

Owamni
420 South 1st Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Trendy Does Not Equal Good…

29-30 March 2024

One of the things you notice if you travel a lot is that when you rely on stuff you find online when you do your food research, you get some gems – and you get some duds. I’ve had plenty of duds recently, and sadly, I have to add two more now. And these are all “trendy” places.

If you read my previous review on that excellent dinner at Kado no Mise in Minneapolis, you’ll note early on I mentioned I had lunch at a trendy place that went rather subpar? Sadly the place in question was the highly-raved Union Hmong Kitchen.

I got there not long after it opened on this Friday and ordered. It was quiet as it was early, so I just chilled out trying to plan what I was going to do due to the ice changing my plans. Then my lunch arrived.

My heart sank. The pork belly looks sad, really sad. They were some of the worst roast pork belly I’ve had. Stringy, at times all fat, and almost no flavour. It’s like someone forgot to season this. This does not even compare to the amazing Hmong pork belly I’ve had at places like Union Market in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which had some of the best Hmong meats I’ve ever had, or more recently, Hmong Express in Appleton, Wisconsin.

I will say the sausage, which I took away, was far, far better. But this belly dish was just a cry for help, I’m sorry. I love Hmong meats, especially the pork belly, but this looks ridiculously lame compared to the stuff you can get at any small Hmong store in Wisconsin.

The next day I headed out of icy Minneapolis before dawn, as I planned to spend part of today in northern and north-west Iowa. I was amazed that merely 15 miles south of the Twin Cities there was very little snow or ice left. So I had a very productive day as I moved south, then south-west, then west through Iowa and eventually into South Dakota.

I drifted into my destination, Sioux Falls, at an earlier than expected hour, so I had time for a late lunch. I have this love for chislic and would grab it at every opportunity I get, so I decided to try this place called Urban Chislic.

I hesitated because it was featured on that crappy “DDD” show hosted by that gasbag who I will never forgive for what he said to me the night my restaurant closed. But I nevertheless took out an order each of the beef and lamb chislic and opened them up. Honestly, it don’t matter which one this was cuz they looked the same.

My heart sank again. This was really poor. Once I bit into it, I was even more sad. They forgot to season it. I called for no sauce because that’s the tradition, but these were dead plain. Worse, it was cold, 90 seconds after they brought it out from the kitchen? This also tells me they are not making these fresh. The lamb suffers more with that bad temerature than the beef, but both were awful.

Well, I got burned on both of these. Sad, as these places have amazing potential with great concepts, but the products I received are half-assed at best, shows no care. It won’t put me off pork belly, Hmong food, or chislic, but it will put me off these two establishments next time I visit Minneapolis or Sioux Falls.

Sigh…

Union Hmong Kitchen (Lake Street)
901 West Lake Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Urban Chislic
431 West 85th Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Review: Kado no Mise

29 March 2024

I got into Minneapolis early this Saturday morning. I knew the Twin Cities took a major snow hit last week after a nearly dry and almost-too-warm winter, but I was surprised it hasn’t melted off with the rain like it has in Chicago. Oh well, that may put a major damper in my plans today…

Yeah it did. I had to improvise a little, ended up hiking through at-times calf-deep snow and ice, so I got in a good workout. Sadly a poor lunch at a very hyped place didn’t help (I’ll write about this in a few days). So I was looking forward to my dinner at Kado no Mise, a much heralded Japanese restaurant located very close to the much-missed Bachelor Farmer.

Kado no Mise apparently do a kaiseki night on Tuesdays, which is too bad as it’s something I definitely would have loved to try. But I have high hopes for this place as I rolled in on my Lyft and headed up the stairs. And I sense a good evening, as I was seated at the counter where Chef Shigeyuki Furukawa was stationed.

Honestly it didn’t start too well. Just before I was about to use the hot towel to wipe my hands, the server took it away…geez, really? And the first sake pour was a little light. However, once I saw the first dish, I was far happier.

Now this was a welcome sight, hotaru-ika (firefly squid). Not had this in awhile, as you can still taste the essence of ink as you bite into this. Tasty dish, good start. A different sake was poured and the very hot chawanmushi was next.

Subtle, took awhile to bring this out, from the shiitake to the dashi. I thought maybe this particular sake ate into this dish a little due to its subtlety. Whatever the case, I enjoyed it more without the sake, drinking it all afterwards.

A plate of other snacks showed up, with the botan-ebi as a delicious bite. The celery was interesting, once again, subtle and nuanced. I fear this may be lost on some diners. At this point a larger sake pour happened as we enter the sushi segment. Chef Furukawa got to work and we have a series of breams to start.

The tai (sea bream) was quite nice, but the kasugodai (baby sea bream) was really fantastic.

Lovely stuff. Then the sakuradai (cherry bream).

Tasty morsel that’s for sure. BTW the rice is excellent, a good balance with the fish and consistency about perfect. And the bream series ends with kinmedai (golden eye snapper).

I’m not the biggest fan of kinmedai, but this was rather good. I enjoyed that series, you don’t often get a bream set like that. Then with another sake, we have the tuna series. Of course it starts with akami.

One of the better lean tuna I’ve had in a long time, really delicious.

The chutoro was excellent, really lovely flavours that just melted in your mouth. Again, the excellent rice made it even better.

The otoro was good, but I think the chutoro was the winner of this series. Good stuff. Another sake pour and we have the more distinct flavoured pieces.

Shimesaba (cured mackerel) didn’t work as well for me, as I thought the ginger was distracting. As a mackerel fan I really don’t like this adulterated. Oh well, a rare miss tonight. Then a nice surprise, sagoshi (young Spanish mackerel).

You don’t see sagoshi too often, and this was quite delicious. And of course, kohada (gizzard shad).

Again not one of my favourites, something that often comes on the early side of an omakase, so I kind of like this order.

That was a good set. But it’s not over yet because I ordered the more extensive menu. So next up was some uni.

In a wee handroll, delicious. You can so taste the sea here, just wonderful.

Then we have some delicious tuna, just a great way to ease into the last item…

Yep, wagyu, something that’s pretty common in omakases these days. I don’t remember nikuzushi ever ending up in these things except in trendy non-edomae places, but it seems to have spread. Delicious.

That was quite good! And it was clearly the end as the tamago was presented.

Quite good, with some quality of care in making it. Chef Furukawa asked if there’s anything I wanted, and I thought let’s do one more saba as a palate cleanser…

Well, I forgot about the ginger. Oh well, I guess it did work as a palate cleanser!

I probably didn’t need one as this miso soup was absolutely delicious! Chef said they use a combination of three different red misos, and the depth and complexity of this soup was astounding. A wonderful way to end the night!

A nice dessert closed the dining experience, as well as a wonderful conversation with Chef Furukawa about various topics, from interesting kaiseki around the US to the state of the restaurant business. A really good chat.

I thanked Chef Furukawa and headed out…well, not quite yet. I dropped into the whisky bar connected to the restaurant and wanted to see how it is. A cocktail and a less-well-known Japanese whisky later, I was happy and ready for my Lyft back to my hotel.

Kado no Mise definitely passes the test and it’s quite excellent. I really now want to try to come back on a Tuesday to do their kaiseki, so that’s on my list for my next trip to the Twin Cities. But gotta figure out how to do this on a Tuesday without missing that much work…

But this is highly recommended! Is my luck on this trip turning around?

Kado no Mise
33 North First Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Review #2: Bachelor Farmer

28 July 2019

Well, a bit of a gap as I made my way from Fresno back to Los Angeles. After a very lacklustre Hawaiʻian plate lunch at a previously-reliable Rutt’s Hawaiian Cafe (expansion has hurt them badly), I flew out from LAX. And I was pleasantly surprised by Spirit Airlines, as it got me into Minneapolis smoothly — which is really not their dodgy reputation.

After some less-than-reliable stuff at Hertz after midnight, I headed to my hotel nearby — to be greeted by more incompetence at the Crowne Plaza that meant my sleep time was curtailed even more. I didn’t get to sleep until 2am, just to hear a 6am alarm. I had a long day of driving, making a big loop south of the Twin Cities that took me into north Iowa as well, snaking along the Mississippi River back to the Twin Cities.

I was hungry, and I’m glad I have a booking this Sunday evening at the Bachelor Farmer in downtown Minneapolis. I had an excellent meal there last time I was in town, and I was really looking forward to returning.

The weather had turned badly and it was pouring quite a bit as I arrived. I chose to sit at the bar because in the wisdom of local officials, street parking requires payment even on a Sunday night. So I fed as many coins as I had into the meter for one of the very few spaces not blocked by construction, thanking the pouring rain for the availability of parking spots.

I enjoyed a cocktail and looked over the menu. I was hungry, having not eaten since I was in Los Angeles over a day earlier, so I ordered my food and chilled out. Eventually it all came, since I designed for a main and 2 starters to act as sides. You’ll understand in a second. But my main course was lamb…

This lamb is so good, cooked perfectly and tasting like lamb — not like so many of the bland lamb you get these days. Locally sourced, this is why this restaurant is always listed as one of the best restaurants in the Midwest. Lovely flavour and texture, this went well with my two sides…

First were some excellent beets in a cashew base. Lovely, better than the rough ones I had the other day in Fresno. Worked very well with the main course. And the second “side” was even better, the carrots.

I loved their carrots since my previous visit, so I ordered it again. Lovely quality produce, with some sugar snap peas in addition to some local cow’s milk cheese. These two sides made the already excellent lamb even better! This is why I really like this place, they really have some of the best produce — and the kitchen that’s able to maximise their potential. Good produce can be ruined by bad kitchen work too, which sadly happens too often — but not here. Excellent!

I kept an eye on my phone as my meter was about to expire, but it started to pour very heavily outside, so thinking the meter maid won’t bother to get drenched on a Sunday night, I ordered a dessert.

A nice panna cotta with woodruff and various berries, a nice delicious end to this evening. I was way past my meter now, and not wanting to push it too far (plus I’m driving so better not to order another drink), I thanked the excellent crew and headed into the downpour.

The Bachelor Farmer has reaffirmed its status as the best in Minneapolis, and one of the very best in the Midwest. Even with some major kitchen changes, they have kept up the same excellent quality. I hope to return here sooner than the 3-year gap since my last visit! Highly recommended as always!

Bachelor Farmer
50 North 2nd Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota

* Well, if there’s anything that’ll keep me from coming back to Minneapolis is the STUPID DRIVERS here. It’s a heavy downpour. It’s night time. WHY DO YOU NOT HAVE YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON? I nearly killed myself with TWO idiots driving DOUBLE the speed limit on a highway cutting through traffic WITH NO HEADLIGHTS ON after 9pm. W. T. F.