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…

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