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…

Review: Maman Zari

26 March 2024

I’ve been dying to try Maman Zari here in Chicago since they opened. Billed as the only Persian tasting menu in town, and as a big fan of Persian cuisine, I was really looking forward to getting there after a very long day at the office.

It all went well, with a shockingly clean and relatively empty Red Line ride to change for the last slog on the Brown to Kedzie, where Maman Zari was located adjacent to the station. I got there early but was seated. I relaxed with a cocktail and looked at the special Nowruz tasting menu they have. Interesting, lots of traditional dishes, I’m curious about their take on them.

A nice beet-centric amuse came out, which helped get my palate ready for the evening. When I finished my cocktail, a nice bubbly from Burgundy is poured and we have the kuku sabzi to start the tasting.

An interesting and delicious traditional herb frittata, with the fruit condiment adding a nice touch. The bubbles worked well with this dish. Then a pour of a nice albariño for the next dish, which is actually a dual dish, of which the first was revealed under a smoke lid.

Mirza ghasemi is a traditional smoked eggplant dish and this was done very well. Lovely cherrywood aromas too. Plus those crisps are borderline addictive. The accompanying sabzi khordan is a traditional herb service.

Quite nice, the marinated olives were delicious. All interesting takes on traditional Persian dishes. Then a pour of a pinot blanc and we have the salad dish.

A nicely-plated version of the traditional Shirazi salad, with the elements in strips instead of the usual chopped. But the three key elements of cucumber, tomato, and onions shine nicely here. This sets us up for the larger dishes, as well as the nice pour of the rarely seen xynisteri from Cyprus.

The mahi sefid ba sabzi polo is their take on the traditional fish fry with herbal rice, using branzino, and this was done very well. The fish was delicious and rich, although the rice was a touch rich with the already rich fish. So far this has been a very nice tasting menu, not blown away, but very solid.

Sadly that changed with the next dish, the jujeh kabob negindar. The chicken with saffron was not tasty and had that way overcooked consistency that reminded me of chicken you get on an airplane back in the 1990s. The mince on top was a little better, but it was also lacking. Sadly this was a letdown, only the Greek rosé carried this dish.

For the final savoury dish a pinot noir from Oregon was poured and we have the reshteh polo ba ghormeh sabzi.

This is an interesting take on another traditional dish, but I think it was way too oily. Maybe a touch ambitious, as it was hard to eat all the rice under the fried noodles, all soaked in oil. The lamb and beans were also a little lacking to be honest. It’s too bad that things started to weaken after that excellent fish dish.

That was also the end of the pairings, so I asked for a coffee and some arak as the dessert was presented.

This was quite nice, with the traditional sholezard on top of the ferni. Mixing them made them especially delicious, a nice way to close the night.

A plate of cookies came as I finished my beverages. However, a billing mistake (in my favour) came up so I pointed it out to them and they thanked me, and comped me another drink as they processed the bill. The service was excellent, so I added a tip on top of the pre-added service charge.

I thanked the very nice folks and headed for my bus on a windy evening. Sadly the food started to weaken just as it got into the main dishes, and that kabob was just not good. Again, this was a special menu, so perhaps I should have come when it was their normal tasting. Let’s see, maybe I’ll check them out again in the future. But it’s worth a try, at least once.

Maman Zari
4639 North Kedzie Avenue
Chicago, Illinois