Minnesota winters can be rough. My mind almost always drifts to thoughts of moving someplace warmer around this time of the year, but then I visit a place like HauteDish. The chef scene in the Twin Cities is so strong right now, it’s really hard to leave (especially when you throw in the whole lakes-in-the-summer thing).
Chef Landon Schoenefeld calls HauteDish “Modern Midwestern Cuisine” and the final night of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Restaurant Week was the perfect opportunity to get a sample at a special price. The long, narrow room on Washington Avenue is beautiful. You know you are in a great place when you start off with a drink called the Santos L. Halper (Jim Beam, lemon and honeycrisp). Colleen had an apple cider margarita, while I added an old fashioned later on.
The Restaurant Week special menu included first, second and third choices (we also added dessert for an additional charge). We both started off with the house salad, which was described as “South Dakota steak-house style” and was literally a work of art (check out all of the photos after the jump).
Presentation is big at HauteDish and the second course continued that trend. Colleen ordered the Mac N’ Cheese (taleggio, king crab, celery, truffle oil), while I ordered the Pork N’ Beans (“not from a can”). Looks don’t always translate to taste, but everything we had on Friday night was delicious.
For the third course, I picked one of the HauteDish classics, Tator Tot HauteDish (porcini, short rib, green beans, “tots” – pictured above). Holy smokes – it looked beautiful, tasted incredible and included the added surprise of cheese inside the tots! Colleen chose the porketta (celery root, gremolata, calabrian chili), which had the added benefit of being wrapped in bacon.
We finished the night with an order of blood orange sorbet for Colleen and an excellent chocolate crème brûlée cake for me. Service was great all night, with seemingly everyone on the clock stopping by our table to pick up empty dishes, refill water glasses or help us get fresh silverware.
HauteDish: another excellent dining option in a city packed with excellent options.
