Red Stag Supper Club

Visited on Wednesday, October 22nd with Justin and Brittney

Ben's Review
We met my friend Justin and his girlfriend Brittney last Wednesday for dinner at the Red Stag Supper Club. Erin and I both read some reviews during the day of Red Stag to see what other people were saying. Several reviews mentioned the spotty service they received, so even though the most recent review I read was from May, it still made us a little nervous about what to expect. The pictures that I had seen made the place look pretty cool and it's interesting to note that they are the first LEED certified restaurant in Minnesota.

After a forty minute drive from 11 St. & 3rd Ave. in downtown (Google maps puts the distance at 1.8 miles - meaning you could run there AND BACK in the time it took us to drive) we finally got to Red Stag. Justin and Brittney had arrived ten minutes earlier so they had already grabbed a table. From the outside it's obvious where the Red Stag is because they actually have a statue of a red stag that hangs over the entrance to the restaurant. We walked in, spotted our friends and had a seat.

Our server was clearly not the server that we had read about in the reviews, because she was excellent. She was always prompt with getting drinks, water, and our order and she also knew the menu and the specials for the night. This is all I ask for in a server :)

We had gotten there in time to get a drink during happy hour, so I had a beer (Furious? Two-Hearted? I can't recall now, I need to write my reviews earlier apparently). We also ordered some appetizers; Justin and Brittney got a cheese plate and I ordered some smelt fries without knowing what "smelt" is/are. Turns out smelt are exactly like the minnows I was fishing with a couple weeks earlier, albeit more expensive and breaded. The smelt fries were pretty good, but I could only have a couple of them, they were a little heavy to be having a bunch of them, and I had a pork chop with cheese grits coming.

Justin and Brittney's cheese plate - not on the menu, but they have a small cheese plate for $5

The menu at Red Stag has some unique options: roasted duck, halibut cheeks, venison stroganoff (Justin got this). Getting a pork chop seemed a little unadventurous, but I really wanted the cheese grits. In hindsight it was a great decision because they were both really good. After the smelt fries, pork chop, and beer, I was completely stuffed.

The bar at the Red Stag looked cool. It's a long wooden bar with a generous assortment of booze choices and some good beer options. I would consider coming here for happy hour if someone suggested it. I think the traffic on Wednesday was a fluke, so forty minutes was not the norm.

I can put to rest the bad reviews we had read from earlier, there was nothing about the Red Stag that I would complain about. The service was good, as was the food and the atmosphere.

Justin and Brittney's food - foie gras and venison stronganoff. not pictured: house salad.

• Service: Our server was great, she knew the specials and offered opinions of the menu when asked.
  
• Food: My pork chop and grits were excellent, and everyone seemed to enjoy their food.
  
• Drinks: Full bar with a decent beer selection. $3 happy hour domestic taps that actually include the "premium" domestic beers.
  
• Ambiance: I loved the exposed structure inside, I thought it looked really cool. The Red Stag had a cozy atmosphere the night we were there.
  
• Price: Our tab was around $55, which seems reasonable, given that the 'big plates' are around $20 apiece (although Erin didn't get an 'big plate').
  
• Convenience: There's no parking lot, but we found some free on-street parking around the corner. There are also meters on the street.

Erin's Review
Kate has been blabbing to me about how AH-MAY-ZING Red Stag is for months. Since she likes to be hip and with it, I think she went right when it opened about a year ago. Which means I have been hearing about this place for awhile. You could say it had been built up in my mind. I was nervous that it would let me down especially after reading some so-so reviews on Chowhound, but thankfully it did not! I loved Red Stag and would gladly go there again and again.

After our harrowing drive from downtown, we were not in the best of spirits when we arrived. Luckily it was still happy hour, so that made everything better. I ordered a Pear Cider, which was also $3. This put me in a good mood immediately, because normally even though this was under "beer" and is "domestic" at other places that will not be named, it would not be included in happy hour specials. I also liked how the water was served - you choose still or sparkling, and there is no ice, but it is still cold. My glass was kept full most of the night, which is no small feat considering the amount of water I drank.

After staring at the menu for a good long time, I told the waitress I was debating between the duck terrine and the smelt fries for an appetizer and asked for her recommendation. She said "the terrine is really good" so she must have something against minnows. Since Ben still wanted to try the smelt fries without knowing what smelt was, we just got both. After we ordered, the waitress brought out the bread which came with their home made bean dip which was a nice change from butter and tasted great.

The duck terrine was delicious. I didn't have a clue was terrine was before I ordered it, but apparently it is a way of preparing meat and when cold it is similar to pate. It came with a soft boiled egg, toast points, poached pear and shoestrings. A very odd combination to me at first, but it all worked. The smelt fries were great too - kind of unnerving to eat the whole fish though, so be forewarned. They were perfectly breaded so that they weren't too greasy.

For my main dish I ordered the side of mac and cheese which right now comes with scallion, sausage, and mushrooms. I thought that there was a little too much sausage in this dish, but it was still VERY good - it reminded me a lot of the pelmini I got at Moscow on the Hill. After the 2 fairly substantial appetizers, I could barely finish half of my side of mac and cheese - it was very rich!

I loved the atmosphere at Red Stag - it is a little old school with the carpet but still contemporary looking. The bathrooms are cool too, with the hard core handdryers and the "flush/half flush" options on the toilets.

Deets
Red Stag Supper Club
509 1st Ave NE
Minneapolis

Highly recommended for the food and atmosphere

Tum Rup Thai

Visited on Friday, October 10 with Jake and Allison

Erin's Review
Wow, we should have polls more often! We added about 10 more Thai places to our list, so thanks to everyone for the great recommendations! Since the majority (12) voted for us to go to Tum Rup Thai, off we went. I really had no knowledge of what the place was like other than viewing their website, so I went in with an open mind. I believe this restaurant and the whole development in that area of uptown is pretty new, but I'm not certain of that. The restaurant seemed pretty new at least, and had a very good vibe. We didn't have a reservation, but didn't have to wait for a table at 7 on a Friday. I do think I saw a few people waiting, but never for too long. About 20 minutes into our time there, the lights changed to "mood lighting" by dimming significantly. Normally this would be fine, but now the first thought that enters my mind is the fact that it will be THAT much more difficult for me to take photos since I refuse to use my flash! You can still get the idea though, despite the darkness/slight blurriness.

Allison had already ordered the cream cheese puffs, which are a favorite of mine. These were pretty standard and definitely hit the spot because I was starving. It was pretty busy so it did take a little long to get our drink order in. I ended up ordering Goose Island's 312 in memory of our recent trip to Chicago (also with Jake and Allison).

Since I figured the portions would be huge, we decided to just split an appetizer and entree. I'm very glad we did that - an entree would have been WAY too much for just me at least. The fried spring rolls we got were great - they came out piping hot.

I'm glad that one of the comments on our poll suggested the green curry. If it wasn't for this, I probably would have just stuck with my normal order of pad thai but I'm glad I branched out! This curry was DELICIOUS. I loved the sauce and it had a great variety of vegetables. We got chicken but I think shrimp would have been better. We were just feeling a little cheap and didn't want to spring for the extra $3.

There were a number of other dishes that I would have loved to try here, but since we have added so many Thai places, I'm sure I'll get to try them at other places! I enjoyed Tum Rup Thai - the service was pretty good, the restaurant was very well decorated and had a good vibe, and the food was awesome.

Ben's Review
Jake and Allison called us up earlier last week to make plans, so we asked them to join us for Thai food on Friday. The results of our poll directed us to Tum Rup Thai on Lake St. in uptown.

I dropped Erin off at the door and drove around to find a parking spot, not always easy in uptown. I circled around the block and decided to suck it up and park in the lot behind the restaurant, which is a shocking $1.50 per half hour! Erin called while I was parking to say that Tum Rup Thai will validate parking, although we weren't sure of what the specific deal was. (free parking? discounted? we didn't know)

I walked in and Jake, Allison, and Erin were all enjoying an order of cream cheese puffs while Jake suspiciously eyed his Thai bloody mary (he wasn't sure what was in it). I quickly ordered a big bottle of Fat Tire while I scoped out the menu. The restaurant was at capacity - I didn't see an empty table anywhere, but I also didn't see anyone waiting for a spot. I like the interior, it was hip and trendy looking, exactly what I would expect from an uptown restaurant in a newer building.

(Allison approves!)

We ordered some fried spring rolls to share, which were fantastic, while we decided what to have for our entree. I convinced Erin to share a meal with me as we had heard that the portions were more than one person could handle. We took Jess's recommendation and got the green curry with chicken instead of shrimp. Jake and Allison also shared and they got some sort of pad thai with the "not quite melting your face off" heat, Erin and I stuck to whatever the "normal" heat is for our curry.

Our food came out in a reasonable time, with our curry with vegetables and chicken in a bowl, and a plate with white rice covered in a bowl. They also gave us another plate so we could split our food up. One thing that I didn't think of at the time, but there was no fee for splitting a meal like you see in a lot of places. This was really nice given the portions were enormous, if I had ordered the curry by myself I would've easily gotten two meals out of it.

Our curry was excellent, there was a good mixture of vegetables and chicken, and it was spicy enough to be tasty but not uncomfortable. Jake and Allison's pad thai was also enormous and it tasted great as well. Erin couldn't even finish her portion so I got to clean up her leftovers, so we all left full. I love being able to split a $11 item when we go out, it really makes it more affordable.

To follow up on the parking situation: we went to Stella's afterwards for a couple drinks (and randomly ran into Erin's sister). When we finally made it back to the car at midnight our bill to leave the parking lot - $13.50. Damn. Just one more reason that I go to uptown so infrequently.

The ratings for Tum Rup Thai:

• Service: Our server was average. Our food came out promptly, but he wasn't engaging and he was definitely hovering when we were about to pay.
  
• Food: Excellent curry and pad thai. I would go back but we now have a bunch of Thai places to go to :)
  
• Drinks: Full bar, just an 'ok' beer selection, in my opinion.
  
• Ambiance: There was a good crowd at Tum Rup Thai that night, it was easy to carry a conversation but it also felt busy.
  
• Price: Our bill was $33 before tip, which I thought was great for a meal with drinks and appetizers.
  
• Convenience: Parking is a pain in the ass, but that's a given in uptown. You could take the bus, but it's not convenient for us.

Deets
Tum Rup Thai
1221 West Lake St
Minneapolis

Highly recommended for atmosphere and food

Check out our poll...

Since we haven't gone anywhere on our list for 2 weeks, our blog is getting a little stale... I think it might be time for a little reader participation. We are going out with our friends Jake and Allison to an as yet to be named Thai restaurant tomorrow night. Which restaurant should we choose? If you pick Sawatdee, please comment with which location you think is best. Also, if there is a great Thai place you'd recommend that isn't on our list (in Minneapolis or St. Paul), please comment with the name and if we haven't already been there, we'll add it to our consideration set :)

Interview

Want to know a little bit more about us? Check out this interview we did with the City Pages food blog, Twin Cities Eater.