The Lyndale Tap House

Visited on Thursday, October 29th with Kate and Kyle

[I (Erin) didn't have my camera, so all photos in this post are taken by Kate of Red Apple Images - thanks Kate! No pics of the interior or exterior though, so if you want to see those, check out the Heavy Table review for more great photos]

Erin's Review
I read a few blogs/newsletters that list which restaurants are opening each week, and add places to our list accordingly. I'd added Lyndale Tap House whenever I saw that it opened, so I was interested to read Heavy Table's review of the place. While it was pretty negative, I didn't want to rule it out based on that one review alone. Kate and I quickly decided we'd go to see for ourselves if it really was that bad.

Ben and I got there a bit early, at 5:45, and were seated at a huge booth. There are a few booths in the place, and also some high top tables in the bar area with chairs that have no backs. I hate those type of chairs, so it was a good thing we weren't seated at one of those tables :) Since the main complaint of the Heavy Table review was about the ambiance and clientele of this bar, we were on high alert, but the place was pretty much empty and very sedate when we got there so there wasn't anything for us to be annoyed about, no matter how hard we tried to find it :)

I was so hungry I couldn't even wait for Kyle and Kate to get there before ordering the pretzels. In fact, they were lucky we even saved 2 for them :) (the main reason we saved any was just to get a photo) Those pretzels were delicious and I would personally be satisfied just going to this place right after work for a few rounds of pretzels and some beer (if I could drink beer, that is). I think most people know I'm 100% satisfied with Miller Lite, so I had no qualms about the beer list at all - it actually seemed to me that they had a pretty nice list that will certainly please most people who will frequent this bar, even if they didn't have many local options.

I vaguely recalled that Heavy Table said the Tap House Burger was pretty good, so I went with that. I asked if they had American cheese as I prefer that on my burgers, but alas, no. Just cheddar. I guess this MUST be a high class establishment ;) The rest of the table got Pit sandwiches, and I think I was probably the most satisfied with my meal of everyone. The pit sandwiches had an absurd amount of meat on them, especially Kate's pit beef. She also noted that her sandwich wasn't really quite hot, and vaguely tasted of cumin which she doesn't like. Everyone did love the fries, especially with the cheddar ale sauce.

Kate's Pit Beef

I can never resist dessert anymore, so I ordered the whoopie pie with warm chocolate sauce. As the cheapest item on the dessert menu, I expected it to be small, but no - this thing was ENORMOUS - far too big for us to finish. It was pretty good, but I thought it could have used more filling, and really did not need to be that big. It certainly satisfied my chocolate craving, but I probably wouldn't order it again.

One thing to note is that the SECOND Kate took out her camera, the manager came over and asked if we were with a media outlet, and kind of played it off saying she wanted to make sure she wasn't missing an appointment. We just said that the photos were for our blog and that seemed to satisfy her. After that, someone was at our table probably every 4 minutes, asking if we wanted more beer, anything else, filling water, etc. It was a little much but I guess they are just trying to be careful. Especially asking about more beer got old - it seems like this might be the type of place where people just pound beers one after another, but that wasn't really what we were going for at 6:30pm on a Thursday night, which seemed obvious to me.

We really would have no reason to go back to Lyndale Tap House because - 1. it's in uptown and thus is a pain in the butt to get to from our house, and 2. it isn't as good as other bars much closer to our house (Muddy Pig, Happy Gnome, BDP). However, that being said, I would have no problem going back if a friend was having a gathering there, and if I lived in the neighborhood I'd certainly go there for happy hour often.

Ben's Review
For some reason Heavy Table's poor review of Lyndale Tap House convinced Erin and Kate to try this place out last week. I had low expectations after reading the review, but I figured the least I could do was go and be satisfied that my assumptions were correct.

We got to the restaurant after a long rush hour drive from downtown Minneapolis to the Flat Earth brewery (W. 7th & Snelling in St. Paul) to get a growler and then from there to uptown. Not so much fun on a rainy day.

Miraculously, I found a parking spot on Lyndale about one block away and the meters there are only enforced till 6pm so I only had to throw in one quarter. This was all a pleasant surprise to me as I had expected a nasty parking situation.

I easily found Erin when I got inside as the place wasn't busy at all, which was a definite plus in my book. She was sitting along the back wall by the cook's counter in one of those half circle booths, which I love. Our server came over to get my drink order while we waited for Kate and Kyle to arrive and after trying to get a Summit Oktoberfest (it had switched to winter ale already, wtf? I hate that) I settled on a Bell's Two Hearted. I also learned that it was happy hour till 7pm, which meant half price taps and appetizers. Upon hearing that we also ordered some of the pretzels, which were one of the few things recommended in the Heavy Table review.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty good about this place. Half price taps and appetizers is a fantastic happy hour deal and the fact that it runs till 7pm is awesome, as you can basically get happy hour deals all through dinner on a weeknight. The tap selection, while not featuring many local beers, is still a great list of beers with a variety of styles so everyone can find something they like. The pretzels didn't disappoint and the cheddar ale sauce and the honey mustard that comes with them are both delicious, we even got more of the cheddar ale sauce for our fries with our meals.

I've been craving pork lately so I jumped on the pit pork sandwich with fries. Kyle order of the pit Cuban tempted me for a moment (especially since I had seen the Cuban at the Muddy Pig earlier in the week and that looked fantastic), but I stuck with my guns on the pork. The sandwich came loaded with meat as I had read about previously and it was 'OK', not awesome but certainly not bad. It made me crave a pulled pork sandwich even more :) The fries were really good and they were clearly freshly made, which I believe can make or break a meal, and were even better in the cheddar ale sauce. With our meal I got another beer, this time the Two Brother's Cane & Ebel.

Kyle's Pit Cuban

As we were getting up to leave I realized that it was nearly full in the restaurant now. I had been facing the kitchen the entire time so I didn't notice the trickle of people coming in. They have a nice long bar with several TV tuned into the World Series, it seemed like a good place to watch sports. I think if we had arrived at 7 instead of 5:45 I wouldn't have liked this place as much, but as it turns out I would come back here for happy hour or an early weeknight meal.

• Service: Our server was nice, as was the manager, but they became a little overbearing after they discovered we were blogging about them.
  
• Food: Good bar food, awesome pretzels (and only $2.50 at happy hour :)
  
• Drinks: Great, diverse beer list and a full bar. Excellent happy hour.
  
• Ambiance: At 6pm on a weeknight the ambiance was great for me, kind of low key as they get ready for the busy time of the night. I doubt I would ever come here on a weekend evening.
  
• Price: Meal prices are reasonable for what you get. The beer taps are in the $5-$6 range, but are half off during happy hour.
• Convenience: Even though I found a parking spot, I'm calling that an outlier. Normally going to uptown is a headache and I'll stand by that.

Deets
The Lyndale Tap House
2937 Lyndale Ave S.
Minneapolis

moto-i

Visited on Friday, April 10th with Jake and Allison

(this is the only sign)

Erin's Review
I had a birthday happy hour for my friend Lisa on Friday the 10th, so decided it would be a good time to try out moto-i for dinner - killing two uptown events with one stone. We got there a few minutes late for our 7pm reservation, and were punished with a table in the very boring and ambiance starved upstairs. They don't have any music or decor up there - it really was pretty lame. They should work on that. In hindsight, I would have rather waited 20 minutes for a table downstairs or sat in the bar, but since Ben was already seated by the time I came in, I didn't want to bother.

second floor - can you feel the energy??

I was absolutely starving, so I ordered the rangoons (shocker). They were some of the best rangoons I've ever had! Light and crispy skin, delicate cream cheese mixture inside and excellent sauce. Yum. If we had paid attention to the many reviews available, we would have known that moto-i is known for their small plates and not for their entrees and would have just gotten a number of those, but alas, we did not do enough research...

We ordered one each of all the cold sakes. I have had sake before a few times (just a sip here and there) and I knew I wasn't a fan, but figured I had to at least try it again, given that moto-i is the only sake brewery restaurant outside of Japan. I still didn't like it, but that's no fault of moto-i's. Ben spilled one of them all over the place, so that was awesome, and put me in an excellent mood.

After spill - helpful sake map that explains it all


He's just being Jake.

I ordered the Thai Fried Rice for my meal because Jake said it was pretty good. It was just that, pretty good. Not great, not bad. There was a little icon next to it on the menu indicating that it was spicy. This is not the case at all. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it was anti-spicy. From me, that's saying a lot given that I normally order my food at a zero level of spicy and that even can be too much.

Now that I know that the small plates are where it's at, I would go back to moto-i, sit downstairs, and order a bunch of small plates. It's certainly not somewhere I'll rush back to though.

Ben's Review
Two Fridays ago (this is late I know, Erin's been bugging me about it) we went to moto-i with Jake and Allison. Jake had been there once before, but didn't try any sake at the time and they wanted to go back.

moto-i is right at the intersection of Lake and Lyndale in Uptown. This means that parking is a little tight, but we've had good luck finding a spot on Aldrich (one block west of Lyndale). The first floor has a large bar in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables. The restaurant is narrow, but there are at least two floors of tables and the server mentioned that they will be opening a rooftop area when the weather gets a bit warmer. I would definitely go back just to try out the rooftop.

First floor

We were seated on the second floor which was kind of a bummer because it seemed they had JUST filled up on the first floor, so we were the only table of people upstairs, along with some people at the smaller bar. Jake and Allison hadn't arrived yet so I ordered a Surly Furious before ordering the sake. The beer list isn't huge but it has plenty of variety with an assortment of Minnesota beers from Summit, Surly, Lift Bridge, Schells, Lake Superior, and Grain Belt.

Initially I was thinking that we would order our own sake but it made more sense to just order one of each and share them all. This way everyone got to try each one (we didn't order the one hot sake) and it was cheaper than everyone ordering the individual sample ($12 each). Of course I managed to spill one of them soon after they were delivered, but they were really cool about it and replaced it without charging us for it, which was great.

I've only had sake a couple times so I don't know what "good" sake tastes like. The sake we had at moto-i tasted like I'm told sake should taste and has the added benefit of being brewed right at the restaurant. I still prefer beer to sake so I think that even if I go back at some point I probably wouldn't even order sake.

Shockingly, Erin found the closest thing to cream cheese wontons on the menu and quickly ordered them for the table. We got the rangoons with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and chili sauce. These were a great appetizer, as most fried things are :)

The entrees are noodle and rice dishes similar to what you would find at a Thai restaurant. The drunken noodles sounded good, but I had just had that same thing at True Thai a couple weeks ago, so I went with the curried noodles. I contemplated substituting chicken for the beef and in hindsight I wish I had as the beef wasn't that good. To be honest, the whole entree itself was nothing special and I think that almost every Thai meal we've had for wegotserved has been better than this one. The portions were smaller and it felt like more effort went into the presentation (which was excellent) than into the taste. One thing that I did like was the spice tray they bring out so you can make the dish as spicy as you like.

I would go back to moto-i at night to try out the rooftop, but I doubt I will go back for dinner. We have so many Thai places yet to try (even though this isn't technically a Thai place, most of their entrees seemed to be Thai inspired) that I would go to someplace new instead.

• Service: The service was fantastic, they replaced the sake I spilled and were on the ball the whole time.
  

• Food: The food was OK, but the entrees not as good as other Thai places we've been. The appetizers are great.
  

• Drinks: Good selection of MN beers and they brew their own sake. They also have wines and a full bar.

• Ambiance: The first floor had a good vibe while we were there, but unfortunately we were buy ourselves upstairs for awhile :(

• Price: The prices for food are reasonable, the sake is a little more expensive, but with good reason. Still not an outrageous night out.

• Convenience: Might have to walk a block or two to park, but there are plenty of buses too.

Deets
moto-i
2940 Lydnale Ave S.
Minneapolis

Amazing Thailand

Visited on Saturday, November 15th with Jake, Allison, and Justin

Erin's Review
After a long day being a photo assistant at a wedding with Kate, I was absolutely exhausted. I was originally supposed to go out somewhere in St. Paul with Kate that night, but she ended up having to go work at her "real" job. Ben texted me during the day to ask if I wanted to go out to dinner and we decided on Broders. Unfortunately, the wait was longer than we could handle. Maybe someday we'll get there... Ben then suggested Amazing Thailand which sounded just fine to me. I basically just wanted some noodles in any form.

We got there a little early and had to wait a few minutes for our table to be ready. As soon as we were seated I ordered the Jalapeno Cream Cheese Wontons because I was starving. Half of the table had decided on Pad Thai in some form for the entree. Too bad for us when someone (Allison I think?) asked if it was good and the server flat out said no. Hmmm... we quickly went about changing our order. The server said that the Pad Thai is made in a different style than most people are used to so a lot of people don't like it. Has anyone out there tried the Pad Thai at Amazing Thailand? Is it really that bad?? Since our server was so full of opinions, I asked her what she would recommend and told her I had originally wanted Pad Thai and was just looking for some comfort food. She told me to get the Pad See Iew. So I did. Jake did as well. Allison got the Spicy Noodles and Justin got the largest plate of yellow curry fried rice that I have ever seen.

For real. Who could eat this in one sitting??

The wontons came out soon after we ordered and were quickly devoured. They were excellent, although one that I had didn't actually have jalapenos in it. I was only slightly bitter about that.

My Pad See Iew was exactly what I wanted. A large plate of delicious noodles, veggies, and chicken, and egg. Pretty close to Pad Thai... I think thicker noodles might be the difference. I loved this and will probably order it instead of Pad Thai when I'm in the noodle mood at a Thai place again. Everyone else loved their meals, except for Allison. I think she just was wanting something different though, it wasn't that her meal was prepared badly. She did enjoy her cinnomon cookie martini though, so all was not lost for her.

I really enjoyed Amazing Thailand. It was full and bustling and the decor was interesting. I would go back... but probably won't for awhile due to the abundance of other Thai places on the list.

Ben's Review
After watching the Gophers lose horribly to the Badgers on Saturday we decided to get some dinner with Jake, Allison, and Justin. Jake and Allison live close to Broders so we were going to try to go there but we couldn't get in :( After driving back to Saint Paul to pick up Erin (who was locked out of the house), we settled for hitting up one of the many Thai places we have on the list now, from all the suggestions we got from the poll, Amazing Thailand in uptown.

There was no way in hell I was paying $13.50 to park again (I'll stop bitching about that soon I promise), so I dropped Erin off at the restaurant and drove around the block to find a spot on the street, which I did a block and a half away. Nice. Jake, Allison, and Justin also found a spot on the street not far from me.

As I walked into the restaurant I immediately noticed the cool Thai-looking decor. I don't know if the decorations were ACTUALLY Thai, but it fit the stereotype of Thailand, with gold shrines straight out of an "Indiana Jones" movie. The bar is big and full of people, it looked like a good place to hang out. The bar is square with one side being a wall and then three sides are the actual bar with a big island in the middle where all of the booze is stored.

We got seated (sat?) about five minutes after arriving as we were a little early for our reservation. I was, as usual, stumped about what to get. I recently got on a curry kick, making some Indian curry a couple weeks back and really wanting some Thai curry over rice. With a menu as big as the one at Amazing Thailand though, that seems a little bland. Although, Erin's dad will tell you that you should "get a burger when you're at a burger place", and I figure any Thai place is a "curry place." Luckily the special that night was a pumpkin curry that was served in a little pumpkin with the rice on the side that Erin convinced me to get. As usual, good advice on her part.

The curry was indeed served in a small pumpkin that I thought looked more like a squash. They initially forgot my rice side, so I was confused for a minute about what was going on, but we got it sorted out. The curry was excellent and just what I had been craving - a very runny curry with some chicken and veggies over rice. When you order your dish they ask how spicy you want it on a scale of 1-5. In typical indecisive fashion I went right down the middle with a 3. Our server told us that the numbers were "Minnesota numbers" as opposed to "Thai numbers", saying that the cooks used to make it even more spicy but they got too many complaints. A 3 was a good mix of spice while still having good flavor.

I thought our server was pretty cool, she even did some snooping on a table near us to see what they had ordered because it looked good. However, she steered Allison away from the pad Thai and suggested a different noodle dish instead that Allison didn't really like. Bummer for her :)

One of the best things about Thai restaurants is that you usually have enough to bring home for another meal, which was awesome. All in all, a great meal.

• Service: Our server was great and they kept our water glasses filled.
  
• Food: Excellent pumpkin curry and huge portions.
  
• Drinks: Full bar with a decent beer selection. Not sure if they have happy hour specials or not.
  
• Ambiance: It was busy on the Saturday night that we were there and the place had a good din.
  
• Price: The prices were decent. Our bill was $50 with tax and tip which included a couple drinks and an appetizer.
  
• Convenience: This is uptown so parking's a little difficult. Amazing Thailand is across Hennepin from Calhoun Square so if you go south just one block you're in a residential area where you should be able to find a free spot.
  

Deets
Amazing Thailand
3024 Hennepin Ave S
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

Sunny Side Up Cafe

Visited on Thursday, August 21st

Erin's Review
Ben and I have occasionally talked about getting breakfast before going to work someday, but sleep usually wins out. The only reason we ended up actually going last week is because I was so excited about using my new camera lens that when my alarm went off Thursday morning I actually wanted to get up to go to Lake Harriet to take photos of the sunrise.

I chose Sunny Side Up Cafe as the place to go off our list because I think it is probably pretty packed on weekends, so it seemed like a weekday morning would be a better time to go there. When we got there at about 7, there were two other people there. By the time we left, I think there were four. So it is apparently not too much of an early morning week day hot spot.

They have Eggs Benedict on the menu, but I've never heard this place mentioned in the list of best Eggs Benedict in the Twin Cities, so I decided to go with something a little simpler - eggs over easy with hash browns, sausage links and toast.

I feel like I was just too tired to give this place a fair try - the food was certainly decent, I had no problems with the coffee, but there was just nothing really special about the food or the atmosphere. I much prefer The Egg & I which is just 2 blocks down Lyndale. Some of the bigger breakfast dishes looked great, so we might have to go back for brunch on a weekend when I'm usually more in the mood for a big meal.

Ben's Review
Erin got a new lens for her camera last week and decided that we should get up and watch the sunrise over Lake Harriet and take pictures. I agreed because she also included going out for breakfast in the itinerary. We decided on Sunny Side Up Cafe (SSUC), since we were going to be in the area and we don't usually make it over to south Minneapolis for breakfast.

We walked in the door a little after 7am on Thursday morning. I had no idea if breakfast places are busy on weekday morning, my breakfast restaurant experience is almost exclusively is on the weekends. I glanced around the place and saw two tables occupied, out of about twenty or so; needless to say there was no waiting for a seat.

The tables at SSUC have clear plastic tablecloths that reminded me of couches that people would wrap with plastic in some decade that I wasn't alive (fifties? sixties? I don't know). I thought these tablecloths were pretty tacky in a funny sort of way. They obviously don't affect the quality of the meal at all, it just makes you feel like you are eating in an old folks home or something.

The menu has a lot of Mexican breakfast dishes that looked big enough to be lunch meals. Not being a big breakfast eater, I decided on the french toast with corn flake and cinnamon breading (I think it was called Santa Fe French toast or something). If I came back for lunch I would definitely go for one of the larger items though, they sounded great.

I was unimpressed with the coffee here. I like the coffee better at work, and even the stuff at work is only "serviceable". I have a hard time describing what I like or dislike about coffee, but this coffee just seemed like it was kind of old. Given that they weren't busy at all, I'm assuming the pot was made awhile before we got there, maybe if we came on a busy day it would be better. I also didn't like the coffee mugs. I like to have a big handle to hold on to, whereas these mugs only had the "one-finger" hole. Once you drink the coffee down a bit (so the mug isn't hot) you can grab the mug with your whole hand which is better.

My french toast was really good, with syrup drizzled all over. There was plenty of butter in the cooking process so they didn't need any extra. I just went with the two pieces and it was a perfect amount.

By the time we finished eating it was about 7:30, right about the time I'm normally rolling out of bed :)

• Service: Service was good, it was slow so there was no problem getting anything.
  
• Food: The french toast was good and the menu has many other items I'd like to try sometime.
  
• Drinks: The coffee wasn't good, but it might be too early to reserve judgment.
  
• Ambiance: Pretty quiet when there's only a handful of customers. I would guess it's a little more boisterous on a weekend morning.
  
• Price: The prices were on par with other breakfast places. I've mentioned that I feel like breakfast is getting more expensive.
  
• Convenience: We had no problem parking on Lyndale at 7am, but I bet on the weekend it'd be a little more difficult. There's always the bus too.

Deets

Sunny Side Up Cafe
2704 Lyndale Ave S
Minneapolis

Recommended for standard breakfast fare and other specialties

Barbette

Visited on Sunday, July 13th

Ben's Review
It was a beautiful Sunday last weekend and Erin had wanted to walk around the lakes in Uptown for awhile. I had held her off all summer so far, so I figured I could deal with going to Uptown ONE weekend afternoon this year.

On the way there we were trying to decide between Tin Fish and Barbette for lunch. We settled on Tin Fish because it WAS such a nice day, and eating outside sounded pleasant. It turns out that it was also a very windy day as well, and by the time we walked around Lake Calhoun we thought that Barbette would be a better option.

Barbette is a short walk from Lake Calhoun, about two blocks down Lake Street. Apparently Barbette has existed for several years, although when Erin lived four blocks away we never made it there. Barbette has some nice outdoor seating, but because of the wind we opted for an inside table. We got sat in the back left corner as you walk in, which turned out to be a good location because it was a corner booth that let us view the rest of the room.

As you walk in there's a really short counter for people to sit at that is attached to the employee area of the restaurant which makes it easy for servers to bring food out, I thought it was cool idea. It looked different than counters I was used to seeing, like at Byerlys or Peter's Grill.

I had recently decided that beer and booze at restaurants costs more than I am willing to pay, so I decided to cut back when we go out. Predictably, the first place we go after deciding not to get beer has a very snobby beer list with several Belgians on the menu that tempted me. Luckily, because it was snobby it was also even more expensive than normal, so I stood my ground and got a Sprite (which comes in a can thus adding to the European experience).

I recall our server being laid back and cool, and she was friendly in a genuine way, not a fake Applebees-server kind of way. We actually got waited on by three different people while we were there, I couldn't really tell who was responsible for what, but we were taken care of, so whatever.

I ordered the Croque Monsieur because why not? I was eyeing up the Royale w/ Cheese but I've had cheeseburgers before. Erin had heard that they had good fries here too (pommes frites, of course) so we got a side of those as well. I was a little disappointed by the simplicity of the Croque Monsieur, it's basically a fancy grilled ham and cheese. It tasted fantastic, especially when I would dip it in the yolk from Erin's Eggs Benedict, but I was expecting something a little more exotic. If we go back I'll be having the burger instead. And a beer.

• Service: Great service, friendly servers.
  
• Food: The croque monsieur was good, albeit a little plain.
  
• Drinks: Great beer selection, and HUGE wine selection. I believe I saw some liquor as well.
  
• Ambiance: They have a cool place, with exposed ceilings, etc. There were some pretentious people there that day, but that just makes me laugh.
  
• Price: Reasonably priced, I think our lunch ended up around $25.
  
• Convenience: Located right near Lake Calhoun with parking available if you're patient.

Erin's Review
I am very disappointed in myself that I never went to Barbette in the nearly 3 years that I lived in uptown. I guess at that time I was either in college or working at an entry level job where I had pretty much no money, so that explains it. At any rate, I'm glad we finally made it here! I did give Ben a choice between Tin Fish and Barbette, but I was secretly hoping that we would get to go to Barbette, so I was very glad for the wind that was whipping around that day.

When we arrived, we were quickly seated at a corner booth which was very cozy and afforded us a view of the entire place. This place has a very European vibe, which was made even more prominent by the table full of people speaking French right next to us. It appeared that they actually were from France based on their clothing and shoes, and their accents when speaking English. Other little touches such as no ice in the water and cans of soda helped the ambiance but could be annoying if you like your water extra cold and your diet coke refilled. As Ben mentioned, there was a definite pretentious attitude of the place, which also helped it to feel very French. My favorite part was when we saw a girl wearing a plain tank top, running shorts, and a scarf. Keep in mind that it was 85 degrees outside on Sunday.

On to the food. I had heard based on my eggs benedict research that Barbette has some of the best in the area, so I ordered that. Since it came with mixed greens and I wanted to try the fries, we also ordered a half order of pommes frites, which was a HUGE amount of fries.

I don't think I can even put into words how good these eggs benedict were. My past few experiences have been fairly disappointing, so I think that made these taste even better to me. The eggs were poached so beautifully, they were almost a work of art. The hollandaise looked like it might not be enough, but surprisingly it was plenty and the flavor was absolutely perfect. If you are a benedict fan, you should definitely get to Barbette for brunch and try these out!

The fries were also good. Some seemed to be cooked perfectly, but others were a little too crispy for my liking. The aoili that came with was good, but a little bland. I tried Ben's Croque Monsieur which I thought was fine, but I prefer the Madame. For some reason, the Croque Madame at Barbette is made with cheese and vegetables instead of just being a Croque Monsieur with egg on it. I'm sure you can request it to be made with ham if that is your preference.

I thought Barbette was a great restaurant and I'd love to come back for dinner, or again for brunch to have the eggs benedict. The atmosphere is interesting, the food was all wonderful, and it isn't too expensive.

Deets

Barbette
1600 West Lake Street
Minneapolis

Highly recommended