I ate at Khâluna twice in 2022, once after a work event and once with the missus and friends. Both meals were among the highlights of my Twin Cities restaurant outings in 2022. We had planned to go back again this year for dinner. As it happened, it was once again a work event that was the occasion for it. My department held a retreat* in the Twin Cities and I was asked to help figure out dinner after, somewhere not too far away from where we spent the day in discussion. It was a Monday and we were a large group and through a process of elimination we arrived at Khâluna. Not that it was simple. We were originally to be a group of 10-12 and Khâluna’s largest tables in the restaurant seat eight. Booking the private dining space was outside our budget; this left one option: their so-called Patio Lounge. This is one end of their large covered patio space, where up to 14 guests can be accommodated on a combination of couches and poufs. There’s a minimum required spend of $350 but as we were certain to pass it, we made the booking. Quite predictably, by the morning of the event our dinner numbers went down to eight. But we were glad to be in the lounge space anyway as it made for a more convivial gathering. Here’s how the meal itself went.

As we were to spend almost eight hours in discussion during the day, the hope was to not make dinner a long-drawn out affair. To this end, I had placed a preliminary order ahead of time. The idea was that those dishes would come out right after we got there and we’d order more if we needed to. Well, things didn’t go entirely according to plan on that score. For whatever reason, the food order did not get placed with the kitchen until well after we got there, and then there was a long gap between the smaller and larger plates being sent out. And so we ended up being there for more than two hours anyway. About the food itself, however, we had no complaints.

At the time of making the reservation I’d been told that they discourage ordering large plates in the Patio Lounge as the seating there is optimized for the sharing of small plates. Accordingly, I had ordered only from the Small Plates and Chilled Plates sections of the menu. Well, I’d also ordered the duck laab from the Large Plates section, as I knew from previous experience that it would be a very easily shared dish.

What else did we get? A lot, and multiple orders of most things. I should note here that Khâluna’s food menu has not changed much, if at all, in the last year. I think pretty much everything on the menu at this meal had been on the menu on my previous visits. This is just an observation, not a complaint. To start we shared multiple orders of the Basil Wings, Chicken Samosas and Sakoo. All were very popular across the group, with, I think, the Sakoo and the wings in the lead. The samosas were done in a highly non-canonical style—tasty though they were, I couldn’t help but wish I was eating regular meat samosas instead.

Up next were multiple orders of a number of their Chilled Plates: the Mieng Paa, or puffed rice salad; the Laab Heed; the Salat Mak Mai; and the Rainbow Rice. Of these the Laab Heed and the Mieng Paa were the standouts, I thought. The mushrooms in the former were excellent and the seasoning was subtle but not weak. The Mieng Paa with the salty smoked salmon would probably be too much for one person eating it alone but was a perfect shared dish. The Salat Mak Mai was a refreshing melange of fruit; the Rainbow Rice, however, didn’t do very much for me. The aforementioned Duck Laab was another highlight—we only got one of that.

We didn’t stint on dessert though. Several of us got the Passionfruit Cremeux, several got the Spiced Mango Cake, and one misguided soul got the Banana Ice Cream (well, they liked it a lot but…). I don’t believe I’d had the Spiced Mango Cake on my previous visits; I quite liked it. But the Passionfruit Cremeux may be the best dessert in the Twin Cities right now. It was one of the highlights of the entire meal.

Oh yes, we had some drinks as well. Alcoholic cocktails included the Khâluna Old Fashioned, the Talk Pisco To Me and the Lost in Laos. The non-alcoholic selections included the Pineapple Punch, the Nanyang Tonic and the Mango Lassi. All enjoyed their drinks. The cocktail menu, by the way, has almost entirely turned over since my first visit.

For a look at the restaurant and what we ate and drank, click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down for thoughts on service and to see what’s coming next.

The few initial hiccups mentioned aside, service was generally pleasant. I will say I was surprised to see how busy they were at 5.45 pm on a Monday—and they were quite busy as we were leaving as well. I certainly had no worries about their future as I had at dinner at Petite Leon a few weeks ago. One other note about service. Last year Khâluna was among the Twin Cities restaurants doing the 20-21% mandatory service charge. Now, however, they charge only a 5% “Health and Wellness” surcharge. There does seem to have been a retreat on this front in the Twin Cities. Anyway, I did not pay but the per person cost was in line with my previous meals there. So was the quality of the meal. It was very enjoyable indeed and I look forward to returning either later this year or in the spring of 2024. I wouldn’t mind seeing a few new dishes then.

Alright, what’s next from the Twin Cities? We’re about to leave Minnesota for most of the summer. My last report from the metro will be off a blowout farewell meal we ate at Grand Szechuan this past weekend. After that my food reports will be of meals already eaten in Seoul and New York and of meals to be eaten on our travels this summer. More on all that later.

*Humanities departments should probably call their meetings for strategic conversations something other than retreats, given the situation in American higher education. Counter-offensives?