My term starts on Monday which means summer is truly about to end. But in a way summer already came to a close at the end of August for it is then that Alma served their last bowl of chilled corn soup for the year. Despite this soup having been a recurring staple at Alma since they opened in 1999, we somehow ate it for the first time in September 2022. We utterly loved it. We ate another version in September 2023—this one was also very good (even if it wasn’t chilled). We were planning to go back this September to eat it again but seeing repeated mentions of it on Instagram, I was not able to wait and we grabbed a table for Saturday, August 31. And it turned out to be a close call: our server informed us that it was the last weekend of the late summer menu featuring the corn soup! This means this is an even lower utility restaurant report than my usual: you couldn’t go eat this menu at the restaurant if you wanted to. Anyway, the soup was outstanding and the rest of the meal was not far behind. Here are the details.

[A reminder at the outset that I did a pop-up meal at Alma in early 2023 and am at this point in the “friend of the house” category. Our meal did not involve any comps or special treatment but you may want to keep my entanglement with them in mind as you read this review.]

We had a reservation for 7 pm on a Saturday. We arrived to find the restaurant reasonably busy—it filled up over the course of the evening—and the general vibe as welcoming and warm as usual. We were given small pours of welcoming bubbles (which I think may be something for regular diners) and quickly got our cocktail orders in and then got to perusing the menu. We noted a not insignificant change. The price and format remain the same ($95/head for an extensive prix fixe) but it’s no longer a completely set menu. Through at least our last meal in late June, it used to be that everyone got everything on the menu. Now, however, each diner chooses between one of the two larger dishes in the main course. On the one hand, you can choose the entree that most appeals to you; on the other, unless you are sharing with the other person/people at your table, you now get one less dish. I don’t think it amounts to appreciably less food than previous (we left feeling as stuffed as we always have) and for us it didn’t really amount to a different experience as we got one of each dish anyway and shared both. The rest of the menu continues to be served to each diner.

What did that menu comprise? As always, proceedings began with their marinated olives and spiced almonds. As always these whetted our appetites well. The rest of the antipasti course included their excellent sourdough and focaccia breads and soft butter; a raw cow’s milk gouda from Wisconsin that was aged with truffles and served with a dab of pistachio butter; a lovely garlic flan served in a pool of a lovely tomato-miso broth with parmesan frico providing crackling textural contrast on top; and a crisp pork belly fritter with rhubarb compote. A very strong opening on the whole with the garlic flan and the pork belly the stars for us (I could have drank a vat of that tomato-miso broth; the missus had a slight preference for the pork belly).

The next course featured that exquisite chilled sweet corn soup. I’ve said before that there is no sweet corn as good as Minnesota sweet corn and it may find its luxe apotheosis in this soup from Alma. It’s never exactly the same thing twice. This version was closer to the 2022 iteration than the 2023 but not identical. Where the 2022 version saw the chilled corn soup poured over a base of gravlax, smoked roe and chilli oil, this version featured a base of smoked roe, yes, but paired now with crema and charred herb oil. It was just perfect. The second dish in this course was an apt pairing: an heirloom tomato tartine with ricotta etc.

And so on to the mains. As noted above, you now choose between two proteins (I’m not sure what the story is on the vegetarian menu). The featured meat was duck, two ways (seared breast and confit leg) over jus with foie gras tahini and lovely braised daikon; and the fish was pan-seared striped Pacific bass on a sauce of tomato butter with littleneck clams and summer squash. We got one of each and were very glad we did. My only complaint is that both sauces were excellent but hard to mop up with what was on the plate and I really didn’t want to leave any of either behind. I solved this glutton’s dilemma by asking for a spoon. The veg side that always accompanies the proteins in the main course featured blistered summer beans and shishito peppers with kimchi soffrito, thai basil and grilled plum. We didn’t think the kimchi came through very strongly but we both loved the dish as a whole, as we always loved the composed vegetable dishes at Alma.

Dessert was an apricot-buttermilk sherbet. I’ll say the apricot didn’t make the strongest impression but I’ll also say we liked it very much anyway. The usual packet of cookies from their bakery were also placed on the table. We were too full and so saved them to have with coffee/tea at home the next day.

Ah yes, drinks. Cocktails included the Panda Power for the missus and La Opuntia for me. It seems like every high-end restaurant in town has a mezcal + fruit cocktail now; none of the others that I’ve had are better than this one. I then added on a glass of a very nice Pinotage with the main course.

For a look at the menu and everything we ate and drank, please launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service, to see how much the meal cost, and to see what’s coming next.

Well, I don’t have much for you by way of thoughts on service except to say that it was very good. The food was described well and the few questions we had were answered ably and our lead server was on top of everything. Price? With tax and included service charge the total (with two cocktails and a glass of wine) came to just about $315 or $157.50/head. Not a cheap meal by any means but in this price point in the Twin Cities I don’t think there’s anything either as good or as good a “value”, in relative terms*. Though this review is useless in the sense that this menu is no longer on the go, you can still take it as a firm endorsement of whatever is on the current menu. Unfortunately, we’ll not be back to eat the current menu but if all goes well, we hope to eat at Alma one more time before the end of the year.

Okay, what’s next on the food front? On Friday or Saturday (or maybe Sunday) I’ll post the last of my reports on our meals in San Francisco in June. Next week’s Twin Cities report will probably feature Indian food. Let’s see how it goes.

*If you haven’t already seen it, you may find my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation to be of interest.