I put Spoon and Stable in the “once a year” tier in my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation a couple of months ago. It was then drawn to my attention offline that it had been two years since my last report on a meal there. To address this situation I made a reservation for dinner there to celebrate the missus’s birthday earlier this month. We descended on them with a couple of friends we have eaten there with before and had a meal that was both very good and simultaneously an illustration of why I have them in the “once a year” tier in the aforementioned rotation and not at a higher frequency. Allow me to explain.

We had a reservation for 7.15 pm on a Saturday. Spoon and Stable remains a very popular restaurant but—perhaps because they’re open seven days a week—it’s not the hardest reservation to get, as long as you put a bit of forethought into it. Given the parking nightmare of that neighbourhood, we arrived several minutes early and then…circled and circled and circled. Just as we were about to give up hope and succumb to valet parking, a spot miraculously opened up just a few steps from their door and a few minutes later we were seated in the restaurant and ready to get stuck in.

We began with a round of drinks. Cocktails for the missus and me (the French 75 for her, the Oaxacan for me), a glass of red for one of our friends and nothing at first for our other friend who is a teetotaler. Our server very kindly brought him a splash of a non-alcoholic drink so he could toast the evening with us; he subsequently decided to get a full pour of a separate non-alcoholic drink (some species of lemonade). So fortified, we got to the business of making hard choices about food. We decided to each get an appetizer and entree, while avoiding repetition, and to further split two pastas and a side between us. What did we get?

First Course

• Cucumber gazpacho tomatillo, radish, cherry tomato, prawns. This was mine. I liked the acidic bite but the texture was more watery than I either like or associate with gazpacho. I also felt that there was a bit too much floating in the gazpacho.
• Hiramasa tartare chinese broccoli, kumquat kosho, shiso, pumpkin ponzu. One of our friends had this. I got a good swipe at it and rather liked it (I also took a terrible photograph of it).
• Grilled carrots whipped sunflower tahini, jimmy nardello pepper, mâche salad. This was our other friend’s starter and he was a big fan. I liked the bite I took of it as well.
• Bison tartare harissa aïoli, watermelon radish, cilantro, dried olive, socca. This was the missus’ and we ended up splitting this and the gazpacho between us. I thought this was the pick of the round—though, as I do every time I eat it at Spoon and Stable, I wished there was some toast rather than the socca to eat it on (tasty though the socca is). The watermelon radish really makes this dish.

Pasta

• Bucatini dungeness crab, uni, saffron sofrito, basil, meyer lemon breadcrumb. God knows I complain about pasta not being al dente in restaurants in the US but some of the bucatini, which was inconsistently cooked, bordered on the crunchy. The dish as a whole was also over the border of being too salty. That was too bad as it otherwise could have been rather excellent.
• Ricotta cavatelli rabbit confit, preserved lemon yogurt, garlic scape, crispy chickpea. No complaints about the cavatelli though (not even about the gratuitous garnish of what my friend George once called “fetal chard”). The crispy chickpea “crumbs” were a nice touch.

Both pastas, by the way, were very large even at the mid-course portion size. I would have struggled to finish the larger portion of either of these if I’d got it as an entree.

Entrees

• Mediterranean bream puntarelle giardiniera, fennel, cicerchia bean, fried caper. This was the missus’. The fish itself was perfectly cooked but while everything on top of it was tasty, there was a bit too much of it, to the point that it distracted from the fish.
• King salmon parsley root vichyssoise, baby potato, sea bean, pickled mustard. I had similar feelings about the salmon. The fish was very nicely cooked but it felt like there was a bit too much going on on the plate.
• Roasted pheasant sorghum, sunchoke, kohlrabi, “coq au vin bitterballen”. The composition of the pheasant plate was more restrained in comparison and everything went together well.
• Roasted lamb loin sweet corn panisse, swiss chard, tomato-eggplant compote, merguez sausage. My roasted lamb loin was likewise a well-composed plate. The lamb looked very attractive but was unfortunately also rather chewy. The sweet corn panisse was a bit blah but the Swiss chard and eggplant compote were ace. The merguez, in case you’re wondering, was rolled inside the lamb a la porchetta and all but disappeared in terms of flavour.

Sides

• Brussels sprouts chili glaze, pancetta, nashi pear, peanut. The sprouts were both very tasty and did not go, in terms of flavour, with a single one of the entrees we had ordered. Indeed, looking at the menu, I think the halibut might be the only entree it could support without clashing with it.

Dessert

We were very full at this point and decided to just split one dessert between us.

• Warm toffee cake golden raisin, pecan, pear sorbet, miso. This was our consensus pick and we quite enjoyed it. They also brought out their usual birthday ice cream topped with cotton candy and a candle and we might have enjoyed that ice cream even more!

Oh yes, one of our friends and I got a glass of wine each to go with our entrees.

For a look at what we ate and drank, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service and the experience as a whole, and to see how much it all cost.

Our lead server was very personable and generally on top of things. There were, however, some bits of awkwardness when dishes were brought and cleared (by other people). A lot of reaching across our bodies to set things down, for example; at one point someone reached two hands around the missus from behind her to set things in front of her. On another occasion, plates were cleared for a course while some of us were still eating. I note these things because at a restaurant of Spoon and Stable’s reputation and ambition, to say nothing of the price point, you would probably hope for a more seamless service experience.

Price? With included 21% hospitality charge and tax the total came to $467.88. However, while resizing pictures for this report I noticed that we were apparently not charged for the two later glasses of wine. As they don’t appear on the check as comps and as our server didn’t say they were, I assume this was an error. I’ve emailed the restaurant to offer to pay. With those glasses of wine factored in (and the higher tax and service charge), the total would have been a bit north of $500. That would still be just over $125/head, which is not bad at all in the Twin Cities for a meal like this.

And this meal was, as I said, at the outset, quite good. So why then did I also say that it confirmed my placement of Spoon and Stable in the “once a year” tier in my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation? Well, while most things were done well, nothing really surprised or had the kind of creative spark that makes you do more than respect the cooking. A few too many of the dishes also suffered from having a little too much going on in them. Well, all that said, we’ll be back again next year (probably) to eat another of their menus—next time, though, we’ll probably order a little less food.

Okay, two more California reports remain from June. I will try to get both done before the end of the month. Next week’s Twin Cities report will feature either 112 Eatery or House of Curry or Vinai (where we are scheduled to eat for the first time this weekend). Let’s see how it goes.