I placed Petite Leon in the “Once a Year” tier in my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation, along with112 Eatery, Hai Hai and Spoon and Stable. We’ve eaten at all three of those restaurants this year and so to keep up appearances it was necessary that we eat at Petite Leon as well before the year runs out. Accordingly, after a bit of reservation shuffling, we ate there this past weekend with the same friends who’d joined us for dinner there in May 2023. I think we all enjoyed this meal at least as much as we had the previous and I am glad to say it did not make me think I’d been overly generous in my estimation of them in my rankings. Though not everything we ate got us equally excited, we enjoyed every single thing we ate, as we did our cocktails; and the meal turned out to be very reasonably priced as well. Hmm maybe we should eat at Petite Leon more than once a year…

Our reservation was at 7 pm and we arrived to a restaurant in the process of turning tables over from the first to the second wave of the night. Shortly after we sat down it filled up again and remained that way till the end of our meal. We were seated at one of the four-tops along the wall in the main dining room and were thus a little insulated from the bustle.

Our first order of business was to order some cocktails. One of our friends got the Istanbul (pisco, tart cherry etc.) and the other got the evocatively named Freak on a Leash—though it showed up as a very demure clear drink (featuring mezcal and korn liqueur—hence the name). The missus got the Paloma and I had The Truth Is Out There (mezcal, clairin, habanero etc.—I’m not sure what Mulder and Scully have to do with it). All the cocktails were very tasty. Fortified after a few sips we got down to business with the food menu. As we had in May 2023, we got everything to share.

Our first thought was to start with a dozen oysters as we had in May 2023. But after confirming with our server that the price for a dozen was $48 (up from $36 at our last meal), we decided to pass. Instead we ordered three dishes from the Appetizers section of the menu and followed up with three from the Entrees section. Showing up first were the Fry Bread and the Steak Tartare. The former is served with whipped ricotta with salsa macha (one of very few Mexican touches in everything we ate) and pickled peppers etc. It was very good. So was the tartare, crowned with a LOT of chopped chives and served with togarashi chips. The chips were tasty on their own but frankly I would have preferred some old-fashioned toasted bread with the tartare.

We were expecting our third order from this section of the menu—the Mussels Pimenton—to show up next. Instead two of the entrees arrived: the Caramelized Cabbage and the Braised Beef Ragu. When we asked the person who brought these dishes about the mussels she made like she was well aware that those had been ordered but given the extended period of time between our inquiry and their eventual appearance it’s likely the kitchen only got to work on them then…Anyway, the caramelized cabbage—to which we’d added the optional pork belly—may have been the consensus favourite dish of the night (it was certainly in my top two). From the cabbage itself to the perfectly cooked pork belly to the mushroom conserva to the  cannelini beans in mushroom broth the rest sat on, it was a perfect bowl of food. The beef ragu—tossed with pappardelle—was tasty as well but nothing very far out of the ordinary.

The mussels eventually showed up after we were done with the two entrees. I think this was our third time ordering their mussels in three meals and on the merits of this version we’ll probably order mussels again on our next visit. The mussels themselves were cooked nicely but it’s all about the tomato broth and the charred focaccia. If you’re keeping track, you’re probably wondering about our third entree. We were too. We were done with the mussels but there was no sign of the Barramundi. Our original server returned at this point to ask if we were interested in dessert. We said we were hoping to eat the barramundi first. Of course, she said, but once again based on how long it took from that point for the dish to arrive it seemed very likely that the kitchen had lost sight of it completely. At any rate, we received a freshly fired plate and I thought it was just dynamite as well. The fish was perfectly cooked and the beurre blanc it was sitting on, and the shaved fennel sitting on it, complemented it perfectly.

Having eaten the fish, we finally turned to dessert. We were quite full at this point so just got one order of the Tarta de Queso—Basque-style cheesecake—to share between the four of us. I think we’ve got this on every visit as well and it’s very likely we’ll get it again. Their dessert selection does not seem to turn over with the rest of the menu and we had not been overly enthused by the Arroz de Leche at our previous meal. The cheesecake, however, is unimpeachable.

For a look at everything we drank and ate, launch the slideshow below (I have a new camera and while I’m still fumbling with learning its controls, it did much better with the challenging mix of low and yellow light at Petite Leon than my previous camera managed to do). Scroll down for thoughts on service, for price, and to see what’s coming next on the food front.

I have already noted the issues with two dishes that seemed to have been forgotten about until we asked about them. This apart, service was generally very good. Our lead server readily answered questions about the cocktails and the food and was helpful in preventing us from over-ordering. She also took the dessert off the bill at the end. We assumed this was in response to the delays with the mussels and the fish but were amused that this was never actually acknowledged when the check was presented. We were just told that the dessert had been comped but given no reason for it.

Anyway, with the dessert ($9) taken off, the check came to $231.76. This was inclusive of a 4.5% service charge. Now, I’m all for included service charges but I’m really not a fan of having to do complex arithmetic at the end of a meal to figure out how much more to leave to bring the effective tip up to 20%. We ended up rounding up to $265 or so. That puts the meal at just over $66/head. That’s for four cocktails, a half-pour of beer and quite a lot of very good food. That is very good value indeed. We’ll be back next year for sure.

My next report from the Twin Cities will feature more Mexican food. I say “more Mexican food” with reference to my review last week of El Chivo Crazy. When Petite Leon opened there was a palpable Mexican influence on the menu but, as I noted, there didn’t seem to be much of it at this meal (compare with our first dinner in 2021).

I am also very aware that I failed once again this past weekend to post my final meal report from California in June. I would promise to do that for sure this weekend—for the nothing that’s worth—but I’m leaving for Delhi on Saturday evening, and with turkey day in between, time is likely to be tight. Let’s see how it goes.