In my post, The Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation, which ranked restaurants by how many times in a year we’re likely to eat there, Alma was the only restaurant I had in the “Several Times a Year” tier. And so it should be no surprise that with less than four months gone in the year, I am posting my second report on a meal eaten there in 2025. The first was of an excellent dinner in January. That meal featured a change in how Alma’s presentation of both pricing and the menu structure. Last year a meal cost $95/head with an obligatory 21% hospitality charge added to the bill. Now a meal costs $115/head but this is an all-inclusive price with no further expectation (or ask) of tipping. And while you’re still paying for a set number of courses, the opening course of “snacks for the table” and the closing dessert courses are now the only ones in which no choices are made by diners. The three larger intervening savoury courses feature a choice of two dishes. This is a distinction without a difference for the missus and I when dining there as we share everything anyway. Which means we ate the entire menu on this occasion as well and so I can tell you from direct experience that the current early spring menu—which we were told will continue for another 2-3 weeks—was excellent as well.

Before I get to the particulars of the meal, I will disclose again (for the benefit of newer readers) that my reviews of Alma cannot said to be without bias. This is not just because we’ve been eating there for a long time now and have the status of regulars but because in February 2023 I did an Indian pop-up dinner with them. Since then we have been made to feel very much like friends of the house. On this occasion we once again received welcome pours of prosecco when we sat down and a glass of wine was comped on the final bill. But, as far as I can make out, we’re not the only ones to receive complimentary bubbles, and we’ve probably been comped far fewer glasses of wine over the years than other regulars. I don’t note this to complain, only to say that while I want to disclose my connection to the restaurant before you read the rest of the report, I don’t also think that this results in treatment that is very far out of the norm for people who have not done pop-dinners with the restaurant. And I appreciate that.

Alright, let’s get to the dinner itself. The restaurant was in the process of a big turn of tables when we arrived a little after 7 pm on Saturday. We were seated once again in our favoured area of the restaurant: at one of the two-tops by the large windows in the front (this unspoken thing is the bit of special treatment I appreciate the most as the window sill is very handy for storing my stupid camera as well as the menu, which we like to hold on for reference over the course of the meal). The room had been buzzing when we got there. The second turn was not quite as full as the first evidently had been but there was a pleasant, hospitable buzz throughout the evening.

Okay, what did we eat and drink? The usual spiced almonds and marinated olives arrived not long after we sat down and we ate them while sipping on the aforementioned prosecco and perusing the menu to see what lay in our immediate future. The first round, “Snacks for the Table” arrived along with our drinks proper. The missus got their Spritz, and I got the Opuntia—still my favourite cocktail in the Twin Cities. The “snacks” included their wonderful house-made breads and cultured butter, as usual; also on the table were extremely tasty chard fritters (croquettes, really); endive boats on which were ndjuja, medjool dates and more; and small hunks of St. Germain a lovely crumbly goat cheese from Wisconsin’s Blakesville Creamery. The chard fritters were our pick of the round but the endive salad thingy gave them a close run for their money.

The second course featured a choice between a soup and a tartare. We, of course, got both. he soup arrived in two parts: a bowl with clams, potatoes and herb oil in it, and a small carafe of salsify soup which was then poured over it. Just exquisite. But the tartare may have topped it. Though not billed or described as such, this was essentially an Ethiopian trio passed through the Alma filter: the bison tartare evoked kitfo; it came alongside a wonderful spice red lentil puree and injera crisps to scoop them both up with.

The next course was the highlight of a very strong meal. Once again there was a choice (pasta or polenta) and once again we got both. We couldn’t agree on which we liked more: the missus gave the edge to the creamy polenta with mushroom ragu and shaved perigord truffles over the top; I loved that dish but liked my house-made tagliatelle with lamb “Bolognese” and early peas and mint even more. A good disagreement to have. I got a glass of a surprisingly good, light-bodied Turkish red to go with this course and the next (this was the wine that was comped on the check).

On to the largest savoury course. No surprise: we got both the dishes on offer. These were pan-seared king salmon over a lovely take on Thai red curry; and, once again, duck two ways: seared breast and confit of leg. As perfectly cooked as the salmon was, and as tasty as the red curry broth it sat on was, the star on that plate may have been the garnet yam. The duck plate—an iteration on the version we ate in January—was great all around. The breast and the crisped confit leg were done to perfection and the horseradish mash, the parsnip cream and the jus were likewise excellent. You’ll forgive me though for being most partial to the wilted early spinach that was also on the plate. I confess that I cannot be impartial here as this was inspired by the greens we’d prepared at my pop-up dinner in 2023: it featured spinach wilted in hot mustard oil to which panch phorn had been added.

There was no choice for dessert and thankfully, we both really liked the pistachio Napoleon. Oh yes, we were also offered splashes of a lovely dessert wine, a Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley that we rather enjoyed. We had no room after all this to eat the trio of warm cookies that always accompany the check and so took those away to eat the next day.

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

Service was warm and professional as always—really, best in class in the Cities. Price? With the comped glass of wine our total with tax came to $293.15. To compensate for the comped wine, we added on an extra gratuity which brought the total closer to what it would have been without the comp. Either way, an excellent value for an excellent meal (and, yes, we left feeling utterly stuffed). I’m not sure if we’ll be back in the next few months. We do have a few other places on the radar, and then we’re traveling in June and July, but we’ll be back in the late summer for sure (when their exquisite corn soup will hopefully be on the menu).

What’s next on the blog on the food front? I never got around to posting a Delhi report last weekend, and so I might try to get two of those reports out before the end of the week, so as to not fall too far behind (I am determined to be done with those reports by the end of April). Let’s see how it goes.