I wasn’t sure last week if we were going to end up going out to eat this past weekend but, as it happens, we did. The younger boy has just finished middle school and the older boy is headed to 11th grade and we decided to take them out to a nice dinner to celebrate (it’s also the case that we haven’t taken them to a nice meal out in a while). They got to pick the cuisine and they asked for a place with pasta on the menu. 112 Eatery is always a good bet for our family—and their stringozzi with lamb ragu is one of our favourite pasta dishes in the Twin Cities—but we decided finally to go with Hyacinth. The boys had enjoyed our dinner there in 2022 and we decided to give them another go. The only tables they had at short notice were at 5 pm or quite a bit past the boys’ dinner time and so we ate very early. Here’s how it went.

Parking in the neighbourhood has not gotten any easier but one of the advantages of eating early is that we managed to find parking on Grand not too far from the restaurant. As we approached, the sun was out and I had half a mind to ask if we could grab one of the patio tables. A good thing I didn’t broach the subject, however, as a little later the skies opened quite dramatically for a spell. By the time we left, it didn’t look like it had rained at all and people were eating outside. The dining room filled up slowly but surely after we sat down and was bustling when we left. In the past, Hyacinth has been a pretty loud restaurant (with very loud music) but that wasn’t an issue this time.

We sat down and perused the drinks menus. They only had the one non-alcoholic, non-cocktail fruit drink on the menu and as it involved a fruit the boys are iffy about—lychee—we asked if it would be possible for them to get small tastes before committing. Our server very kindly got them cute little taster glasses, complete with lemon peel, and they liked it enough to get one glass each. The missus and I both decided to get a glass of wine each (I had not enjoyed my cocktails on our last visit). She got a glass of a sauvignon blanc from Friuli and I got a glass of an orange grillo-verdgejo blend from Sicily. Both were enjoyable enough.

On to the food. We got everything to share as usual. The menu is not over-large. On the night, they had on offer a selection of starters, three pastas (available in half or full portions), and three mains. Are there any specials?, I asked our server. Our entire menu is special, quoth she. Alright then. We decided to get two of the starters, half-portions of all three pastas and two of the mains. What did we eat?

GREEN GARLIC CROSTINI housemade bread, taleggio, ricotta, chives ($16)
DUCK CONFIT, fish sauce glaze, fennel pollen, pickled onions, mint, thai basil ($20)

The crostini were divided into four portions (I assume they don’t normally come out that way) and all the elements were nicely balanced. The confit was even better with the South East Asian elements working very well with the duck whose crisped-up texture hovered between pastrami and bbq.

BUCATINI cacio e pepe ($24/36)
MEZZE MANICHE housemade italian sausage, fennel, broccolini, white wine, pecorino ($24/36)
LINGUINE con le sarde, saffron, spring onion, sundried tomato, pepitas, breadcrumbs ($24/36)

We liked all three of the pastas a lot and couldn’t agree amongst ourselves on which we liked the most. The mezze maniche got the most votes, I think, but my favourite may have been the linguine, if only because I haven’t come across that prep in a while. The half portions are plenty generous, by the way. A gent at a table near us got a full portion of one of the pastas for his meal and ended up taking most of it home.

RISOTTO AL SALTO seared maitakes, crimini puree, walnuts, castelbelbo tre latti ($34)
HALF-CHICKEN MARBELLA mixed italian olives, vermouth, prunes, oregano ($36)

We had their risotto al salto (crisped up like a pancake on one side) at our first dinner at Hyacinth and thought it was just okay then. The older boy insisted on it at this meal and I’m glad we listened to him as it was rather good (we got it without the walnuts on account of allergy issues). The chicken marbella has already been replaced on the menu by a piccata and I wish that change had happened before last weekend. The chicken itself was cooked very well but the sauce was cloying to the point that even the sweet-toothed younger boy scraped all of it off his portion of chicken.

And so, dessert. There were three options of which we selected two.

PANNA COTTA rhubarb aperol jam ($12)
LEMON ITALIAN SORBET almond biscotti ($13)

We all liked the panna cotta fine and we all thought the sorbet was ho-hum—and we weren’t sure why it came with (very hard) almond biscotti.

For a look at 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.

Service was adept and generally pleasant. There was one rather obviously dirty knife that was sent out before the main courses but that was the only misstep. Cost? With tax and tip the total came to a little below $300 or a little below $75/head. That’s not egregious by any means at the higher end of the Twin Cities dining scene but it did feel again like it was a bit much for what we ate and drank (remember: we had very little alcohol). Of the nine dishes we ate, we liked five very much, thought two were decent enough and didn’t care for the other two. $75 seems a bit high for that hit rate.

I realized when starting this write-up that I’d forgotten to include Hyacinth in my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation list last year. Looking back at my write-ups of our previous meals there and considering this one, I think I’ll probably put them in the “Once Every Few Years” tier. If you live close by it’s a decent choice but it’s nothing to go very far out of your way for. We’ll try them again in a few years and see how we feel.

Next week I’ll have a write-up of dinner at Tenant—the missus and I are scheduled to eat there this weekend. That will be my last Twin Cities report for a while so make sure to check it out.