We first ate at Oro in late 2023, not too long after they opened. We liked that meal very much. Our second dinner there was in the summer of 2024. And we liked that meal even more. Accordingly, I listed them in the “Twice a Year” category in the first edition of my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation last year. But then our second meal there last year was not so great. This was largely due to some service missteps but none of the dishes got us quite so excited either as those at our first two meals there had. As a result, they were not high on our list for this year’s dining out in the Cities. But as I get ready to issue Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation 2.0, I figured we should go back and see how things stand a year later. And so we descended on them last week for dinner on Saturday night. Here’s how it went.

We originally had a reservation for 8.15 pm but were able to shift it the evening before to 7.30. It’s always worth remembering that even hot ticket restaurants will see some openings when the 24 hour cancellation window starts to close. We were a party of four: the missus and me and two friends. We were shown in right away to our table—a booth along one of the walls. These tables are a bit cramped and they felt more so with our jackets etc. stuffed between us (no one offered to put them up anywhere, which might be a nice thing to do when the weather turns in Minnesota). We quickly got down to perusing the menus.

From past experience we’ve learned to order in waves rather than all at once (as the tables get overwhelmed very quickly). Accordingly, we first placed our drink orders along with some starters. We each got a cocktail. The missus very much enjoyed her Margarita Clasica; one of our friends got the Meszcalita and the other the Palomita, both of which got good reviews; alas, my Ranchero Galactico was just okay: a pismo-based cocktail, it started out fresh and bright and then turned a bit blah as it warmed up.

And then the starters arrived. From the Botanas section of the menu we got the Tostadas de Atun (which we’d loved at our previous meal), the Chochoyotes de Yuca, and the Pescadillas. From the Masa section we got the Quesadilla de Huitlacoche (which we had also previously loved). This round had a very high hit rate. We all loved the tostadas and the pescadillas (both usually three to an order, they gave us a fourth of each with a slight up-charge) but it was the quesadilla with huitlacoche that was everyone’s favourite, I think. There was no fermented corn salad this time alongside the quesadilla but the pickled vegetables it came with this time were very good too. The chochoyotes were also tasty but not quite as good as the previous version we’d had. That had been with plantain and masa; this time around it was yuca and masa and the dumplings were a lot denser. Everything else on the plate was good though.

Alas, this hot start was not to last. We’d placed our order for the larger plates (which we also shared between us) once our starters had arrived and they were all brought out together. We had three dishes from the Platos section: the Cochinita, the Pato con Mole and the Pozole de Pollo. From the Guarniciones section we had the Ensalada de Betabel. This last, a salad of beets with sikil pak, avocado etc. was very good and the only dish in this round that we did not have any issues with. What went wrong with the others? Well, temperature, for one thing. The pozole, which tasted fine, was just above lukewarm when it came out and served in a wide shallow bowl, cooled down even more quite quickly. The suckling pig terrine in their take on cochnita de pibil very tasty but the bean puree it was sitting on was not warm enough—a shame as the flavours were good.

But the biggest problem was with the duck. The mole the sliced duck breast was sitting on was very tasty (though again, not as warm as it should have been) but the duck breast itself was rather chewy and looked like it might have been reheated (I’m not saying that’s what happened, only that that’s what it looked like—you can see how dull the meat looks in the picture below). The only thing on this plate that did not have problems was the tamal with chopped duck meat.

I’m not really sure what went wrong with the finishing of these dishes. It’s not that Chef Romero was not in the house and keeping an eye on things—indeed he brought most of our large plates out himself. Are these dishes meant to be done this way? I wouldn’t think so—at any rate, we didn’t see anything like this on our previous three meals there. Happily, the blue corn tortillas—I can’t recall which dish in particular they were meant to accompany—were very good, as were the tostadas that came with the pozole.

Finally, dessert. We wanted our friends—who were eating at Oro for the first time—to try their audacious Mole dessert. Alas, this too was not as it had been in the past. On the past two occasions that we’d eaten and loved it, the pasilla chile had been stuffed with chocolate mousse and nutella. On this occasion, there was a fair bit of chocolate corn cake in there and it rendered the whole drier and denser than previous. It was still tasty but not the triumph we remembered.

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.

So, service. That was the big issue on our previous visits, and especially on our last visit. I am happy to say that there were no problems this time. Dishes and cutlery were cleared between courses and the larger dishes did not arrive before the smaller had been finished and removed. And our server was generally on top of things. Price? With tax and tip the total came to just about $360 or $90/head. Yes, we only had one drink each but that’s still pretty good in the Twin Cities.

So, how do we feel about Oro after two less than stellar outings in a row (albeit a year apart)? If the second half of the meal had been at the level of the first, this would have been another of our biggest hits of the year in the Twin Cities. Instead we ended up scratching our heads a bit and wondering if we’d had some bad luck. On the plus side, the menu does turn over regularly, so it’s not unlikely we’ll give them another shot next year before deciding whether to make them an annual stop or not.

Alright, what’s next on the food front? If Thanksgiving doesn’t kill me, I’ll try to get a Kyoto report out over the weekend. There will be no Twin Cities reports for the next two Wednesdays. Next week I’ll post the updated edition of my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation and the week after I’ll have a brand new Twin Cities list. If my local reports are what you’re mostly here for, come back for those.