After taking three years after our first dinner at Myriel to get around to our second, here now is my review of our third dinner there, eaten just over a year after the second. Indeed, after our second dinner I had promoted them to the “Once a Year” tier in the 2025 edition of my Twin Cities Fine Dining Rotation, and I am very glad to say that our meal in 2026 did not cause me to want to reverse that decision. Instead, over the next few months I’ll be thinking about whether I want to promote them further in the 2026 iteration of the list, which will be out at the end of the year. So it was a very good meal again—read on for the details.

We had a reservation for 8.15 pm last Saturday. We arrived a little early to find our table ready. We were eating with the friends who’d joined us there in 2025 and we were coincidentally seated at the same table we were at last year. A wonderfully interesting detail, I know. The restaurant was quite full when we arrived and remained so till about 10 pm or so, after which it cleared out in a hurry. When we left at about 10.30 it was almost empty. Such is life in Minnesota. The restaurant was not quite as loud as it had been last year but was no brighter (and I do think it could stand to be just a few ticks brighter). But why am I giving away my age again? Let me tell you instead what we drank and ate.

Our attempts to order drinks was first foiled  by our very personable and enthusiastic server who came by several minutes after we’d perused the menu and described and recommended some of the cocktails with great energy. Before we could tell him that we were actually already ready to order, he informed us that he would give us a few minutes to think about things and disappeared. A few minutes later we managed to get our drink orders in. As it happens, we only got one cocktail proper. The missus got the Bamboo (sherry, vermouth, bermutto). One of our friends got the Sumac Limeade; the other got a glass of Vouvray and I got a glass of a Slovenian orange wine. Thus fortified, we got our food order in.

Once again, we shared a few smaller plates to start and went our own way for the mains before returning to share some desserts. First out was the large version of their Charcuterie plate. This included duck liver paté again, along with pickled walleye, summer sausage, a bunch of pickled veg (beets, asparagus, beans), soft and hard cheeses and condiments. All were pretty good; we all agreed that the pickled walleye was the pick of the lot. And I am happy to say that unlike the small charcuterie plate we’d got last year, this one had an appropriate number of crackers to eat it all with. As we were eating this arrived the Pain Rustique and Cultured Butter. I failed to hear the description of the bread but I can tell you that both it and the butter were very good. This was followed by an outstanding salad of String Beans with a buttermilk vinaigrette and cherry tomatoes. I must note here, regretfully, that the commitment to full-throated description of local ingredients failed a bit here. The tomatoes on the plate looked a bit like peeled versions of a variety I grow (Brad’s Atomic Grapes) and, being a tomato fool, I asked our server if he knew which variety they were. “Cherry”, he said. Thinking he’d misheard, I asked which kind specifically and he said, “heirloom”. I gave up. I grant very few people are going to have this question.

To the mains. Again, there were only three mains listed. I don’t know if this is always the case and, if so, if there’s a reason for it. Anyway, we tried them all. One of our friends got the Lamb Meatballs; the missus and the other friend got the Walleye; and I got the Duck Breast. To accompany all of these we got the Grilled Blue Oyster Mushrooms from the mid course/sides section of the menu. Those mushrooms were dynamite as were the greens on the plate. Also excellent were the greens with the meatballs. Alas, the meatballs themselves, while quite tasty, were denser than any of us liked. Both people who got the walleye said that while the fish (pan-fried, I think) was fine, they much preferred everything else on the plate; based on my big bite from the missus’ plate, I agreed. I also agreed with our friend who posited the theory that walleye may be a “high floor/low ceiling” fish. Thankfully, my duck was excellent in every way—from the perfectly cooked duck breast itself to the lovage gastrique it was on to the celeriac etc. that accompanied it. Perhaps the best duck I’ve had this year.

Oh yes, we re-upped on drinks before the mains. Our friend eating the walleye got another glass of the Vouvray. The friend eating the lamb was between two reds and our server very nicely got her generous tasting portions of both; she chose the Blaufrankisch. I meanwhile got a German Pinot Noir to go with my duck; it was unexpectedly farmy on the nose but had lovely fruit on the palate. The missus rested.

Finally, dessert. There were three listed and to be safe we got one of each. These were the Swedish Cream, the unlikely sounding Sweet Zucchini Layer Cake (with equally unlikely sorrel ice cream, and Rhubarb Pie. The Swedish Cream included a component named malinalco. As none of us knew what this was we applied to our server. He was stumped but this time he checked with the kitchen and informed us it was a tomatillo syrup. Well, we detected no hint of tomatillo anywhere in that syrup but we liked it quite a lot anyway (and the interplay between the tart ground cherries and the sweet custard was very nice). And I really liked the zucchini cake and sorrel ice cream, which I fully admit I railroaded everyone into getting in order to satisfy my morbid curiosity. Would definitely get it again. The pie meanwhile was good pie but nothing out of the ordinary.

For a look at everything we drank and ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.

The few hiccups aside, service was very good. Cost? Last year we’d paid $115 per head for our meal. This year the total with tip came to just about $480 or $120 per head. This is very good value at the high end in the Cities for what was a very good meal with thoughtfully composed and mostly very well executed dishes (the dense meatballs and slightly blah walleye aside). We’ll be back at least once next year for sure.

Alright, that leaves two food reports this week. On Friday I’ll have another from Seoul in May; and on Sunday I’ll have another from Delhi in 2025. I’m not sure where next week’s Twin Cities report will be from as we’ve not made any plans yet to eat out this weekend. If we do go out, it’ll be for something casual.