Tasting Menu Event at Myriel in Minneapolis

[Steve Kroll]

Last night (Thursday), my ex-wife and I went out with our daughter and son-in-law to celebrate her birthday at a restaurant called Myriel in Minneapolis. She and SIL are foodies and they enjoy going to these kinds of events. I like them, too. I view these events much like going to an art exhibit, but instead of standing back behind a rope, you get the additional pleasure of touching and eating the chef's art.

Overall, we found this one to be "hit and miss". Some of the chef's preparations were stellar. Others were... odd. The chef describes her work as modern farm to table. Almost everything served was grown or raised locally. As a pescatarian, I was offered alternatives to what the carnivores at our table received. The menu was 12 small courses served over a period of 4 hours. There was an optional wine pairing menu. Daughter and SIL had that option. Ex does not drink and I had to work very early this morning, so we did not.

I thought I would share some of the highlights (and a few lowlights ).

 

[Steve Kroll]

Pickled Garden Vegetables. I couldn't name any of these items, except some were vaguely pepper-like. It was garlic scapes, peppadews (?), and baby eggplants.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Lemongrass Tea, Purple Potato Chips, Pickled Egg, and a Cracker with Homemade Cheese and Apple. I liked this one. I'm not a tea drinker, but I really enjoyed it.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Poached Egg with Fennel and Fall Vegetable Broth. Another enjoyable dish.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Homemade Cow's Milk Cheese with Kale and White Turnips. As Kleenex would say, I give it a medium thumbs up. Kale is not high on my list, I don't care how you prepare it. But the cheese was good!

 

[Steve Kroll]

Sunchoke "Confit" with Grilled Cabbage and Celery Oil. One word... yummy! Daughter did not care for it. The sunchoke gave me bad gas.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Butternut Squash Custard with Prickly Ash. Another hit. The texture was kind of unusual but it was delicious. To me it tasted a little sweet. I couldn't tell if there was added sugar or it was just the sweetness from the squash.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Corn Fritters with Horseradish Sauce. This was the best dish of the night, in my opinion. Reminded me of falafels.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Duck Hearts. You'll notice there's only three. I can't comment because I was served a potato something-or-other.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Savory Homemade Yogurt. The chef was very proud of this, The cultures for the yogurt are 130 years old. It was big miss for me because the texture reminded me of mucilage. It was gloopy.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Walleye with Grilled Rutabaga. The rutabaga was outstanding, believe it or not. The walleye, not so much. It's not my favorite fish. Plus, everyone else got lamb tenderloin. It didn't seem like a fair tradeoff.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Dessert # 1 - Wild Grape Sorbet in Raspberry Kombucha. Okay, this needed to be served in a red solo drinking cup. It was a little too sweet for me.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Winter Wheat Porridge. Delicious, as far as porridge goes. I was getting a bit full around this time.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Dessert #2 - Wild Rice Pudding with Caramelized Sugar. Good, but since I was getting to the point of being super full I only had one bite.

 

[Steve Kroll]

The restaurant gave us these little menus to commemorate our experience, along with a sachet of their tea blend and map to the farms that contributed.

 

[Kathleen]

What a fun experience! Thank you so much for the review and for sharing. Textures are a big deal for me. I can understand not being a fan of a dish due to its texture.

 

[taxlady]

Some people call sunroots "fartichokes".

 

[dragnlaw]

Thank you Steve. Excellent reviews, like the fact you gave your reasons why you didn't like certain dishes.

Pescetarian Restaurants watch out - there's a new hidden food critic about to visit you.

 

[jennyema]

Steve! How fun! Now that my mom is gone, I won’t get to Minneapolis (my homeland) much, but when we do, we’ll go there.

We really like dinners like these.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Steve! How fun! Now that my mom is gone, I won’t get to Minneapolis (my homeland) much, but when we do, we’ll go there.

We really like dinners like these.

Hi Jenny!

I assume you've been to Travail Kitchen? That's my favorite tasting menu in Mpls. They do some really unusual fun courses there. The one that stands out in my mind is one where you put your hand into a hole in a box and the chef on the other side "plates" the food onto the back of your hand.

Steve