Details
Date of Visit:
May 7, 2011
Attendees:
Kim and Kim's Mom
Our Rating:
Excellent
Total Bill:
$142.20
Type:
Seafood
Coffee:
Real cream, real sugar
Rerun Rating:
Absolutely
The Logistics
Reservations:
Yes, particularly on play nights
Dress Code:
Fancy
Noise Level:
Moderate
Parking:
Parking ramp across the street ($8 event parking) or the street meters if you aren't going to a playThe Drinks
- Glass of 2007 La Valentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (aka "red wine")
- Glass of chardonnay (I'll admit, I have no idea which chardonnay my mom got)
- Tanqueray 10 on the rocks
- Coffee
The Food
- Tuna carpaccio with pepper ice cream
- Beef flat iron steak with bordelaise, white onion and scrambled egg mousse, sauteed bitter greens and a popover
- Special of the night - Halibut poached in bone marrow server over sauteed morel mushrooms and spring pea puree with a lobster crisp, lobster cream and caviar
- Side of popovers
- Chocolate cremeux
- Calamansi napoleon
The Review
A great start to Mother's Day weekend! My mom and I (Kim) went to the Guthrie Theater for "Arms and the Man" on Saturday night. I made reservations for Sea Change prior to the show - if you're wondering about timing, I'd suggest reservations at 5:00 if you like to linger over dinner prior to a 7:30 show. That gives you plenty of time to eat multiple courses, walk out onto the bridge to check out the river, and use the restrooms before your show.
We got there a few minutes before 5:00, and those of us with 5:00/5:15 reservations were asked to wait a bit while they finished preparing the dining room. We sat in the bar and started out with a glass of wine (me) and gin on the rocks (Mom). The bartender was pleasant and efficient, though it took us a while to get our bill to close out when our table was ready.
For dinner, we started with the tuna carpaccio served with a spicy pepper ice cream. The tuna was excellent, and the pepper ice cream was intriguing. It had quite a kick for our "Minnesota" palates.
I had the beef flat iron (I know, I know, I'm at a seafood place), and I loved it. The "mousse" had loads of flavor, which paired well with the bitter greens. The steak was excellent, and I wound up not regretting trying the steak at a seafood place.
Mom had the special of the night - halibut poached in... well, you can see the description right above this. She loved it, and I enjoyed the bite that I tried. And morel mushrooms! Yay!
Dessert was to die for. We split each dessert to get a mixture of tastes. The chocolate cremeux plate had the dense "brownie," a chocolate mixture that we called chocolate jello, cherry preserves, and ice cream. We both figured that Jello should start doing a dense chocolate jello (and no, I don't mean pudding). Calamansi was new for me - I had to look it up on my iPhone when we were browsing the dessert menu. It's a citrus fruit, and this was like a lemon napoleon. The crisps were made out of sesame brittle, the filling was calamansi, and there was coconut ice cream. There were also some ginger accents on the plate. I think that I'm sold on the merit of calamansi now....
To wrap up - Tim McKee's kitchen did an excellent job. The creativity was amazing, and the execution was up to his usual standards.
