Sea Change

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

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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 play

The 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.