Haute Dish

New Years Eve can be a bit daunting to find something exciting to do, do you go out and spend a lot more on dinner than normal and then brave the roads or do you stay home and have friends over? This year it was a really good dinner out at Haute Dish in Minneapolis.

Haute Dish was one of those restaurants that opened to great fanfare and has exceeded most critics expectations and was named one of the best restaurants by at least 3 Minnesota publications. The City Pages article painted them very favorably and they were spot on.

The menu was a choice of 7 or 4 courses with a wine flight to choose from as well. We figured it was New Years Eve why not go for the 7 course option.

New Years Eve Menu

Egg Custard with orange, sesame and scallions.

Interesting is about the only word I can think of to describe this, the sesame and scallions were very refreshing but there was a gel on top of the custard that had an unusual texture. Interesting to try but not something that I absolutely loved. The wine pairing was a Heidsieck Monopole “Blue Top” Champagne that was well balanced with the richness of the custard.

An Oyster Trio was next with uni, truffle and ham and paddlefish roe.

The presentation was really pretty and simple and the oysters were actually pretty good. I think that was only the third time I had tried them. The wine chosen to compliment the oysters was a Le Cols du Tue-Boeuf Cheverny. Thinking what the heck kind of wine is that? So am I, I did a bit of research and it appears to be made from Gamay grapes. It was a nice light white and I did surprisingly enjoy it.

Course number three was probably a tie for my favorite, it was a Foie Crepe

It has seared foie gras, carmelized bananas, nutella and bacon and while it sounds like a very odd combination is was delicious and the sweetness from the nutella really balanced the richness of the foie gras. A Zind Humbrecht Riesling was the wine of choice for this one, it was  bit sweet but I can see the logic behind pairing the sweet wine with such a sweet and rich dish.

Lobster with crawfish, chicken wings, chicken liver custard and truffle was next

This was probably my least favorite, I don’t like chicken wings and my lobster was really chewy. Oh well, you don’t have to love everything. The wine pairing didn’t help either, it was a very oaky Domaine Thibert Pouilly-Fuisse that I took one small sip of and finished one of the other whites.

My favorite course of the evening was Kobe Beef with a potato puree, wild mushrooms, brussel sprouts and blue cheese.

The beef was cooked perfectly and the richness of the brussel sprouts and blue cheese were a nice match. What made it even better was the only red wine of dinner which was a Booutisse St. Emilion Grand Cru. A big heavy red with lots of flavor and a nice match to the beef.

Up next was the palate cleanser that was a blood orange champagne sorbet

This was just a tiny bit sweet and tart, the fizzy beverage was pretty darn good. I managed to eat all of this one’ The wine paring was an Argyle Brut and was a good match for the blood orange.

Ending with dessert of Chocolate…

There was milk chocolate, peanut butter, and all sorts of chocolaty goodness going on. Too bad I was so full from all the other food that I only had a few bites of this. It was good but a bit much for me. The wine beer pairing on this was a Surly Darkness. Surly is a local beer and it did match well with the chocolate but it had a really strong coffee taste and I can’t stand coffee. So this beer just didn’t do it for me.

My favorite course was the Kobe Beef and my least favorite was the Lobster but I did enjoy the uniqueness of the menu and the attention to det
ail. The service was very attentive and she did a pretty good job of explaining all the dishes, although we did think she might have been partying before she got to work that evening. I will definitely try Haute Dish again and partake in their standard menu.