Review: Harvest

food: 7/10 - service: 8/10 - ambiance 8/10

On Monday, one of our lecture series entertained the speaker at Harvest. We were a decent crowd and we had a set menu to choose from. The variety was reasonable if a bit staid. Actually I was a bit disappointed with the variety on the first course, but did find the slow roasted beets,toasted hazelnuts, buttermilk blue cheese, hazelnut vinaigrette to be an interesting possibility and started to build from there. The main courses included two beef choices along with a vegetarian pumpkin ravioli and a striped bass dish. I opted for the porcini salt rubbed angus tenderloin served with spinach and fingerling potatoes. For dessert I ordered the almond cake with bourbon ice cream.

The beets were not quite what I had hoped. I would have liked the vinaigrette to be a bit more present than it was; a bit more bite would have helped the beets and would have made me happy. The tenderloin was very nice and the almond cake was ok. The best dessert was one that I didn't order and whose name I can't remember. It was a gelled vanilla cream with a simple blood orange sauce - that was really good.

The service was pretty good. It can be spotty at Harvest, but this night our waitress was attentive and gracious.

All in all it was a good meal, but I felt that it was not particularly inspired. I found myself longing for a bit less fine-food aspiration and for more excitement in the dishes that come to the table. Looking forward to dinner at Levain up in the Twin Cities soon (I may review it, but I will definitely have a bias as my nephew is a cook there).