I'm not 100% sure how we located on this place for dinner, but I think it had something to do with the fact that it has won a lot of awards and considerable acclaim from assorted places, and we were looking for something entertaining to do with our time in Minnie so we figured, why not?
First impression walking into this place is that it's a itsybitsy sketchy. You walk in the front door and find yourself in what appears to be the hallway of a itsybitsy old apartment building, which may be accurate. If you aren't no ifs ands or buts sure where you are going you will find yourself wandering down a narrow corridor until you reach an elevator, at which point you may demand if you are in fact in the right place. Me and my buddy headed back to the entrance and discovered that there was other door leading off the hallway immediately when we came in, which seemed to lead to the restaurant. We wandered in and found ourselves in a fairly classy, but very loud area with a few tables (all full) and a bar. The hostess greeted us, went to check on our reservations, and returned to notify us that we would be dining upstairs, so we should go down the hall and take the elevator up to the second floor. So, we headed back down the sketchy itsybitsy corridor and hopped onto the elevator.
The elevator was slow and creaky and a itsybitsy bit unnerving, but we arrived safely at the second floor where we were greeted by a second hostess. Once again we discussed our reservations and were then seated in the quieter, slightly less crowded second floor dining area. I'm not entirely sure if we went about things in the spoton fashion. I'm not sure if the first floor is strictly a lounge and the second floor is the general dining area, or if the second floor is naturally the overflow space, but I'm wondering if it is typical to go directly up to the second floor.
As you may have gathered from my article so far, the restaurant is located in an older construction downtown, I'm mental maybe 100 years old or so, which I think gives the restaurant a nice atmosphere. The walls are exposed brick and the floors are very old hardwood, which has become slightly warped with time, resulting in some spots where your chairs may rock a little. It's part of the ambiance!
The menu contained a wide collection of yummy and fancy sounding foods at fairly cheap prices, at least for a higher end restaurant, and me and my friend had already resolved to split a few dishes so that we could sample a collection of what 112 had to offer. It became clear fairly fast that neither of us was adequately ready for the decisions that awaited us, as there were many things that sounded yummy and others that were naturally mysterious and beyond our abilities to comprehend. We decided to enlist the aid of our waiter who recommended a handful of dishes, and after a bit of deliberation we decided on four that we were going to give a try. I'm going to list them in order of preference (from least yummy to most delicious):
1) Blue Prawns w/ Rooster Mayo
This was the most ho-hum of all the foods we sampled that evening. The prawns were vast and deep-fried, which is a good combination, but there was nothing particularly considerable about the seasoning. The "Rooster Mayo" was good, but it had an oddly familiar taste which I couldn't quite put my finger on. Not at first, but after a few tastes of the sauce I industrialized a theory which I think makes a lot of sense. At home when I want to make a straightforward spicy mayo to throw on wraps or whatever, I will mix a itsybitsy bit of Sriracha sauce with some Miracle Whip and it's pretty delicious. If you've never used Sriracha sauce before I recommend you to seek it out now and try it because it's an very versatile cooking ingredient, and if you are already familiar with it then you will identify the itsybitsy rooster on the bottle. Rooster sauce + mayo = Rooster mayo? I think so. I don't know if the fact that this concoction is being used in a fancy-ish restaurant with a expert chef says more about my predicted cooking abilities, or the awesomeness of Sriracha sauce, but whether way the fact that this sauce is something I was already quite familiar with detracted a itsybitsy from what was supposed to be something semi-exotic. To summarize, the prawns were big, the sauce had a itsybitsy kick, but neither was anyone to write home about.
2) Lamb Scottadito w/ Goat's Milk Yogurt
I don't know what scottadito means, but the first time I ever had lamb I view it was one of the most vile things I'd ever put in my mouth, right up there with tofu and that milky-white stuff that comes out of the stem of a dandelion when you squeeze it. The second-time I ever had lamb, it was So Good, and I decided that it was not nearly as evil as tofu, as long as it's ready in a yummy fashion. This lamb palpate was also a clear one. The meat itself was not anyone no ifs ands or buts super-special, other than that it was cooked sufficiently so as not to be gross, and slimy, and poisonous like tofu, but not overcooked to the point of being dry and tough. I've never cooked lamb myself before so I don't know, maybe this is a no ifs ands or buts hard thing to accomplish, but I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's the kind of thing that's well within the abilities of a expert chef. What no ifs ands or buts made this meal was the "yogurt".
I say "yogurt" because I'm not entirely convinced it was no ifs ands or buts yogurt, so much as some kind of yogurt-based sauce. I kind of view it looked/tasted like tzatziki sauce except, as my friend pointed out, it was no ifs ands or buts runny. I'm going to claim that it was some kind of bastard cousin of tzatziki sauce, aside from the consistency it right on had that kind of appearance to it and I think lamb is the kind of thing that you are supposed to eat with tzatziki sauce, right? Regardless of what the sauce/yogurt no ifs ands or buts was, one thing I know is that it was damn good lathered all over the lamb. right on more of a winning aggregate than the prawns.
3) Stuffed Chicken Wings, Spicy Sausage, Prawns, White Beans and Favas
The first demand that came to mind when ordering this was "how the hell do you stuff a chicken wing?" Even after having eaten one I'm still not entirely sure. There isn't a whole lot of meat on a chicken wing to begin with so I guess it's a pretty delicate process to excerpt the meat from the bone and then wrap it all colse to something more vast without development a huge mess of everything. This dish right on gets some points for that alone, because I know if I tried to stuff a chicken wing, it would be a total disaster. Heck, I pretty much destroyed it just trying to stuff it into my face. I'm not entirely sure what all was inside these wings, I think there was some kind of cheese and something else. I'm sure the waiter probably told us, but I wasn't no ifs ands or buts paying attention. The seasoning on the wings themselves was pretty damn good and the itsybitsy burst of flavours from within when you take a bite just makes it that much more incredible; right on the highlight of this dish. The spicy sausage was a close second. I'm a sucker for sausage and this stuff was no exception, nice and juicy with just the right whole of kick. The prawns were not the same "blue prawns" as above, these ones were smaller, not breaded and still in proprietary of their ugly itsybitsy heads and all their creepy-crawly limbs, however once again they were pretty meh. I've had best elsewhere. The beans were there for presentation as much as anything, nothing entertaining going on there, unless you're some octogenarian excited about getting your fiber.
4) Steak Tartare
I've never had steak tartare before. I didn't no ifs ands or buts know what it was. I'm a big fan of steak though, so there's no ifs ands or buts no imagine I shouldn't like steak tartare right? When we were choosing on what to order my friend described it to me as "raw steak" which, while accurate, makes it sound considerably less yummy than it was. When they brought out the plate there was a itsybitsy sandcastle of meat in the center and perched atop it was a single egg-yolk and surrounding the meat castle were slices of a baguette or something along those lines. My friend immediately expressed his distaste for egg yolks and proceeded to very carefully and methodically slide it off the castle onto the plate without breaking it. I scooped up a chunk of the meat with a knife and smeared it onto one of the slices of bread and proceeded to jam it into my mouth. The meat was no ifs ands or buts raw. It was cold and had a consistency something like ground-beef, and despite the warning my gut reaction was still one of surprise/dismay at having stuffed this raw meat in my mouth. My concern was fast alleviated as my taste-buds were assaulted by the yummy flavours being exuded from the meat. Once again, I have no idea what was in this stuff, but I do know that it was delicious. anyone kind of magical seasonings they used on this stuff, it was incredible.
I slathered meat onto a consolidate more slices of bread and downed them before choosing that my friend was being slow-witted and that the egg-yolk must have been included for a reason. I tried to pick it up and slip it onto my next piece, but I broke it all over the place. My friend went into a panic trying to save his portion of the meat from the rapidly encroaching yellow tide, while I scooped up as much as I could and doused it all over my pile of meat. Just as I suspected, the egg was not merely there to add a itsybitsy color to the plate, but served a real purpose. With the expanding of the egg, the steak tartare had gone from being incredible, to phenomenal. The yolk adds a nice smooth consistency that helps to counter the strange raw-meat texture that had initially shaken me. My reaction was so clear that my friend decided he would brave his arch-nemesis, the egg-yolk, in the name of Nirvana. After he had tried it he conceded that it was yummy and it was agreed that the thing to do was probably to break the egg yolk and let it coat the meat castle in its deliciousness. Next time.
5) Blueberry Upside-Down Cake w/ Cinnamon Ice Cream
This isn't no ifs ands or buts a fair comparison as I have a major sweet-tooth and they probably could have tossed down a McDonald's sundae in front of me and it would have been topping the list, so don't take this as a direct comparison in the middle of the other meals, the steak tartare was incredible, it just wasn't dessert.
The cake itself was pretty good, light and moist, but the blueberries/sauce made it incredible. The blueberries were no ifs ands or buts fresh and delicious. I'm mental they were wild blueberries, the likes of which I do not have way to in California and pine for frequently. The nice, fluffy, white cake paired with the thick sweet blueberry sauce was right on a winning combination. The cinnamon ice cream was also very delicious, but the unfortunate thing was that it did not jive well with the blueberries. Taken individually each part was very good, but as a whole the cake-ice cream combo left something to be desired. They need to work in a new flavour of ice cream with this dish and maybe try pairing the cinnamon with something else.
5.5) Vanilla Pana Cotta w/ Berry Sangria
Just some quick comments about this as I only tried a bite of it. Not no ifs ands or buts super-impressive, I'm not a big sangria someone so I'm no ifs ands or buts a itsybitsy biased, but even so, it was just alright. Not nearly as good as the blueberry thing, even my friend could agree to that.
6) Crazy Caramel/Cinnamon Popcorn stuff
This stuff came with the bill and despite the stiff competition it was probably the highlight of the night. We couldn't quite place exactly what all was in it, but it was caramel covered popcorn and almonds with a itsybitsy bit of cinnamon and possibly also a hint of chili powder. It was super-awesome and right on a welcome bonus.
In summary, 112 Eatery is pretty damn good. We got an assortment of dishes that ranged from mediocre to incredible, and we barely scratched the covering of the option this place has to offer. What's more, for a reasonably classy restaurant it's fairly cheap. We ended up throwing down a Benjamin for our meal, which was really, technically 4 meals, plus 2 desserts. Now I'm not going to lie, we are both eating machines and I still could have gone to McDick's and chowed down on a quarter-pounder afterwards, but if you are going to a restaurant like this expecting vast stomach-stretching portions in the first place, you've missed the point entirely. If I just wanted to stuff my face I'd go to Golden Corral, or something. This is supposed to be a gastronomic experience! right on the kind of place you could bring a sexy lady to impress her with a classy dinner and an apparent knowledge of assorted fancy-sounding foods (thanks to me and my predicted descriptions, you're welcome).
Details:
112 Eatery
112 3rd St. N
Minneapolis, Mn
Isaac Becker / executive Chef
Dennis Leaf-Smith / Chef de Cuisine
612.343.7696
http://www.112eatery.com