It’s no secret that I enjoy a good meal. I lucked out in finding Charles because he likes food, and he doesn’t mind going out with me somewhere nice. This past weekend, on a trip to Minneapolis, he surprised me with a visit to Travail Kitchen and Amusements.

With Travail, you buy tickets to the show up front, and pay for the dinner, taxes and tip online. The night of, you’re only responsible for paying for drinks. We had tickets for the 8:15 seating (there’s another at 5), and we arrived 15 minutes early. Our table wasn’t ready, so we were directed to the bar, deemed The Rookery. This was the only real failure of the evening for me. Charles and I both ordered cocktails and waited. And waited. And waited. We were then seated, still waiting for drinks. Finally. Finally. Mine came. And his didn’t. After some more waiting, his finally arrived. 20 minutes after ordering. I wasn’t a huge fan of that.

Round 1 for Me

 But after we were seated, things began to move quickly. We were placed at the Kitchen Bar, able to see into the open kitchen. We then met the first of many waiters. I was happy that we got to pay up front for tip, because it was hard to keep track of all of the people serving us, clearing plates, taking drink orders, and just working in the kitchen. All of the staff were phenomenal, engaging all of the diners in the experience.

Round 1 for Charles

Speaking of the staff. The atmosphere of this place is not what you’d expect. Yes, this is a $100-per-person dinner. But you can wear jeans and sing along to the background music that consists of only songs you will know. It’s great food, but the pretention is taken out of this.

So about the food. The website says that each seating will enjoy between 15 and 20 courses. We had 18, if you count the first and last. For our “Tasting Experience”, we had:

1. A strawberry bomb (made by dipping berry puree into calcium carbonate), with prosecco, topped with sage oil.

2. Branzino fish in Vietnamese sour broth with green apple and Carolina gold rice.

3. Charcuterie platter with head cheese, winter sausage, chicken liver mousse, salami, crackers, baguette, house pickles, smoked olive, garlic confit, cashew butter, and orange black pepper honey.

4. Gorgonzola tater tot with truffle ketchup.

5. Maple mustard glazed pork cheek, crispy pork belly, asparagus ramp ragout, ramps, asparagus tips, morel, and mustard.

6. Pork rillette beignet with Mexican crema, spicy cinnamon sugar and parsley powder.

7. Bloody Mary Ants on a Log, made of Fresno pepper, pickled cucumber, chorizo, tomato, white cheddar, and capers.

8. Fried chicken with roasted beech mushroom, black garlic, mustard greens, black truffle, and orange.

9. Pea and ricotta ravioli with pork guanchale, king crab, pea cream, preserved lemon, dried egg yolk and parmesan.

10. Green garlic and potato soup shooter.

11. Seared scallop with crème fraiche, chorizo, lime, red pepper, and fava beans.

12. Papallote salmon with thyme, lemon, tarragon, dill, sea beans, hazelnut, dill emulsion, carrot pearls, and a salmon skin chip.

13. BBQ demi of beef, braised lettuce, buttermilk ranch, fiddlehead ferns, grilled lemon and radish.

14. Guava and orange ice.

15. Fun Dip Rhubarb with lemon fizz and fennel sugar.

16. Green almond with apple mousse and amaretto.

17. Frozen yogurt parfait with your choice of topping (options were cake, granola, chocolate ganache, and caramel).

18. Mexican oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (to take home!)

We also had two cocktails each, all of which we loved. It’s worth noting that the second round did arrive much faster than the first, and they arrived together.

Round 2

The different courses arrived on a number of different kinds of plates, bowls, cups, glasses, tiles…you name it. It came as a combination of individual servings and plates for us to share. It’s a lot of food. A whole lot.  

This was, by far, the best dinner that I had ever been to. It was all of the delicious things you would see at a fine dining establishment, but with none of the pretention. Great people, making great food. It’s maybe not somewhere that I would bring the parents to impress them, but it’s a fun, but special date night. Come with a sense of humor, and an open mind to try anything on the plate. You won’t regret it.  

If you'd like to try out Travail Kitchen and Amusements, you can visit their website here!

...aaaaand if you'd like to see some more of my Minneapolis adventures, I've been vloging every day this month, starting with our trip to Travail! Watch it here: