The Rake Magazine

I had high hopes for Dancing Ganesha, the new upscale Indian restaurant that replaced Willie's Wine Bar on Harmon. When I spoke to one of the owners before the restaurant opened, he told me of ambitious plans to make it a "four-star" Indian restaurant with elements of French haute cuisine. I suggested a couple of local food consultants who specialize in south Asian cuisine, but it doesn't look like anything came of my suggestion.

The idea of creating an upscale Indian restaurant, with a more stylish ambience, better service and a more sophisticated menu than the usual curry joint really sounds like a great idea - it's high time that more of our local ethnic eateries break out of the low-end dining ghetto. It may take a while for local diners to get used to the idea that Indian, Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants should the same prices as Lucia's or Heidi's Cafe or Spoonriver, if they provide cuisine, ambience and amenities of comparable quality. But there is no reason why the Twin Cities can't support the kinds of Indian fine dining restaurants that you can find in New York or San Francisco. 

Unfortunately, while Dancing Ganesha's prices are considerably higher than any other Indian restaurant in the Twin Cities, they don't offer the level of ambience, service or gastronomic sophistication that would justify those prices. There are a few unusual dishes on the menu, such as an appetizer of sev batata puri - a puffy chaat-style appetizer of puri topped with potatoes, chickpeas, fresh coriander and tamarind chutney ($8.99), or a Maine lobster Thermidor ($29.99), but for the most part, the menu is made up of the standard currry house fare: tandoori chicken, saag paneer, mostly priced $2-$3 higher than comparable dishes at the nearby Bombay Bistro.

 The ambience seemed to have changed little since the Willie's era, except for the addition of a statue of a dancing Ganesha, the Hindu god of success.

As for the food, my dining experience last night was pretty disappointing. I couldn't detect anything in Carol's entree, a mushroom curry, that would justify a price of $18 for a dish that would cost $10-$12 elsewhere. My non-veg thali ($19), was equally ordinary - a lamb curry of dry chunks of meat; an unidentified generic chicken curry, dal (lentils), and a dish of seasoned green beans, plus raita and a very ordinary rice pudding. I am not sure what was in the saffron naan ($3.99), but it didn't look or taste like saffron.

But the biggest problem was the service. According to one of the servers, the restaurant has been open for over a month, but service seemed chaotic, and our original server was basically inattentive, clueless, unable to answer basic questions about the menu. A second waiter, who appeared to be from India, was more helpful, but also unable to provide much detail. Neither seemed to have much training in the finer points of service. 

If Dancing Ganesha wants to succeed, they are going to have to either 1) scale back their prices, or 2) make a serious effort to upgrade their service and the sophistication of their menu. Maybe the best approach would be to start with 1) and work on 2).The same company that owns Dancing Ganesha also owns the all-vegetarian Nala Pak in Columbia Heights, which offers a good selection of North and South Indian dishes at more reasonable prices. 

My dining experience was pretty disappointing, but I am going to go back and give Dancing Ganesha another try sometime soon. There were several parties of Indian customers at the restaurant last night, who seemed to have enjoyed their visit - perhaps they ordered more wisely than we did. 

Thanks to everybody who responded to my call for citizen reviews of the Citizen Café. The results are in, and the results are, well, mixed. Some things you liked, some you didn't.

I'll save my own comments for last, but that also sums up my own experience - I had a mediocre lunch, and a very satisfying dinner.

Keep in mind - as many of the critics did - that the Citizen Café has only been open for three weeks - and is still going through its shakedown cruise.

Is it fair to publish critical comments so early? Maybe not in the Star Tribune, where the impact could be devastating, but in this little ol' blog, I think it can be helpful - sort of a wake-up call, before Rick or Kathie shows up.

What you liked:

"For my entree, I was pleased with a unique twist: a Caesar salad with scallops," wrote Carrie Obry. "A bit of a Caesar addict, I tend to rely on its distinctive taste as an indication of a restaurant's ability to express itself. The scallops spoke to me like a perfectly fluffed bed of pillows. I dove in and enjoyed the soft taste of lemon complemented by the perfectly browned tops."

The rest of the salad didn't say Caesar to me much at all. The less-than-memorable dressing settled into a pool at the bottom of the plate and I had to work hard to reincorporate it. My friend also ordered a scallop salad, but with roasted tomatoes, bacon, and homemade creamy dill dressing. We both raved about the scallops and suspected that the restaurant was trying to woo us with their generosity. We each had five or six of the big guys."

Jason Fritzel also liked his salad entree - roasted vegetables on spinach with walnuts. The vegetables included were of the root variety, a generous helping of carrots, parsnips, and rutabagas. The veggies were nicely roasted ... al dente, but a bit under seasoned, could have used a bit more salt. This was quickly rectified with a quick dash from the salt shaker. The spinach was very fresh, bright green, and perfectly washed and dried. The walnuts were candied slightly and left a taste of cayenne lingering on the palate."

Jason chose the warm bacon dressing on the side, which was a "nice balance of sweet and picante with a few large chunks of bacon included. It was indeed warm, was slightly on the thick side for my taste, but did add nice flavor and balance to the salad, playing off the walnuts very well. The portion was very generous for a dinner salad and sated a moderate appetite."

He also had praise for his wife's BLT sandwich, "made with brioche, thick house-made mayo, and one of the thickest portions of bacon I have ever witnessed. The toasted brioche was divine, fresh, thick and melt-in-your-mouth good. The thick mayo was portioned just right and the bacon took some time to chew because of its thickness. The tomatoes were fresh and romaine lettuce crisp and green. The only way to improve this sandwich would be to add bibb lettuce instead of romaine."

Mary (no last name) gave a mixed but mostly positive verdict: The gravlax was "delicious," she said, and served in "very generous portion, but (with) only a few tiny toast points - I could easily have had twice as many, but I can't complain, as the fish was wonderful."

A reader named Ann Bauer, (who says she is not "the Ann Bauer"), also praised the look of the place: "great-looking interior and exterior makeover of what was the decor horror that was Sweet Lorraines (although their food and service were great)."

What you didn't like:

The dinner rolls (reportedly homemade), and the pasta salad - Carrie called the bread "absolutely lifeless," and Jason described it as "a bit on the stale side." Jason described his wife's side of pasta salad: "penne that was undercooked, under seasoned and overdressed with olive oil and hardly a hint of vinegar," while Mary described it as "undercooked" and "Cub Food-esque."

Ann found the food "odd." "Maybe I've watched too much Top Chef, but it was almost like you wanted to ask the Chef if he's tasted the things leaving the kitchen. For the first time ever, I picked up a salt shaker in a restaurant. And this was to season French Onion Soup! The rest of my party was underwhelmed with their offerings - soup, salad, sandwich, burger, especially after the menu sounded exciting and innovative, yet comforting. It's puzzling."

Fred Morris went for breakfast with his family, and was not impressed with the food or service. "When the food came, it was not above average. My scramble was rather pedestrian. The eggs were not hot ... they were barely warm. The hash browns also were cool. My oldest son had the roasted veggies topped with an egg. The veggies were drowned in olive oil. There was a pool of olive oil in the bottom of the bowl. His egg was cool. The pork hash was not at all a hash. It consisted of large cubes of pork mixed in with the other ingredients ... not a very good take off of beef hash. I've eaten breakfast at Victors, the Grand Cafe, Hot Plate, Maude's, Hell's Kitchen, Sunnyside Up, The Egg and I, Moose and Sadies, Birchwood, etc. and all were better."

Service also got mixed reviews.

"We sat for approximately 45 minutes before our food was served," wrote Fred. "We had to ask what had happened to our order before any explanation was given. The owner's wife explained that it takes longer to prepare the food because it is done 'from scratch.' She didn't apologize until I mentioned that it might be a good idea to give customers a sense of the status of their order after they have been sitting for a while."

Carrie Obry was critical, too: "The service, while pleasant, was a little lacking. We didn't have water, bread, or a knife for our bone-hugging appetizer until well after these items should have arrived."

Ann had a much better experience: "The waitstaff was "present" in that you never felt ignored or dismissed, even though you could tell they were literally and figuratively sweating. Everyone was patient and personable." And Jason found the service "friendly and attentive. The food took a little while to come up, but we were not in a hurry and totally understand that this was day 2 for the young Citizen."

As for my experience - on a lunchtime visit, service was extremely slow, and the food was uneven - the rolls were dry and flavorless, and the sandwich billed as corned beef didn't look or taste like corned beef - it was just dry, brown meat. I appreciated the effort that went into making homemade sausage, but the pork sausage was much too lean and dry.

On a dinner visit, we had a much better experience - service was prompt and attentive, and the food was very good to excellent, mostly. The house-made gravlax ($4) was delicious, and served in very generous portion, considering the price. The pickled veggies weren't as tart as I would have liked, but still quite tasty.

The entrees were a big hit - Carol's entree of shrimp and scallops was delightful - the scallops were sweet and succulent, and Carol marveled that the Cafe could serve three jumbo scallops and four large, tasty shrimp for such a reasonable price - $17. My portion of beef short-ribs ($17) was equally generous and satisfying - done to just the point where the meat is juicy and flavorful and tender, but not yet stringy. And the mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables were the perfect accompaniments.

I think the place has a lot of potential - this is very solid American cooking, unpretentious and reasonably priced. Service needs a little work, and better bread should be a priority. I will be eager to go back in August, after they have gotten their wine and beer license.

Yesterday was my first visit of the season to the Mill City Farmers Market, and I was pleasantly surprised by how many new stands there were selling locally produced prepared foods - apparently Brenda Langton, who was one of the founders of the market, and who owns the Spoonriver Restaurant next door, doesn't mind the competition.

The Black Cat Natural Foods is back this year - yesterday's weekly specials included a goat cheese and asparagus omelet, and a pulled pork sandwich ($6; a bit dry, but not bad), made with slow roasted pork from their market neighbors, the Donner family, who operate the MN Valley Organics stand nearby. The Donners were selling their own sandwich, billed as a McDonner: egg, sausage and cheese on an English muffin ($5.25). *Insert joke about Donner Party here.*

Among the new stands this year: Dim Sum Street, which offered a combo of steamed chicken bun and three small egg rolls for $5, and Mo:Mo, selling steamed Nepali/Thai dumplings, stuffed with chicken (from the market) or vegetables, topped with a tomato ginger chutney. The veggie dumplings (stuffed with onions, tomato, cabbage, chives, ginger and garlic) kind of fell apart when we ate them, but they were quite tasty.

If I had more room, I would have also sampled the wares at the Chef Shack food truck, where the menu included Thousand Hills beef hot dogs, beef tongue tacos and bison burgers.

Under the market shed, there were several more options, including the Queen of Tarts, selling sweet and savory tarts, Edna's Caramels, and Shepherd's Way, offering nibbles of their farmstead cheeses.

The Mill City Farmers Market, at 2nd St. and Chicago Ave. on the downtown Minneapolis riverfront, (between the Mill City Museum and the new Guthrie Theater), is open Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through October 18.

One of my favorite little lunch spots is the Chinese deli hidden away inside United Noodles, the oriental market hidden away inside the Seward neighborhood in south Minneapolis.

There are only five tables, and no table service - you order at the counter, and bus your own dishes when you're done. The menu is very limited - actually, there is no menu, just a few signs taped here and there, with some photos, plus the steam tables, where the foods aren't labeled, but easy enough to figure out.

This is a different kind of Chinese food than you'll find on most Chinese restaurant menus - even the more authentic places, like Mandarin Kitchen, or Grand Shanghai - it's really more like Chinese home cooking, or Chinese street food. The last time I visited the choices included big chunks of stewed beef and radish, chopped pork with long bean, chicken with broccoli, and glistening red slabs of barbecued pork and glazed roast duck.

I usually go for the combo special - any three of the entrees, plus rice and tea for $6.99, but I have also enjoyed the Taiwan style beef noodle soup - stewed beef and fat noodles garnished with chopped green onions and cilantro.

The deli is going to close for remodeling sometime around July 15, and reopen a couple of weeks later with an expanded kitchen, including a grill for cooking American food. ("American food?" - "Like steak." ) And eventually, they are also going to start serving shabu-shabu, a Japanese hot pot dish that's a little like sukiyaki. But not in the summer - nobody eats shabu-shabu in the summer.

United Noodles, 2015 E. 24^th St., in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. 612-721-6677.

Store hours
Monday to Saturday: 9am - 7pm
Sunday: 9am - 6pm

Deli Hours
Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am - 6pm
Sunday: 11am - 5pm

Just a reminder - if you have dined recently at the Citizen Cafe, and want to join in on the crowdsourced review (see the link above), you have until this Sunday, June 29 to post your comments, or send them to me at iggers@rakemag.com.