While the food was fresh and artfully presented, ingredients did not always enhance the dishes as they should.

For example, a soft shell crab was placed on a mixture of chili pepper oil and diced asparagus - too spicy, oily and crunchy that suppressed the delicate crab flavor.

It would have been better if placed on a sauce used in another one of their appetizers - green peas, coconut milk, green chili pesto. The Heirloom

Greens salad with warm goat cheese, huckleberries, and walnuts was terrific with the right balance of flavor and textures.

The mild bison rib eye was placed on a pungent BBQ sauce with an off taste that again was distracting to the dish. The special was lamb roulades on a bed of yucca potatoes. This dish had 3 petite lamb loins wrapped around lamb tenderloin. Other than the mildly tasty mint sauce, the dish was tasteless with embarrassingly tiny portions with the potatoes used only as a garnish placed on a large plate.

When we commented on the dishes to our wonderful waitress Leah, she explained that the executive chef was on vacation so the sous chef may have been taking some liberties with the menu. However, that should not have changed the overall design and ingredient use of the dishes.

I doubt that I would have dinner here again unless a new chef was hired. It's too bad because the music is always so delightful.

~Review by Ed DonFrancesco

After hearing about this new South Minneapolis eatery from a friend and that they tend to attract a big crowd, I decided to have an early lunch there with my two sons - all of us food lovers.

No one greeted us so we chose a table and sat down with only a handful of patrons seated at the time. The first thing one notices upon entering is the center-court bar that occupies some major square footage.

Glancing at the menu is strange at first because the lunch menu also includes about half a page of breakfast items.

The general fare is soups, salads, panninis and burgers. A separate sheet menu showed 3 daily specials that were uninteresting to any of us.

We ordered the crab cake sandwich, smoked chicken panini and Greek salad. Upon arrival, the dishes were plainly presented (not necessarily a bad thing but not as appealing as it could have been). The crab cake sandwich contained 2 thin silver dollar-sized crab cakes that had a decent texture and were tasty but too small to thoroughly enjoy any crab flavor. It was topped with one tomato slice and some lettuce on a white bun - quite boring.

The smoked chicken panini was served with a few mild cheeses on non-traditional panini bread, something like you might see at a fast food place. Finally, the Greek Salad had two half-dollar sized zucchini fritters that were fresh and delicious but were buried on the side of the salad and so disappointingly small that I walked away hungry.

They should have been triple the size or maybe a few more in the dish would have been quite tasty. Also, I have never had a Greek salad without tomatoes although there was plenty of julienned vegetables and feta cheese.

All the dishes were noticeably under seasoned and the sandwiches were supposed to come with mixed green salads but the server did not bring them and did not appear to know much about the dishes. Also, no substitutions are allowed.

Overall, our experience was not very satisfying and I doubt we would go there again, especially with their overpriced menu.

Pros: Clean, quiet lunch spot

Cons: Somewhat interesting menu but disappointingly under seasoned dishes.


~Review by Ed DonFrancesco

COSMOS - a stunningly modern and sophisticated restaurant, but pricey and sometimes odd tasting food...

My recent experience at Cosmos was a mixed one. The ideal way to experience the restaurant is coupling dinner reservations with a hotel suite. My “Celebration” package included $100.00 credit toward our bill, which certainly helped a little.

When you first enter the 4th floor, you see the elegant bar with several contemporary couches seated throughout the room. You then arrive at the dining room where there is standard table seating, or my preference, the half table / lounge seat setup.

The lighting was dim and romantic, and reservations were a snap. At 7:30, there was a moderate crowd, and even several more at the bar. This was pleasing, as it was the right balance of people without feeling too crowded or noisy.

Once seated, we were immediately introduced to our Waiter, who happened to be French. He was friendly, and even asked where my wife was from once he learned her name. He told us he was from a small French city which of course had wine as their major export. He offered sparkling or regular water and handed us the wine menu.

We ordered a bottle of Merlot, which had a delightful description. It starts with a tart berry flavor and ends in a hint of cinnamon and chocolate.

We looked at the main menu, and noticed they had a 5 course meal. The food portions, according to our server, were small and light. Since we were fairly hungry, we decided to order across the menu instead.

We first ordered Crab Cakes, which were correctly breaded and not overdone. They tasted very fresh and was personally my favorite item of the evening. We also ordered a single salad and shared it. I would recommend this, as the size of the salad was very large even when splitting for two.

For Elena’s entrée, she had the Tenderloin Steak with green and white asparagus, lightly sauced with a brown reduction. She ordered hers quite rare, and it came out perfectly. She also had au gratin potatoes, which she thought were just ok.

I tried her steak. It was tender and nicely seasoned.

For myself, I ordered the Vanilla buttered Lobster. It was a tail split in two, in shell, supplemented by a single claw without shell. It had the oddest accompaniments, including au gratin cous cous, a green mint sauce, and “foam.”

First, the portion size was fine, it was probably just over a 1 pound Lobster, but then again it was just the tail and claw, so obviously much less meat than a full one.

Next, the au gratin cous cous that my Lobster tail was sitting atop of was just awful. The yellow “cheese” tasted as if the Chef supplemented it with your grocers store brand Macaroni and Cheese sauce. I found that this taste also clashed with the vanilla butter.

The green mint sauce was purely for presentation, and so was the foam. But what exactly was this “foam?” I will make it a point to ask my brother Michael who is a wonderful Chef here locally. It tasted sour and was as if they had siphoned it off of one of the local lakes.

The Lobster meat itself was very good. The vanilla butter was a bit strong for Lobster, but so is just about any other flavor rendition for that kind of meat. I really think they could have done without the generic cheese sauce cous cous and supplemented it with lightly salted New Potatoes or another starch. It really detracted from my overall experience.

Here’s how my meal stacked up:

Wine: Merlot = 7 / 10
Mixed Green Salad with roasted red pepper dressing: 8/10
Appetizer: Crab Cakes = 8.5 / 10
Entrée: Vanilla Buttered Lobster tail and claw = 5 / 10

Final thoughts:

Cosmos is a great place to go for a “night out on the town” but stick to the appetizers and drinks. It’s quite possible they have other menu items that are stellar, but with this kind of place, and the price, it’s hard to want to go back anytime soon. The décor partially makes up for what it lacks in food…

Cosmos’ Overall Score: 6 / 10

Bill $165.00 for two

OpenTable Stats

I recently attended the Jax Café’s Annual Huntsman’s Dinner over in North Minneapolis.

The invite for this came to me through my Father, who was happy to include me on his list of attendees. Michael DonFrancesco, my brother and almost famous Lead Pasta Chef over at Campiello’s Uptown, also joined along with my Wife, and Mike, the Executive Chef for D’Amico’s catering division.

If you have never been to Jax Café, it’s really a nice departure from other restaurants. It has an almost medieval look and feel. Parking was fairly easy, with both street and lot parking right nearby.

The dinner was actually hosted upstairs, which is totally secluded from their bar and dining area below. When we arrived, there was a free coat check (with tips of course) and friendly staff to seat us with our party.

This yearly buffet dinner is fairly well known, and certainly unique and eclectic in taste and selection. Every year has a different menu, but follows a consistent pattern in that they stick to wild game and fish. Sometimes exotic, sometimes less exotic.

Included on the menu this year:

Alligator hush puppies
Roast Duck
BBQ Wild Boar
Venison Stew
Rabbit with Fettuccini Alfredo
Bison Roast
Oven Basted Quail
Trout, Salmon and other various fish
Pâté

The dinner first started off with appetizers, also buffet style. There was steamed salmon, Pâté, fried alligator, goat and other cheeses, some sort of sausages, mushroom and crab artichoke dip, baked trout, buffalo burgers and several other tasty and sometimes odd combinations.


The food at this stage was interesting, but did not pique my interest as much as the main course. The sausages in my opinion were the most flavorful item. The fried alligator in hush-puppy like style was a new one for me. The alligator “tastes like chicken” was cliché but actually fairly accurate. What I noticed was a fishy aftertaste, so you get chicken and then fish all in one bite. Overall, most of us at the table decided to not fill up and wait for the main course.

At this point we had also ordered some wine and beer to start off with. Michelob Golden Light is what I ended up with, but went well with the heavy flavors of the Hor’duerves.

Next was the main course. All at once, everyone in the room got up and in line with anticipation. There were at least 3 large tables with your standard buffet troughs and heat. There were even antlers sticking out of one of them!

Kidding aside, we started down the line and dished up. First was the Oven Basted Quail, then large pieces of quarter cut duck. It had some orange demi-glaze but later we all decided it needed more, as the meat was a bit dry. After that was the Fettuccini Alfredo and Rabbit. This “looked” great. There was a bit of comedy with most of the men (which probably made up 90% of the patrons that evening) as we arrived at the salad bar. I noticed most people were taking maybe one salad tong’s worth of lettuce and not much else. There was meat to be eaten, gents.

Following the salad was the Venison Stew, barbeque wild Boar, roast Chicken, and, last but certainly not least, the Bison Roast, hand carved to one’s liking. Oh yes, and there was bread, but again, the smart strategy here most of us employed was to not eat anything so frivolous as to save as much room for the good stuff.

Arriving back at the table, I realized I probably could have spread out the food by taking smaller portions and making multiple trips. However at this point it was too late. I had a mound of great looking food and began my journey.

In good Restaurant Review Fashion, I’ll simply run down the list of items and try to provide a brief description of taste, what the party’s consensus was and a final score / rating of the dish.

First, the Oven Basted Quail simply looked amazing. The pieces weren’t too small, and they seemed to be cooked exactly the right amount of time. Right away, I was enjoying my expensive meal, for this was a great way to start out.

The Quail was simple in flavor. The butter and rosemary, garlic and pepper stood out, but slightly less than the meat itself. To me, this was cooked to perfection and is the way one should eat that kind of meat – to taste the meat itself, and not be overwhelmed by other side flavors. Most of the table agreed this was a treat and was done very nicely.

Score: 9 / 10



Next was the Orange Demi-Glaze Duck. The pieces were fairly large and had gotten cold quite quickly. This was manageable except the sauce was lacking. Most of us agreed that the flavor was standard for duck and there wasn’t too much fat, but having a bit more sauce to contrast with the Duck would have been preferred.

Score: 6.5 / 10

Rabbit served with Fettuccini Alfredo, on the outset sounded delicious. However, everyone at the table was disappointed by the dish. By the time I got around to trying mine, and hearing how horrible it was, I did not even bother taking one bite. Not because just from the feedback I was hearing, but the rabbit and noodles had gotten so cold, it just wasn’t appetizing by that time. Since I didn’t actually try it, it wouldn’t be fair to score it. However, I believe the group would probably put it at the very bottom of the evening’s dishes, somewhere around 2 / 10.

Score: N/A


Venison Stew

The Venison Stew was wonderful. It had a hearty, beefy taste with a medium thick broth. There was celery and onion, among the other typical ingredients of a beef stew. The Venison itself was what made this my second favorite item on the menu.

Score: 8/10


In conclusion, the Jax Huntsman dinner was a unique experience that I recommend everyone try at least once in their lifetime. The draw was obvious the exotic wild proteins that we don’t usually have in our daily diets. I enjoyed the atmosphere, as it brought out our manly side, much reminiscent of Tim Allen’s Tool Time Grunts.


Although rough around the edges, and the token meats that everyone gets turned off by, the meal was good, but probably a bit overpriced.

The meal cost us about $160.00 for two. This included two drinks, and the 2 meals.

Jax Huntsman’s Dinner Overall Score: 7 / 10

~James