Dinner at Haute Dish

Haute Dish in downtown Minneapolis was named METRO magazine's 2010 "Restaurant of the Year" in December. And I finally had the opportunity to try it this month during a night of merriment with co-workers.

The restaurant is surprisingly spacious, and we walked the entire length of it to our large table in the back. It was the perfect spot for a large group, where we could converse loudly and not annoy the other diners. The architecture and the art-filled walls are quite lovely; I found myself stopping to stare at some of the paintings above the booths in the photo above.

Immediately after sitting down, I knew it was going to be an evening of many firsts for me. The group was adventurous, which meant we'd be trying some fun items to share.

To drink, I had a Gosling's ginger beer (still fighting off illness). I'd never had ginger beer before, so it was the first of my firsts. I was initially hesitant but decided to give it a try and was surprisingly impressed.

We also shared a few starter plates, including:

The "Steak & Eggs" - a steak tartare with an egg in a hole and a bloody mary shooter. I've never been interested in trying tartare but figured since it was at the table, I might as well give it a go. It was definitely...interesting. I'm not going to say I loved it - I think it was mostly a texture thing for me - but I will admit that it had good flavor.

We also had the charcuterie plate, known as "Char-Cuts (Yar!)" - I can actually say with all honesty that I still don't know what half of these meats were...I know there was some lamb, some chicken liver and other stuff, but I don't know which was which and just tried my best to be adventurous. I would say it was good overall.

We did also order the Med Plate, which I didn't get a photo of. This was fantastic. I was a bit obsessed with the mushrooms. It also had delicious olives, hummus and cheese.

For my entree, I went with the signature dish: Tater Tot HauteDish. This is the single one thing that will likely having me coming back for years to come. It was to-die-for. The short ribs were tender and pulled apart with no resistance. Melt. In. Your. Mouth. Goodness. The tots were a potato croquette of sorts that I couldn't get enough of. And the baby green beans provided just enough veggie to make it feel truly like mom's home cookin' with a new twist.

I will be back. If only for the HauteDish.