My wife and I came here for our anniversary dinner. We had the fresh oysters, scallops, duck…read morebreast, broiled walleye, caramel pecan cheesecake, and chocolate crème brûlée. My wife also had a couple of cocktails and a few glasses of wine.
There was a lot that we enjoyed. The oysters and scallops were fantastic, and both desserts were excellent. The bread and butter were also very good. My wife thought the wine selection was excellent as well.
Unfortunately, there were a few things that kept the experience from being as good as it could have been.
The biggest disappointment was the duck breast. The flavor was good, but the fat wasn't rendered properly and the skin wasn't crispy. The result was a chewy, rubbery texture that made the dish difficult to enjoy.
My wife's walleye was cooked well, but the blueberry sauce was so strong that it overwhelmed much of the fish's flavor.
The cocktails were okay--certainly drinkable, but not a standout.
We also found a plastic bread bag tie in my wife's salad. We pointed it out to our waiter, who removed it from the table, but there was no apology, explanation, replacement salad, or any acknowledgment beyond taking it away. Finding a foreign object in your food is unfortunate; having it essentially ignored was disappointing.
One other thing we noticed was that the sides felt like an afterthought. Both entrées came with the same carrots and Brussels sprouts. They were fine, but nothing particularly memorable, and serving the exact same sides with very different dishes made the entrées feel less thoughtfully composed.
The service was generally good, although somewhat slow. Our waiter was friendly and attentive, but he also didn't seem especially familiar with the menu at times.
Overall, this was a mixed experience, especially with a price tag north of $300. The appetizers, desserts, and wine were the highlights of the evening. There were moments where the meal was genuinely excellent, but the issues with both entrées, the uninspired sides, and the lack of response to finding a bread tie in the salad kept it from feeling like the special anniversary dinner we had hoped for.