405505 Sat May 26 20:35:36 -0700 2007 21 8 Midwest 0 2605247 I know Cue had gotten a pretty bad review in the Tribune before...has it improved? Going to a show at the Guthrie in a week and would love to go to Cue before, if people think it's worth the $$. I'd have no idea what else would be close, anyway. Sat May 26 20:35:36 -0700 2007 16205 elrushbo 1 2605298 Cue actually got quite a good review from Rick Nelson in the Strib. http://www.startribune.com/456/story/689211.html Sat May 26 21:11:25 -0700 2007 2605247 12463 mcgeary 2 2605550 Maybe it was the Pioneer Press. Sun May 27 04:57:28 -0700 2007 2605298 16205 elrushbo 3 2605621 Don't know about that one, but I'm rarely inclined to respect Kathie Jenkins's opinion. Anyway, if you don't want to go to Cue, there are a few spots nearby. I've had a couple of good dinners at Spoonriver, the second restaurant by Brenda Langton of Cafe Brenda, which is right across the street from the Guthrie. Toast Wine Bar is not far away and is getting good reviews; see Josh Resnik's recent post on his visit. I've not heard anything good yet about two of the new places in the neighborhood, Wasabi and Spill the Wine -- both might still be working out the kinks. Sun May 27 06:23:50 -0700 2007 2605550 12463 mcgeary 2 2607660 Dara liked it, too, though she said desserts were inconsistent and sometimes the food oversalted. But, overall, I'd call it a favorable review. http://www.citypages.com/databank/27/1352/article14843.asp Also, City Pages annointed Lenny Russo as best local chef this year. http://bestof.citypages.com/2007/restaurants/70043/ And his restaurant, Heartland, was awarded best restaurant-St. Paul this year. http://bestof.citypages.com/2007/restaurants/70069/ ~TDQ Mon May 28 08:44:47 -0700 2007 2605298 12005 The Dairy Queen 1 2606620 Reviews have been on balance positive. The "new" chef was part of the opening team. His name is Michael Delcombre and he's very competent. It's definiitely worth a try. Please post your opinion. Sun May 27 16:45:54 -0700 2007 2605247 12308 Karl Gerstenberger 2 2610264 Was Lenny Russo replaced? I've been to Heartland a couple of times and loved it - was hoping to see how his style translated to a new spot. If he's gone, looks like I waited too long. Dang. Tue May 29 10:07:18 -0700 2007 2606620 78821 BatMan 3 2610357 Lenny had a 1 year commitment and fulfilled it, moving back to his focus @ Heartland. Tue May 29 10:33:27 -0700 2007 2610264 59069 Foureyes137 4 2610884 How do you know about the 1 year commitment? Tue May 29 13:02:34 -0700 2007 2610357 11890 faith 5 2610952 It was in the Strib (and probably other papers) when Cue launched. Tue May 29 13:20:57 -0700 2007 2610884 10516 MplsM ary 6 2611062 Then again, searching for those articles I could find none. Perhaps my brain is playing tricks on me. Though I'm not a big fan of Andrew Zimmern I include this link to a blog post about Lenny Russo's departure from Cue. I guess Mr. Russo would have stated he had a one year agreement within his comments both within the blog post and in the reader comments. http://msp.blogs.com/chowandagain/2007/02/so_who_has_them.html I could swear I did read he had a one year commitment when Cue opened. Especially as I haven't been to Heartland because I was awaiting his return. I've had prescient dreams before but I don't believe this is one of them. ;) Tue May 29 13:55:03 -0700 2007 2610952 10516 MplsM ary 7 2611202 I went to Cue when lenny was there - it was amazingly awful. Heartland is much better.... But I haven't been recently. Tue May 29 14:32:37 -0700 2007 2611062 18536 St Paul Susie 8 2611319 Oh, that must have been a tremendous disappointment, sorry to hear it. Susie, what was awful about Cue when you went? EDIT: Also, has anyone been to the Level 5 Cafe (or whatever it's called) at the Guthrie and can anyone comment on how the Level 5 experience is different than the full-on Cue experience? I assume the kitchen's the same. Are the menus also the same? ~TDQ Tue May 29 15:07:01 -0700 2007 2611202 12005 The Dairy Queen 9 2611713 was it last fall? or further back.... I'll have to check my posts. I'm fairly certain it was fall 2006..... The low lights..... ordered a bottle of wine - waited forever for it (well over 30 mins) basically presented me with uncooked risotto. not even close - complete and 200% miss. they "redid it" and it was truly still awful. rice that was warmed in a pan and plated. took forever to get it both times. chocolate desert that was billed at dark chocolate was like a melted hershey bar I am looking forward to better meals at Heartland. We were fans of the wine bar & we'll be in the dining room sometime this summer. I talked to a friend who went a few weeks ago and she said it was excellent. Tue May 29 17:12:33 -0700 2007 2611319 18536 St Paul Susie 8 2616540 We went last fall when and were dissapointed as well. All the plates seemed to be just centered on the protein and everything else just an afterthought. Service was passable, but not at the standard it should be for fine dining. Especially since we were there with friends from SF who eat out a lot. Ate at Heartland Wine Bar a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Excellent food. Good wine. Service was outstanding and fun. Really had a nice time and would go back. After that first experience at Cue really not excited to go back since the price is pretty high for what we had. We do like getting a drink at the bar there before a play, but doubt we will be spending the money on dinner there anytime soon. Thu May 31 07:26:57 -0700 2007 2611202 26237 jaysin612 5 2611215 From, get this, Lenny Russo. Tue May 29 14:34:26 -0700 2007 2610884 59069 Foureyes137 1 2647670 We went to Heartland tonight and were kind of disappointed. The place was dead (only two other tables occupied), but you can't blame the restaurant for that on a Sunday night. But the food was pretty hit or miss. I started with a frisee salad with cherries, walnuts, and ricotta. Overall I felt the whole was less than the sum of the parts. For my entree I had the hazelnut crusted walleye with golden raisin wild rice and chive oil. Half of the fish was so oversalted it was almsot inedible. The heavy hand on the salting carried over to part of the wid rice as well. I feel like the dish would have been pretty good otherwise, but that is the type of mistake that can turn a good meal into a disappointing one. My wife had grilled chicken breast with spinach and fennel in a carmelized onion red wine vinegarette. That dish was better (the chicken was tender and it had really nice onion flavor), but also parts suffered from over salting. We ended up skipping dessert. Even though it was empty, they were out of the peach-pecan torte, and the other two desserts did not really interest us. Lenny Russo was not in the kitchen tonight. I actually talked to him this afternoon when I made my reservation, but the waitress told us he was at a meeting for the night. I am not sure if the over salting would have happened if he were there, but if a restaurant is going to charge premium prices they need to deliver great food whether the chef is there for the night or not.Unfortunately Heartland did not tonight. Sun Jun 10 19:43:21 -0700 2007 2605247 10882 Josh Resnik 2 2648735 Josh, I feel for you. Did you send back the oversalted food? I'm getting in the habit lately of saying when I order just about ANYTHING, "Please tell them not to salt it", especially items like fish and other meats. You can always add your own salt if you like. I ate at Heartland once back when Lenny was there, and was not super thrilled with the food, but I do like that they are into creative and sustainable foods. Mon Jun 11 08:58:56 -0700 2007 2647670 11890 faith 1 2876922 Not at all impressed with Cue. The food was less than flavorful. The bread rolls to start off the meal seemed as if they were sitting out for 2 or 3 days. Meat with toooooo much gristle......and poor service - and that was just my meal....our guests all had something different with similar experiences. I hope that this place gets better because I think that it is a great space. Just needs a lot of work! Fri Aug 24 07:12:01 -0700 2007 2605247 121745 nymoving2004 2 2876937 NyMoving2004, thank you for your remarks, disappointing though they are. (It's more fun to read about a fantastic experience, of course.) When did you go to Cue? They had a chef change awhile back (Lenny Russo moved on--I'd guess around the beginning of the year), so I'm curious if you went to the Lenny Russo Cue or the post-Russo Cue and how long ago that was (ie., after giving the kitchen a reasonable time to adjust.) ~TDQ Fri Aug 24 07:15:03 -0700 2007 2876922 12005 The Dairy Queen 3 2878441 I'm pretty sure (in fact 99.9% sure) that it was post-Lenny Russo -- February/March timeframe.....I hope that the staff has gotten better....it was the simple things that they screwed up on .....seasoning was off, their butchering was way off, and the service was sub-par.....I MIGHT go back if somebody raved about it, but there are too many other restaurants that I'd like to visit. Fri Aug 24 12:46:23 -0700 2007 2876937 121745 nymoving2004 4 2882733 We ate there on Friday before a show at the Guthrie and I just have to say - um, okay. We had been there once before and it was again, just okay, but we really want to love it because the space is just so cool. So - we gave it another chance and even with the new chef things are still just ok. I started with carrot soup which was pretty good - nothing special but still tasty. My SO had the artichoke heart salad and it was pretty blah. We split an order of mussels next and they were probably the best part of the meal but again - nothing out of the ordinary. The main courses were the most disappointing. SO had the trout and I had the ravioli. The trout was so bland. Seriously tasted like nothing but breading. It was over sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes and those pieces were good. In fact - that is all he ate. The ravioli was suppose to be in sage brown butter cream sauce. The sauce had no sage. It tasted like alfredo sauce that you can buy in a jar. We split dessert which was blueberry cake with ice cream and that was yummy. We decided that we won't give Cue a 3rd chance because there are so many other yummy choice by the Guthrie. It makes me sad though because the space and idea is cool. The service was good as well - it just seems the food execution is off. Sun Aug 26 10:06:49 -0700 2007 2878441 103540 maureen73