This Wine Wednesday, you get a Two-Fer. A little sumpin’ sumpin’ about a restaurant from wine country.

In August of 2009, I took my husband on his first trip to California Wine Country. When he proposed in Tuscany, the least I could do was earn an all-expense-paid trip for two to Napa through the Traveling Vineyard!

And while I prefer Sonoma {my first trip to California, also a trip earned through The Traveling Vineyard} to Napa, we have fond memories of our time there. On our free night, there were so many restaurants to choose from in Yountville that were in walking distance from our rooms at the Villagio. We chose the Bistro Jeanty, a casual French country joint across the street. But about a 1/2 mile down the road was the Napa Valley Grille.

And for some reason, there is another location – in the Mall of America.

HUH!?

Now, I’m not much of a power shopper. Hell, I’m not much of a shopper. I try to avoid the Mall of America if at all possible. If I do go, it’s for something specific, not an outing. And I try to go on a Wednesday – the day of the week that it’ll least likely be packed. Yeah, that’s me. But I don’t know many Twin Cities residents who really frequent the place.

The funny part?

My husband and I met at the Mall of America. No joke.

To bring a little bit of Napa back to us, we made reservations on a Friday night at the Napa Valley Grille assuming it’d be packed. I did need a new pair of walking shoes for our upcoming trip to Ireland. And my go-to store for comfortable, but semi-fashionable, all-day walking shoes is Aerosoles, which just happens to reside at the MOA.

We walked across the mall to the restaurant and informed the host of our reservation. But the bar was practically deserted! In fact, most of the restaurant was dead. It was almost 7pm! It just so happens that we prefer to sit at the bar. So we told the hostess that’s what we’d like to do, and she graciously said that was just fine.

I’m not sure it was normal that it was so slow or if it was just that it was only the second weekend after school started. I’m sure there was some sort of mad back-to-school rush just a couple of weeks prior!

The bartender was pretty darn good. He told us about their September Half-Priced Bottle of Wine Month. Really? A half-priced wine bottle special {on certain bottles featured each week} for the entire month?  Who does that?! Are they hurting for business? Or do they realize that people shopping at the MOA already just spent an arm and a leg and just need some vino?  Because of this special, we chose a Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley that neither of us had had before:

This bottle is normally $80 at the restaurant. Since we normally spend $40 – $50 for a bottle of wine at a nice restaurant, we gave it a shot. It’s fun to try something we normally wouldn’t at a restaurant.

Tip:

Half-Priced Bottle nights are the best times to try new wines you normally wouldn’t at any restaurant!

The wine was very good – but not $80 good. It ignited a discussion between the two of us on which higher-end wines that we thought were worth it. We realized that these are few and far between. Granted, Opus One, a Grand Cru Burgundy and Cristal are still on our bucket list… So we’ve got some tasting to do…

Still, the Davis Family Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir remains one of my favorites of all time.

Thank you, Guy Davis, for showing me what Pinot Noir is supposed to taste like!

In any case, the Sonoma Cutrer Pinot was still enjoyable. But to be honest, for being a wine establishment, the wine menu was not very impressive.

Rob suggested we order a starter:

Oh my word… What flavor! The combination of the texture of the seared gnocchi with the salty shavings of parmesan, the mushrooms and the succulent truffle oil… We were in heaven. I could order a small salad and this and consider it a meal.

If all the food is this good, I thought, we are in for a treat.

The bartender was very helpful when helping us select our meal. I asked him what his favorites were. He rattled off the tenderloin, the clams in spaghetti, the beef bourginon, the lamb skewers…

I had considered the lamb skewers, but Rob reminded me that I could get that just down the road from us and we knew how good it would be. Point. I don’t know why, it sounds kind of run-of-the-mill, but I decided to go with the:

To be completely honest, this dish was horrible. It looks all nicely grill-marked and beautiful, but the chicken was very fatty. I can’t even remember the last time I experienced that! The skin was chewy and rubbery, not crispy and tasty. I really had to cut and dig through to get some real meat out of it. The sautéed radishes looked like yummy, seasoned potatoes, but tasted weird. Maybe it’s just me because I’ve only eaten radishes raw. I tried several, hoping they’d grow on me, but it didn’t happen. And the mashed potatoes and gravy? They were a basic, bland version. Not very impressive at all.

It’s my fault. I should have tried something more exciting. I should have gone with something recommended. Wait! No, I shouldn’t have! Shouldn’t a restaurant be proud of everything they have on the menu? Maybe I’ve had such good food in Wine Country, that my expectations for a little bit of Napa Valley in the MOA were way too high.

I didn’t eat very much, but it took just a few bites of Rob’s burger…

After the gnocchi, Rob determined that they knew how to do pasta well that he was eyeing the risotto. He told the bartender this and that he had also considered the Napa Valley Cheeseburger, but wanted to know if he thought it was one of the top ten in Minnesota.

Oh the pressure!

But the bartender answered without hesitation, “Absolutely! The meat is hand ground from our filet mignon and prime rib trimmings!” Rob took his word for it and placed the order.

Presentation: I’d give it a “D”. To me, it looked like any old burger from Applebee’s. The fries were fine, but nothing special. Wasn’t this supposed to be a semi-classy joint?

Still, Rob told me to take the first bite. I did and tried not to show any emotion, but he kept looking for it in my face. “Do you want me to tell you what I think or do you want to make up your own mind?” I asked.

In the end, we agreed: It was excellent meat. It was juicy and well-balanced. The bun was toasted and you could actually taste the cheese. However, it lacked seasoning.

SEASON IT ALREADY!

With just a little seasoning, this could have been an exceptional classic burger.

With the chicken debacle, Rob gave me a couple more bites of the burger to compensate. I did a long run prior to dining out and had a bit of calorie deficit!

Of course, when the bartender asked us how our food was, I just nodded, didn’t make eye contact and said, “good.” I guess I’m not good at being very vocal about these things. There have been times when I have been, but maybe that’s when they didn’t get my order quite right or didn’t cook something to my liking.

But to just tell them their food sucks? I don’t know how to do that. I mean, it’s not the server’s fault. And sometimes, I lose confidence. I worry that I’m just not culinarily advanced to enjoy the food to the highest level, especially in a super high-end restaurant. But this just wasn’t good.

Would we go back? Maybe. If we were stranded in the mall, having to wait for someone. Maybe if we had guests in town, we’d go over and try one of their flights of wine, or perhaps a cocktail. Maybe we’d order the gnocchi to tide us over. But I don’t know if it’s really worth it to try much else.

Is it food for the masses – the mall masses? Perhaps. I can’t see Napa getting away with this.

What do you say when something that you ordered tastes horrible?

Help me get over this hump!

Cheers~

Carrie