Bar La Grassa
| Address: | 800 N Washington Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55401, USA |
| Phone: | +1 612-333-3837 |
| Site: | barlagrassa.com |
| Rating: | 4.6 |
| Working: | 5PM–12AM 5PM–12AM 5PM–12AM 5PM–12AM 5PM–1AM 5PM–1AM 5–10PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 6
MI
Mika Baer
Not worth the hype... disappointed. This place is always busy and I have heard nothing but good things about it... and yet... Dont bother with the eggs and lobster... ordered it based on so many people here saying it was "life changing"... it wasnt.... I give the place kudos for being somewhat experimental with their dishes but everything just missed the mark.. Let me start by saying that the service here is absolutely amazing. Our waitress was a delight and very knowledgeable. The atmosphere is also very nice. My friend and I tried a few of their cocktails - all of which were great- no complaints. They have a great wine selection but to our surprise we found no Chilean reds... oh well. It is an Italian place after all. Started out with the chicken liver patte Bruschetta and the Lobster and egg bruschetta. After having read so many reviews stating how incredible the lobster and egg was, we had to try it. We were both met with disappointment. The lobster was very salty, the chives were overpowering, and the bruschetta was too charred. The eggs and cheese were well prepared but I found the dish over hyped and certainly not life changing. Would not order again. The chicken liver patte was fine - nothing special, kudos on the nice presentation of it. We also had the linguine with lamb meatballs, cavatelli with braised rabbit, and smoked spaghetti alla chitarra with brown butter and lobster. All of these were fine, but surprisingly unimpressive and kind of bland... For dessert we tried the dark chocolate pot de creme. This was probably the best part of the meal! Would recommend. Maybe my expectations were just too high but in terms of flavor and quality... I was left scratching my head. This would be a good spot to go with a group of 4-6 people. I am by no means dying to go back but would consider giving it another shot... did not leave me wanting more.
SU
Sue Mitchell
Didnt have the best experience. Ordered the prawns and received a plate full of empty shrimp tails and very few prawns that had meat. Also ordered the seafood platter and received a bunch more empty shrimp tails. Questioned the waitress as to why there were so many inedible items in the dish and she said she would find out. Saw her talking to the manager which it looked like it took some convincing to get the manager over to our table. Wish she never came over because she copped an attitude with us and instead of taking the approach that the customer is always right and apologize and being done with it she proceeded to try and explain that they must have fallen out between the grill when they were cooking it. She was very argumentative and condescending. She said she would remove it from our bill but when the bill came she didnt remove the item she said she would. I paid the bill and wrote a note on the bill stating my experience. We left and were waiting outside for a cab when she came out of the restaurant after reading the bill to further argue with us. It was ridiculous! Very poor management. She needs to take a customer service class because obviously she doesnt know how to deal with customers. Will never go back and will stop recommending this restaurant to others. I will definitely pass along my experience to every one I know.
CA
Carrie Caruso
My BF and I were in Minneapolis for 1 1/2 days. We are foodies and are use to big city dining experiences. He is from NYC and I am from RI. We love to dine out, BUT we are not happy when we have a bad experience. The restaurant came highly recommended by both locals and GOOGLE reviews. We had a 10PM reservation and we were looking forward to an amazing meal. Before we had a chance to try the food I wanted to leave. The waitress was extremely rude and not very helpful when it came to the menu (its unfortunate that the descriptions of the pastas on the menu did not include types of sauces). The table next to us reported that the same waitress forgot to put their order waited over an hour for their food. It was obvious she did not take her job seriously, or was having an incredibly bad night and decided that she was going to see to it that we had a bad night too. Regardless, we decided to stay, order a bottle of wine and wing it, because of the restaurants rave reviews. I am sad to report that the food was just okay and the a restaurant was little too noisy for our liking. I think had we been give better descriptions on the menu, this would have been a much better review.
TR
Trevor Smith
I recently took my girlfriend here as a birthday surprise on a Saturday night. Reservations are a must. Neither of us had been here before. Simply, the food was spectacular. We shared 3 half portion dishes (Gnocchi with cauliflower and orange, Paccheri with saffron milk braised chicken, and the Cavatelli with braised rabbit.) Each dish was richly flavorful and sophisticated, though the Paccheri was my personal favorite. We ate slowly and truly savored each bite. We shared the Lemon tart for dessert and both found it exquisite. Bar la Grassas atmosphere was very comfortable. Neither of us felt as if the restaurant was too noisy or too crowded. Our waitress was friendly and helpful with choosing dishes that would suit us. We both left very impressed with our experience. I would say that Bar la Grassa is probably the most enjoyable dining experience I have had since I moved to Minneapolis two years ago. I would certainly come back. Three half portion entrees, two drinks, and dessert only set me back $53.00. For the price and quality, this place is a must.
AL
Alex Phasy
We called in for a reservation. We arrived about 15mins early and there was a line. I think I overheard the wait was 45mins without a reservation. Nonetheless, some entitled customers felt the need to crowd the hosts table during their wait, making it seem like it was an unmovable line. One was very annoyed that we had a reservation and was able to be seated, going as far as to physically block my wife from getting to the host. I suggest if you want to eat here, you call in days in advance for a reservation. They even make it easy and have an online reservation system on their website. I found this to be a small flaw of the restaurant, but more of customers. Wait in the waiting area, not in a line. The food was great. Our waiter was great. The pork tenderloin was magical. I made the mistake of filling up on bread and butter and we barely ate much of our entrees. The eggs and lobster was such a great dish. Would definitely go back again!
CH
Charlie Sumner
I agree with some of the other reviewers is that this place is really loud. You can only hear the beat of the music playing overhead. As for the food and service, I cant give it 5 stars but the food was pretty good. I ordered a pasta carbonarra and the wait person suggested a caprese salad to start with. After our appetizers, our entres showed up. I assumed that since this was an Italian restaurant, our salads would be AFTER our entres... nope... the wait person forgot to serve them. The pasta carbonarra arrived with a soft-boiled egg on top and I was instructed to stir it in there by my wait person. It was overly salty which was unfortunate. Our wait person offered to comp one of our salads and all desserts, and didnt even offer to provide us with our other salads. This is probably one of the better eating establishments in the MSP metro area, but it could use some TLC to make it a real draw.
