Travail Kitchen and Amusements

Reviews 4

KA

Karen Ellery

They sure got the name right--dining at Travail is indeed a labourious effort. Nightmare of an evening. No signage on the restaurant so we had to ask other diners if we were even at the right door. Walked in to DEAFENING, non-stop music that had to be shouted over all evening. You could see the servers physically having to prepare anytime they needed to convey any information. Communal tables so we got to spend the evening avoiding eye-contact with strangers less than two feet away. Had any of them been gracious enough to attempt conversation, we couldnt have heard it anyway. Servers ranged from mildly indifferent to openly apprehensive, & were forced to participate in childish "arent we fun" shouting rituals all evening, like underpaid slaves at a Stone Cold Creamery. Bathrooms were filthy, light fixtures looking like they hadnt been dusted in years & completely dysfunctional sink "troughs" that required you to keep one hand over the sensor while trying to wash the other on its own. The food--well, theres a reason you have to pre-pay & arent allowed to choose what you eat. Out of the mostly indifferent 14 courses (including an oversized, underdone French fry, a bland hunk of fried chicken, sour potato salad, etc), there were maybe three that I would have actually chosen. Food was being slammed & shouted at us before we even had a chance to order anything to drink, & my first mouthful was straight red pepper, so I went through my small glass of room temperature water pretty quickly. Once we finally were given an opportunity to order beverages, here was one exceptional cocktail, "Tap That Grass" made with bisongrass vodka & rum, delicious & inventive. My Jack Rose was also tasty, but most of the food was lackluster. I can think of a half dozen restaurants in town who do pork belly better, & THEY would serve fist-sized chunks of meat with knives so you can actually cut your food & not have to fight it with a fork. Travail, living up to its name, seems to expect diners either to gnaw their chunks or dig through them with utensils not meant for cutting. The final "travail" of the evening was being told we needed to leave our table & "go see the man with the red bandanna." They didnt deign to tell us why, so we thought it might be some kind of checkout procedure to get us out of the restaurant. Nope, we had to walk through the kitchen area collecting bits of a soft serve frozen yogurt sundae, like something youd find at a poorly run Asian buffet. Three things stood out in the conveyor line of courses: the olives on the charcuterie plate were smokey & wonderful. There was a fresh crab beignet that was absolutely delicious, & dollop of green garlic soup that was delightful. There was also one thing Id never tried before--green strawberries--that made me wish I could have ordered more. Unfortunately these few standouts mostly served to show-up their dozens of poorer course-cousins. As a celebratory meal it was a disaster. As any kind of meal it was a stressful & overpriced flop. Do the poor waiters a favour & dont go there so they dont have to shout for you.

SW

Sweat House Brands

Dining at Travail is like nothing Ive ever experienced, I left with a full belly, a warm heart and bursting with positive energy! Its an awesome date night experience, I went with my husband for my 34th birthday. There were several parties of 6 and 8 that looked like they were having a blast, I swear the chefs could be actors too. Dont go here if you dont like to engage with other people, be cool or have fun, save yourself and go somewhere pretentious. Everyone is friendly, imagine that. Can you think of an occasion when the hostess/host was a complete prick? Or the bar tender didnt have time to lay out their favorite cocktail recipe? Not here! The chefs are all singing to the eclectic playlist heard throughout the dining room and kitchen. Dana, the host, is welcoming and explains the Travail concept if youre a virgin to the experience. Order a cocktail even if you dont drink, they are a work of art. While waiting for your table, youll have to wait so get over it and enjoy the atmosphere. Say hello to your neighbor and the bar tender, spread the good energy. You might even get a small taste of what youre in for, we were offered two little treats served off of platters while waiting. Then you get to sit and down and the experience begins. Chef, yes I wrote chef, after chef serves you your food. They made the sauces, spiced the meat, made the stock and helped create your work of art then theyll explain every detail of the dish. Make sure the dish is complete prior to stuff it in your pie hole, a tiny sprinkle of smoked paprika or garnish of chives sets the dish apart. Every dish is so pretty that you dont want eat it, then all at once your inhibitions are gone and so is the food! Youll find yourself eating things that you didnt even know existed, Ive never had a tasting menu as savory and felicitous as I did at Travail. Its a dining experience at a fair price, honestly Id pay $110 a person for this experience. I love the fact that its in Downtown Robbinsdale too. I can only hope that a restauranteur would bring a gem like Travail to Downtown Hopkins. Bravo Travail, well be back and well bring our friends and family!!

LU

Luke B

I wanted to give them 5 stars really bad. A few things nagged me though. Firstly, they dropped the ball with the food/allergy category. When you buy the tickets (a great concept) there is a prompt where you can mention any food restrictions. Since I purchased the tickets well in advance I felt they should have made the appropriate accommodations for my pregnant wife. I had explained no undercooked meat, raw, or unpasteurized dairy. I later called to talk with someone to confirm they would be prepared (no answer). I also emailed the day of. Once there, we informed them again, per their instruction in their brief email response. Shortly after the meal began we realized our accommodation request was not a priority to the chef staff. We were served beef tar tar (no substitute), there was raw egg in several of the courses. The cheese may have been raw as well -no answer on that. The final meat course was cooked longer but still medium-rare. The staff met us part way, but we felt more like an inconvenience. We were not expecting there to be such a disconnect since we made our accommodations clear well in advance. There should have been better communication and effort to meet my wifes restrictions. Another issue is that the patrons were asked to cut up strawberries, with their presumably dirty hands which would then wind up in our dessert at the end-gross... Patrons also skewered food and rolled the pasta with their hands. The dessert at the end was disappointing. My wifes mini shake was in a cracked glass- which we were not cool with. At the bottom of the shake were the tainted strawberries. Even though we had this somewhat negative experience we may still try Travail out again. We will at least wait until my wife no longer has food restrictions.

A

A Private User

so this place was recommened by dad since we both live nearby. (i could probably walk to it from where i live) me and a friend were getting together so i thought it would be fun to check out the restuarant. we got there at 6pm and we were told it was a 25-30min wait. it ended up being over an hour. and we were not checked on it all in that time. it was pretty busy so i can understand.. plus it didnt seem like anyone was leaving. so we were very patient. we could have gone somewhere else but i was really excited to try the butter burger (which was really good) theres an open kitchen here and we were in the main area. the food came fairly promptly but i noticed that two of the cooks (a female dessert maker) and another guy kept touching inappropiately. it was a bit awkward. nothing too bad.. but this is an open kitchen and they are all on view. and it wasnt a "hey buddy" type of interaction. i wouldnt be grabbing some guy around the waist, etc. at work. its really unprofessional. so im just giving it an ok rating.. i dont know if i will go back :/ i was really hoping it would have been a better time.