Café & Bar Lurcat

1624 Harmon Pl (on Loring Park)
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612-486-5500
http://www.cafelurcat.com/

Category: American-Upscale

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 8
Service: 7
Ambience: 9

Recommendation: Very Good. With a great location and tempting menu, this vogue restaurant (and its adjacent bar) is a very popular hangout with the young and trendy.

We’ve been anticipating the start of restaurant week – a week long affair when many restaurants in the Twin Cities offer 2 or 3 course prix-fixe menus for under $30. Although we’d love to try out 3 or 4 new restaurants to add to our blog, we’re on our way to vacation in Spain and France and restaurant week will have to wait another year (sorry, Europe takes precedence). With a single opportunity in hand, Café Lurcat had high expectations fill. Lurcat is located in the remodeled Fawkes building overlooking Loring Park. The location is prime, and the décor really does justice to the location. It’s simplistic and elegant – the white leather chairs give the restaurant a modern look while the large windows provide a great view of Loring Park (and the snow covered grounds...in the midst of winter). The historic aspect of the building is evident as you make your way from the entrance to the back dining room – it’s like walking through a cave-like maze with stone walls surrounding you. Bar Lurcat is the lounge adjacent to the restaurant and allows you to take in the ambience and small plates in a less formal environment.

What attracted us to the restaurant week menu was the variety of options you could pick from – there were more than a few options for each of the courses on the prix-fixe menu. The menu is contemporary American and the restaurant takes some classics to the next level. Two absolute favorites include the Lurcat Burgers and the Pot Roast. If you like burgers (who doesn’t… sorry vegetarians), their medium sized Lurcat Burgers are heavenly - juicy and flavorful and served with Bernaise sauce and fries. Their Pot Roast likewise is fabulous – a good hunk of meat paired with a great red wine reduction and silky potatoes…its comfort food at its finest. The appetizers were nice, but not as memorable. A nice helping of the Crab Cake was served with an overpowering mustard, and the Apple, Cheese, and Chive Salad wasn’t as mouth watering as we imagined – the chives had a strong taste although the apples were sweet and there were hints of briny cheese in certain bites. Dessert was wonderful – the Warm Cinnamon Sugar Donuts were mini in size but big in flavor and not greasy (that’s always a good thing). The Triple Chocolate Cake consisted of a couple of cake layers, a mousse filling and a chocolate ganache to top it off – the dessert was very rich but yummy (if you do get both the donuts and the chocolate cake, we recommend dipping the donuts in the ganache). Oh, I almost forgot to mention how good the bread was – crusty and chewy, we were embarrassed to count the number of times our bread basket was replenished. With regard to service, we were pleased, and especially appreciated the synchronous serving of the plates around our table of 10 diners.

$$$. Dinner for two with a couple of beers worked around to $90. Valet parking is available in front of the restaurant.