Fhima's

Oops, closed.. Unfortunately, Fhima's is no longer open, so if you are looking for a bite in downtown Saint Paul, you'll be best off looking somewhere else. If you are interested in a menu from David Fhima, he is still the head chef at LoTo last time I checked, which is in lowertown St. P in the bottom of Galtier Plaza.…

New Menu, Still Great Food. I've been to this restaurant a couple of times since it opened and was definately concerned this last year with all the bad media coverage Fhima's recieved as it has been one of my favorites...So, I stopped by for the first time in a while last Saturday and was pleasently surprised to see it fairly busy despite the bitter cold. My friend and I started with a drink at the bar, unsure if we were going to stay for dinner. We ordered two of their signature infused Martini - the Fantini - which is always good and chatted for a bit. While we were chatting the bartender mentioned that they had just made a change to their menu and offered to show us. We took a look and were interested in some of the new items so we decided to stay for dinner, The bartender arranged for a nice table by the window - a nice touch and we sat down to get started with our meal. On our servers reccomendation (she took us through the menu even though we had been there before but since it there were a number of new items we didn't mind) we started with the Wedge Salad (me) and a bowl of the Harira (my friend). The wedge sald was excellent with a nice combination of blue cheese and candied walnuts - definately my kind of thing. My friend thought the Harira was a little different from the soups he usually liked but found in interesting and I tasted abit and really liked the spices in it. For the main course I tried the new duck and my friend went with the Pesto Halibut. Now it was time for wine and unfortunately the list was a little thin - the server told me that they are changing the list - but we found a decent red at a good price that went well with our dinners. I loved the duck! Really cool presentation with a halved duck breast in some sort of plum sauce and a layered phyllo and duck pastry on the side. My Friend also enjoyed the Halibut - only complaint is that the menu is now ala carte and he missed the potatoes from the old halibut! Oh well! Glad to see Fhima's doing well again.…

Good food, appealing ambience, and indifferent service. A group of five of us dined here Friday 5 January. The entrees (bouillabaise, seafood risotto, chicken rigatoni, lamb tagine) were fine, although two other items overshadowed them: the addictive pita-like bread and a chicken leg appetizer (don't recall the name), both reaching the excellent category. A spinach salad was very good, with a dressing that I couldn't identify (or remember), but which I wish I could duplicate at home.

The ambience was quite nice, with a "hard" metal and glass decor, and an open kitchen for those seated at the back of the restaurant. Tables were nicely spaced, and decibel levels were at an acceptable level in spite of the hard surfaces.

There were some negatives, though: Our server, a blonde woman, was not exactly unfriendly, but she was certainly not friendly. Perhaps she was having a bad day - divorce, eviction, a death-sentence disease prognosis, upset about Bush's "troop surge" in Iraq, etc. I'm not sure a smile was detected during the entire meal. No small talk at all. Others said she wasn't particularly attentive, either, although I didn't notice that. I see other reviewers have criticized the service here, so notwithstanding the non-scientific, non-random survey aspect of such reviews, it seems to me there may be a persistent service problem at this restaurant.

Back to the food: A first course/appetizer of bay scallop seviche was tasty but overpriced at $12. The lamb in my tagine was very good but with too much fat and connective tissue. These aren't major criticisms; we don't expect every restaurant offering to be perfect.

Overall, very good food - but many other restaurants in the Twin Cities have very good food, too. In other words, it wasn't so good that we'll make Fhima's a regular stop.

And, admittedly, this was only one person, but the risk of getting the same server again is a disincentive to our return.…