Barbette

05/13/2008 Posted by pdgud

My mother and I ate at Barbette over the weekend and it was fantastic! I had the wild rice salad with lamb sausage, which I heard the chef makes herself and my mother had the mussels. Both were fresh-tasting and delicious. For entrees I had the shrimp risotto- to die for- and mom had the steak with a HUGE pile of those great fries. I was reluctant to go after hearing a few reviews about bad service, but everything we had was great. They did seem a little slow with the entrees, but considering the place was completely full it seemed ok with us. I will definately be going back.

Pros: Excellent food, great atmosphere

Cons: Noisy, a little warm

05/05/2008 Posted by mplsfoods

My husband and I dined with another couple at Barbette over the weekend. We both hired babysitters and were very excited to be out on the town and leaving our younguns at home! Very very disapppointed and wished we would've eat elsewhere. Food was cold, bland flavors. My chicken dish all tasted the same. Husbands steak was okay. The best part of the whole dinner out from appetizers to dessert was the fries. Although they were good I'd rather pay $1.35 for McDondalds fries. We felt awful when we left that we spent $150 on a crappy meal. We were dissappointed to say in the least and wil never return. Do note the service was excellent. This is my first restaurat review I have ever written but felt the bad experience justified it. This was just a big bummer for our night on the town.

03/24/2008 Posted by AMSnyder

I recently meet a friend at Barbette for breakfast and it was great as usual. The coffee and espresso/latte can't be beat. The eggs benedict I ordered was excellent but I didn't really like the greens served with it. I love this place because the food is great and it's a very relaxing place to come. We drank coffee and ate breakfast for about 90 minutes and we never felt rushed. Another great visit!

Pros: Great food and atmosphere.

Cons: Parking

03/12/2008 Posted by lynnieP

Oh how I love Barbette! They have a new-ish chef and the menu there has never been better. We went the other night and the Lamb was divine as was the always good Steak Helene. The Chef seems to use very fresh ingredients and pairs flavors together seamlessly. YUM. You can always count on so so service at the bar, but any of the female servers are excellent!

Pros: great food, good service at tables

Cons: parking, bar service is spotty

03/10/2008 Posted by mgs316

I'll keep this short and sweet: Best French Toast I've ever had. Incredible organic eggs. Nice mixed greens. Very average Eggs Benedict. Terrible bacon and sausage. The sausage is like a beefstick you get at the gas station, the bacon is a funky smoked variety, very poor. If they wouldn't be insulted if I brought my own ham, bacon, or sausage I'd be there every weekend.

Pros: Great breakfast more or less.

Cons: Horrible breakfast meats; can get annoyingly loud in the morning.

03/03/2008 Posted by LMag

After years of poor dining experiences at Barbette I think they finally reached a solid stride. The menu is fantastic and the service has improved, FINALLY! I think that rude, arrogant bartender that's always there is finally gone, haven't seen him in my last two trips. I know he's turned off more than one customer to Barbette, I literally would not go back because of how rude he was and how he seemingly would chose who he would wait on and simply ignore other people until they got up and left or asked him several times for a drink. Anyway, to the good stuff, we went and had the always delicious pommes frites, so crispy, so hot, so delicious! We also had the tar tar of the day which was great, tuna with avocado and citrus vinaigrette. We shared a platter of cured meats and chicken liver pate which was a great value and presented very well. We also shared the creme brulee with chai.... my goodness I've never had such a fantastic dessert! The only con this trip was that there was a very loud, obnoxious hostess working the night we were there. She was literally yelling at guests and the staff. That was kind of weird.

Pros: Better bartenders finally! Excellent food

Cons: Loud obnoxious hostess, no parking

12/03/2007 Posted by qxcrp

After receiving rude and curt service on many occassions I hadn't been to Barbette in some time. I was pleasantly surprised recently when a friend convinced me to give it another go and had dinner there. We were greeted warmly and seated promptly, our server was excellent. We explained we hadn't been to Barbette in quite some time. She took the opportunity to let us know that Barbette had a new Chef and this was her new menu. The food was amazing! We had the short rib and the masa crepe, both highly recommended. The short rib was so tender it could be cut wtih a fork and served with creamy gorgonzola mashed potatoes and grilled asaparagus. The masa crepe sounded a bit strange on the menu but Danielle assured us it was worth trying. The flavor combinations were amazing. I will be back, and look forward to sampling many of the new menu items.

Pros: great menu!

Cons: loud, bathroom toilet doesn't flush easily

11/21/2007 Posted by peppers21

My favorite place in Minneapolis! The food is always fantastic and the service is generally good. (And if it isn't, the manager will take care of it). Highly, highly recommended!

Pros: Food, ambience, happy hour

Cons: Sometimes the service isn't the friendliest

11/11/2007 Posted by anabelmay

I want to like Barbette as it is in my neighborhood, however the service is usually very bad. The male servers are very rude and never smile. The female servers have generally been nice. The foodcan be amazing, or sometimes just average..however, the fries are always good!

Pros: Sometimes food, Ambiance

Cons: Service

06/17/2007 Posted by nenechan

I used to go to Barbette for breakfast/brunch semi-regularly a few years ago, until the service (esp. the hosts/bartenders) drove me away. I decided to give Barbette another try, this time for dinner, and I'm glad I did. The special fish dishes are beyond reproach; fresh perfectly cooked bass, with light crisped skin in a red wine reduction with diced lardons and morels, and side of whipped potatoes, was possibly THE BEST fish dinner I'd ever had, and I lived in Hawaii. I had another fish special at another time, a different type of white fish, also perfectly cooked, in a different sauce, still delicious. I tried a bite of a friend's chicken breast, moist delicately seasoned, fantastic. I've ordered the mussels a few times (a deal at $5 during happy hour), they were very undercooked twice, had them sent back to reheat, both times came back still slightly undercooked (I never open or eat the closed or mostly closed shells; these were the open shells). The female waitress, a pretty girl named Hilary, is attentive and accommodating. The male waiter (tall, thin) was inattentive, not so much rude as not caring about our table. He definitely paid more attention to the older more affluent looking clientele than he did us, though he has served us before and we order food, drinks and tip well (over 20% of entire bill). Also, have been ignored by the hosts/bartenders, yet again, we were standing around the front, waiting for a table. Other friends have had the same experience, and I recognize a lot of the staff that made me want to leave in the 1st place. The food is great, but the mixed service makes me hesitate to go back. It's always a crapshoot of who's going to be working, and I wish the owner would check the attitudes of those who had been working there for a while. I mean, if you're burnt out by the service industry, maybe it's time to move on?

Pros: Fish specials are amazing; Great happy hour

Cons: Service, with a few exceptions, is quite lacking