Spoon and Stable Review

Upscale North Loop Restaurant

Bottom Line

I’ve only been here once for dinner. It has pretty good food, with a few unique dishes. Overall, it’s pretty similar compared to the other upscale restaurants in the Twin Cities. Will definitely go again.

TIPS:

• The bar and comfy couch seating are first come, first served (no reservations).

Uncle Dan’s Review:

I’ve been wanting to go to Spoon and Stable for a long time. I’ve seen it voted as a 2022 best date night spot by Minnesota Monthly and it has consistently made it on the MSP Magazine “50 best restaurants” list. I finally went there in March 2025, and got to experience it for myself! I can’t say it lived up to the hype, but it was a good restaurant, and I really did enjoy my experience. The food was good and the atmosphere was nice. We sat facing the kitchen, and It was fun watching the chefs prepare all the dishes. You can really see they put a lot of care and effort into their work. Our server was great! He knew about all the dishes and was more than happy to explain what some of the words on the menu meant. He even gave me some extra bread when I told him how much I enjoyed it! Parking sucked, but that’s to be expected in Minneapolis on a busy Friday night. I’ll definitely go back at some point, but It’s not going to be a “regular” spot for me.

If you’re looking for a place to have date night with your significant other, I think Spoon and Stable could be good for that, depending on on your vibe. If you want to be in a lively social atmosphere (I often do!) while enjoying some good food and drinks, then you’ll like this spot. However, if you want an intimate experience to share together, probably not for you. The tables are very small and spaced very close together. You will definitely hear the entire conversation of whoever is next to you. It might be a good first date location too (if you want to be fancier and don’t mind spending a little more on someone you don’t know), but wouldn’t be my first choice.

Uncle Dan’s Food Recommendations: Bison tartare, Sourdough bread

(food rating does not include cocktails)

Appetizers (4.4)

Bison Tartare (4.8)

Date consumed: March 2025 Cost: $23 Worth it: Only if you like tartare

I’ve only had tartare twice before, so I don’t have a lot to go on, but this was really good! A decent portion (I wouldn’t want a larger one). The only downside is that at $23, it is pretty expensive in my opinion.

Taste: 5 out of 5
Perfectly salty. Everything paired really well. I really liked it! It came with some kind of crisp cracker (the menu said it was socca, but I’ve had socca before, and I don’t think that’s what it was), and there was more than enough of it to eat the tartare with. There was watermelon radish and cilantro perched nicely on top of the tartare. I think the yellowish dried bits were dried olive. I don’t really remember if I could taste the olive or not.

Presentation: 4 out of 5
The watermelon radish on top was a nice touch to decorate what would otherwise be a scoop of raw meat. Well done! I think there were too many crackers on the side, which took away from the aesthetic.

Bread and Butter (3.9)

Date consumed: March 2025 Cost: Complementary Worth it: Absolutely

They bring out two sourdough bread rolls with whipped butter. These are made in-house using their own starter, which they maintain.

Taste: 4 out of 5
If you like sourdough (which I do), these are great! It’s a heartier, darker sourdough bread with a lot of nice, complex flavors. Tougher than your average dinner roll, in a good way. My only complaint was that the butter was flavorless, and I couldn’t really tell it was there. Some salt would help.

Presentation: 3.5 out of 5
I like the rustic look of the bread. I think serving the butter on a white rock with a wooden spreader must be to complement that. The butter rock does take up some extra room (our table for 2 was already pretty small), and I wasn’t really into it, but I bet some people are.

Sides (4)

Creamy Spinach (4)

Date consumed: March 2025. Cost: $13 Worth it: probably

It’s a bowl of creamy spinach, exactly as it sounds, but there’s a bonus of cheese curds on top! Compared to the Bison Tartare, I think it’s reasonably priced.

Taste: 4 out of 5
The creamy spinach was good – if you like creamy spinach. The cheese curds tasted like good cheese curds – nothing extraordinary about them. Pretty good combo. Very tasty overall, but nothing to write home about.

Presentation: 4 out of 5
Very standard, but for a bowl of spinach with cheese curds on top, it looked pretty darn tasty! And the curds looked perfectly crisp.

Entrees (3.9)

Dry Aged Duck Breast (4.3)

Date consumed: March 2025 Cost: $40 Worth it: Maybe

It’s a split duck breast that comes with flageolet beans (some kind of French heirloom bean), parsnip sofrito (I think that’s the sauce), endive (a slightly bitter and crunchy vegetable from the chicory family), tangerine confit, and mizuna (Japanese mustard greens). It won’t fill you up, and I think it’s overpriced.

Taste: 4.1 out of 5
I haven’t eaten a lot of duck. This one is cooked well and very flavorful. Very fatty (as expected) and hard to cut through, but easy to chew and eat. The tangerine confit and sofrito pair really well with it. Everything was amazing except the beans. I wasn’t into the beans. They taste like you would expect beans to taste. I don’t think they pair with the duck very well. I think the dish looked so fancy, but the taste of the beans takes away from that. The endive is just okay.

Presentation: 4.5 out of 5
It comes in a normal bowl. The bowl color complements the dish really well. The duck breast is a beautiful pink color with perfectly browned skin on the outside. I like the pop of green from the slightly charred endive. Rich brown sauce completes this look. The beans though….I don’t know. In my opinion it cheapens the look of the dish.

Potato Gnocchi (3.5)

Date consumed: March 2025. Cost: $25 Worth it: Probably not

There are two sizes available ($25 for small and $35 for large). I had the small. It’s listed on the menu under their “Heritage Grain Pasta” category. They’re mixed with maitake mushroom (AKA hen-of-the-woods), kabocha squash (a Japanese winter squash), pecorino romano cheese, and sage.

Taste: 3.5 out of 5
These are good! Not mind-blowing, but good, well-made gnocchi. I don’t have anything else to say.

Presentation: 3.5 out of 5
It comes in one of those bowls that looks like big dinner plates with a very small opening in the middle that’s ~2-3 inches deep. Honestly, I’m not a fan of those bowls, and I think it took up too much table space.

Desserts (4.0)

Earl Grey Tiramisu (4.0)

Date consumed: March 2025 Cost: $17 Worth it: Probably

It comes with almond mascarpone mousse on top, espresso sherbet on the side, and a waffle-looking thing (upper right corner) that tastes like a funnel cake.

Taste: 4 out of 5
Really good!! My favorite part was the funnel-cake waffle-looking thing. Would!

Presentation: 4 out of 5
I forgot to take a picture before digging in, but it looked really pretty.

Honey & Cream Cake (3.9)

Date consumed: March 2025 Cost: $17 Worth it: Probably not

It’s made with mango, honey meringue, and “beeswax ice cream.”

Taste: 4 out of 5
It’s a nice delicate sponge cake in a bowl of cream (you can’t tell from the photo since the cream blends with the bowl color). Tastes pretty good. It’s refreshing and not too sweet. I enjoyed it. It’s not spectacular, but it is good. Note — my wife liked this one more than the tiramisu.

Presentation: 3.5 out of 5
Nothing too fancy. It kind of looked like everything was mashed to the side. I think that’s intentional.

Cocktails (4.1)

Gin and Tonic (4.3)

Date consumed: March 2025 Cost: $16 Worth it: Yes

It’s made with “tattersall gin, kumquat, ginger, winter citrus, herbs & roots.”

Taste: 4.5
I’m not a huge gin and tonic fan, but this was GOOD!

Presentation: 3.5
Typical cocktail.

French75 (3.8)

Date consumed: March 2025 Cost: $16 Worth it: Maybe

It’s made with pisco (brandy made with grapes), mandarin, passion fruit, lemon, cava (Spanish sparkling wine).

Taste: 4 out of 5
A little too sweet for me, but pretty tasty.

Presentation: 3 out of 5
Typical cocktail.

Interior Design (3.5):
What you would expect from a more upscale restaurant. Open kitchen, lots of small tables in the middle with couches and tables on the side. Bar seating. Unique feature: There is a really cool wine room enclosed in glass with one of those bookcase ladders in it.

Comfort (3/5):
Average. The tables are really small (as is tradition with a lot of these places).

Cleanliness (5/5):
Very clean.

Noise level (3/5):
Average acoustics. You can hear background chatter as expected.

Staff (4/5):
Our server was very nice without being overbearing. Very laid-back. Answered all our questions and knew the menu very well. He gave me more bread when I told him I liked it! Some of the staff that delivered our food seemed like they were over it. Understandable.

Service (4/5): We were greeted right away. We got all our food and drinks very quickly! Staff was attentive without being overbearing.

Bathroom (3/5):
Clean and decent.

Accessibility (1/5):
It’s a typical Minneapolis restaurant, so while there is plenty of metered street parking, it can be hard to find an open spot nearby. They do have a parking lot on the side of the restaurant, but it’s valet only. I drove around a few times, but we were running late, so I ended up using the valet. The valet is kind of a joke. It was one guy who parks your car 20 feet away in the parking lot for $15. It’s nice that they’re giving someone a chance to make some money; on the other hand I’d rather just pay $15 to park my car in their lot myself. I tried to give him cash as we were leaving, but he told me he only takes credit cards—seems weird, but whatever. I hardly ever valet, so I don’t know how it typically works.