Eat The Menu: Parlez-Vous Thérèse?

Restaurant czar Daniel Del Prado has treated us to Latin influences (Martina, Colita, etc.), nibbles from Japan (Sanjusan), plenty-o-meat (Porzana) and more. With his latest culinary offspring, Thérèse, housed within a 50th & France mall site, he devotes his skills and skillets to a nicely vetted menu of classic French brasserie fare.

However, when it comes to the room, which he describes as a “classic, warm Parisian” setting, our culinary emperor is lacking clothes. It’s simply a bland, atmosphere-free nook of a mall. Come for the food and the service — both succeed — just not on Valentine’s Day.

And not if your heart is set on its most talked-about dish, the lobster and sweetbreads ravioli — because the kitchen wasn’t offering it, at least on our visit. (By the way, we had trouble getting a reservation time to our liking on a Tuesday, ending up with an 8:30 p.m. seating, noted as “earliest available” on the web. Only two other tables were full.)

Anyway, our Old Fashioned cocktails were swell, adorned with a thread of green apple circling the glass. We skipped the cold starters ($13-19, mostly shellfish, plus $110 for caviar service) in favor of the warm app list ($19-21, plus $26 for that famed lobster and sweetbreads ravioli, unavailable). Bypassing the escargot, onion soup and mussels — next time! — we summoned the chicken liver pate.

Fine choice. Coarsely ground and barely hanging together, the serving could shine in an actual Parisian bistro: a bit lumpy and liver-y (all in a good way), it demanded to be spread on the chunky toasts provided. Bits of sherry jelly, plump raspberries, savory hazelnuts and perky pink peppercorns completed the platter’s couture.

 We also made quick work of the app list’s beef tartare — sweet as raw beef is at its best, and dolled up with a slick of horseradish-infused buttermilk and capers. Next, I insisted on the Lyonnaise salad ($17 and huge enough for four), just because that’s my go-to in an actual Parisian sidewalk setting. Loads of crisp and curly frisée in a mustard-sherry vinaigrette were garnished with meaty bacon lardons plus half a soft-boiled egg. But it had been boiled a few seconds too long and no longer boasted the golden yolk runny enough to toss with the waiting greens. The beet/goat cheese and Nicoise salads sounded tempting, too.

Entrees range from a classic steak au poivre, $45, to poached salmon with clams (!) for $31, a winter-busting pork with squash, cider jus, fennel and apple number, or chicken (touted by a manager who walked by) gussied up with celery root purée, black trumpet mushrooms and truffle jus. Big spenders can opt for lobster thermidor ($55) or braised short rib ($65), while we jumped for the pig trotters ($31) because, well, how often do you spot those on a menu in the U.S.?

Good choice, and meaty enough for the two of us, stripped from the hoof-y end of the piggy’s leg, braised until fork-tender and juicy, then adorned with morels atop a pond of finely-puréed potato, moist with madeira jus. BTW, for the cautious, there’s also a sturdy burger on the menu, $21.

The dessert list is short and sweet: crème brûlée, passion fruit panna cotta, gelato and our choice, the flourless chocolate number ($13). It’s as rich and dark and custardy as in your dreams, but topped with “chocolate crumble,” which turned out to be dried-out diced chocolate cake. (Why?) It’s set upon a painting of gin-and-tonic mousse of innocuous flavor.

So, despite my whining about a promise-more, deliver-less setting, the food and service earn a repeat visit.

Thérèse
3945 Market St., Edina
(612) 836-9282
theresempls.com