Thirty Bales restaurant is located in Hopkins, MN. The cuisine is advertised as “Spirited Midwestern flavors” using seasonal ingredients grown close to home. I was intrigued by this statement. I like the concept of ingredients that are seasonal and grown close to home. I’m a Midwesterner who thinks that Midwestern food is a good hot dish, but certainly open to other ideas of Midwestern food!
The menu categories are Snacks and Shareables, Soups and Salads, Sandwiches and Entrees. Some of the menu items have fun names such as Paul Bunyan Drummies , Minne-Terrainean Veggie Burger and Blue Ox Wedge
We started with the Chef’s Pantry Sharable (appetizer) which is an assortment of items- goat & blue cheese, pickled veggies, mixed olives, salted walnuts, rosemary grill bread, citrus hummus, dried cranberries, in house smoked salmon and candied bacon. Our favorites were the rosemary grill bread and the candied bacon. I really liked the olives too.
My husband ordered the Camp Style Walleye which he really enjoyed. It was lightly breaded, crisp and the portion was substantial.
I decided on the Beet Salad with the addition of seared salmon. I love beets- it’s kind of a new love. The description was “fennel dusted warm local goat cheese, roasted beets, cucumber, arugula, salted walnuts and house made ginger balsamic vinaigrette”. Below is the picture of the beet salad:
I was instantly disappointed. I could hardly find the beets! In reality, it was an arugula salad with a couple slices of beets and cucumber. The 4 slices of beets were good, but I expected a lot more of them.
The atmosphere was pleasant and we could easily carry on a conversation without a lot of background noise. The service was friendly and prompt. The Walleye was very good along with some of the appetizer, but I just could not get past the dissatisfaction of the Beet Salad. I doubt that I would go back. I rated this restaurant 5 out of 10. On to the next restaurant adventure!
Minnesota Food Lover 