Bar La Grassa — Restaurant in Minneapolis

I've been hearing about Bar La Grassa for years and finally stopped by on a whim after work on Wednesday the 17th. Luckily, I was able to get a spot for 1 with no reservation at the bar!

It was a busy day in the neighborhood, but the host made me feel welcome and let me know a group at the bar had a reservation that was almost ready so I could keep an eye out for a seat there. I got a spot at the bar within 5 minutes and was greeted right away by Roger, who was very friendly!

I ordered a peach bellini and Roger made it so quickly, but he took the time to measure the peach and that really struck me. It was a level of care that really impressed me, especially with how busy they were!

I ordered the red wine pasta and honestly I didn't love it. The sauce had acidity without body so it felt unbalanced and a little bitter. I probably should have ordered something else, and maybe it just wasn't to my taste! I also read the menu online ahead of time and saw a pumpkin cheesecake on the BLG website that wasn't on the in-person menu. After confirming that they didn't have the pumpkin cheesecake, I went with the salted caramel crispelle and Roger shared the fun fact that it's been here since the beginning of BLG. I didn't actually like the crispelle that much (probably just because I was looking forward to something else), but Roger's fun fact made it interesting to eat while thinking of it's history!

This food I mention just because that was my own experience, but it was definitely 100% my fault I didn't say anything about the food at the time and I know the staff would have taken care of me! Everyone else's food looked amazing so I'll just have to try something different next time!

At the end of my meal I realized I ate almost all the pine nuts out of my pasta, so I asked Roger if he could get me some more when he boxed up my food, and he was so accommodating! I didn't feel like a burden at all and he really delivered! My wallet was also buried in my work bag at the end of the meal & he was so nice when I asked to use my GooglePay (like ApplePay)! Really great service from Roger, and all the staff made me feel welcome throughout the night!

The one atmosphere thing that made my dining experience slightly less than perfect was that the height of the barstools, and how low the bar rail was, made it difficult to eat comfortably without pushing your chair back from the bar a bit. But the tables are close enough that my chair would be blocking the walkway partly to be comfortable, and I wouldn' want to block anything. Not a huge deal, just something to note!

Overall, I would recommend coming here just because of how amazing the service is & I look forward to returning to try other items! Thank you...

I have waited a year or so to write this review. Bar la Grassa used to be great. It was my go-to Italian restaurant for about 10 years. I had my bday dinner there, valentine's day dinner, my graduation party, out of town guest visiting. It was my spot and I loved it. When I heard they closed because of the pandemic, it was the saddest day of my life. Then they reopened. I was overjoyed with their return and didn't wait to book a spot there. However, that visit, and all the subsequent visits over the past few years turned into disappointments time and time again. For example, they used to have this spicy seafood squid ink pasta that's to die for -- perfect balance between spicey and savory and seafoodiness, with uni blended into the sauce. Then they took out the uni -- understandable since it's an expensive ingredient. Then they started blending the squid ink into the sauce as opposed to the noodle -- sure, some italian regions and recipes do that, but who wants to go on a date, order pasta and end up with black teeth? When I ordered I asked the waiter what's the difference between this version and the old version (since it was under a different name), they waiter told me "it's the same exact recipe" but i know it is not, and the new version is maybe half as good as the old. I then ventured into different kinds of pastas over the past 2 years, I once ordered an orange-based pasta -- it was so sweet and tasted of artificial flavoring that it's borderline inedible. Tried the rabbit sugo -- not really good. Tried the carbonara and some other chicken pasta, good but not great. tried various appetizers and bruschetta, lobster one was good but it will run you 30+ dollars, everything else is good but still not great. Tried a lot of the main dishes including the chicken, meatball, fish and ribs-- everything was just OK, not bad, not great. I'd say, at this point, the only thing that's still "great" on the menu that I have tried (I have not tried the entire menu since it often changes) is the red wine pasta with pine nuts. For a restaurant that portraits a high standard, you'd expect excellence, but what I got was just adequacy. 3 stars is where it sits at for me because that's the definition of mediocracy. The head chef should take a long hard look at the menu, maybe visit italy (or even new york) to rekindle some of their tastebuds, and ask themself whether this is the standard of food that you want to keep putting out.

Edit-- perhaps I was a little harsh when I originally wrote this review. All I was trying to say is that BLG no longer lives up to the standard it once set for itself. Before we would view it as "the best italian restaurant in town", and now we should probably view it with more...

It's not often that I treat myself to a more expensive dinner, but my S.O. had heard great things about this location and her birthday was a great excuse for us to treat ourselves to something special. Let it be known that Bar La Grassa did NOT disappoint.

I was already impressed by the excellent host and reservation system, as we were able to secure a table at an earlier time than we had reserved for originally. This place is popular and slots fill up FAST. Fortunately, the folks handling the front were polite and prompt in letting me know there was an opening and getting me moved into it right away.

Our waiter was friendly and knowledgeable about everything on the menu. Do yourself a favor and no matter what you do, be sure to order the arancini with the bomba sauce. That alone was incredible and delicious. A gentle but respectable heat in the sauce and a lemony zest to the arancini made for a wonderful appetizer that set my expectations high for the main course.

At the main course, my date had the bolognese and I had their New York strip. I'm not usually someone who goes out for a steak dinner, but let it be known that I could not have been happier with what Bar La Grassa delivered me. A steak perfectly done medium rare, excellent taste and texture, and utterly filling. My date was over the moon about her bolognese, her only complaint was seeing other tables that ordered the Gnocci and wishing she had ordered that herself.

For dessert, my date and I were expecting simple thimbles of chocolate and ice cream, or tiny coffee cakes, but we could not have been more wrong. I had the tiramisu and every bite of the dessert was pure heaven. My date had the dark chocolate budino which was just as decadent as we could've hoped. The portions were huge which was surprising for a dessert menu, and really made it feel like a meal worthy of the pricetag

All this is to say that Bar La Grassa is truly a five-star restaurant in every sense of the words. A staff that was excited to be serving us, food and wine that surpassed expectations, and an evening I will never forget. I am not exaggerating when I say that since moving here to Minnesota, Bar La Grassa has been the best dining experience I've had in this state. I can't wait to find an excuse to...