The Bungalow Club — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Me and my fiancé were looking for a nice place to have a romantic dinner, this evening, and we happened upon this restaurant. We are both a mixed bag of feelings about our experience because there was no aspect of our dinner that had any consistency.

We were seated promptly and courteously, however it took a long time for our waiter to attend to us. During our multi course dinner, there were several instances where we needed something but he was nowhere to be found, prompting us to seek out the bar tender (which, I will admit, this gentleman was a shining star of service, professionalism and he was high energy to boot). Therein lies the constant and overwhelming duality behind our experience. Every time you had a great experience, it was followed by an equally disappointing experience.

This same interesting phenomena absolutely occurs in the food. Our charcuterie tray was full of some delicious items, which immediately gave us high hopes. Our 1st course included a tuna dish that was delicious, bold, and even daring... from complex tastes that were diverse and bold, to textures that were equally daring HOWEVER we also received an arugula salad that was burdened by a vinaigrette that was so strong and over applied that one might call the taste oppressive. It was so strong that my fiancé thought her taste buds were potentially damaged throughout the remainder of the meal which caused her to question her own ability to enjoy the remainder of her meal.

Our next course delivered a sunflower seed pesto which, frankly, I believe I found reminiscent of a number of dinners I have had, from my past, which I believe were branded "hungry man." The pasta could not have possible been made in house and if it was, it had to have been frozen in the era before prohibition. At the same time, we were served a pappardelle noodle with some sort of mushroom sauce which, I will admit, was actually very tasty, if extremely heavy. The problem we had was that the presentation was, to put it tactfully, was just plain bad.

Finally, our protein course consisted of extremely tasty and beautifully presented chicken meatballs on polenta. We have no complaints there... but we also received a crazy dish... which consisted of a sausage slapped on top of a bed of zucchini noodles surrounded by some pea based sauce. The combination of tastes and textures just made no sense to either of us.

So there is our strange experience. Half of the food was really clever, daring, beautiful and ingenious... while the other half was slapped together like it was being lazily slopped on to a tray by a lunch lady. The bar tender was an amazingly energetic beacon of positive energy while our waiter didn't respond when my Fiancé literally held an empty glass in the air and began to jingle the ice to indicate she wanted to buy another drink. Everything was hit or miss and at the end of the evening, it wasn't what I would consider cheap by any stretch of the imagination so I have a hard time letting go of what could have been great but...

Top notch food and sevice

I've been to the Bungalow Club several times now. It's good enough that my wife and I make the 60 minute round trip once a month to eat there. Tonight I brought a group of 6 friends there so we could order the family dinner and try a greater variety of foods. We were all very impressed and fighting for the leftovers.

Each time we've gone we've been blown away by the food. It's a creative and sophisticated blend of flavors. Honestly, it's tough to pick a favorite dish but I believe the menu changes from time to time with a few consistent staples.

The service at this place would easily be in my top 2 restaurants throughout the twin cities. The servers have all been very personable, professional, and fun. We've even had the manager on duty stop by our table to make sure we were happy.

My wife loves the cocktail menu. I'm more of a beer drinker myself but I did order the New York sour which was a stellar cocktail. Once again, I believe the cocktail list rotates with a couple staples. As far as the beer selection goes it's not a huge variety but it's all trendy quality beers from around the Minnesota. Last time they had some Modist, Castle Danger and Steel Toe on tap along with a handful of others.

Overall, I would highly suggest the Bungalow Club for a sleek and relaxing couple's dinner or bring a group of friends and order the family dinner. The whole table needs to be in on this option but...

This was truly a surprising disappointment. We were excited to go here for restaurant week given the great reviews. We were familiar with prior restaurants in this space, and it has not changed much. It is looking a little bit tired, and they also decided to have some cheesy Halloween decorations that did not fit well.

Anyway, the food itself was downright bad. All four of us had lukewarm to cold meals, but given the intermittent absence of our server it did not make sense to try to send it back. My salad was acceptable, other than about half of the squash in the salad was so undercooked that it took some serious jaw power to eat. My main course of pork coppa could have been good, but it came across more like a pile of lukewarm deli meat on a bed of undercooked Brussel sprouts mixed with some pretty good mustard and horseradish. My wife's swordfish au poivre was equally unbalanced and not great. The chocolate budino dessert was just meh. The wine and drinks were fine.

This restaurant adds a mandatory 20% service fee. I have no problem with this generally, but it seems like it only works when the staff is engaged and excited about what the establishment is doing. This staff, with the exception of the host, did not project much engagement, and our server in particular did not rise to the level expected at a restaurant at this price point.

Needless to say, we did not linger, and we will not...