Heather's Minnetonka — Restaurant in Minnetonka

This location has been challenging for the many restaurant concepts that have come and gone over the years. Limited parking in the back which abuts on a gas station. Heather's incorporates part of the old restaurant space along with an original skinny format Dairy Queen. They have made a place with a light, airy dining room, and a very nice bar at wich you can sit and eat comfortably. There are no stairs to enter the restaurant, and so access is relatively friendly.

The prices are nice, and the wine list is well chosen with some well chosen wines by the glass. The cocktails were always wonderful. There is a small outdoor patio, but since the temp was 97F, we ate in the tall ceilinged, white dining room. It was a perfect way to celebrate the end of the week.

We shared a plate of Grilled peaches with burrata, crispy prosciutto, , with balsamic reduction and garlic crostini. The latter were nice carriers to put your favorite bites together. I tasted a bit, and it was wonderful. Healther's has a weekly special, and I chose to have it. It was called Summer Gnocchi, with fresh corn, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes with a white wine sauce, and the vegetables had been lightly grilled in a fragrant and flavorful mushroom sauce. Gnocchi are usually rubbery or doughy, but mine had light grill marking on the sides and they were pillowy and superbly done. I hate zucchini, which is usually tasteless and insipid, but grilling and the sauce and broth made them a nice summer vegetable, and the entire dish was put together by a chef, and not a line cook. I was very hungry, but I took half of my dish home.

Desserts are usually clicheed or boring, but we took the invitation. We also had decaf coffee, which is often an afterthought, but our coffee was rich and flavorful. I had a small lemon lime tart, with a fluted graham cracker crust. For the custard, the lemon was forward, but the lime added some flavor, plus I could see tiny lime rind shavings on the custard. My wife had a chocolate cake slice with a rasberry chocolate filling on top. It too looked small, but the cake was rich chocolate and the raspberry presented the dessert from being too chocolatey. These and the coffee mad a perfect ending to a wonderful meal. Our server was challenged by having to come in and out of the dining room to cover the patio too, but she never seemed rushed, and she was informative, cheerful, and helpful. Did I mention the tall ceilings? Besides the airiness, it means that we ate in a relatively full dining room, but it was not at all noisy, so we could converse easily. Call ahead about parking when you reserve. The restaurants at this location were challenged by the parking. Heather's owners have worked out shared parking with a neighboring church, and their is a Heather's car pool. Ask about it, and do make a reservation. There is no street parking on this busy corner, but we lucked out and parked in the back. Make sure to...

Long Story Short: The food is fantastic and I definitely plan on going back

I live near "Heather's", and over the years I have seen multiple restaurants in this building/location open up, just to go out of business 8 months later.

It's located in kind of a tricky spot, on the corner of a decently busy intersection, with a small parking lot and limited street parking. To help with the parking situation they started offering Valet. This is what caught my attention because unlike every short-lived business prior; the parking lot at Heather's stays impressively full, and for good reason.

The restaurant itself feels so much bigger on the inside, than it appears from outside, and there is a lot more seating than I expected. The capacity grows in the warmer weather when they can open up patio seating.

I went for lunch, and the aesthetic felt modern, with high vaulted ceilings, a lot of natural light, The experience felt nice and casual. However I could see how at night, with the right lighting it could feel a lot more like "classy date-night."

I don't drink, but they had a nice selection of mocktails and N/A drinks, which is always nice to see

Braised Pork Cubano: Braised Pork, Fischer Farms Ham, Sweet Mustard Aioli, Gruyere, Green Chilis, Pickled Onions & Jalepeños, French Roll)

Buddha Bowl: Coconut Jasmine Rice, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Cauliflower, Red Peppers, Pickled Red Onion, Fried Curry Tofu, Cilantro Chutney

I ordered the Cubano, which was phenomenal. The Braised Pork lived up to its name and was perfectly prepared. There was no shortage on portion size, as the sandwich was loaded with meat. Tjalapenos and mustard gave it a pleasant touch of heat that any Minnesotan can handle and the bread stayed crispy, keeping all of the meat between the buns where it belongs.

The person that I was with ordered the Buddha Bowl. They had been to Heather's and ordered the Buddha Bowl multiple times before, so I can assume it is just as fantastic as the Cuban personally, I'm not a Tofu fan so I can't...

My husband and I were looking for a nearby brunch place and found this gem.

Atmosphere: Finding the restaurant was easy and they do have their own free parking lot. The building was a little confusing when we first arrived as they do have their togo section smacked in the front where it looks like it could just be a takeout building and not an actual restaurant, but the sit down entrance is to the right of it. When we entered the building, we didn't expect to see such an elegant yet simplistic atmosphere! Loved the look of the place.

Service: The host didn't seem all too happy and greeted us without a smile or hello. Just asked how many people, which is fine, just marking the small details. After being sat down rather quickly, which was very nice, we were greeted quickly by our server, who was very pleasant. She gave a little history on the restaurant. The only thing was that when we got our food, we didn't have utensils, nor did the server take away our menus for space. Mind you, the table is quite small.

Food: I thoroughly enjoyed the food! I had the carnitas eggs benedict, and my husband had the steak and eggs. We pretty much cleaned the plates. They were delicious. We also got non alcoholic beverages along with it but didn't enjoy it quite that much. The passionflower drink and the lavender lemon drink, I would not recommend them.

Overall, I would probably come back to try the...