Petite Leon - Minneapolis

We had a great dinner at Petite Leon, the new restaurant from chef Jorge Guzman on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. His food is complex and quite amazing. We started with cocktails. They are unusual and inventive. I had one with pisco, the South Americanbrandy, combined with grapefruit, dragon fruit, and lemon. My husband had the cocktail with tequila, orange, lime, and avocado.Both were balanced and very nice indeed. For a first course I had their special, which was a raw tuna tostada served withmelon. Perfect for a summer evening. My husband had the mussels, which were perfectly cooked and served with a complex broth and2 thick slices of bread to sop it up! For the main course, the carne asada was actually a perfectly cooked steak topped with achermoula sauce . My al pastor was a tender and delicious roasted pork served with smoked pineapple and onion with warm corntortillas. Their cheesecake was scrumptious, creamy and smooth. I was not a fan of the arrow con leche, however. It was notsweet enough for my taste. The service is impeccable and there is free on street parking. All in all, wonderfully unique foodin a warm secluded booth setting. Be forewarned; the food can be very spicy.

Excellent the food is very well thought out. The flavors are there, each dish we ordered was perfect. We had two starters the peppers (which were divine) and bison tartare (nothing simple here, each bite was a flavor bomb). The carne asada was cookedperfectly amazing char with mid rare center, only thing is we felt it needed something more (alone on the plate). The pork wasalso excellent melted in the mouth, tender, and blended well with its accompaniments. The star for me was the Arctic char perfect seer on the skin, the fish was moist and flavorful not overdone. The broth, corn, avocado, and radish were fresh andflavorful while rounding out the dish. Lastly, the service was excellent, very friendly and attentive.

Wasn 't a big fan personally Came for a reservation and waited in line. Waitress watches as 2 groups of old people cut in front of us and took over 15 minutes getting them seated before finally getting back to us. Favorite food item was definitely the Alpastor tacos! Was very good would recommend! The rest I can 't say the same. Especially the fries were just bad. Very soggy withtheir tumeric aoli which was just mustard. The pasta ravioli thing I had was fine. It was filled with a paste that everyoneat the table couldn 't really taste as the sauce completely overpowered the rest. Wasn 't bad, but I could have made pasta withred sauce.

Our dinner at Petite Leon last weekend was absolutely brilliant. Every course was memorable, so elegant and refined yet approachable. The mussels were so good, I unabashedly drank the entirety of the broth. The lamb birria was absolutelydelightful, cooked to perfection.

We came for our anniversary and had a fantastic time! Service was great, drinks were all delicious, and food too! The gnudi was one of the best dishes I've had in a long time! And the cheesecake was incredible, too.