Forepaugh’s Restaurant

Great poutines! Out of all the the poutine I’ve ever tried, this one is hands down the best!

The food was amazing, the staff was amazing. I had such a great nice even though our truck got stuck in the snow with the valet but everyone was so helpful and no two truck was even needed. Best night my boyfriend and I have had in awhile and part of it was because of the truck getting stuck. Definitely going back.

We were engaged and married in the ‘old’ Forepaughs, so I was hesitant to return when we viewed the new menu and reviews online. We just celebrated our anniversary there, and I’m happy to say that the food and service were excellent!

Good place for a special night or celebration. Contemporary food in a Victorian setting in St.Paul. Lovely view overlooking a winter scene and snow lit park. New Year’s Prix Fixe Menu was delicious but pricey.

I have been watching Hell’s Kitchen for years, and the most famous item on the menu has to be Chef Ramsay’s Beef Wellington. After a little research, my partner and I found Forepaugh’s, and we decided to have dinner there for my birthday. It did NOT meet our expectation, especially for the price, and we will likely not return.
First, when we arrived, it was not clear where we should go or who would seat us. We had to ask a bus boy. When we were seated, our server came to greet us, and we had to ask his name and take the lead about how the ordering would work. The service overall was not very professional: servers having their cell phones out, our server saying, «Ya dig it?» to see if we like the food, and our server not knowing ingredients of food, or whether items were made in house or outsourced. In fact, he told us the complimentary buns were made in house, and when I asked what the ingredients were, he brought me a cardboard cutting that listed the ingredients (about 15 minutes later); he said it was from the box that the buns are sourced and frozen in. Lots of artificial ingredients. Our server continued to struggle with our questions throughout the whole meal. In my experience, it is NEVER a good sign when the server is ignorant about the food. There was a lack of transparency and communication. This was VERY disappointing.
We ordered:
— Seasonal greens salad: very basic salad with mixed greens, Gorgonzola, figs, and a honey vinaigrette. Not too different from what I might make at home. It did not «wow» me.
— Mushroom Agnolotti: Any filled pasta is best paired with a thick sauce so that it sticks to the pasta. This agnolotti was in a cilantro lime broth, which made it feel confused between a Mexican dish and an Italian dish. The flavor of the broth did not compliment the mushroom filling of the agnolotti; it actually took away. A very strange combination.
— Beef Wellington: this was the award winning beef welly that had high expectations, but it did NOT live up. It was the chef’s personal take on the traditional dish, but I would have much preferred the traditional recipe. Things that went wrong with the welly:
1. The lattice pastry dough was not enough to really add anything. It tasted plain, and it kept falling off the beef. In fact, the entire apparatus fell apart as I ate it.
2. The duxelles mushrooms had some kind of acid added to them, so they tasted too dominant.
3. Swiss chard was wrapped around the filet, which was NOT an equal alternative to prosciutto in the traditional recipe.
4. For $ 35, the dish felt incomplete, a bit disconnected. There were a few SLICES of fingerling potatoes, a few mushrooms, and a couple raisin tomatoes on the side of the welly. In my opinion, they should have stuck with the traditional style welly with a yummy purée or gravy, and placed whole fingerling potatoes and wilted Swiss chard on the side of the dish.
The general atmosphere of Forepaugh’s was dark lighting (I could hardly see my food), elder people, and safe, dim food. I did NOT leave feeling enlivened or inspired by the food or the service. Forepaugh’s tries to present a fancy appearance, but the integrity of the food is sacrificed for the vanity. To clarify, the food was not terrible – we ate it – but it was mediocre, and therefore, too expensive. We will not return.

This is a very quite intimate restaurant with very good food and service.
The squash soup and gazpacho salad were unique and tasty.
The roast duck and curried walleye entrees were very tasty and elegantly presented.
I would return in a minute for a great dinning experience in a antique house.

Nice and quiet on a Wednesday night! Incredible ambiance, extremely reasonably priced wine selection and amazing food. We started with the beef satay and corn soup– both were packed with flavor and perfectly cooked. The beef Wellington and walleye were perfectly prepared and presented beautifully! Not a cheap restaurant but worth the money for the food, service and ambiance.

A bit overpriced for the quality of the beverages. We weren’t dining so we couldn’t use the rooftop dining area. There weren’t very many people there, but I’m sure it’s busy before wild games or concerts at the Xcel.

I’m a bit conflicted by this one. I really want to love it. It’s a short walk from our house. The drinks are delicious and creative. The staff is super nice and amazingly friendly. However, in the end, the food just isn’t that good. We had corn chowder last night. That was amazing. The flat bread is weird and hard to eat. We go here frequently for happy hour. I wish they’d have more savory things to choose from for the happy hour menu. I know everyone raves about this place. It is historic and a great place to sit and chat. I think their menu items could use some flavor other than salt.

Yes indeed the price rating at Forepaugh’s is a $$$, and there is no lie in that statement. BUT! If you are like the general population of 20-​somethings and your paycheck doesn’t allow for more than a $$ (or let’s be honest $ all day errryday), then why would you even scroll down on your phone to the reviews?
Well allow me to tell you why. Happy happy happy hour. Yes, this happy hour goes until 7pm (and all day Sunday), which we all know is a good hour later than the typical 4 – 6 rushed-​out-​the-​door-​of-​your-​office-​and-​race-​to-​the-​pub that we are all used to. This actually allows you to get to this off the grid mansion bar and relax and enjoy more than one beverage before HH last call.
This place is in an actual mansion, and there is a free parking lot across the street, if you eat on the premises (think: Xcel Center and Science Museum a stone’s throw away). HH is directly inside, to the right or the left, on the patio, but not up the stairs to all of the other gorgeous eating areas. It is lush, dark, fancy, and the service is truly top-​notch. I have been here countless times for HH and have never felt slighted for only ordering a drink or an app. The manager always encourages you to go upstairs for a look around, and even took a group of friends and I down to their private wine cellar for a mini tour.
The drink specials are pretty generous — a $ 6 cocktail special of the day, $ 5 rail drinks and wines, and $ 4 beer. The appetizers are pretty delicious, and you can honestly never go wrong with the fancy azz fries. The sangria’s are also great (though not always served at HH) and I hear their brunch is ahmerhzing, so that’s a-​comin with this sudden March patio season heat wave.

This mansion is beautiful inside and out. Lots of character and charm. Sadly, that’s all that you’re paying for. The food was so scarse, I thought they had forgotten to bring the rest of it. Most of us left still hungry, and we are not big people at all. I had the veal, which was $ 38 and it was in a horseradish sauce which was too spicy to eat. So I didn’t. I hesitated about going there once I looked at the menu on line-​Very Pricey! Our son said he was paying, so I decided to go ahead. I bought a very fancy cake for my husbands birthday that night, but the waitress wouldn’t let me serve it unless I paid $ 2.50/plate for my family of «9?!». The cake was already $ 40 and I wasn’t going to spend more to put it on their plates!
I won’t go back.

Well, the main reason we go here is because of the ambiance, the bartenders, and the Happy Hour. Recently, the management has raised this prices on the Happy Hour higher than regular prices at other places ! Look, we used to spend more money here in a month, than some wealthy diner spends here in a year ! We are very close to never coming here again ! This restaurant could be filled, every night, by offering more affordable offerings. Look around ! Wake up and smell the bread sticks !
Time for the owner and Chef Donald, to do a reality check !

Terrible. My fiancé and I took his two daughters to Forepaugh’s before seeing a play at the Ordway last evening thinking it would be a great first restaurant to introduce a tween and teen what an upscale, gourmand restaurant was all about and it was terrible to say the least.
All of our food was ice cold, lacked flavor, and way over priced. $ 202 without tip and that was without any cocktails which included 4 entrees, one appetizer and two salads. Even the oldest daughter tried my Caesar and said it was too bitter and her walleye was very fishy. My fiancé’s scallops were ice cold and raw, my chicken was tough and reminded me of airplane food, and the tween daughter was the only one who had a decent meal with a strip steak and mashed potatoes which she loved.
The only thing good I have to say was the service was spot on, but besides that, everything (the food) seemed to already been cooked prior to dinner service, and unfortunately was not very good. We will not be coming back.

My boyfriend and I went there for brunch over the weekend. The ambiance was probably the only good thing about the place.
We had the pre-​fix brunch menu. The food was awefully distasteful. There was a big plate with bacon, potatoes, sausage, eggs bennedict and eggs. The bacon was cold, sausage was meh. I did not have a second bite after having the first. I could do a wayyyyyyyy better job making it at home than paying $ 22 at a restaurant per person.
We will just stick to French Meadow and have the most amazing breakfast at half the price.
I will never return here.

I think many people hear «Forepaughs» and assume they need to pony-​up for a high $$$ dinner and fancy night out. Not so!
Forepaughs has an incredibly quaint bar area, just perfect for groups of 2 – 4 people. It’s cozy, just perfect for a 15 degree night November – March in Minnesota. Just grab a chair and ask for their bar menu – available until 9. The food available includes everything from charcuterie plates to flatbread and shrimp. These appetizer plates do not disappoint.
So if you are looking for a low key night out, grab a small group and plan to camp out in their bar area some night; you won’t find a better place to relax after a long week anywhere east of the Mississippi.

A lovely mansion with rich décor and fabulous food! My favorite dishes were the candied shrimp appetizer, the pan seared walleye in coconut curry sauce, and the banana cream dessert had an amazing caramelized glaze on top. The mixed green salad was good too.
The décor is elegant with pretty chandeliers and each room is unique. There are three floors to this mansion so be prepared for a good workout if your table is on the top floor which was our case. The ghost who is named Molly supposedly lingers on the top floor since that’s where her incident happened according to our waiter but I luckily didn’t feel a haunted vibe!
It was busy when we got here at around 6:45 PM on Saturday but the place seemed to clear out by 8:00-ish. We were here on Halloween weekend too.
Valet parking is $ 7 and there are bathrooms located on the second and first level. This place is dressy but I also saw a couple people in jeans and Wild hockey jerseys.
Since this place has amazing food, nice décor and great service I had to give it five stars. It’s great for special occasions or if you just want to splurge on a nice meal.

Really good service in an upstairs dining area.
Tasty food, but a bit-​too-​expensive in price. I ordered their BLT/​Caesar «Collision» Salad (a small plate for $ 11) and the Poutine (with just a little puddle of duck gravy at bottom of bowl for $ 12)
Secret: there’s a parking lot across the street that you’re allowed to park in as a customer of Forepaugh’s — stop to ask a valet about it.

Had a good time here today, the location is nice there is a variety of seating options (porch, deck above entry…) we had a server that was not so great (Rebecca) when we asked for the run down of the menu she had a lot of ah, um, oh, um, fine, um… Not very helpful in informing us so we felt like we had to figure it out on our own.
I had the pork dish and it was ok. I ordered it medium and it was a little dry inside… it was good for a one time visit.

I was in the market for a last minute Valentines Day dinner reservation, and honestly was shocked Forepaughs could accommodate us. I had been here several times in the past and had been very impressed.
Then they brought out the food, and we quickly learned why they weren’t fully reserved. I still debate wether the intent of the meal they served was ironic pretentiousness or highway robbery, but they hit the mark on both attempts.
The first course was cotton candy and a tampon applicator looking device filled with the smell of buttered popcorn. The second was a vinegar brined egg, the likes of which you’d find behind the counter at a townie bar.
They followed that with a few tiny beet slices on a plate splattered with jelles that made it look like a Jackson Pollack painting. The server was quick to point out one of the smears was elderflower flavored with real gold leaf. It’s sad when the highlight of a meal is knowing you’ll literally be crapping gold in the morning, and the Discovery channel might make it into its next reality show hit.
The next course was gyoza in a dashi broth, which I guess makes perfect sense between the cotton candy course and the surf and turf course.
The main course, steak and lobster, was actually fairly well conceived and executed. But by this time, we’d already given up hope, and we were just waiting to be released from this tragic comedy of a night.
If the goal was to squeeze all the most pretentious food trends from the last decade into one meal, then, as George Bush would say, Mission Accomplished.
But if the goal was the feed your customers in a way that is likely to make them come back, then as Mike Prieffer from the Vikings would say, it’s time to round up all your kitchen staff in the kitchen, and then nuke it until it glows.

Screw this place. Our server was so bad it got to be funny, the food was what I would expect a parody of french food to be, and then you get the bill, and no one is laughing.
Bad service, bad food and WAY WAY WAY overpriced. Avoid at all costs.