The Bachelor Farmer

Reservations are hard to make, and even though we had one, they were 20 minutes late to seat our group. The service was good, and our server was knowledgeable. We went with a few folks who aren’t «foodies» and our server was a bit condescending when he realized it. But, at the end of the day: the duck was amazing. The cocktails were amazing. The toast plates were amazing. The décor was fantastic. I’d totally go back, but make sure it was with a small crowd that can appreciate the food and experience.

Had duck confit, chopped eggs, salmon and more. All open sandwiches and similar to what you can get in Copenhagen:) Great place … Casual and easygoing. Downside? Hard to find a seat.

Updated 1÷12÷16
Reviews are funny. My Elite friends may love a place, but I get shoddy service and find the place a dump. 2 stars. Whereas, I love a place and my Elite friends may hate, detest, and despise the same place. See, funny! And it usually boils down to two things. Service. And most importantly, the food. Cost is always last even if you’re paying with gold crowns.
That’s my experience with The Bachelor Farmer. I LOVE this place. Let me tell you why. I have always had PHENOMENAL service. And PHENOMENAL food. I’ve had wonderful fortune it seems. It’s become a bit of a ritual that I pop in here with a friend after the holidays and saddle up to the bar. The corner red booth is fantastic and makes you feel like a king, or queen, for the night. I was here again on December 30 and we were so lucky to have Paul as our bartender. Well seasoned and well versed in wines and spirits and he effortlessly navigated my friend and I with amazing pairings, original concoctions, and just his warm nature. We hugged him at the end of the night. No joke.
The carpaccio of onions and potatoes were so salty and savory and delicious. Had no idea carpaccio could be a bloody vegetable! The charcuterie platter was on point, and our entrée of pheasant sausage that looked like a huge dong left us gasping. And giddy. I vaguely recall dessert due to the liquor fog I was in, but I’m sure it was ⁵⁄₅ as well. Definitely not Hpnotiq, thank God.
TBF is an experience and needs to be savored over several hours, like a slow burn. Unlike some, this place remains one of my favorite places in Minneapolis. When someone else is paying.

Always make a reservation. Show up early. Get a drink at the bar upstairs or at Marvel Bar while you wait.
I’ve taken everyone I know to TBF, and no one has ever left without a smile. I’ve eaten here multiple times over the last 3 years, so I won’t comment on specific menu items, but everything I’ve had has always been amazing. I very very strongly recommend getting one of the toasts and the groaning board and mixing and matching to make little open-​faced sandwiches (they’ll bring more toast, just ask.)
The entrees are always cooked wonderfully and presented with care and dedication. Most food items are light and properly portioned, giving you room for wonderful desert.
The menu has changed over the years, but the décor hasn’t, and it feels like coming home every time I walk in the door. The lighting is very low, so if you have difficulty reading in low-​light, I’d recommend using your phone or asking if they have lights to be able to read the menu.
The service has always been great. They can explain the items on the menu, give recommendations and help select drink pairings.
Just an idea, practice your drawing skills before you get the check.

We made reservations for the Bachelor Farmer for a Sunday night. I was a little nervous, Sunday nights have a fixed menu and knowing it was fall and that the Bachelor Farmer is a seasonal restaurant I knew there would be things on the menu that are not typically part of my diet (beets…sorry I just don’t like beets).
Well, there were things on the menu that I don’t typically drift toward but the whole meal was fantastic. We start with squash soup, something I wouldn’t normally order, but it was amazing. There was a combination of duck confit, brown butter, and apples that made this whole soup pop. The main course did come with beets but they were perfectly cooked and amazing. We finished with dessert and the whole meal was spectacular (although the soup was the star of the show).
We will return on a night when the full menu is available but I can’t wait to go back.

I come from the midwest, but live in San Francisco. We love our food experiences we’ve had in the Bay Area. Visiting home during the holidays is always a treat and were told TBF is THE place to go. After hearing the hype of TBF we thought we would get an amazing experience. Instead we received extremely overly salted food. I think my blood pressure went up out of the safe zone. Everything we ordered was so salty, it was hard to get through.
On top of this the portions for what you pay for were ridiculous. I don’t expect midwest portions, but for a $ 34 salty entrée, that includes no sides, there was hardly anything to eat. The culinary expectations were so disappointing. What I hoped for seemed more like pure experimental food on the night of service. We ordered the fois gras app with the expectation of having some nice patte, but instead it was a thinly sliced piece on top of some other stuff. Could not even taste the fois gras. The other stuff was too salty to know what it was. (I know what it was but mute point since you couldn’t taste it.)
A friend ordered the meatballs, which was far and away the best dish, but five very small meatballs and no side for $ 28 was a joke.
Money isn’t the issue for us, but you better know before you go that you will pay A LOT for very little. I’ve been in fine restaurants all over the world, but have never been as disappointed as I was at Bachelor Farmer.
For all the hype, the experience was insulting to the palette and the wallet.

Good food, nice ambiance, knowledgeable and friendly staff, good service. All-​in-​all a nice experience. Wine list is limited and the price is high for what it is– compared to national or global restaurants that are exceptional.

I really wanted to love this place. I loved the interior. The service from front door up to leaving was warm and kind, and for that alone this place is pretty okay. However the food left me pretty disappointed.
To start: the cocktails are TINY and pretty lackluster. Not balanced in flavor, but strong enough to get you going. The wine list is pretty great but very limited options by the glass.
Appetizer: the groaning board. This was the highlight of the meal, not doubt. Delicious in every way. I would eat the pâté every day. Yum.
Main courses: pheasant schnitzel was pretty good. Definitely the better entrée; a little over-​salted, but good. The other entrée we got was the shorthorn beef. This made me sad. First off, the dish was COLD, as in out of the fridge cold. Second, the beef itself, despite temperature, was really flavorful, but it was severely over-​seasoned. I had to cut the outer edge of the meat off of each slice to get to the middle and render it edible. There was a nice portion of beef, but about two little nubs of kohlrabi and teeny bit of greens. As a side, we got the Brussels sprouts, that were so covered in apple cider vinegar, they were essentially inedible. Sad face for the main course.
I do think I will probably give this place another try, if not only for the toast board. But overall, I was pretty disappointed.
tl;dr: get a bottle of wine and a toast board, then go home.

I gave The Bachelor Farmer another chance. I decided to bring my boyfriend this time, but based off of my first experience (disappointing food during a long unapologetic 3hr service), I was nervous I would be in the doghouse after dragging him here. So this time, I forced us both to leave work a little early so we could get in time to skip all the busy BS. We got there at 5pm on a weekday, and paid the $ 5 cash to park in the back lot.
Thankfully, we got seated right away with our resos, and it wasn’t even busy. Our server was a sweetheart too! We ordered an adult bevvy each, the salmon toast app, the pork meatballs, and the halibut. First, the salmon toast. It was… gorgeous. Check out the photo — the gravlax were like, GLOWING, and everything tasted fresh, salty, and crisp. However, it kinda grinds my gears that they only give you two slices of toast (halved) for an appetizer you’re paying about $ 18 for. But onto the entrees… I liked the pork meatballs, very tender, though they are quite small and my boyfriend and I fought over every grain of barley since the portions are small. The halibut was sadly under-​seasoned and in need of a better sear/​crust.
If you’re looking to bring a date here, it will set you back about $ 120 including tip (for a cocktail each, an entrée each, and a shared appetizer), and you won’t leave feeling full. But you might get laid just for picking up the big bill.
All in all, our service was much kinder and not nearly as slow this time, but the food just still isn’t worth it to me. I love their concept and I applaud Mr. Dayton for what he’s striving for (and I love Marvel Bar), but I think I have caught some bad luck in some form during each visit at TBF!

This is a great place to splurge! Everything from the décor, to the service, to the food was outstanding.
We started with the two toasts — the pumpkin custard with a Parmesan cheese sauce was out of this world. I could have eaten that as my meal. It came with plenty of toast and was perfect for sharing with a big group.
For my meal I had the special — pasta filled with pork shoulder. YUM X a million. It was pretty heavy, though, but perfect in every way.
Enjoy!

I had a very positive experience here on Saturday night. The food and service were good. And the portions were generous sizes. I didn’t experience any of the issues previous reviews complained about.
The foie gras was delicious and large enough to split between two people. The lamb sausage entrée was tasty along with the large popover.
We also received complimentary starters of radishes with a unique butter spread and ginger snap cookies for dessert which were soft.
The service was spot on and we didn’t have to wait long for our food.
There were a lot of great choices on their menu. This place is now one of my favorites in Minneapolis!

We had really high hopes for this place, but it fell a bit flat. Maybe because it was Sunday and we were limited to a fixed supper menu. The fried green tomatoes were absolutely delicious. The mains were roasted chicken or the pot roast. The chicken was a bit dry and boring. The pot roast was good, but had sort of a earthy flavor. It literally tasted like a hint of dirt was left on the vegetables to give it a «fresh» flavor. It wasn’t bad, but it was bizarre. The space is beautiful and our waiter was great. I would like to try their menu on a normal serving night. I think this place is worth a try.

We ended up here accidentally We wandered over after our dinner at Bar La Grassa, thinking we were walking into Marvel.
I settled into my seat at the bar and perused the cocktail menu. Nothing on the drink menu struck my fancy. I was prepared to go to one of my fallbacks when the bartender offered to whip me something up.
This is the kind of skill that can separate a cook from a chef, a bartender from a mixologist. The term might sound pretentious, but to me, it perfectly describes someone who can take a person’s preferences and random ramblings, even when competing or challenging and meld them into something not only palatable, but swoon worthy.
The mixologist did not disappoint, he whipped up an excellent drink. The manfriend did the same, twice. The bar has cute little notebooks, presumably to write love notes about the food and drink, which is just what we did.
While I can’t speak for the food, I highly recomend the bar.

TBF is such a wonderful restaurant with delicious food. I can’t talk enough about how amazing my whole experience here was.
My friend and I decided to sit at the bar, which is on the left when you walk in. It is a nice cozy area and was perfect for the two of us. We started out with the toast that came with fresh cow’s milk cheese, toasted hazelnuts, and hazelnut oil and — WOW. The milk cheese was so delicious I spread it pretty heavily on the toast and could have eaten it plain. It was very soft and creamy and the nuts added some nice flavor.
For my entrée I ordered the pork meatballs with potatoes and kale in a horseradish sauce and it was a wonderful choice. The meatballs were very juicy and I don’t think I have ever had kale this good. The sauce was delicious and tied the whole plate together. It was a perfect serving size and would definitely recommend!
Our server was very friendly and it was nice to be seated at the bar because the server/​bartender was very attentive and helpful. Overall, this was a lovely experience and I would like to be back many times!

Bachelor farmer, how I love thee. Small portions yes, but so much flavor! Great ambiance and it is so unique!
I love their meat and cheese platter the most — I get it every time I go there!
I also love the popovers and how they have glasses of wine for sale if someone opens the full bottle!

TBF was a dream come true in terms of ambiance, pricing, and quality. I get the feeling that the restaurant only makes available a portion of its tables via Open Table, because while no tables for 2 appeared to be available, we walked right in and sat down at around 10:30 AM on a rainy Saturday. To our surprise, the space was bustling and nearly full! Perhaps our fellow diners were not the sort to go hard on a Friday night and spend Saturday morning hungover. Or maybe it was the rain that kept other potential diners in. OR maybe Minneapolisites just don’t brunch that hard. Whatever the case, I can recommend no better Minnesotan upscale brunching experience (Scandinavian fusion! Is this a thing?)
My boyfriend and I split a full-​course brunch starting with a pastry from the pastry + bubbly cart. We opted for a chocolate hazelnut and sweet cream semla, which is like a more delicious cream puff. Other options included salted brownie, a cinnamon twist sort of thing, and cranberry muffins. The hash browns with bleu cheese butter (!!!) and chives looked super popular and ended up being imaginably delicious. It was very lefke-​esque– very crisp on the outside with just the right amount of soft innards. We also ordered a Smorrebrod (toast) with aioli, pork belly, butter lettuce, and pickled red onions and a deconstructed benedict with spaetzle instead of muffin and pork pastrami. Delicious, hearty, and very reasonably priced! We also each ordered coffees yet spent ~$ 35 pre-​tip combined.
I highly recommend this adorable restaurant that could so easily fly under the radar, relying most likely on its stellar reputation to continue its successfully busy tenure near the Mississippi nestled amidst the bourgiest hipster boutiques.

My experience at The Bachelor Farmer sucked donkey balls. A group of 6 of us had Sunday brunch reservations and had high hopes for this place.
We had to seriously flag down our server and beg for literally everything from start to finish — even when we were the only customers in the place long after they closed.
The gin and tonic #5 ($ 10) was tasty, but not very strong and small for a $ 10 cocktail. Not too sweet at all and went down smooth. I had to ask 3 times for a straw to drink it with which was annoying. Apparently, cocktails don’t come with straws.
The only nice thing I have to say about the baked eggs ($ 13) is that they came with romanesco broccoli and I really enjoyed seeing that on my plate. It tasted like random veggies floating in water with eggs tossed on top. The caramelized grapefruit ($ 6) was very delicious, but small, and totally overpriced. The only good thing that happened at TBF were the hash browns. They were amazing, but the rest of my journey was so bad, they’ve been tainted. For $ 6 you get two potato pancakes. My friend Erin G. was sitting next to me and ordered better than I did, but she still was only having a 2 star time.
The turning point when my experience went from «meh» to sucking donkey balls was when we tried to pay. This should have taken 5 minutes, but the process took 45 – 50 minutes and was so aggravating I wanted to evacuate the restaurant and never look back.
First of all, our bill wasn’t split into seats, just lumped together. It took about 3 – 4 tries to get our checks correct and even then, they weren’t correct. She kept saying «I did nothing wrong» and «it’s all correct, trust me». At some point some of us were willing to pay for whatever we had in front of us, only she took one card and off she went. When she brought it back to the table, the charge was for $ 153, not $ 34. WTF. She totally denied it and said «no I didn’t» and never said sorry.
At this point, I was freaking OVER TBF, wanted to LEAVE and CRANKY because I was still hungry. We asked to speak to the manager and were told that he was busy, but would stop by shortly. He must have been really busy with a closed restaurant and our party of six as the only patrons, because he (or she, but the server said he) never showed up.

Really cute restaurant. There isn’t a big sign in the front that says «The Bachelor Farmer.» I knew I was there when I saw the humongous line to get in.
The inside is wall papered with a bright design of blue hearts, with wainscoting, it’s open, bright, and airy. All the servers had cute outfits, almost like «chic farm» style. I just loved the atmosphere, it was like eating at a modern/​contemporary farmhouse.
I came for brunch and tried the duck pâté, baked eggs, and rye spaetzle. The pâté with mustard tasted exactly like a hot dog, a damn good one, but a hot dog none the less.
The baked eggs came with roasted kohlrabi that added a nice texture. The dish overall was «uneventful.» Seasoned fine, but the flavors were boring. The rye spaetzle came with a hash sort of thing with pork shoulder, pyttipanna, pastrami, poached egg, cabbage, and hollandaise sauce. Very good! Made up for the mediocre baked eggs.
There was a pastry cart that came around so we had to try some. We had the brioche, and cream puffs. The brioche was dry, I would not recommend it. The cream puffs on the other hand were worth the calories.
The brunch drinks were probably my favorite things I put in my mouth here. They don’t do bloodys, but their version of it was f’ing awesome. I think it was the vinegar that did it. Also, the gin drinks you’ve gotta try, the gin and Rosemary one was tasty.
At the end our bill came in a notepad where we could leave a message. I love the idea, again, super cute. The atmosphere, service, and drinks were great. The food was good, but for the price I feel like it could have been much better.

Earlier this year we attended a private party at TBF and it left us wondering why everyone was so excited about this place. Our event food was edible at best. Certainly nothing special. But, because so many people raved about it, we decided to go for dinner in the main dining room for our anniversary.
We started the evening with cocktails and wine, ordered salads-​I had field greens and my husband had a ham and mushroom salad. For our main course I had the duck breast with vegetable ragout and he had lamb. My duck was prepared perfectly, rare, tender and tasty. (Forgot to take a picture again). Erick enjoyed his lamb (can’t remember what it was nestled in, but he ate everything on his plate so it must have been good! He also enjoyed a giant popover with maple butter-​looked amazing.
For dessert I ordered poached pears. It came with a ginger caramel sauce-​and normally crème freche-​but because of my dairy allergy they gave me candied walnuts instead. It was so good-​I ate every bite. My husband had a butter cake with candied blood oranges and some frozen creamy goodness on the side.
Oh but wait! Our waitress brought us out a complimentary scoop of their chocolate sorbet and shot of hazelnut liqueur as an anniversary gift. It was so good. Next time I go there I’m just getting that.
We left the restaurant completely satisfied and talking about our favorite parts. It was an exceptional meal. I’m so happy we gave it a second chance.

Best Porridge i ever had. So good that I am having a craving for it now.
Sweet potatoes were also very very yummy.
My friend had eggs, she said they taste amazing as well.
They have some desserts on the cart, we had couple and they were amazing. Plus its neat to see and pick.
Restrooms are really nice.
Décor is nice.