Pazzaluna (St. Paul) - Good but overrated

Another review from the Arctic Tundra of St. Paul. This place was hyped heavily from "The St. Paul" hotel staff to the locals. It's a fancy place with a funky pasta menu and an incredible bar. The staff was attentive but it suffered on the quality of the food. Suddenly, I am feeling like Anton Ego from Ratatouille. We ordered bruschetta -- peach, tomato, mushroom. Funky but not so tasty. I also mistakenly ordered a martini with walnut liquer, not so good. The entrees were good but not great. I had an angel hair pasta with shrimp. Maybe it was the martini that zapped by taste buds but it just was ordinary and not up to the hype around this restaurant. The coffee came out tepid and the tiramisu was lacking. All in all, not a bad experience but come on St. Paul, we need a mac-daddy restaurant.

Gabe's Roadhouse (St. Paul) - Blackball

Now that I have been spending a little quality time in St. Paul, MN, I think it only fair that I pass on reviews to the one follower of my blog who coincidentally has previous lived there (thanks, Julie ... touching). So the new Gabe's owner, Skeeter, is a great guy ... nice, enthusiastic, looks just like Rodney Dangerfield and friendly (especially to my female lunch guests). He even gave us a couple of free dinner passes, too bad they were for his restaurant. That's right, he don't get any respect here either. The problem with Gabe's as with most blackballed establishments is multi-faceted. Where do I start? Let's see, well it's in the coldest place I have ever been in my life. Secondly, it had substandard food, long waits, pricey food, and rated low on the clean scale. On this last item, there was more lipstick on the glasses than Clinton's shirt collars. Geez, it was also different shades from different lips. The were nearly opaque from the coating of rinse water spots. Really nasty. The taco salad with "chicken" was bad news and was nearly returned to sender but we had kept her busy with the nasty glasses. And those familar with the column, have already noted the "all you can eat buffet" automatic disqualifier. It was further compounded by a curious selelction of pulled pork and other meat byproducts and tucked away in a distant corner of the restaurant. Creepy, wierd, nasty.