Restaurant review: Seriously good food sets pace at La Belle Vie

What magnificent cuisine!

For the serious gourmet -- and I do mean serious -- executive chef Tim McKee's eight-course tasting menu at La Belle Vie just may be the ultimate Twin Cities dining experience (see Note below).

I stress serious because it takes real stamina to make it through the nearly three-hour parade of courses. The true number is actually closer to 12 if you count the pre-amuse-bouche gougère course (a cheese puff), the amuse-bouche course (a thimbleful of porcini soup topped with morsels of frog leg), the post-dessert farewell of chocolate truffle, biscotti and homemade marshmallow ziggurat, plus the occasional visits of the bread basket man, offering three different artisan breads.

It also takes serious money. The prix fixe for eight courses is $80, plus $55 for the accompanying flight of seven wines. Add tax and tip and you can figure on $170 or more per person. You can spend less if you order the five-course menu for $65, plus $45 for wines, or if you order a la carte. (Some of the same or similar dishes are offered as first courses ($12 to $15) or entrees ($22 to $35); on another visit, when we ordered a la carte, we averaged $80 a person.) But you can also spend more, especially if you attack the higher reaches of the wine list, which tops out at $1,150 for a 1989 Chateauneuf du Pape Beaucastel Hommage au Jacques Perrin.

There's also an aura of seriousness to the dining rooms, set inside the stately 510 Groveland residence. Part of the pleasure of the original La Belle Vie in Stillwater was discovering outstanding cuisine in a small-town storefront, but the new setting is as far from a storefront as you can get: dining rooms decorated with museum-quality sculpture and paintings, and formally attired servers who announce each course in tones reverential.

The food is exquisite. The prix-fixe menu is also available in seafood and vegetarian versions on request, and I had the opportunity to sample all three. The highlights are too numerous to mention them all: succulent bay scallops with frog legs and trout roe; veal tenderloin with sweetbreads; blue marlin carpaccio with fried shrimp, poached tomato and Osetra caviar, a cheese course of Brilliat-Savarin with poached figs, walnuts and truffle honey; a dessert course of almond financier with chocolate, sour cherries and a crown of spun sugar; and on and on. The flavors are intense but balanced and presented in measured portions that compel the diner to savor each taste in turn.

One or two dishes left me cold: a course of Shetland salmon was underdone, and a bouillabaisse ordered a la carte was too rich for its own good. The pacing of courses occasionally passed from leisurely to slow, and wine pairings sometimes appeared long before the food. But overall, the service, like the cuisine, was excellent.

If this kind of gastronomic extravagance is your vision of the good life, you will have a great time at La Belle Vie, but frankly, it isn't mine. After more than two hours of eating, I found myself wishing that I was at the 112 eatery, eating a $7 bacon, egg and harissa sandwich, or maybe just a few feet away in La Belle Vie's elegant lounge, snacking on fritto misto of rock shrimp, crawfish and haricots verts, or dipping little baby veggies into an impossibly sensuous fondue of melted Mourbier and white truffle oil.

The lounge's menu is more casual and playful -- and less expensive -- than La Belle Vie's other fare, with offerings that range from housemade potato chips with rosemary and garlic truffle curry sauce to a tongue-in-cheek trio of grilled cheese sandwiches, made with Boucheron, Mimolette and Mourbier, served with a demitasse of tomato soup. Other highlights include chilled slices of seared tuna drizzled with sea urchin sabayon over a salad of seaweed and lobster, and a 4-ounce sliced beef strip loin with arugula and porcini mushrooms.

Note: I said this might be the ultimate dining experience, because quite a few chefs around town are now offering similar many-course extravaganzas that I haven't tasted yet: Stewart Woodman at Five; Stephen Brown at Levain, Doug Flicker at Auriga and, by special request, Seth Bixby Daugherty at Cosmos. Stay tuned for reports on some of these in the weeks to come.

Hours: Monday through Thursday 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 to 11 p.m., Sunday 5 to 9 p.m.

Atmosphere: . Classic elegance.

Sound level: A bit noisy, but quite tolerable, when the dining room is full.

Recommended dishes: Blue marlin carpaccio, seared sea scallop with fried oyster, almond financier. From the lounge menu: baby veggies with truffle fondue; fritto misto, seared rare tuna with sea urchin sabayon.

Price range: Prix fixe menus: $65 for five courses, $80 for eight courses. A la carte menu: first courses $12 to $15; entrees $22 to $35. Lounge menu $5 to $75 (most dishes $12 and under).

Jeremy Iggers • 612-673-4524