Food Review: Good Earth in Roseville, MN

As a follow-up to my previous review of the restaurant Good Earth, I'd like to go into a little more detail on the food itself. Obviously the more recent meals will be in more detail, but I will do my best to review all of the food in as much detail as I can.

Appetizers

1) Bread Basket w/ Hummus

This free appetizer, available at both lunch and dinner, is a delicious start to the dining experience at Good Earth. Admittedly, there is nothing particularly special about the bread, but the mixture is delicious and keeps you wanting more. In addition to the whole wheat bread slices, which are excellent by themselves or dipped in soup (more on that later), there is also a nice selection of flatbreads including: white, whole wheat (my personal favorite), and cheese. Don't pass this item up unless you have no other choice; for free it is definitely more than worth your time.

2) Corn Tortilla Chips w/ Salsa

Nothing special here, just yellow and blue corn chips with salsa. Available as a substitute to the bread basket upon request, this is yet another way in which Good Earth caters to those with various dietary needs. Since my girlfriend cannot have dairy or gluten, the chips and salsa are a simple yet welcome item in our dining experience.

3) One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato Soup

I'm not even sure where to start on this one. This soup is unlike any other potato soup I've ever had, and I loved it. I'm from Kentucky, and my mother makes the best cream-based potato soup I've ever had. Period. This interpretation of potato soup is in a completely different area in my opinion.

To start, the soup is chicken broth rather than being cream based, which gives you an entirely different taste altogether. Then, rather than one type of potato (most commonly russet potatoes) you get a variety which I believe includes: sweet, russet, and golden potatoes. I may be inaccurate on the types, but that is based on my interpretation of the textures and taste. What really matters is, all of the potatoes are cooked to a perfect tenderness alongside the carrot and onion pieces that just melt in your mouth. A third aspect of this appetizer is one that I love, but not everyone does, and that's the heat you get from this soup. The herbs and spices used create a delicious heat with every bite/sip of this soup, all without overwhelming the palate with spiciness. As a bonus, if you have any of your bread left over from the bread basket, try dipping a piece of one of the slices into the soup and let it soak for just a second. What you will experience is pure bliss.

All I can say is, if you ever go to Good Earth and don't mind a little heat, get this soup at least once. You will not regret it.

Entrées

1) Grilled Chicken Quesadilla

The chicken quesadilla is just what you'd expect...a chicken quesadilla. Flour tortillas filled with grilled chicken and jack & cheddar cheese, with lettuce, diced chilies, sour cream, and guacamole. Nothing flashy here, no bells and whistles, but it does taste good. The tortillas are nice and crisp with the chicken and cheeses sandwiched just right in between. Then there are the toppings, which I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of lettuce with my quesadillas so that's out. Get some chilies, sour cream, and guacamole on a bite of one of those slices though, and you're in for something delicious! I just recently started to even like guacamole, but the kind Good Earth serves with this entrée is top notch. I'm assuming that it is made from scratch in the kitchen, and it shows in the taste.

In regards to dietary needs, I'm not sure if the grilled chicken quesadilla is available with corn tortillas instead of flour, though it wouldn't hurt to ask if you can't have gluten.

2) Lemon Pepper Chicken

As the second course in my "Just Right For You" meal, I don't know that I can describe this better than I did in my previous post. It comes with a side of roasted potatoes and braised spinach, which aren't so much sides as they are literally intertwined with the chicken. The presentation isn't great, but I don't worry too much about these things. The chicken is so tender you don't need a knife to cut it, and the lemon pepper sauce complements everything on the plate very well. As a follow-up to the potato soup appetizer however, it was missing spice. A little kick to make the transition from the opening to the meal itself. In the end, a little ground black pepper was all it needed.

3) The Good Earth Burger

This is one of the best burgers I have ever had. Period. All natural ground bison, caramelized onions, portobello mushrooms, avocado, gruyere cheese, sunflower sprouts, and a red pepper aioli between a whole wheat bun with lettuce. Their burgers come with tomatoes and pickle slices too...not for me thanks. As I said in my previous post, this burger is not your typical super greasy slab of meat. The bison burger is lean, with just the slightest amount of juice soaking into the burgers to accent all the other ingredients. One off-putting topping for some would be the sunflower sprouts, which it was for me at first. While I'm not sure of the nutritional value of the sprouts, they work quite well with the burger texture wise, and add no taste (good or bad) that I can tell. The avocado slice topping the burger is a delicious addition as well. That nice creamy texture working alongside the creamy aioli to enhance the flavor is something you have to have on this burger to get the full taste experience. Of anything on this review, I recommend this the most by far. The only excuse you can have for not trying this is being a vegetarian.

As a side note, get the Terra Chips as a side with this. They blow regular potato chips out of the water hands down.

Desserts

1) Chocolate Cake w/ Kahlua Cream Sauce

I honestly don't feel that I can describe this dish any better than I did before, so to repeat myself...

"The chocolate cake itself had a wonderful chocolate flavor without being too rich or overbearing in its sweetness. It also had a wonderful brownie-like texture, which made me want to pick it up with my fingers and eat it like my inner 8-year-old desired to. On top of the cake was a small dollop of vanilla ice cream, which enhanced the cake with its rich flavor. Then there was the Kahlua sauce which tasted great, though the texture was a bit off-putting at first. It has sort of a grainy texture, almost like the texture when you eat sugar straight from a packet. I've done that more than once in my life. Don't judge. Then I thought about it and considered that the texture is probably due to unprocessed/unrefined sugar in the sauce which is most likely organic. Seriously though, the texture is another minor issue because the overall taste makes up for it tenfold."

2) Fresh Fruit Bowl

Although I did not try this myself, my girlfriend chose it as the alternative to the gluten and dairy rich chocolate cake. It's what you would expect, fresh organic fruit including: strawberries, grapes, kiwi, and pineapple. The fruits may vary from time to time, but we have only ordered it once so it's hard to say. She described it all as "fresh and delicious," a description that can be applied to most everything Good Earth serves. It definitely works for everything we have eaten there.

All in all, the food here is great. I could come up with some complaints but they are all minor at best.