Out at Tucci Benucch at the Mall of American with Kim and Laura tonight. Laura’s hubby is away for work and we decided it would be nice to give her something to do other than sit at home and cry ;-)

Late this morning, I made reservations for 7pm and we showed up 5 mins early to find that we were given a buzzer and had to wait. Thankfully the wait was very short and we were seated quickly towards the back of the restaurant. I liked the way the “outside” and the inside looked. It was warm and very home like. The only downside was that in some parts of the restaurant it was a bit more crowded than I would normally like but where we were seated it was just fine.

Right after sitting down, the server came over and read off the specials. She disappeared for a short bit to let us look over the menu before returning soon after to take our order.

Kim went with their pasta special of fettuccine, garlic shrimp, artichoke hearts, roasted mushrooms, garlic spinach, lemon cream sauce. Laura ordered the special which was risotto with gorgonzola, asparagus spears, and portobello mushrooms. I didn’t have too much time to look through the menu but quickly made two choices that would probably work for me. I wanted to make certain what I was ordering was boneless and then went with the Penne Porcini: roasted chicken, oven dried tomatoes, mushrooms in a porcini mushroom sauce. I also nabbed an order of their bruschetta for an appetizer to share at the table.

The bruschetta came out and looked great, unfortunately it was the only downside of the entire meal. The bread was burned (and I mean burned) and the fresh mozzarella was seriously lacking. There were three pieces of bread with plenty of tomatoes but not much mozzarella. I wasn’t impressed with that dish at all.

The orders were out quickly as I assume they are accustomed to tending to customers that are interested in getting back to their insane shopping quickly. The portions were MUCH larger than I was expecting them to be and they were not skimping on any part of the dishes. Kim’s pasta special was brimming with shrimp (big and juicy but nothing like fresh). Laura’s risotto was so big I know that any person wanting to have a stomach not stretch to rival that of Takeru Kobayashi’s. My meal was also impressive in size and full of good looking mushrooms. Mmm.

After they placed them on the table they asked if we would like freshly grated parmesan cheese. Not wanting to play cheese chicken like I would at the Olive Garden, I let them stop soon after starting. There was already plenty on mine as well as everyone else’s.

I took a few bites of mine and found it a slight bit more salty than I would prefer but it was very good overall. I was happily scraping the plate to finish it up. I also tried Kim’s meal (she thought it was very good) and found that it was very very good and crazy rich. Laura was kind enough to let me sneak a fork full of her’s and I nabbed one with a little asparagus (I didn’t like them calling them “spears” when they were actually very small bites) and liked the dish immensely.

Both women didn’t finish their entrees and had them boxed up but had, of course, saved enough room for dessert. I had decided that I was going to have dessert once I saw another table receive a slab of cheesecake about 1/2 the size available at Pastrami Jack’s over in Minnetonka.

They brought over the dessert tray and both Laura and I settled on the creme brule and Kim went with the tiramisu. The creme brule came out and was the mostly perfectly done example of creme brule that I have ever had. The glaze was crunchy and not at all gooey. The creme had visible remnants of the vanilla beans. Both Laura and I were in awe of this excellent dish. Kim’s tiramisu was one of the best she’s ever had and was absolutely enormous. She spent quite a bit of time sorting through it all and seriously left a piece the size of a thimble for the buss boy to clear. I’m not sure why she couldn’t finish that last little bit :)

Laura was very impressed with Tucci Benucch and said that we would all be definitely back. Even though it is a small chain (two locations that I know of) and it’s located in the Mall of America, I must agree that it was one of the better restaurants in its price range.

The service was absolutely excellent and we all remarked at how well the server and the buss boy treated us. Our water glasses never passed below 3/4 full and we were always served promptly and professionally. A nice tip was certainly well deserved here.

If you’re looking for a nice sit down restaurant while you’re shopping at *the* Mall, if you’re looking for a reasonably priced restaurant with huge portions, or if you’re just looking for a nice place to sit around and chat for two hours w/o having anyone nag you to death, then Tucci Benucch is for you.

A top restaurant for us for sure.

See all the pictures from today here (camera).

Kim and I headed up to the Twins’ loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Kim looked for some of the best ticket deals before the season began and scored us some decent seats on the third base side.

The game had some excellent plays (a behind the back catch by Torii Hunter) and we had a blast. If only the two women next to me (who paid $19/ticket) hadn’t spent the entire night paying no attention to the game and instead talking about a trip to China, it would have absolutely rocked.

Afterwards we were entertained by some street performers playing some mostly homemade percussion instruments out front of the Metrodome. Quite entertaining:

See the pictures from Monday (with two bonus pics of tonight’s pre-sunset sky) here (camera).

Last night while at Cub, Kim and I visited the Hollywood Video kiosk to rent a movie. I used to love this wonder box. For months I ignored its existence but when they moved it from its hidden corner in the second to last vertical aisle in the store, I stuck my credit card in there and got a movie. My first few visits to the machine were golden. I would press the screen four times and have a movie that wasn’t ever available in Blockbuster across the street.

Now, seemingly overnight, the box advertises movies like “The Last King of Scotland” or “The Queen” and doesn’t deliver. I usually spend less than 30 seconds at the machine and more time in line behind the inept users in front of me. Last night, however, I spent quite a bit of time circling through the available options looking for something to enjoy that evening.

After quite some time, Kim announced, “who cares? It’s a dollar!” and we settled on Marie Antoinette staring Kirsten Dunst. I never really much cared for French history but just like everyone else I was excited with the knowledge that a possibly lame movie ends with a thrilling beheading.

This movie, while offering beautiful shots of Versailles (inside and out) and some incredible costumes and wigs, lacks pretty much anything else of substance.

The movie progresses as such:

1. She’s brought from Austria at 15 to wed Louis XVI.

2. She’s forced into French culture and “groomed” to become Queen.

3. Louis XVI isn’t a responsive husband in the bedroom and it is a very long time before they produce offspring. This causes stress from all sides on Marie.

4. The French people hate her for many reasons.

5. She becomes queen and spends money on lavishness above and beyond what Versailles already has while her husband funds the American Revolution.

6. The French people attack Versailles and they are forced to leave.

7. There’s no fucking beheading.

Ok, so, you watch the movie and for most of it they wake up, she gets dressed, she watches her husband eat breakfast, and then she does something outside, and then she goes to bed and tries and fails to have sex with him. I would say that exact sequence was repeated 5 or 6x (maybe more) in the movie.

The movie was disappointing but as Kim said, “it’s only a dollar.” If you’re willing to spend $1 on the flick and there’s nothing else left on the shelf or in the box, go for it. Otherwise, you’re better off watching reruns of other bad movies, with commercial interruption, on TBS.