Restaurant in St Paul, United States
St. Paul's best case for a destination dinner.
Myriel is St. Paul's most decorated tasting menu restaurant, with a 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest and a Food & Wine Best New Chef recognition to its name. Chef Karyn Tomlinson's Scandinavian-inspired, farm-and-forage menu is the right call for a special occasion dinner in Minnesota. Book several weeks out — demand is high and seats are limited.
Myriel is the strongest case for a destination dinner in St. Paul right now. Chef Karyn Tomlinson's tasting menu restaurant holds the 2025 James Beard Award for Leading Chef: Midwest — one of the most credible credentials in American dining , and earned a Food & Wine Leading New Chef nod in 2024 and an Esquire Leading New Restaurants ranking (#14) back in 2021. That's a sustained track record, not a flash of buzz. If you're planning a celebration dinner, an anniversary, or a serious date night in the Twin Cities, this is the booking to make. Seats are limited, demand is high, and the format is a tasting menu, so you are committing to the full experience when you reserve.
Myriel runs a Scandinavian-inspired tasting menu built around whole animals sourced from local farms and wild-foraged ingredients. Food & Wine describes Tomlinson's aesthetic as "grandma chic" , vintage china, soothing neutrals, a minimalist room that reads quiet and considered rather than flashy. The kitchen's approach to sourcing means the menu shifts with what's available, so what you eat in late spring differs from a winter visit. Coming now, expect the menu to reflect the current season's forage and farm supply. The aromas from a kitchen working with fresh herbs, roasted duck, and farm-direct produce carry a distinctly earthy, herbal quality that sets the tone before the first course arrives.
This is not a high-energy late-night room. Myriel's format and atmosphere are calibrated for focused dining: conversation, courses, and a pace that rewards attention. If you're looking for a venue that runs late with a lively bar scene, this is not it , the tasting menu structure means the evening ends when your meal ends. For a special occasion where the dinner itself is the event, that works in your favor.
Getting a table at Myriel requires advance planning. The James Beard win in 2025 has intensified demand, and the seat count is small. Book as far out as your schedule allows , several weeks minimum is a reasonable expectation, and weekend dates around holidays will go faster. If your dates are fixed, check for reservation releases as soon as they open. Walk-in availability is unlikely at a venue of this format and profile.
Myriel holds a 4.6 out of 5 on Google across 260 reviews , a strong signal of consistent execution given the tasting menu format, where diner expectations run high.
For a celebration dinner in St. Paul, Myriel is the answer. The combination of a James Beard-recognized chef, a farm-and-forage tasting menu on vintage china, and a room designed for quiet focus makes it the right call for anniversaries, milestone birthdays, or any occasion where the meal should feel deliberate. It does not offer the theatrical drama of Alinea in Chicago or the coastal seafood precision of Le Bernardin in New York City, but within the Twin Cities market, nothing else at this tier is comparable. If you want a special occasion dinner without flying to another city, Myriel is the venue.
| Detail | Myriel | Lazy Bear (SF) | Alinea (Chicago) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Format | Tasting menu | Tasting menu | Tasting menu |
| Cuisine | Scandinavian-inspired | Progressive American | Progressive American |
| Awards | James Beard 2025, F&W 2024 | Michelin-starred | Michelin 3-star |
| Booking difficulty | Hard | Hard | Very hard |
| Price range | Not listed | $$$$ | $$$$ |
| City access | St. Paul, MN | San Francisco, CA | Chicago, IL |
For more dining options in the area, see our full St. Paul restaurants guide. If you're planning a full trip, our St. Paul hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the rest.
Yes , it's the strongest option in St. Paul for a celebration dinner. The 2025 James Beard Award for Leading Chef: Midwest, a tasting menu format, and a room designed for unhurried dining make it the right fit for anniversaries, milestone birthdays, and serious date nights. It won't have the theatrical spectacle of Alinea or the formality of The French Laundry, but for a special occasion in Minnesota, nothing at this caliber is closer.
Myriel runs a tasting menu, not a la carte , you're committing to the full meal when you book. The menu is Scandinavian-inspired, built around local farm sourcing and foraged ingredients, and it changes with the season. The room is minimalist and quiet, served on vintage china. Expect the experience to take two-plus hours. Book well in advance; the James Beard recognition in 2025 has made tables harder to secure. For reference on what a comparable tasting menu experience looks like in another market, see Lazy Bear in San Francisco.
Bar seating details are not confirmed in available data. Given the tasting menu format and intimate room size, bar or walk-in options are unlikely to replicate the full dinner experience. Contact the restaurant directly to ask about counter or bar availability before assuming it's an option.
It can work for solo diners, but the tasting menu format at this price point is most natural for two or more. Solo diners at tasting menu restaurants often find counter or bar seating the better option for comfort , check whether Myriel offers that when booking. If solo dining flexibility is a priority, venues with a la carte options in St. Paul's broader dining scene may suit better for a casual solo meal, while Myriel remains the call for a solo special occasion.
Within the Twin Cities, no single restaurant currently matches Myriel's James Beard credentials at the tasting menu tier. For a similar format in other cities, Lazy Bear in San Francisco and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown share the farm-driven, seasonal tasting menu model. If you want to compare farm-to-table approaches more broadly, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg is another useful reference. For the full St. Paul picture, see our St. Paul restaurants guide.
Myriel is a tasting menu restaurant, so ordering is not a choice you make at the table , the kitchen sets the progression. The menu is built on local farm sourcing and foraged ingredients, with dishes that shift by season. Food & Wine specifically noted a duck breast preparation as a highlight: crispy, rosy, sliced over sauce and scattered with herbs. Given the seasonal format, the current menu will reflect what's available now rather than any fixed list of dishes. Trust the kitchen's direction , that's the format.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myriel | Hard | — | |
| Le Bernardin | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Atomix | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Lazy Bear | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Alinea | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Atelier Crenn | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
A quick look at how Myriel measures up.
Yes — it's the strongest argument for a celebration dinner in St. Paul right now. Chef Karyn Tomlinson holds the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest, and the farm-and-forage tasting menu on vintage china in a minimalist dining room is built for a meal you're marking on the calendar. Book as far out as possible; demand has increased sharply since the James Beard win.
Myriel runs a Scandinavian-inspired tasting menu format, so there's no à la carte option to fall back on. Ingredients come from local farms and wild-foraged sources, and Food & Wine named Tomlinson a Best New Chef in 2024. The room reads as minimalist with vintage china — described by critics as 'grandma chic' — so expect a restrained, precise experience rather than a high-energy scene.
Bar seating availability at Myriel isn't confirmed in current documentation, and the tasting menu format typically means the full menu applies regardless of where you sit. check the venue's official channels via their reservation system to ask about bar or counter options before assuming a walk-in is possible.
Solo dining at a tasting menu restaurant of this caliber is often a good fit — counter or bar seats, if available, tend to work well for single diners, and the focused format means you're not disadvantaged without a group. Given the small seat count and post-James Beard demand, solo diners should book in advance rather than rely on last-minute availability.
In the Twin Cities, Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis is the most obvious comparison for locally sourced, chef-driven dining with similar prestige credentials. For a less formal experience at a lower price point, smaller neighborhood restaurants along Grand Avenue in St. Paul offer farm-forward cooking without the tasting menu commitment. If you want the tasting menu format specifically, Myriel is the clearest choice in the metro right now.
Myriel runs a set tasting menu, so ordering decisions aren't yours to make in the traditional sense. Food & Wine specifically highlighted a duck breast dish — crispy, sliced over sauce, scattered with herbs — as representative of Tomlinson's approach. Trust the menu; the whole-animal sourcing and foraged ingredients are the point, not individual dishes you can cherry-pick.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
