We weren't planning on eating at Chocolate Moose, but after a mishap with the wifi at our hotel and…read morenot having much cell service in the area, we to give to give the first restaurant we saw on the way into town, Chocolate Moose, a try for dinner. This is a larger restaurant located right across from the Days Inn. We arrived pretty late, but even at 8PM on a Saturday everning, the place was packed. Luckily there was a table open and we were seated immediately.
We ended up only getting one item to share because we had just eaten a ton of cherries and were not that hungry. The server was happy to accommodate.
Fried Chicken Dinner ($20.99) - The dish first comes with a side salad, which since we decided to share, came split on two plates. It's a basic salad with some cucumber, iceberg lettuce, and shredded cheese, and is served with two whole small cups of dressing. Our choice was Ranch, which is surprisingly delicious. It's slightly tangy with that classic Ranch taste. It's served cold and is clearly superior to regular bottled dressing - I believe they mix their dressing in house.
The fried chicken took about 30 minutes to arrive. It includes four pieces of chicken that are tiny - the smallest pieces I've ever seen other than Cornish game chickens. The chicken seems to be hand trimmed from a whole chicken, then hand battered and fried. The breast actually still has a piece of neck attached and the cut ends are quite messy. It's a homestyle, classical fried chicken, so it's fried hard until somewhat dry and chewy inside. The exterior gives a robust crunch, not quite cornflake/thick flour batter style, but a thinner crunchy coating. The chicken is bled thoroughly so there's no sign of extraneous myoglobin bloody areas that I sometimes see in homestyle fried chicken. It's salted and seasoned well on the exterior.
The chicken comes with a bread stick. It's soft, fluffy, and chewy and is brushed with an appropriate amount of salted butter to liven things up.
For the side, we went with the wild rice, which was our first try of this dish on the trip. The wild rice is really interesting. It's all curled up and popped open. It has a texture that's really snappy and bouncy, kind of like a hot dog in snappiness, but with the bounce of beef tripe. The taste is nutty similar to barley. We were so enamored with the texture that over the next couple of days, we actually visited multiple grocery stores and trading posts to pick up the various types available to cook at home - cultivated, wood parched, air boat harvested, and wild hand picked. (4/5)
Given the tiny size of the chicken, the half chicken meal probably only feeds one person. It was enough for us, though, since we were not that hungry.
I was quite surprised at the quality of the food at Chocolate Moose. I expected most of the restaurants in International Falls to be Sysco-reheated-food type establishments, but Chocolate Moose actually makes at least some (maybe most?) of their food in house.
Bathrooms - Two larger ones with multiple stalls.
Food: [4/5]
Service: [+]
Other: [ ]
Final Rating: 4/5
