Mara is the new fine-dining restaurant at the Four Seasons in Minneapolis run by the ubiquitous Gavin Kaysen that opened in the summer of 2022. The food at Mara is excellent and offers an interesting contrast to the usual fare at the better restaurants in the Twin Cities. The cuisine is described as Mediterranean but apart from a few dishes that make a nod toward Italy, I think that North African or Middle Eastern would be a better description. The first section on the menu Spreads and Vegetables offers dishes that are ideal for sharing. The choices in the Raw and Cured section were uniformly excellent. Among the more substantial main courses, stand out dishes were the lamb shanks and the bucatini with lobster; the salt-baked branzino was also excellent but at $68 for a modest sized fish was something of an extravagance. The desserts were superb even for someone like me who normally skips this course. The wines by the glass list was interesting but unreasonably expensive; the bottle list was good and competitively priced but odd, presented in one long column with no attempt to categorize based on region, country or grape. Despite the overall excellence of the food and wine and the visually attractive space, the general ambience was not pleasant; I had the sense of eating in a large, impersonal, and noisy dining hall which significantly detracted from the experience. If I return, I will eat in the bar which is cosier and more intimate.
