The Skinny Haute Dish: Nothing like Mom used to make

Fancy comfort food is a stale restaurant concept, but Haute Dish might be the first in town to focus specifically on the Midwestern variety. Chef Landon Shoenfeld endeavors to replace your mom’s cream-of-whatever soups and other pre-packaged ingredients with fresh, delicious, and still highly fattening substitutes.

The food: If you hold any reservations about refined comfort food not being filling enough, consider this: Haute Dish suggests that you eat a pot pie as an appetizer. Of course, this one contains ham, snails, and a bright green spring-lettuce-and-mache broth that lightens the load—but not by much.

Another great starter is General Tso’s sweetbreads. Nothing convinces picky eaters to try a weird protein like a familiar sauce. While the glaze could use a little heat, the fried rice rises above all others with help from a little ginger. (The foie gras doesn’t hurt, either.) The Chinese buffet staple even comes with an oversized fortune cookie that can accommodate an extra-long message (in this case: "Love is when you look into someone's eyes and see everything you need").

The tater tot hautedish might best embody the restaurant’s mission to swap in good stuff for the bad. Braised short ribs for ground beef, fresh green beans for canned, and a porcini béchamel so thick it looks just like the condensed cream-of-mushroom soup you grew up with. And the house-made tater tots will make you swear off Ore-Ida forever: Cut into one and a puree of potato and cheese oozes out.

But the buzziest item on the menu is the duck in a can, humbly credited to Montreal chef Martin Picard. Duck breast, foie gras, vegetables, whole cloves of garlic, and jus are sealed up and cooked in a tin can at a low temperature. At your table, the waiter wields a can-opener and pours out the contents over a piece of bread spread with celery root puree. Yes, it looks gross, a bit like something you feed a pet—but it’s also delicious. The duck turns out very rare, and there’s a smokiness that permeates the rich dish.

Economic impact: At $33, the duck is likely to be the most expensive canned meal you’ll ever eat (unless you're a big caviar fan). But most of the entrées fall in the $15-$20 range, and a burger with everything goes for $12.

The verdict: Schoenfeld's food is elegant but never stuffy. And part of the fun of dining at Haute Dish is imagining what potluck items might show up on future menus. We’d like to see deviled eggs, seven-layer salad, and bars.

Vital info: 119 Washington Ave. N, 612-338-8484, haute-dish.com. Monday to Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.; Sunday 5 p.m. to 12 a.m.