Fine dining has been evolving for years.

Most of it is welcome: More upscale global cuisine, more creativity, smaller menus, fewer white tablecloths and more a la carte options.

But sometimes, a tasting menu — where you have few (or no) choices to make and beautiful small plates come out in perfectly timed intervals — is just what I’m looking for.

And though fewer chefs are offering these ambitious menus these days, I’ve sampled three in the past few months that were worth writing about, and worth your celebration dollars.

Who serves your favorite tasting menu? As always, let me know at eat@pioneerpress.com.

Bungalow Club

This incredibly reasonable three-course menu might be one of the best-kept secrets in town.

For just $48 per person, you choose from a few options in each course.

The menu changes frequently, but we thoroughly enjoyed the spring flavors on the day we visited. The first course featured fresh, bright chilled pea soup, punched up by garlic cream and chive oil and one of the best salads I’ve eaten this year — bitter endive with some revelatory savory granola, funky blue cheese and sour rhubarb juice.

Chilled pea soup at Bungalow Club in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

The middle course centers on pasta, and a delicate stuffed pansotti, with a light, airy spinach filling, was the highlight, but the fresh pea clamshells, enriched with an anchovy-spiked sauce, were spring on a plate.

A lovely charred bavette steak and some perfectly seared scallops nestled in a silky cauliflower puree rounded things out.

Scallops at Bungalow Club in Minneapolis. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

Dessert is extra, but a spice cake with soft, fluffy whipped cream paired with a killer, rum-based espresso martini was just the thing.

Bungalow Club: 4300 E. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-866-3334; thebungalowclubmpls.com. Three-course tasting menu is $48 per person; wine flight an extra $25.

Joan’s in the Park

Viennese pastry at Joan’s in the Park. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

It’s been a few years (with a pandemic in between) since Joan’s switched to a tasting-menu format, which was honestly one of the best moves owners Joan Schmitt (Maitre d’) and chef Susan Dunlop (chef) have made.

From start to finish, our four-course meal was spectacular.

The first course is bread-based, and world-class pastries — a buttery Viennese rosemary and black olive and an onion knot with a whipped ricotta — set the stage for what was to come.

Poached shrimp, a dish from Joan’s in the Park’s four-course tasting menu. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

Shaved asparagus and succulent crab, a gorgeous poached shrimp in a rich cream sauce with snappy fresh fennel were excellent for our second course, but I think my third course — a chewy, nutty farro, studded with mushrooms and nestled in a vibrant ramp sauce, was my favorite dish of the night.

Seared scallops and a lovely filet mignon were our fourth course, but we wanted to end on a sweet note, so we ordered dessert for an extra $12.

The restaurant’s signature brown butter pudding, a tasty salty/sweet combo, was small but perfect given the amount of food we had just consumed.

I should also mention that the wine pairings here were phenomenal, with the sommelier choosing exactly the right complement for every course and even introducing us to a few varietals we had never tasted.

Joan’s in the Park: 631 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul; 651-690-3297;  joansinthepark.com. Four-course tasting menu is $85 per person. Wine pairings are an additional $45.

Meritage

Hiramasu crudo, the first course in Meritage’s five-course tasting menu. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

I have eaten at Meritage dozens of times since its 2007 opening, and I’m embarrassed to say I recently tried the five-course tasting menu for the first time.

We felt utterly spoiled by the little extras, the perfect execution of every course and the service, which was, as always, spot on.

Any meal that starts with gougères, the little French puffed cheese pastries, is a good meal, in my opinion, so a tiny plate with two of Meritage’s light and airy versions was a great introduction. And the little crock of saffron mussel soup was a perfect amuse bouche. It’s so rich and creamy that you really need only a few bites, which is how it’s served, and the perfectly cooked mussel at the bottom is like a welcome jewel.

The first official course was the best crudo I’ve had in a few years — hiramasu, thinly sliced, dressed in ginger and lime and topped with what looks like an egg yolk but is actually mango puree — a cute molecular gastronomy trick. A sprinkle of mint and jalapeno finish things off.

Next up, a savory, custardy pain perdu, or French toast, topped with a flaky olive-oil poached halibut, uber fresh asparagus and peas — such a great balance of seasonally on-point richness and freshness.

La Vacherin, a baked meringue dessert at Metitage in downtown St. Paul. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

Two meat courses — a tender duck breast accompanied by barley, fresh favas and morels for that spring boost, and a duo of juicy Iowa pork (tenderloin and cheek) with melted leeks and an apricot mostarda — left us so full that a light meringue accompanied by fresh berries was the light, refreshing ending that we needed.

Meritage: 410 St. Peter St., St. Paul; 651-222-5670; meritage-stpaul.com. Five-course tasting menu is $110 per person. Wine pairings are an additional $60.

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For six games, the Twins punished their opposition, putting up at least six runs in each game, all victories. But on Wednesday, runs were at a premium, and a couple of defensive mistakes ended up leading to the end of the Twins’ winning streak.

The Tampa Bay Rays used a Royce Lewis throwing error in the 10th inning on Wednesday to edge the Twins, 3-2, at Target Field.

On what should have been the final out of a scoreless inning for reliever Jorge Alcala, Lewis’s throw got past first baseman Carlos Santana, allowing Randy Arozarena to score from second base. The Twins then went down quietly in the bottom of the 10th.

Another costly error helped the Rays tie the game in the seventh, taking advantage of a rare Carlos Correa misplay. The Twins appeared to have pinch runner José Caballero caught attempting to steal, but the ball ticked off the shortstop’s glove instead, letting him advance to third base.

He would then score the tying run on a soft Yandy Díaz single.

A Lewis home run in the fifth had out the Twins up 1-0, their first and only lead of the day — and busted the ribbon board in left field.

Lewis smacked a home run at 108.7 mph off the screen, causing the section to go black. It’s a price the Twins will surely be happy to pay considering the production they’re getting from their hot-hitting third baseman, who now has eight home runs in 14 games played this season. Lewis finished the day with three of the Twins’ nine hits.

The Twins scored their only other run in the third inning when Austin Martin scored on Trevor Larnach’s double play ball. That tied the game at the time after Isaac Paredes had hit a home run off starter Joe Ryan earlier in the inning.

Ryan, facing the organization that traded him as a minor leaguer years earlier, took a no-decision in a game in which he gave up just that run in his six innings pitched.

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For a third game in a row, Minnesota United was left shorthanded because of international call-ups, injuries, and what Eric Ramsay called “a perfect storm” of other issues.

Unfortunately, among the things the Loons are missing in that three-game stretch is points.

FC Dallas striker Petar Musa had a hat trick, helping the home team to a 5-3 win against MNUFC in Frisco, Texas. It was Minnesota’s second consecutive loss overall, and its third straight road defeat.

It was also the second time in 12 days that the Loons have dropped points against Dallas, statistically one of the worst teams in the league so far in 2024.

Minnesota fought back to tie the game twice, with goals from Bongokuhle Hlongwane in the first half and Hassani Dotson in the second half, but both times conceded another go-ahead goal within six minutes of scoring.

Musa had gone five games without a goal coming into the night. After some help from defensive errors by the Loons, though, the Croatian claimed his first hat trick in MLS. First, fullback Caden Clark was slow to step forward as part of Minnesota’s effort to trap Musa offside, leaving the Dallas striker able to run onto a long over-the-top pass from Paul Arriola and roll a shot past Clint Irwin from a surprisingly acute angle to the goal.

Then, after the Loons had tied the game 1-1, an attempted cross went right through the feet of center back Victor Eriksson, and Musa was able to poke the deflection past Irwin for his second of the half.

With the score 2-2 in the second half, Musa completed the hat-trick after Dallas was able to knock down another over-the-top pass from Arriola, and Musa ran onto the loose ball and scored again.

Jesús Ferreira got the fourth goal for Dallas, in the 75th minute — once again, after the Loons’ attempt to trap a Dallas forward offside failed, leaving Ferreira to waltz in alone and beat Irwin. Logan Farrington made the scoreline even more embarrassing for Minnesota, adding a fifth in the 90th minute.

Hlongwane’s first-half goal came after one of the most up-and-down single minutes you’ll see from any player.

First, the forward snuck in behind the Dallas defense but completely whiffed on an attempt to volley home a lofted pass. Minnesota, though, won the ball back from the resulting goal kick, and the ball went straight to Hlongwane, who stung Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes’s palms with a rocket from outside the penalty area, winning a corner kick in the process. On the corner kick, Hlongwane rose in front of Paes to head home his first goal in seven games.

Dotson, in the second half, simply repeated what he did 12 days ago against Dallas. In that game, he scored after picking up a loose ball from Bongokuhle Hlongwane. In the 57th minute, he did it again — but this time, he added an extra trick. His blast went off Paes’s gloves, off the left-hand post, looped gently across the goal line, hit the right-hand post, and trickled into the net for a goal that both tied the game and seemingly defied the laws of physics.

Wil Trapp scored from the penalty spot in stoppage time to make the game 5-3 after a handball by Dallas in their own penalty area.

The Loons got Wil Trapp back in the starting lineup after the defensive midfielder missed last Saturday’s game with a family-related absence. Michael Boxall also started for the Loons, four days after leaving a game at halftime with an injured ankle.