Chef Lance’s was a large place near downtown with widely spaced bare wood tables and booths.   The lowered lights worked nicely with the music, art, stone walls and open ceiling.   Established in 2020 it was still locally owned and operated and definitely sees itself as a “special occasion place.”   The large menu was supplemented by seasonal menu offerings, a kid’s menu and the Wednesday special that offered half price bottles of wine if someone at the table orders a Wellington.  A menu item they are known for, they offer the traditional beef Wellington but also one with salmon and one with pulled pork as well as all three in a  plate for two people.  The food was good with generous portions and made even better due to a fantastic service by Jacob who helped steer our choices.  It was a really fun night and one I’d recommend when in Sioux Falls.

Set-up

 

Food

Spinach Artichoke Skillet was made with local spinach, artichoke hearts, cream cheese, smoked gouda and parmesan cheeses and served with grilled ciabatta bread.  It was unusual to have this dip made with fresh spinach and a delightful option for the dish.  It was creamy, cheesy with tons of flavor but the real star was the ciabatta bread.  It was butter toasted to the perfect crispness, seasoned with garlic and totally enhanced the dip.  Don’t miss this one.

 

The Grilled Rack of Lamb was a new entree.  It was a Frenched rack of domestic lamb that was marinated then grilled and served with a lamb demi glace and augratin potatoes with bacon.  My husband raved about this lamb – cooked and seasoned perfectly and served with a tasty sauce.  A very generous serving of double rib chops made this one very filling.  The potato dish was not as much to his liking.  The potatoes still had too much crispness for him.  They re-made the potatoes and they were the same so apparently the kitchen prefers a less creamy potato than is our preference but you didn’t need them there was plenty of lamb.

 

Beef Wellington is their most popular dish and since we were there on Wednesday and it would offer us a half price bottle of wine, it was a no-brainer.  The beef dish is an 8 ounce certified Angus beef tenderloin wrapped with a mushroom puree and provolone cheese that is wrapped and baked in puff pastry and served with a burgundy demi glace and Yukon Gold mashed potatoes.  Another generous portion of beef with a tasty sauce.  They were able to make mine on the rare side which I appreciated.  It was loaded with mushrooms and a wrapped in what started as a crisp puff pastry.  The mashed potatoes were chunky but creamy enough for me.  The couple asparagus were good but also on the crisp side.  It was another fine plate.

 

A September special was highly recommended by our server Jacob.  It was a caramel apple crumble New York style cheesecake.   It was topped with apple pie filling and brown sugar crumble then topped with warm caramel and whipped cream.  Jacob talked about how it tasted a lot like apple pie but with a cheesecake texture and he was spot on.  Lots of well seasoned and cooked apples were great with the buttery crumble and the creamy cheesecake.  Huge but you found yourself going back for one more bite.