Cardinal Spirits

Stopped in for a Valentine’s Day dinner. Cardinal spirits has been my go to date spot for years but the last couple times I’ve been in for a dinner I’ve had a pretty lackluster experience. The quality of the food has gotten pretty meh and isn’t worth the price tag. I’ve heard they lost their previous chef that made the food so special. More importantly, I learned they use Israeli mint as a prominent ingredient in one of their gins, so that has convinced me to not support this place.

I used to love Cardinal Spirits, but I won’t be going back again after tonight. The cocktails are interesting, though very sweet. The problem was with the food. I ordered a portobello mushroom sandwich that was shockingly disappointing. The basic roll was small and inside were three tiny strips of mushroom, a little bit of melted cheese and a couple pieces of pickled vegetables. I think I’ve had sushi rolls with more filling than this. My husband’s steak sandwich was a decent size and pretty good but he paid $4 extra for just a few French fries instead of the chips. With the automatic 20% tip (which was fine since we didn’t have issues with our service), we were charged over $80 for our two drinks and two sandwiches and I left hungry.

This place is amazing!! It’s a “must stop” every time my wife and I are in Bloomington. She loves the Flora and we always get at least one bottle of one of their unique or limited offerings to take with us as well.

Perfect cocktails and relaxing atmosphere. Went here for after dinner drinks not realizing they also had food.