2 posts tagged “restaurant review”
Last night I had dinner with my dear friend J at the Farm House Cafe, which I had been wanting to try since I read about it. It took over some of the old space The Linkery used to occupy (it has since moved to a bigger space), and like The Linkery, Farm House Cafe specializes in farm-to-table cuisine.
Let me begin the review by explaining one thing -- that I think the first impression you have of a restaurant can greatly color your review. When I judge a restaurant, I not only judge the quality of the food, but also how I feel when I first walk in and dine. I'd like to feel immediately welcome, like going to dinner at the home of a friend who really wants to cook for me. A restaurant should give particular care to making you feel welcome, and just... good.
The Farm House Cafe occupies a small but really cozy space, nicely decorated. My only beef with the space is that there's no real hostess area. You walk in and you're in the middle of the restaurant. There's a small sign in front of you that says "See the bartender to be seated." I don't like that. It makes me feel unwelcome. I turned to the bar, and the bartender wasn't there. Several waiters passed by, and one said, "Do you have a reservation?" We didn't, and he said, "Yeah, you can just wait for the bartender then." I wouldn't say that's outright rude, but it's not how I would treat a guest at my house, which is the standard of service to which a good restaurant should aspire.
Anyway, we were seated at a nice table. The wait staff was friendly during service, and the menu was limited but good. I much prefer that to a large menu that's not well thought out. Since they're a big local food proponent, I expected to see information on ingredient sources on the menu, but it was lacking. I really enjoy reading about where my meal came from, though some people might find it comes off as elitest - so you could go either way on this one.
J ordered Atlantic salmon (maybe this place isn't about local after all?) with white bean ragu. It was rustic - nothing over the top. I appreciate simplicity, and this was good, but not great. The flavors didn't pop out at me. The salmon was cooked a tad more than I like.
I ordered lemon ricotta gnocchi with chicken in a lemon rosemary sauce. The gnocchi were perfect. Little fluffy pillows of cheese pasta goodness. The sauce was very good - lemony but not overpowering, creamy, but light. The chicken was good, but I'm not really a white meat chicken fan, and this didn't convert me, either. I really ordered for the gnocchi.
That was all we had, because we headed over to Elipse Chocolat for dessert. [Eclipse was closed by the time they got there, but they let us in to get a couple of truffles.]
Now, to be fair to Farm House Cafe, I'm going to link to a positive review from a trusted local food blogger, Alice Q. Foodie. Alice, like me, appreciated the quality of the food but didn't mention ambience... and she went for lunch.
The final word
(1-5 rating: 1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)
Food (Taste, Quality): 3.7
Value: 2.8
Service: 3
Ambience: 3 (2 for the entrance but 4 for the rest)
Memorable Experience: 3
Price: $18 - 24 per entree
Menu recommendations: not sure... I didn't sample enough
Notes: This could grow into a solidly good restaurant if they pay more attention to detail for each aspect of the dining experience.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?: No, though I wouldn't balk at going again
There's a new chocolate cafe in North Park, University Heights, and after reading the Eclipse Chocolat blog, I had to try it. So after work last night, the honey and I stepped into the ultra-loungey Red Fox Room for a quick dinner. Side note: if you want the ultimate in dark 50s loungey steakhouse, this is it. Go on Fridays or Saturdays so you can hear the band, complete with accordian player! There's even dancing. Oh, and the grilled cheese is great.
After our grilled cheese & steak kabob dinner, we stepped into the light once again, and walked about a block over to Eclipse Chocolat to satisfy my Exotic-Choclate-Brownie-Craving.
O.M.G. So Good.
Seriously, read the Eclipse Chocolat blog. I chose the muscovado brownie and chile burnt caramel (there are also espresso brownies and walnut brownies, and a blood orange olive oil chocolate sauce). This comes with vanilla bean gelato and their house-made vanilla bean marshmallow, toasted with one of those little blow torches.
The muscovado brownie has a sort of chewy texture with a hint of molasses taste. Spectacular. The chile burnt caramel was really delicious, although I think they could have upped the chile amount to make it stand up to the fairly heavy brownie flavor. (But on something lighter, perfect as is).
If I wasn't about to explode from my steakhouse dinner + brownie sundae, I would have bought one of their cupcakes, maybe the pink peppercorn creme fraiche cupcake, which looked beautiful. Btw, I never say something looks "too good to eat". "Good enough to eat," maybe. They also have a dessert sampling plate which would be nice to share with the honey (and by share, I mean that he gets to lick the plate after I'm done).
I'll be going back.
