I had never heard of this place prior to today, but after missing another restaurant on the Ogden Restaurant Week Yelp circuit thing, this was the next closest so we went there. The foyer is odd...basically just an interior space that houses a door hidden behind a curtain (no idea) and elevator doors. Elevator is not especially fast, it should probably be noted. Decor is also very...odd. It's sort of reminiscent of something like Kneader's or a Mimi's, sort of homestyle-y, let's call it "rustic", but this one has a lot of tinges of the higher end. It never quite makes it there, but you can tell that they want to.
That last sentence may sum up everything about this place perfect. They really would badly love to be a high end restaurant, but it doesn't make it there. Menus are encased in a nice, heavy case, but the actual font style makes for difficult reading. The prices in there are definitely on the high end side, but the selections are skewed so far towards the sort of "unique spin" end of things, it's difficult to find anything that appears to be a solid sort of base and all of it just seems odd. Service was fantastic, though, definitely the high point of the visit, though there was just too much wrong with it to escalate the score any higher.
The calamari we ordered was probably the best overall. Pieces were good-sized and pretty well-cooked, though the batter was a bit salty in spots. It came without marinara but with a sort of tartar sauce in either an endive or lettuce leaf, which wound up being a recurring theme for other menu items also, adding a touch of quaint, I suppose. Still, a bit of lemon rounded the calamari out well. One of my companions got a french dip, which seemed ok and the other got a burger and fries. The burger was probably the sloppiest, messiest thing I've seen offered in a while and probably isn't really especially suitable to lunch. I was told it had an off taste, sort of "gamey" but nothing to put a specific finger on. With seeing watercress leaves in the mix, it didn't sound too far off the mark.
What I got was the actual YRW special, which was a small plate of hummus and the trout salad combo. The hummus was a bit tasteless and not helped by the olive oil and vinegar drizzled on it. It was served with what looked like pizza bread rather than hummus, which wasn't too bad. The green olives were also pretty good, though overall this isn't something I'd order or want to eat again. This hummus is quite a ways below Sabra.
The salad was very artistic-looking, but wasn't so great in flavor, particularly with the dressing. Everyone has probably seen how bacon grease left in a pan will congeal and turn white. If you haven't, that's what it does and it's kind of gross. This was what covered all the bacon I got, though it was overall mostly a small amount. It was, however, mostly fat. So, fatty bacon covered in congealed bacon grease. Totally appetizing. In fact, I have to keep wiping the drool off my fingers so as not to short out my keyboard as I type this. *Ahem.*
The trout that was supposed to be on my salad was suspiciously salmon-y also...the watercress I could have (happily) done without, as it lent an oddball feel to an already sort of weird salad. though the Gorgonzola was quite good. This wasn't quite all the way up to the ranking of so-so and I would definitely not consider ordering or eating this again.
This is one of the huge advantages of Restaurant Week, in my view, the chance to somewhat cheaply sift through restaurants you've not heard of and maybe wouldn't ordinarily visit. There was nothing that would entice me to visit here again, aside from a bourbon I've yet to try. At $12/oz., I don't see myself rushing there to try it either. I don't know that I would avoid the place entirely, but it definitely would not be on my list of choices, either. read more