Orchard Green

"Dining Room:
Tuesday through Saturday 5-10 p.m.
Sunday & Monday 5-9 p.m.
Lounge:
Open at 3 daily.
Serving a late night menu until midnight
Happy Hour everyday from 3-6 p.m.
1/2 off wines by the glass $5 Belgian beer paddles1/2 off appetizers from 4-6 p.m.
News:
*Now booking for the holidaysfor parties from 8-75 people"

Above: Taken from http://www.orchardgreenrestaurant.com/

Here is my review- Originally posted on Yelp.com

First, I'd like to premise by saying that the beer selection is 5-stars. I love Belgian styles and have had the St. Bernardus Abt 12, Piraat, Gulden Draak, and an array of the other beers that the restaurant has to offer prior to dining here (Check out John's Grocery, who is the distributor for the restaurant.) So those were amazing. That aside, years ago I worked with Brian Herzic, the head chef/owner, at Givanni's.

Given that, I expected the food to be just as good as Givanni's and realistically, much much better. I was disappointed. The 2 beers I had at dinner, a St. Bernardus Triple (which was great, creamy, fragrant, light mouth feel) and the Piraat (less good... but still a great beer) were the high light.

Here's a rundown:

Appetizer: Seafood wrapped in Phyllo (puff pastry) with a cream sauce. The presentation was the first mistake. The seafood mixture (with sauce) was rolled in the Phyllo, reminiscent of a burrito, but that was OK. The issue I had was the giant ball of sweet potato strings that were riding on top of the burrito, adding much unneeded frill, but some welcome texture I suppose. It was just too big. As for the "seafood," a few large chunks of shrimp stood out, but the rest blended into the cream sauce. The flavor was reminiscent of a tuna pot pie. Granted, we ordered the dish with high expectations, but it didn't deliver at all, even to my low expectations. It was only $10, but it was an appetizer and that was near the high end of the spectrum. It was an awful, messy dish. Exacerbating its general gooeyness, the bottom of the pastry was raw, doughy and inedible. We told the waitress. She followed with an unhelpful, "that's too bad" and cleared the plate. Overall, I couldn't see the story the chef was trying to tell. The flavors were muddled, and to reiterate, tuna pot pie...

Main Course: I thought this would be some salvation to mitigate my poor feelings after the appetizer. It seemed that the meal could only improve and it did. Just not to the quality I expect for entrees that run at an $18 minimum. My meal: Here is the website description (http://www.yelp.com/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.orchardgreenrestaurant.com): "Leg of Lamb Tagine Braised with kumquats, shallots, dates & sesame; buttery cous cous."

Sounds good right? and Mediterranean so it's true to the restaurant's sort of gastronomical theme, although the atmosphere was more analogous to a church with vaulted ceilings and windows to match the cherry wood and the too loud music, groaning on and on, varying by song and cutting through our conversation.

Back to the lamb: It was tender. That was the best part about it. Pleasantly overcooked in a fall off the bone sort of way (it was served sliced and off the bone). But the flavors in the sauce were not there. They were an amalgamation of sugars from the kumquats and dates lacking the balance that I expected from shallots, sesame, and SALT.

That last, simplest of ingredients, should have been incorporated more thoroughly (through any means, even soy sauce. The sprinkled sesame seeds on top gave it a very Asian feel as did the sauce, which would've been more at home on some sesame chicken).

Anyways, I was shocked. Luckily I hadn't eaten all day so I finished it, so it wasn't inedible. It just didn't have the subtleties I expected. It didn't exemplify a chef who knows technique, who knows flavors.


My date's (girlfriend's) dish:

Website: "Tarragon Chicken Broccoli rabe, string beans & acorn squash wild mushroom cheesecake."

! ! ! Cheesecake ! ! ! should have set off some alarms but I expected subtler flavors. It was reminiscent of a pumpkin pie, and not a good one, the kind made from that orange glop a forelorn home cook scoops from a too cheap can. In small doses with the meat the cheesecake added something, but I mistakenly tried a bite of it alone and immediately gulped some Piraat to wash the "pie" from my mouth.

Adding to this, the chicken was dry. It was so overcooked. I am surprised it was served. Reminded me of chicken that had been braised, taken out of the braising liquid and thrown into a heating pan for a few hours. Like dorm food really.

Blackstone (On Scott Blvd in Iowa City) has a much better version of this dish that is $7 dollars cheaper. It blows my mind that this chicken dish was $18. It wasn't half a rack of chicken, there weren't any truly expensive aspects to it except for the pumpkin pie like cheese cake, which could've been dropped from the dish, I just don't get it.



Dessert:

Didn't happen, see above. Also, none of the desserts sounded good. How do you manage that? My girlfriend loves dessert, she always wants something with chocolate (original right?) But nothing on this menu spoke to her. And she's not even a food nut like me.


Overall....ummm...

Well, it should be easy to deduce my complete opinion of the place. 5-Stars for the beer, 2 for the food.