Sarah B.
Yelp
We've lived in Franklin in 25 years, and the Harpet Hotel has been downtown for I think almost 3 years at this point. We intentionally didn't visit when they first opened, because we knew they'd be so crowded.
We had a rare Friday night date night in fall this weekend, (football schedules) so decided to go explore.
The venue is lovely. The hotel is not huge, but very modern, clean, well staffed, and a very attractive courtyard that unfortunately had a private event going on during our visit.
There was a musician playing outside the bar area of the restaurant that in my opinion was way too loud, but several folks seated around to be enjoying. When you enter the restaurant portion the flooring changes to what appears to be a rough hewn reclaimed wood, very interesting texture.
The hostess was very nice, and we were seated actually a few minutes before our 715 reservation.
Our booth was super yummy... Luxurious leather banquettes, a semi circle shape that would seat 5 or 6 very comfortably, surrounded by thick cloth curtains that thankfully lessened the noise of the aspiring vocalist nearby.
Our server was Taylor, and he greeted us promptly enough.
We ordered a Westhaven cocktail, their handcrafted cocktail menu was very nice, and two unsweet iced teas.
It's always so odd to me when dining out and you order unsweet iced tea when you then have to follow up with the server after they are brought and ask for artificial sweetener. I guess some people drink unsweetened tea plain, but I don't know any of them.
So after requested Taylor brought our sweeteners and we were on our way.
We ordered the cornmeal crêpe cake appetizer to start. It was good, but honestly seemed a tad bit undercooked to us. The remoulade sauce was on the bottom, and the middle portion of the crabcakes oozed into the sauce so much it was a bit difficult to eat. There was a small little side of a very sweet roasted corn that was an interesting addition.
For dinner, hubby ordered the tenderloin and I had the grilled quail appetizer. Ever since my weight loss surgery a year and a half ago, I'm a small plate gal or we will often share an entrée. We had asked the server to omit the jalapeños on the quail because I am very much a spice wimp, but sadly, when it arrived, the jalapeños were there. They were easily enough picked off, but it's just a little frustrating. It's also a little odd that he removed our appetizer plates after that portion, so I had to eat my quail on this tiny tapas plate that was overflowing to start, and nowhere to discard the bones. If he had come by once I realized this I would've asked for one, but alas he didn't.
My quail was good, but also slightly undercooked. It was a tad bit rubbery and the flesh tone was a bit darker than I would've preferred.
Hubby's steak was quite good, although I will say the portion was quite small. It would've been appropriate for me at this stage post weight loss surgery - but for $60 you expect a slightly larger fillet.
The entrees came with parmesan puffs - their bread of choice. They were tough but tasty - suspect they had been microwaved slightly to warm. Very dense bread that was a tad doughy in the center... again seemed a bit undercooked. The accompanying spread had some sort of herb/tomato base. We preferred them without that... some butter would have been nice.
I ran out of iced tea halfway through dinner, and apparently noone noticed. I did have water so not a huge deal, but nothing something you expect to happen at a nicer restaurant.
We looked over the dessert menu, but honestly nothing appealed to us - choices were a peach meringue type option, a coconut mousse, a blackberry cheesecake, and a Smores cake. Thought those were very unusual and very specific appeal options. Maybe you think they sound delicious, just not for us.
Overall not a bad experience, don't get me wrong, but for the prices you pay we just expected an overall better experience. Two appetizers, two Iced Teas, one cocktail, and the fillet entrée after tip was $200. We don't mind paying that at all, just this night wasn't really on par for that in my opinion.