Kristy A.
Yelp
Maybe a 3.5. I made a reservation and went with some friends. To make a reservation, you have to pay $10 per person (which gets reimbursed when you show up) and a processing fee (which doesn't). The restaurant itself was clean and comfortable. We had a nice view of the open kitchen. I like the concept (mostly - see note below).
The food overall was very good. The corn okonomiyaki was outstanding and I'd return for that alone. The broccoli chicharrones were ok - sort of bland. The heirloom tomato terrine was good, but very small. The pierogis and the cabbage pastrami were delicious. The panna cotta part of the sweet corn panna cotta was barely there and the ice cream had a weird texture. I'd skip that.
Service was mixed. On one hand, he was friendly and attentive, doing a good job of describing the dishes. On the other, there were definitely some oddities. The first round of drinks took longer than average - no biggie. He spent a LOT of time refilling water, mostly because he never filled a glass more than halfway. We all noticed and thought it was strange.
The biggest oddity, though, was this totally nonsensical up charge for ordering prefix and sharing (even though we weren't really even "sharing" in the way that you normally see with a split plate charge). He honestly couldn't even explain it himself and it shouldn't have been a thing anyway based on how much we ordered. Here's how that goes. The prefix includes one starter and one main for $45. The two dishes I selected would have separately been $47. But since me and a companion were each ordering a bunch of dishes and just smorgasbording it all, there was a $5 up charge on the prefix order, making it $50. But I could order the exact same food separately and pay $47. Huh? Nothing additional was provided for sharing, they were not splitting the plates in the kitchen, and both of us ordered full meals. I just don't get it. It just seemed like some crazy nickel and diming on top of a menu that was already sort of pricey for mostly veggies, and it left a bad impression with all of us.
Conceptually, I can appreciate the veggie forward menu and my friends with dietary restrictions love all the options. Practically though, if you need to consume a certain amount of protein per meal, there was precious little of that here.