Urban Farmer - Portland

Urban Farmer is located within the Nines hotel.  It is a steakhouse which brands itself as “Sophisticated Farm to Table Dining in Oregon”.  Sounds good on the surface.  I love a great steak.  I like the farm to table concept.  The only problem here is that their idea of a steakhouse sort of misses the mark in my opinion.

The restaurant has an open floor plan with no ceiling.  It is located in the atrium area of the lobby of the Nines hotel.

Since I had $100 food and beverage credit thanks to my Virtuoso booking, this seemed like an easy choice.

Oysters

The oysters ($15) were fresh, briny and sweet.  Although on the smaller side the oysters were a good way to start any meal.

Farmhouse Vegetable Salad

The Farmhouse Vegetable Salad ($12) is a mélange of local fresh vegetables that are in season.  The salad included greens, carrots, asparagus, rapini and corn among others.  The salad is good in concept, but was drowned in dressing that the vegetables wilted and could not really be tasted.  I thought the farm to table concept was to be able to taste each ingredient and let them shine on their own?  Throw on two monster pieces of cheese toast and this dish goes downhill pretty quickly.

Seared Greens

The Seared Greens ($9) is a rather large bowl of greens with a ton of mustard seeds.  Although tasty, the greens were not seared but rather steamed as there was no char to the vegetables.  A slight char would have brought out the natural sugars and made it a little sweeter.

Twice Baked Fingerling Potato Tart

The Twice Baked Fingerling Potato Tart ($10) is a great dish, especially for cheese lovers.  By twice baking the potatoes, the flavor becomes really concentrated.  With the bacon, cheese, chives and sour cream, this is an upscale “potato skin”.  The “tart shell” tasted like it was made out of nothing but cheese, so this dish is very rich.

Anson Mill Grits

The Anson Mill Grits ($7) was a total disaster.  It was so watery that it had to be sent back.  I thought that by breaking the soft boiled egg that it would tighten up the dish and make it less watery, but sadly this was not the case.

Halibut

The Alaskan Halibut ($36) was seared perfectly to give it a great crunch, but remained tender and delicate on the inside.  The fish was moist, and the portion size was on the larger side.  The broccoli rabbe’s bitterness paired well with the slight sweetness of the halibut.

Painted Hills Porterhouse

The 24 oz. Painted Hills Porterhouse ($55) was not cooked as requested.  Although flavorful, it would have been a lot better if the steak was actually aged.  There was a fair amount of gristle and fat that was inedible.

Here’s the thing about Urban Farmer that doesn’t qualify it as a steakhouse to me.  They have a large selection of steaks from local ranches.  Big plus!  When talking to the server, he mentioned that they butcher their meat in house.  They also age their steaks in house.  The only problem is that unless it specifically states that the steaks are aged, they are not.  This means that out of the 12 different steaks they offer, only 2 are aged.  He tried giving me this line that the reason that they don’t age their steaks is so that the diner can actually taste the flavor of the beef.  Isn’t that what aging is all about?  To concentrate the flavor of the beef?

With the prices that are being charged here, it is a crime that you are not getting an aged steak.  If what the waiter was saying was true, then why do places like Morton’s, Mastro’s, Peter Luger’s or any other top steakhouse age their steaks?

Since breakfast comes with a Virtuoso rate, this was again served at Urban Farmer.

Eggs Benedict

The Eggs Benedict ($13) comes with the most amount of meat I’ve ever seen with the dish.  The dish typically comes with Canadian bacon or a slice of ham, not the generous portion here.  The only drawback to the dish was that the Hollandaise sauce contained so much lemon juice that it detracted from the dish and made it difficult to eat.

Steak & Eggs

The Grilled Flat Iron Steak & Eggs ($17) comes with 2 eggs any style, and a hashed brown patty.  The dish is also served with country gravy which is lacking in flavor.  I am not a big fan of country gravy, so my opinions might be biased.  The dish also comes with toast or muffin, and I was able to snag one of their bacon and cheese biscuits.  The biscuit was really dry and salty, and was rather unpleasant.

My dining experiences at Urban Farmer left something to be desired on both occasions.  Without the Virtuoso benefits, I doubt I would come back.