PLATE Restaurant and Lounge in Harrisburg, NC

Brian called and wanted to know if London and I would like to meet him for lunch. Sure! Where ya’ wanna go? I searched a couple of restaurants online and we decided to try PLATE Restaurant & Lounge, at Harrisburg Town Center. The reviews led me to believe PLATE would offer upscale food in a casual setting at reasonable prices. The website calls it “casual family dining”. They don’t serve local food or anything. Of course I checked. They use a regular food distributor, like most other restaurants. Jake’s Good Eats (one of our favorite restaurants) popped into my mind as I read the descriptions and reviews.

It was lunch time. We waited by an empty hostess podium, making a little bit of noise. It was pretty quiet inside. We could see through a small window, someone working in the kitchen, but the dining area wasn’t visible. Was this a rear entrance? It was definitely decorated and arranged like a main entry. But we weren’t sure. A few minutes later the same lady from the kitchen emerged holding a tray of food and said she’d be right back to seat us.  And she did.  This lady appeared to be working as the only waitress and hostess, which was all they needed really. It was noon and pretty empty. Only 2 other tables were taken. The tables were covered with white table cloths and lined with a sheet of white paper. There were candles (though they were unlit).

The menu looked decent. I ordered vegetables, a la carte, from the side dish menu – basil mashed potatoes, seasonal veggies and sauteed mushrooms. What I got instead was a baked potato, halved and sprinkled with an herb (possibly basil, but I couldn’t tell), fried crisp on the cut side, a reasonable but smallish portion of slightly over cooked, rather bland, not at all in season asparagus (it’s the end of October), and a fairly large bowl full of tiny, bland, overcooked button mushrooms.

Clearly either the menu is off, or the kitchen was. Asparagus is in season in the early spring. It may be in season somewhere in the world, but when I see “seasonal” on the menu, I automatically assume they mean seasonal to the region in which the restaurant is located. No biggie. This would probably go unnoticed by most patrons anyway. But they were still slightly overcooked. There was nothing basil or mashed about the potato. I politely asked the waitress “Didn’t I order the basil mashed potatoes?” She went back to the kitchen and came back with something lame like… the potatoes are sprinkled with basil and they’re actually smashed, not mashed. Interesting. Basil, huh? Could’ve been any dried herb. And the only smash my potato got was from when I cut into it with my fork. I wanted to take another look at the menu to double check the description, but I was in an agreeable mood so I let it go. These veggies were priced at $4.00 each, by the way. Just sayin’.

Brian ordered one of the three specials – a chicken club sandwich served with a nice sized bowl of chili topped with sour cream and cheddar cheese. The Chicken and bacon club was pretty good. Salty. In fact it tasted a lot like a burger. The chili was okay, heavy on the sugar, heavily seasoned with the standard chili spices and… kind of ho-hum. It reminded me of the chili you might get at any chain restaurant. But for $5.00 it might be worth the money. In fact I’m left wondering how in the heck  they are making any money with these “specials”. I’m a little suspicious. Can they really get food that cheap? Or is this some overstock they are trying to get rid of to recoup the cost? These are fast food prices. Come to think of it, maybe this is the quality of the food too. Wendy’s anyone? Drink and fries not included. If none of that bothers you, then these $5.00 value m… I mean “specials” would probably be a good value.

In the restaurant’s defense, we didn’t order a regular entree and they had just opened an hour before. I think this restaurant is fairly new as well. Maybe they aren’t quite ready? Also the waitress did come by and ask how everything was. I could’ve mentioned it, but opted to be polite instead. I said it was pretty good (with a kind of ho-hum energy behind it). Why deflate anyone’s spirit? If I had to rate this restaurant, I’d give it maybe 2.5 stars out of 5. I’m no professional restaurant critic, of course. I only know what I like, and I wasn’t intrigued enough to want to go back and pay $18 for an entree.

On another note, Brian ran into someone that used to work with him. He had left the company to open his own wine bar. It’s called Winedown Wine Bar and it’s connected to PLATE. In fact he told us that his food would come from their kitchen, but that it was his own, separate menu.  Now this place looks interesting. The owner has quite a few fun ideas. A wine tasting class. Even a beer tasting (that got Brian’s attention). An art class – you’d get a canvas and some paint to go with your wine. Maybe a sushi or pizza making class. Sounds like a lot of fun! Oddly enough, the grand opening is today (3pm). Hmm. The kids are out of school tomorrow for a teacher workday. Wheels are spinning… Now this is interesting. I could use a winedown.

UPDATE: I did go to Winedown that evening and I totally recommend it. The cheese plate we ordered went well with the wine. We sat outside since it was a nice night. The owner asked about the food at PLATE (since he knew we had eaten there earlier) and I told him what I thought. He mentioned that the chef was off that afternoon and that may have been why the food was not great. Although the kitchen should be able to hold it’s own when he’s not around, in my opinion. I will tell you that the chef got high ratings and praise in the reviews that I read, which was why we went in the first place. So maybe I will give it another try, when the chef is actually in the kitchen.