Farmhouse at Roger's Gardens — Restaurant in Newport Beach

Farmhouse at Roger's Garden provides an abysmal experience in both its food and its service. I came here to celebrate my birthday because I wanted a nice environment to sit around, enjoy some decent food, and have good conversation. My expectations were not sky high for this restaurant. But instead, I left with a bitter experience. Starting with service, it took 30 minutes until our waitress came around to ask the table what entrees they were going to order. Then, it took another 40 minutes for said entrees to come out. There was no update, no apology provided by the wait staff — only a sorry lack of attention to our table. My guests were starving waiting for their food to come and I felt like a bad host. To end the dinner, they tried to give me a birthday dessert, but at that point it only felt like a wrinkled maraschino cherry on top of a sour sundae. A thinly veiled apology for poor, inattentive service. As for the food, the most redemptive part of the meal was the cultured butter that came with the bread basket. That should give you an idea of how the rest of the appetizers and entrees went. I'll give you one word to describe the food — bland. Our dishes came unseasoned, lacking in texture, and yet somehow exorbitantly priced. For the price we paid for the charcuterie board, I could have built you a better one from the local Trader Joe's. Plainly, I wouldn't recommend any dish here. You can hide behind the facade of organic, local ingredients, but you can't hide the utter lack of creativity and culinary competency required to create a dish that is even remotely appetizing. It's clear that farm to table doesn't translate to anything meaningful for the customer beyond a simple "ooh" and a slightly less guilty conscience. As for why I'm giving it two stars, I still found the atmosphere of the restaurant to be pleasant to lounge in as the sun set; if only, my patience wasn't wearing thinner by the minute as we waited for our food to come. The hostess staff and bus boy were also incredibly accommodating to us. So I'm giving them two stars for the sole fact that there were some redeemable qualities about Farmhouse at Roger's Gardens; not a lot, but some. I sincerely hope that nobody else has experienced what I have. It made part of my birthday unpleasant and frankly, I wish I had chosen another restaurant to...

The Farmhouse at Rogers Gardens is simply a beautiful space. Combining some indoor seating with predominantly outdoor seating, we opted to sit outdoors, which had us feeling like we were dining in a lush and sprawling garden.

Our server Tom, provided us with very good service, taking us through some of his recommendations, and answering all our questions.

My wife and I began our foodie adventure by sharing the Citrus and Avocado salad. The Butter Lettuce was accompanied by sections of Mandarin and Blood Orange, and Pink and White Grapefruit, slices of Avocado, Pine Nuts, and a very delicious Sesame Rice Vinaigrette. What an awesome starter!

For our entrees, my wife ordered the Sea Scallops, Shrimp and Mussels with the Tehachapi Grain Project Blue Corn grilled Polenta Cake.

I ordered the pan-seared Panko, Dijon and Thyme crusted Autonomy Farms Chicken Pallaird.

The seafood dish had a generous amount of mussels, shrimp and scallops. The sauce contained some sauteed spinach and a pernod-based tomato broth with a hint of juniper berry (?) whisping through it, elevating it into a simply delightful, delicious and habit forming dish. We will definitely order this one again.

The chicken dish was similar to a Japanese chicken katsu. Hints of Dijon and Thyme could be tasted in it's panko crust. The sliced chicken breast was moist and tender. The dish's vegetable medley of sugar snap peas, grilled red onion, roast turnips and radishes, and arugula with a lemon shallot vinaigrette was mighty tasty. The stand out sugar snap peas were the star, and we're some of the best and freshest that I have ever had. Unfortunately, the small drumstick that was included in the dish was not cooked through, being a bit red inside, so that took away from an otherwise very good dish.

The slice of grilled polenta cake included with each dish was warm, moist and very satisfying. We both commented on how we would love to be able to buy a whole polenta cake to have at home with one of our own home-cooked meals.

All in all, it was a very good meal, with only the undercooked chicken leg taking our review down to 4 stars.

We highly recommend The Farmhouse at Rogers Gardens, and are looking forward to returning soon and trying more of Chef Rick Means very...

Very average, actually very poor. The food and the hospitality both.

The restaurant is downright racist. If you’re not white they will throw you into a corner.

We were a table of 5 and continuously asked for a different table, they kept claiming a party of 6 would join a table where only 5 seats were placed, and as expected there were 5 tables. The only two non white tables were shoved in a corner. The host’s attitude was pathetic, especially since we accommodated them when they requested us to move our 8:00pm reservation to 6:45pm.

Coming to the food, we ordered many things. The chicken liver pate and cauliflower both were very average, so was the Asian salad. The sweet potato fries which we ordered as an appetiser was the only saving grace. They declined my 4 year old a white sauce cheese pasta, which he corrected by walking up to the chef himself and asking him if he could make it for him, which he did. There was no need for the server to decline outright.

For the mains we got the enchiladas, the steak, chicken, albacore sandwich. The tuna quality was poor, the steak was very dry for medium (despite the server mentioning they run under), the chicken was good, the enchiladas were excellent, probably the best dish of the evening.

For a restaurant that claims to be farm to table, the quality of produce is poor, commercial and not good at all. Many of the vegetables and ferments are from a packet.

The wine selection is average as well, almost no local option. Oh and the water service doesn’t exist, had to ask three times and it never came, only received one after the bill was cleared. No greeting, no feedback taken whatsoever.

It’s just an out and out “commercial” concept claiming to be farm to table but they have no concept of hospitality and are shockingly racist in 2022. If you’re white and want to overpay for average food go here, otherwise there are some spectacular options nearby.

This is probably the first time I am compelled to call a restaurant out, being in hospitality I know how hard restaurants work but these guys are a different...