Hearth on 25th — Restaurant in Ogden

TL;DR Our mains were underwhelming and badly cooked (though the appetizers were fine), and the staff gaslighted us about it. Also, my wife got food poisoning.

My wife and I went to Hearth on 25th as part of a tradition we have of going to an upscale restaurant once a quarter. We'd heard good things about Hearth and we were in Ogden for the weekend. The menu looked exciting and the reviews were mostly positive, so we went for it.

We got there and the ambiance was a little weird considering the entrees are in the $30 range. It sort of reminded me of Brick Oven haha i.e. it was a little dated. Anyway, we ordered a goat cheese/pear salad and truffle fries for our appetizer. No complaints there. The truffle fries were VERY tasty, albeit a bit heavy, and the salad wasn't anything special, but it was refreshing and the plating was enticing.

Then, for our mains, my wife ordered the salmon and I ordered the elk, both highly recommended by our waiter. He was even so bold as to say that the salmon would be "the best you'll have in Utah." So, you know, we had high hopes. Our food got to the table and the presentation was gorgeous, but as soon as we started on eating the food, some issues arose. My roasted vegetables tasted like they had been roasted, refrigerated, and then reheated in the microwave, but that was the least of our worries. My wife quickly discovered that her salmon was still pink, cold, and mushy in the middle, while the outside was dry and crisp. When we asked a passing waiter about it, he said that with that particular type of salmon, it's very fatty, and was therefore hard to cook through. When we were visibly not consoled by his answer, he offered to throw it back in the oven for a bit, but at that point we were second-guessing ourselves and felt a little embarrassed, so we said no, it's okay. But here's the deal. I've cooked salmon before at home, even fatty cuts, and I've never had a problem cooking it through. So, if I'm paying $30+ for a plate of salmon, I don't feel like excuses for why it's hard to cook really cuts it. It's their business to know how to cook salmon, so they should know how to cook it, you know? As for my elk, it was cooked medium rare, just like I asked for, but it was so tough, my jaws were sore after I finished chewing the first bite. I only ate half of the 6 oz steak before my jaws were too tired and my mouth tasted too much like blood to keep going. Very disappointing.

At the end of the meal, we decided not to make a fuss because, while disappointed, we didn't have much faith that the restaurant would do anything to make up for the experience we'd just had judging by the waiter we'd talked to about the salmon, so we paid the bill and left. Fast forward to later, and my wife spent half the night on the toilet due to stomach pain and diarrhea. Since we hadn't eaten any other fishy (pun intended) food earlier that day, we could safely assume it was the undercooked salmon. At that point, we felt like we needed to say something, so my wife called the restaurant and a nice hostess said she'd talk to her manager and call us back. It's been a week. No call.

Anyway, I'm not hoping to get anything out of the restaurant with this. I just want to forewarn anyone planning on going here for a special night out to steer clear. The appetizers might be a safe bet, but I would not recommend spending $30+ for an entree that's lackluster at best and at worse, will...

We tried Hearth for the first time. We had heard good things, so we were excited to try it. We called in advance to see if they had a corkage fee. We were told the fee was $13. When we checked in we asked the hostess again to check on the corkage fee. We were told it was $13 for the whole evening. We were the only ones in the restaurant at 615p, so we were a little worried why a good restaurant would be empty.

We ordered the rosemary golden chips and truffle fries which were both mediocre. You couldn't even taste the featured seasonings besides salt. We ordered the beef stroganof after the waiter strongly recommended it. Our friends got the short ribs and roasted chicken. It took over nearly an hour and a half for the food to come out which was so frustrating since we were the only patrons for the first hour while we were waiting. I'm glad we ordered appetizers because that would have been miserable to waiting that long.

Once the food came out it was not very good. The short ribs were so salty our friend could not eat it. The stroganof was so disappointing. The menu said the noodles are made in house, so I was expecting a really good dish. The noodles were overcooked and wouldn't even stay together when you tried to eat them. The sauce was really disappointing, too. It tasted like a jazzed up version of cream of mushroom soup. The only thing that was good was the meat. It was really tender.

We gave ourselves over 2 hours to eat before we needed to catch our show. Since the wait was extremely long and our friend's dish was so salty, there was no time to order another dish.

Then the fun part came. There was no option to split the check. They charged us nearly $30 for a corkage fee. I asked our waiter why we were charged so much and he said, "Because you got two bottles." I told him that we checked 2 times about the fee and we're told one fee for the whole evening. He said he would look into it. He asks to take the cards. He comes back and ended up splitting the check 50/50 which was so irritating because then our friends had to share the corking fee which was not ok with us. We looked at the check and the corkage fee remained the same even after being told by TWO staff members that it was $13 for the evening.

The whole experience was frustrating. I would give one star, but I will give 2 stars for how yummy the infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar was that was served with bread. The bread itself was not very good, but soaked in flavored oil and vinegar, it was better. The oil and vinegar was the only redeeming thing of the experience. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind spending a lot for really good high-quality food, but there is no way the taste of the food justifies such a high price tag. Our check for 4 people was over $100 and that was with one meal comped since our friend couldn't eat it.

My advice is drive down to SLC and go to the Copper Onion. The food is less expensive and the stroganof will blow...

Food is great. Service is horrible. We had to wait half an hour for our waitress to get off of her break. (When she finally came to our table she literally said, "Sorry, I just got off my break.") Then it took over an hour for our food to arrive. We had 4 adults and 2 kids.

The waitress claimed that it's because the salmon just takes so long to cook and they wanted to bring everything out at the same time. Though she didn't tell us this until right before the food was out, or give us an option to get our food before the salmon so we're all not waiting. Which, especially when you have kids, would be nice to have that option. (And seriously, it takes an hour to cook salmon?)

Then when we're done eating we had to wait 30 minutes for the kids' dessert that came with their meal. She had told us that it was coming right out. So I eventually went to the front to see what the hold up was and that's when she started coming out with the dessert. I asked her to box it up because we were ready to leave. She stated that it took so long because they bake it fresh. (Even though she originally stated it would be right out.)

Then when I paid my bill with cash she said she would go get my change. We waited around a bit but I told our friends and my husband and kids they could wait outside because after over 2 hours we were all done being there. I went to the front again. My waitress eventually passed by me while bringing salad to another table. She comes over to me and asked me if I wanted change? I said yes, of course I do. So she stated "It was just over $81?" to which I reply, "Yes, I gave you $82."

At this point she informed me that they don't have any coin change in the restaurant and round up to bills. (So she was apparently going to let me sit and wait for change that was never coming.)

I'm not a very vocal person, but at this point I let her know exactly how disappointing the customer service was and how ridiculous it was that we had been there for over 2 hours, especially when the food is that expensive. She just kept saying how the salmon takes a long time and their food is fresh so it just takes that long. It didn't seem like she saw anything wrong with how everything went.

And to top the night off, when we got home and the kids opened up their chocolate cakes, there was none of the caramel sauce that was even on the plates that they had been on. Just two tiny little cakes and nothing else. They were super disappointed because they were looking forward to the caramel sauce as well.

So if you want to go to a restaurant that thinks their food is so high and mighty that they don't need to give good customer service, by all means, go here. I'll definitely take my business elsewhere, though. There are plenty of good places on 25th street to eat that actually give good customer service. This is not...