Harvest Restaurant — Restaurant in Oro Valley

I live in Austin, TX, but my mom lives in Tucson and on a recent visit out there for our collective birthdays (hers was 3/8, mine 3/13) we decided to celebrate at Harvest because I have been wanting to try this place since I found it on Yelp.

What a spectacular experience! We came in between lunch and dinner (3:45pm reservation via Open Table) and practically had the place to ourselves. It was a little too chilly and windy to sit in the covered outdoor area (the view of the Catalinas is spectacular!), so we sat at a half booth/table inside. The decor of this place is just fantastic and really captures the ambiance of fun, contemporary haute american cuisine without even a hint of pretension.

Our waitress, Chelsea, was just awesome! And being someone who usually has to ask (usually more than 2x) for lemons w/my water, the fact that she brought a plate of lemons when she brought the waters just started the dining experience off spectacularly!!!

So we ran into a bit of a snafu when ordering because, like I said, we came between their lunch/dinner, and the two entrees we wanted were on their dinner menu, but this place being the customer-oriented establishment that it is, Chelsea went and spoke w/the chef to see if they would be able to prepare the dishes early. The chef acquiesced, but needed some lead time to prep, so we had some cocktails and apps in the meantime.

The Blueberry Moonshine Lemonade was great and surprisingly refreshing! The warm brie with garlic and fruit chutneys was amazing and the flavors just meshed so well! The short rib tacos hit the spot, and just when I was afraid I wasn't going to have any room for the main course, Chelsea brought out the complementary warm baguette and cherry butter. Thank the food gods I had fasted in preparation for this gastronomic event and that this place knew how to pace a meal. After a quick food break, I was more than ready when they brought out the filet medallions and the salmon main courses.

Seriously, there are not words that could do justice to the sheer joy my tastebuds were bathed in when eating the medallions (especially paired w/a glass of their cab sauv)...the meat was perfectly cooked at medium with juices and flavor, but still melt in your mouth texture and the complementing sauce just added to the ecstasy!

My mom and I shared our dishes and she got the salmon, wow...just wow. It was perfectly cooked (flaky and full of flavor from the sauce that topped it) and the risotto it came with was continued perfection! I don't know that I would wander far from either of these when I go back!

But, that was not the end of this culinary tour du force! After advising that they should have a "wheel out to your car service", post meal; we got our birthday desserts! I had the Cannoli Cupcake and my mom had the german chocolate gelato, both were richly delectable.

I have to say that service makes any meal, but when you compound great service with ridiculously great food, this is probably the best meal I have had in Tucson to date and cannot wait to make the 15hr drive from Austin to see if the sequel will live up...

05/2020: The harvest is always a great experience. Out of our 50+ times being here since we moved to AZ in the summer of last year, we’ve only had less than perfect service one time, and I don’t believe that waitress lasted very long here because I haven’t seen her since. The atmosphere is fun, the porch is relaxing, food is always impressive, with everything made in house from hand cut French fries, their house ketchup, and all 30 salad dressings (maybe not 30 but they have a LOT of choices-all house made). Their sandwiches are so big that I joke about having to unhinge my jaw like a snake in order to be able to bite into every one. Their brunch menu is great for their chorizo Benedict and savory chicken and waffles. Our lunch/dinner favorites are the short rib nachos (made with house made potato chips!), turkey club with house French fries, steak salad that has soo many flavors and great house made dressing, or their tower of a pulled pork sandwich. I honestly don’t think you could go wrong with anything that you order from here. I’d give this place 10/5 stars if I could. And I’m from Chicago-so I know good food and service.

UPDATE: 07/2021 This restaurant seems to have gone downhill tremendously since COVID. My visits have been becoming less and less frequent due to the inconsistency. They took the turkey sandwich (my usual order) and the steak salad off of the menu completely and I don’t see them ever returning. Drinks are never the same. Some days they’re great and strong, other times they taste virgin or watered down. Nachos never come the same anymore, sometimes come with jalapeños, sometimes not. Sometimes they have enough bbq and cheese, sometimes they’re really dry. But if you ask for extra it’ll be drowning in it and served to you soggy. They used to have monthly cheesecakes (our fav was the red, white and blue for July) and now they rarely change their dessert menu and their cheesecake has been dry the past couple times that we dealt with whatever they were still serving from months ago. I understand that places are struggling but it’s become too much, and everyone is struggling. Money will be spent elsewhere where I know I’ll enjoy my food/drinks/dessert every time. The one thing that I can still say about this restaurant is the service is always great. We had a new guy the last time we dined in (over a month ago) he mentioned we were his 3rd table ever and he was still great. So.. I will add another star back for...

Normally, I give Harvest a 4 or 5. But, due to a recent visit (two days ago), I have lowered my rating to a "3" out of "5".

The reason is that they have raised their prices, and are now charging extra for gluten free bakery goods (the bread served with meals). Harvest used to be a bargain, and well worth it. Now, it is just an average restaurant serving a little better than average food for prices that are higher than they should be.

Update - 11/18 & 19/23 … after a long time eating elsewhere we visited Harvest on both Saturday and Sunday (because the maple bacon burger was SO good when we ate-in on Saturday, we ordered pick-up on Sunday.

Both times the hamburgers were great, and the sweet potato fries the best around (they seem to be made fresh, not taken out of a bag like Jerry Bob’s and most other places).

The service was ok on Saturday … I personally find the extremely ‘relaxed’ wait staff attire a bit disappointing … McDonald’s staff are dressed better and have neater and more appealing hair styles … but the service on Sunday was awful. I called in the simple order (two hamburgers) and was told it would take 20 minutes. I arrived a bit early, and was told by the “hostess” (she really did not seem to understand the “hostess” aspect of her job) the order would be ready when originally promised- 20 minutes from when I had called. Well, I had to wait a full 25 minutes after the promised time. And, really at no time did the “hostess” make any attempt to communicate what was happening. The owner/ manager even came to the host desk once and seemed unaware of how poor the service was.

So, the food was great. The service...