Urban Plates — Restaurant in Pasadena

Urban Plates, where have you been all my life!?! Great food, great service, great prices! Holy freaking grass-fed cow the steak sandwich is truly masterpiece of flavors and textures that deserves a spot on the menu in heaven.

Now that I've got your attention let me tell you the tale of our first visit to Urban Plates. It was a birthday dinner on a Sunday evening with a large party of 30-50 people. The birthday boy arranged with management to "reserve" an entire section of the dining area for our group. I don't think they actually take reservations so it was nice of them to accommodate us. That said, the kitchen and staff were really on top of their game. Even though they were totally slammed with orders our food was delivered to our table in less than ten minutes. Thanks to those guys and gals for great service.

I ordered the steak sandwich with an additional side of mac n cheese and my wife ordered the chicken tender plate. Incidentally, a comfort food favorite of hers since childhood. We were both very impressed with the quality of the food at such a reasonable price. Truly a "food joy" experience. My wife is really looking forward to trying the hot chicken on our next visit.

I personally believe that if there were a contest for best steak sandwich in Pasadena the chimichurri steak sandwich at Urban Plates could beat the very popular beef dip sandwich at the high end place just down the street.

Very high quality food for a very reasonable price.

Fun Facts: -Urban Plates first location opened in San Diego in 2011.

-Founded by Saad Nadhir and John Zagara the chain currently has just over twenty locations mostly in Southern California. They have plans to slowly expand outside of California.

-Their website claims that their food is all scratch made with organic ingredients. Using hormone and antibiotic free grass-fed beef, sustainable salmon, and never frozen chicken.

So, do yourself a favor and give this amazing...

Rome is not built in one day.

My name is Grace. I’m using my brother’s Google account.

I looked for 6 or 10 ⭐️ s for this review, unfortunately the maximum is ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ here.

Thanks to Urban Plates cashier David who offered me a free and nice gigantic cookie which I was going to pay for ($4.00 or $3.99 I don’t remember). He encouraged me to write a review which is not a habit in my old Chinese Culture.

About 8 to 10 years ago I invited my San Jose daughter to dine at URBAN PLATES (UP). I then had never gone back to UP except a few times in a decade being insisted by friends.

I like everything there especially their friendly service but I seldom go back (before year of 2020 the COVID Pandemics) because I could not take the stresses with people waiting behind me while I needed to tell the food server one item by one item among so many varieties of fresh vegetables and good foods, with my confused brains.

A couple weeks ago, my friend from State of Missouri missed UP’s good salad. This time I was very much impressed by UP’s change of the way in getting orders! Simple, clear and easy with a big sign by the entrance showing pictures of well fixed items and prices. I didn’t feel confused anymore.

Tonight I dined at UP on my own without being forced by friends. I ordered Chicken Cobb Salad which is so delicious except the avocado is too raw and hard to chew. I then ordered another salad bowl requesting ripe avocado, the Beets + Avocado with quinoa and other good stuff, oh, it is just sooooo delicious and the avocado is ripe (they listen to customers’ requests). This is a MUST BOWL!!

Urban Plates had made changes for good. From now on, I will invite friends and relatives to eat there regularly. I missed their good and fresh organic butter lettuces served before COVID Pandemics and wish this item will...

This place is interesting, I thought it was restaurant style, where a server waits on you and takes your order.

It's not, You order your food and pay before you sit down. Then, a server will bring out your dishes. The food options are all mostly gluten free, vegan. Think of clean eating. I ordered the chimichurri grass fed steak with mash potatoes and the house salad, and to drink, I got their watermelon pineapple aqua Fresca.

Wait time for our food was less than 5 minutes, but also when we ordered there weren't many people. We ate around 6 pm. The rush of ppl happened around 7-8pm.

The food was good, but nothing I'd rave about to others to try. I think it's great for the prices and if you want to eat out with a large group as everyone can order and pay their own plate before hand and enjoy it all together at one large table with out trying to figure out how to split the bill.

Price point, pretty reasonable, but still on the $$ side. I believe my plate was 18 +tax and the drink was $4 and change(refills are available). It's fast food style (in how you order) but restaurant appearance. In total, with a plate and drink, it came out to 28. it's a little on the pricer side (which I think they can pull off because it's on lake and menu item options are gluten / vegan/ grass fed mumbo jumbo.

Friendly staff all around, great atmosphere, indoor dining, and outside patio.

Also, if you give a review on Yelp and show a worker, they'll give you a free cookie.

Parking is either paid street parking, but I think after 6pm your fine. There's tons of free parking after 6 behind the walgreens (shoppers lane) or in the Macy's/ trader joes lot. (Which is where I parked), and then I just crossed the street. Again, we went on a Tuesday, so parking was pretty easy to find. I'm sure during the weekend...