Urban Plates — Restaurant in Pleasant Hill

Considering this was my first time ever trying out an "Urban Plates", I already had a sense that I would be in store for a delicious meal prior to coming here. This takes me to their "Pleasant Hill" location in the East Bay. This is only one of two locations in all of Northern California (with the other being in Dublin). The rest of their restaurants are all situated in Southern California. Located at the Crescent Plaza and just a couple blocks from Monument Blvd. and Highway 680, this Urban Plates has been dishing out fresh, healthy American cuisine since mid-2016.

I came here on the afternoon of Sunday, September 5, 2021 at around 2:45pm. Considering this was in between lunch & dinner, I wanted a hearty meal to carry me through the rest of the afternoon & evening. I took advantage of their $10 everyday menu where I ended up ordering their "Urban Grilled Chicken Salad". This salad consisted of herb-marinated cage free, hormone & antibiotic free chicken, baby mixed greens, organic Roma tomatoes, shredded organic carrots, jicama, pickled red onions, & preserved lemon vinaigrette dressing with a side of garlic bread.

My friend ended up going for a very tasty meal that deserves its own paragraph. He went with their "Nashville Hot Tenders" entrée . This consisted of two jumbo hand-tossed buttermilk-battered, antibiotic & hormone-free, never frozen chicken tenders complete with their house-made dipping sauce, a side of roasted Brussels sprouts, house salad, and garlic bread.

The interior itself of Urban Plates is very open, inviting, and offers a generous amount of seating throughout. There is an open glass display area showcasing many of their popular salads as well as many protein options such as free range chicken, meatloaf, and grass fed steak. Finally, they have a very nice wine bar with lots of local whites and reds from California. The ordering process is quite simple; you walk up to the register, pay, and you seat yourself where an employee brings your food to you. However, my friend and I ended up sitting outside and taking advantage of the beautiful warm weather.

When our plates finally arrived, I was definitely wowed with the colorful array of toppings on my salad. Everything tasted fresh as this entire salad was filling and quite delicious. Maybe a little too salty with the dressing but overall an above average salad. My friends' chicken was also very tasty as the breading packed quite a bit of heat. The real winner was the Brussels sprouts as these tasted exactly how my mom made them with that roasted, crunchy, and garlicky flavor.

All in all, "Urban Plates" is an excellent option for lunch or dinner as its a step up from your typical fast casual sit-down restaurant. Prices are decent, portions are quite generous, and service was good as expected. They do have very generous hours being open from 11am-9pm seven days a week. I hope they can expand to more cities in the Bay Area as well as branching out to possibly Sacramento and the Central Valley. My rating, an above...

Interesting experience – I would go again (4/5 Green Stars). What I liked about urban plates: the staff members behind the counter were invested in cooking food – you are interacting directly with the chefs who cooked your food from scratch that day (instead of corporate-trained automatons delivering stock soundbites). I liked the general atmosphere and most of the food looked really good. I think I was a bit unlucky in that I chose a tofu green curry ($10) and it was pretty bland: the usual mistake of trying to make it suitable for everyone (not too spicy or bold) but in the end probably pleasing few. Also, the server happened to give me a pretty small portion of it, so I wasn’t at all full after it – it’s like the old joke that Woody Allen used to use: Person 1: The food was terrible; Person 2: Yeah, and such small portions! But seriously, it wasn’t terrible – just bland. My friend had lamb Osso Bucco, which came with lots of mashed potato and gravy (looking like the picture of comfort food; $17) and liked it. We also had a piece of pumpkin/walnut cake ($6.50) and a Mosaic Session IPA ($6.25). They have a nice outdoor covered seating area, friendly staff, and aside from the bland (and small) tofu dish it was a pretty good experience.

I’m also giving Urban Plates 4/5 “green stars” for social and environmental impact, based on these reasons:

• They do stock a reasonable amount of plant-based food but the menu is focused on meat and fish. Maybe they’ll introduce more veggie food if there’s enough demand – their website has a chart for dishes that are (or can be modified to be) vegan or vegetarian. • I appreciated that my tofu was organic – this is important to me (esp. in the US). • For their meat and fish items, they do have info on sustainability and sourcing. For example, their ahi tuna is line-caught and their chicken is cage-free. Line-caught does mean something but unfortunately cage-free doesn’t equate to humane and is a far cry from pasture-raised or organic. • Since I’m wary about the cage-free label (virtually all chicken in the US is now cage-free, so the label applies to any overcrowded barn scenario) I’d also like to know more about what makes their salmon sustainable. They could (and should) do a better job at communicating on these things. I applaud that they are all about cooking from scratch from local ingredients – they are just missing an opportunity to take it to the next level. • They do stock quite a few organic items (e.g., kale, tomatoes, potatoes, rice, and the milk and apple juice on the kids menu). • They stock local beer and wine and organic, fair trade coffee. • The model of chefs preparing everything from scratch and serving directly to customers could actually change things a bit: moving customers who don’t cook much a bit closer to their food.

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Boyfriend brought me here knowing I am health conscious. We opted for a to-go order.

I ordered the blackened salmon, with truffle fries, and mushrooms. My partner ordered the steak with brussel sprouts, and rice pilaf. We also ordered a couple sodas - black cherry & vanilla cream soda favors.

I noticed a server/worker who dropped some fries on the counter near the to-go-orders while waiting for our food to be finished. He picked them up off the dirty counter with bare hands, and tossed them back into the main bowl of fries still being used in orders. I then watched him do many other unsanitary things, ie: touching his phone, touching benches, things on floors, , high fiving people, still tossing more fries in the main bowl while preparing food for tables, and the worst imo.. bringing a full plate of food to a table with his bare thumb inside the serving of rice on the plate.

I was beyond disgusted and immediately asked for the fries to be removed from our order. Server, Annie was apologetic and immediately issued us a refund on the fries. Then ordered a completely new batch to be made and packaged for us as an apology.

Upon arriving home, we realized my mushrooms were replaced with brussel sprouts, but since the ticket also reflected this, I blame myself for not catching the issue at the register.

As far as the food goes: • Steak - 7/10 • Brussel Sprouts - 4/10: light basalmic flavor, quite bland • Rice Pilaf - 3/10: Box riced pilaf tasted better than whatever this was, very flavorless • Truffle Fries - 8/10: These were delicious. A bit cold upon arrival home, but still tasted great, can only imagine they are even better warm. The aioli that came with it was wonderful, and light on the mayo taste. • Blackened Salmon - 6/10: Seasoning was good, definitely heavy on the salt. • Black cherry Soda - 7/10 • Vanilla cream soda - 10/10

Wait times were pretty long, and the to-go area was pretty packed. They ended up asking us to wait further back near the dining which was fine. We did after 5 when I assume they have an influx of orders for people grabbing dinner after work.

Likely wont be back for food here due to hygenic reasons, but if i did return it would be for the vanilla cream soda only.

And someone get Annie some extra help and recognition! She was amazing handling to-go orders, tables, cash register, drinks, refunds, she was non-stop on top of EVERYTHING! She looked overwhelmed but handled it like a champ, she was the determining factor between this being a 2⭐️ review...