Orchard Kitchen - Whidbey Island — Restaurant in Whidbey Island

This 10+ course exquisite high Michelin-star like dining is quite a treat if you can get in and pay for it. The closest comparison is probably Herbfarm which is more famous and accessible to Seattle crowd. I tried to reserve couple of weeks in advance and got on waitlist and finally got table for special Christmas Eve meal. Bless thy who canceled :). This place is farm-to-table and unpretentious despite of very fine dining experience. I loved the distinct barn like setting with painting of chickens, no formal dress code, friendly staff with usual working cloths, which all gel well in to nice relaxing casual atmosphere unlike many uptight luxurious sounding places of similar caliber. Try to get sit next to kitchen if you can, it’s quite an inspiring theater with pots and pans systematically hanging with cutting board surface. Each of the courses are small, creative, spoon full and masterfully crafted tasting courses. Every single course was delicate, nicely designed, unique and something you would enjoy with very slow relaxed pace even if you initially thought you didn’t liked those ingredients. The ingredients are however the key, as all master chefs would tell you. Here they are sourced from specialized places or the farm itself so you can count on freshness and very high end quality. They also made last minute replacement for my allergy although I would have wished there was more systematic process at the time of reservation. Each course reflected specific techniques, used multiple ingredients and sometimes many layers. One thing I felt missing was having a good story line or even just a theme tied up with menu so eating your food feels like turning a page and reading a story, but I won’t hold this up as chefs reserve their rights to be creative as they prefer. As it is usual at this level of culinary excellence, there was a surprise out-of-menu ending course but, as an obligatory nitpick, there wasn’t surprise out-of-menu welcome course. Number of staff taking care of diners was probably in similar number of diners, although going in and out, which meant highly attentive service which came with good dose of casual friendliness which makes you feel you are part of the system as opposed to just consumer. It is possible to contain the cost to around $200 (not recommended) but a full experience would usually cost $300 or more. Dinners here are one of a kind treats that you may remember for a long time, so don’t think twice if you...

As an avid foodie and restaurateur, I was left feeling rather underwhelmed by my experience at Orchard Kitchen last night.

I would like to first highlight the gorgeous environs of the farm and restaurant, as well as the beautiful welcome drink that we received upon arrival. The atmosphere definitely deserves 5 stars. Now for the remainder of my review:

Upon arriving at the venue, we asked about seating arrangements. Our waitperson said that we had been assigned to a communal table, but that we were free to choose which seats we sat in. When I asked if two seats viewing the garden and flowers were okay, she proceeded to say that, no, in fact we couldn’t sit there, and were asked to move to two seats opposite (where we did not wish to sit), which left a bad taste in our mouths before we had even taken a bite of food.

The service was painfully slow. I am no stranger to the idea of a slow dinner with adequate pauses to converse and savor the moment. This felt understaffed and kitchen-behind-schedule slow. We waited until 1.5 hours after our reservation time to eat our starter. Moreover, the wine parings were brought out quite a bit before the food courses, which wasn’t ideal.

The food portions were extremely small. This does not come from any naivety; I am familiar with the oft smaller portions of fine dining meals and tasting menus. However, these dishes were scarce and left myself and my friend hungry throughout the entire meal. It felt as though the restaurant was really trying to make a certain amount of food spread among too many people. They should have capped the seating limit to appropriately provide the right service to the patrons. The cost to value ratio was severely lacking.

At the end of meal, we were greeted by the chef and simply told to have a good night. From my previous experience at restaurants, when I interact with the owner and head chef of a restaurant, I am always asked how everything was. I was surprised that I was not invited to comment on my experience. Had I been asked, I would have volunteered some helpful comments that would have been valuable for the chef to hear. With a restaurant that prides itself on such intentionality, one would expect this to be asked.

In conclusion, it was a beautiful experience. However it was marred by the aforementioned issues. Not worth the...

So underwhelmed. Of note, our final bill was about $550 dollars for two people, for dinner (and we split one wine pairing). Expectations and experience did not align with that price, even if it were cheaper, I probably wouldn't return. The garden/farm is beautiful and a lot of the food had good taste, but we left feeling quite underwhelmed. The food was just ok, the portions were teeny tiny, I would expect that from the amuse bouche and maybe the starters, but the main dish was so small, I was shocked, 1/4 of a single beet, 2 green beans, 1/2 a fava bean, 2 very small pieces of rabbit (we left feeling a bit hungry). I looked at previous diners photos and the portions looked much larger last year? Each dish had great aspects, but there was no stand out dish that I would be drawn to come back for. The servers were sweet, but young kids not trained in fine dining service skills. Our water didn't get refilled all night, the service was painfully slow (it took an hour to put a bite of food in our mouths, and about 1hr35 minutes to get the first starter. I recommend that they decrease the amount people they serve (probably by an entire communal table), they just don't have the amount of food, servers, or resources to properly serve the amount of spots they reserve. Again, perhaps these aspects would have been ok had the price per head been significantly lower. It was SO off-putting that they add a 20% 'service-fee,' then when our waitress took the credit card, she said "we charge a 20% fee, but that's different than a tip." As in, she was seriously asking me to add more than the forced 20% gratuity after such an underwhelming experience. Much left...