Farm 255

Farm 255 has consistently been one of our favorite Athens restaurants for a few years now.  With its farm-to-table set-up, and its rotating adventurous menu, it is almost always a great eating experience.  So when my husband and I were trying to decide on a restaurant for our first date night in over four months, we felt pretty confident in choosing Farm 255.  After all, our last time eating there was easily one of our Top 10 best meals...ever.  

We arrived five minutes before our 8 pm reservation time, and the hostess informed us that our table was not ready yet, and helpfully suggested we wait at the bar.  I ordered an Autumn Swing and the husband ordered an In the Pines:

We each enjoyed our respective drinks immensely, but found ourselves still sitting at the bar long after our drinks were gone.  At 8:30 the hostess came over, and explained that our table still was not ready.  I understand that these things happen, I do.  But the hostess did not apologize, much less offer us complimentary drinks or an appetizer.  It was our first night out in many months, and, more importantly, I was starving.  Plus, when you are paying over a hundred dollars for a two person meal, you expect to not be kept waiting for so long.  At 8:45, nearly an hour after our reservation time, we were finally seated, with not even an apology for the wait.  Needless to say, I was irritable and no longer very excited about Farm 255.  (Update: After I published the review, I was contacted by a very nice representative of Farm 255 who sent me a gift card to make up for the wait.  It was really great of Farm 255 to take the time and trouble to reach out.  That says a lot about how they do business.)

I perked up a little seeing the menu, and tried to remind myself of how good the food was during our last visit.

We decided to have the Farm Egg in a Jar as an appetizer, and were pleased with our choice. Although it was only a small amount of food (see above regarding starving to death), it was well cooked and the flavor was great.  

For the main entree, I ordered the Grilled Pork Chop:

I thought it was just okay.  It wasn't nearly as good as The National's pork chop that I had earlier this year, and I felt that the the strong flavors of both the pork and the cabbage were not paired well together.  However, the pork was cooked perfectly, and the cabbage had a rich, almost bacon-y flavor that I really enjoyed.

The husband ordered off the appetizer menu, something that he had been eyeballing for years...the Butcher Board.  This week the Board included pastrami, chicken liver mousse, roasted bone marrow, bacon fat popcorn, and a deviled egg.  When his food arrived, he took one look at it and thought he died and went to heaven:

He was extremely happy with his choice.  I stole a few bites, and was really happy with his choice too.  Everything was delicious and well-prepared, and more importantly, fun.  My only qualm is that it only came with two tiny little pieces of bread, and yet a very large amount of liver mousse and a whole head of roasted garlic.  After just a few bites in, the bread was gone, and there was nothing else to eat the food on.  The liver mousse, while absolutely delicious, is a little intense on its own (same goes for the roasted garlic).  Nevertheless, it was too good to not eat, so it was eaten off a spoon.  The garlic, unfortunately, had to be neglected.

For dessert we ordered the brownie with pretzel ice cream:

While good, it tasted like a run-of-the-mill brownie.  When the menu referred to "pretzel ice cream", I thought it was going to be something other than just vanilla ice cream with a few pretzels thrown on top.  Regardless, it was tasty, though I feel that the price was way too steep for just an ordinary brownie a la mode.  

Overall, our dinner at Farm 255 was a little disappointing this time.  However, I think that's partly because I know how good dinner here can be.  And their brunch?  Amazing!  We will definitely be giving Farm 255 another chance, and I'll update here when I do.