It's been awhile since I've posted anything here. I've been busy with personal things and I haven't really going out to eat at different places. Also, I found out that taking camera with me is a good idea at times... =p
I've heard about this restaurant in DC that offers true-American food. Apparently, they use fresh ingredients that offers homemade-like food. My friend was also interested in dining there so we decided to give it a try. Founding Farmers is located in DC, near The White House. There were plenty of street parking nearby so it wasn't hard to find a parking space: Just make sure to bring lots of coins(I mean ALOT!).
We were little late for our reservation but they were nice enough to patiently wait for us and saved our seat. The middle of the restaurant is a bar and there are a ground floor and a second floor. The layout and decors were comforting and nice to look around. I've also noticed that there was a birthday event for kids(probably between ages of 7~11). So it must be very relaxed and family-oriented environment even though there is a bar in the middle.
We started look through the menu and there were tons of things that I wanted to try. Also, they have huge selection of tasty mixed drinks on the drink menu. Some were very original, such as Farmer's Fizz, Clover Club, and Organic Cucumber Delight. I know this is silly but we start out with main meals and then ordered small plates later. But I'll start with small plate first.
Oysters on the Half Shell
Can't never go wrong with fresh oysters! But the server made it wrong. I had to ask him several times to bring hot sauce.
Farmer's Salad
Baby lettuces were fresh and red grapes and dates were just enough to give sweet taste. It was a good idea to have Parmesan cheese in champagne vinaigrette on the side. Or else, it would overwhelm the salad.
This was good! There were good balance of saltiness from prosciutto and sweetness from fig and Mascarpone. Fig could have been little too sweet and little too sticky in texture but butter like spread of Mascarpone made flatbread even taste better.
Lemon Meuniรจre Diver Scallops
Seared scallops are well balanced with lemon brown butter sauce. Pumpkin risotto was cooked to firm inside but not hard which is how risotto should be. However, I think risotto was little to overpowering the taste of fresh scallops. This would have been better if risotto was served on the side with smaller portion.
Fresh Blue Crab Ravioli
An idea of using local ingredient was nice. And the portion of real crab meat inside the ravioli was very generous. But, the old bay seasoning was too salty due to generous portion of crab meat and tomato basil butter was salty as well. The entire dish was salty. It would've been nice if they still use the same amount of crab meat with less seasoning, and use unsalted butter for tomato basil butter sauce. The salt from goat cheese would have been just enough to enjoy the dish.
I think I should revisit and try different dishes. Their macarroni and cheese and farmer's meatloaf were pretty decent when I visited before. There are just so many choices in the menu that you really have know what you might like. So far, I only like mixed drinks and flatbreads. Other than that, most dishes were pretty salty. Oh also, try to reserve a table on the second floor as the first floor almost always have slow and bad service. I don't know how many times I had to look for our waiter and ask for few things. Maybe it was just our waiter but it seems that all the waiters on first floor are tardy and forgetful. Just my two cents. ;)
