Last night we had the rare opportunity to go to dinner and catch a movie afterwards. That said, we have been wanting to try the new restaurant in Roseville called the
Greenhouse Restaurant which was right next door to the theatre where our movie was playing.
The Greenhouse Restaurant, self-dubbed "Sacramento's First Real Organic Restaurant" is located on 1595 Eureka Rd. in Roseville.
In rating, I am going off a scale of 1 -5, with 5 being the best.
Here we go:
Location:
5 stars. Although from the road it would not seem this way, but the
Greenhouse Restaurant is located in a great "nightspot" location with plenty of surrounding restaurants and a multiple sreen theatre. Great place to take a date, enjoy an anniversary, or go for any occasion. Parking is plentiful in the back. It's relatively close off the freeway and is easy to find.
Service: 5 stars. Plenty of wait staff are at hand to make sure your water glass is always filled and they seemed pretty knowledgable about the menu. Our waitress was very down to earth, friendly and even chatted with us about how she liked to frequent farmers markets and garage sales.
Ambiance: 4 stars. The restaurant was clean and had been renovated recently. My wife commented that the table set-up did seem "a little clausterphobic," which I agreed. But not overwhelmingly so. For a green thumb like me, I did appreciate that some live plants were used in the decor; shows some effort as many restaurants today rely on fake silk plants, yuck.
Appetizers/Main Dishes: Greenhouse serves their dishes in two styles "small plates" and "big plates." The menu we ordered off of was the "Spring Menu," no doubt to stick with the concept of cooking with ingredients that are in season, a sustainable culinary practice. The concept of the small plates is that you eat "tapas" style.
The first appetizer we ordered was:
4 stars: Fig and Bleu Cheese Pizetta - Pizetta topped with a blue cheese, carmelized onion, Port Dressing, and topped with an Arugula and Fig salad. The flavor was good, the ingredients were matched well, the only comment we had was the figs were dried or dehydrated rather than fresh, however, I assume that it due to seasonality - summer/fall.
The main dishes were:
5 stars: Blackened Gulf Prawns & Rock Shrimp "Croutons" - This was our favorite dish. Seasoned well, good spicyness, good sauces.
4 1/2 stars: Greenhouse "Fries" - Oven roasted potato, sweet potato, parsnips, Portabello mushrooms, onions and garlic served in a clay pot with a habanero mustard. We liked these as well. They had a good "fried" taste to them (even though they are oven roasted), not too heavy and the habanero mustard was very tasty.
3 1/2 stars: Roasted Coffee Pot Ranch Port Tenderloin - Toasted Black Pepper Apple Sauce, Parnip puree, Pancetta and Cabbage. The pork was cooked well, but we thought this dish was a a little bland, maybe more seasoning on the meat would have helped. Not a favorite of ours.
Desserts: 4 stars. I had the Chocolate Mousse Bomb, very tasty and my wife had the Chocolate Cherry Gellato. I had a taste of the gellato, and it was good, had more of an ice cream consistency to it.
Price: 3 stars. We liked the "small plate" tapas concept, but it was a bit pricey per portion size. For the most part, taste and presentation were good and it was fresh, but it seemed $1 to $2 higher in price than it should be, in my opinion, relative to portion size. Going tapas style, that can really make a difference in your final bill, as smaller portions neccesitate more dishes ordered.
Bottomline, the Greenhouse Restaurant was a good dining experience, the food overall was good and it is worth a visit. We will likely be back the next time we are in the neighborhood and will likely give the "big plate" entrees a try. It is nice to see yet another local restaurant that is trying to serve food that is more sustainable than the standard fare and tries to live by a true "organic" standard.
Cheers!
Sean
In rating, I am going off a scale of 1 -5, with 5 being the best.
Here we go:
Location: 5 stars. Although from the road it would not seem this way, but the Greenhouse Restaurant is located in a great "nightspot" location with plenty of surrounding restaurants and a multiple sreen theatre. Great place to take a date, enjoy an anniversary, or go for any occasion. Parking is plentiful in the back. It's relatively close off the freeway and is easy to find.
Service: 5 stars. Plenty of wait staff are at hand to make sure your water glass is always filled and they seemed pretty knowledgable about the menu. Our waitress was very down to earth, friendly and even chatted with us about how she liked to frequent farmers markets and garage sales.
Ambiance: 4 stars. The restaurant was clean and had been renovated recently. My wife commented that the table set-up did seem "a little clausterphobic," which I agreed. But not overwhelmingly so. For a green thumb like me, I did appreciate that some live plants were used in the decor; shows some effort as many restaurants today rely on fake silk plants, yuck.
Appetizers/Main Dishes: Greenhouse serves their dishes in two styles "small plates" and "big plates." The menu we ordered off of was the "Spring Menu," no doubt to stick with the concept of cooking with ingredients that are in season, a sustainable culinary practice. The concept of the small plates is that you eat "tapas" style.
The first appetizer we ordered was:
4 stars: Fig and Bleu Cheese Pizetta - Pizetta topped with a blue cheese, carmelized onion, Port Dressing, and topped with an Arugula and Fig salad. The flavor was good, the ingredients were matched well, the only comment we had was the figs were dried or dehydrated rather than fresh, however, I assume that it due to seasonality - summer/fall.
The main dishes were:
5 stars: Blackened Gulf Prawns & Rock Shrimp "Croutons" - This was our favorite dish. Seasoned well, good spicyness, good sauces.
4 1/2 stars: Greenhouse "Fries" - Oven roasted potato, sweet potato, parsnips, Portabello mushrooms, onions and garlic served in a clay pot with a habanero mustard. We liked these as well. They had a good "fried" taste to them (even though they are oven roasted), not too heavy and the habanero mustard was very tasty.
3 1/2 stars: Roasted Coffee Pot Ranch Port Tenderloin - Toasted Black Pepper Apple Sauce, Parnip puree, Pancetta and Cabbage. The pork was cooked well, but we thought this dish was a a little bland, maybe more seasoning on the meat would have helped. Not a favorite of ours.
Desserts: 4 stars. I had the Chocolate Mousse Bomb, very tasty and my wife had the Chocolate Cherry Gellato. I had a taste of the gellato, and it was good, had more of an ice cream consistency to it.
Price: 3 stars. We liked the "small plate" tapas concept, but it was a bit pricey per portion size. For the most part, taste and presentation were good and it was fresh, but it seemed $1 to $2 higher in price than it should be, in my opinion, relative to portion size. Going tapas style, that can really make a difference in your final bill, as smaller portions neccesitate more dishes ordered.
Bottomline, the Greenhouse Restaurant was a good dining experience, the food overall was good and it is worth a visit. We will likely be back the next time we are in the neighborhood and will likely give the "big plate" entrees a try. It is nice to see yet another local restaurant that is trying to serve food that is more sustainable than the standard fare and tries to live by a true "organic" standard.
Cheers!
Sean