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Harvest Restaurant Review
Harvest is actually located exactly where another restaurant at the resort used to be, right next to Zanies. But the interior has been redone and, having once been in the original venue, I was impressed by the changes. Seems like a significant attempt at capturing the look and feel of prairie – kinda Frank Lloyd Wright-ish – has been made: the interior is now much brighter and more inviting. And the attempt was very successful – right down to the prairie-style lamps on the tables. There is a lot of dark wood that is offset by very bright and colorful carpeting and the room is well lighted; this is much preferable to the previous darkness. I like the feel. And the menu? “Seasonal dishes inspired by the freshest of local ingredients and outstanding steaks and seafood.” Well-described.
It was mid-week and the restaurant was not busy, so we decided to have a cocktail at the bar before being seated. Nice feel to the bar area also – although it was pretty smoky and very chilly. We sipped on a couple of Grey Goose Martinis and checked out the menu that we had been given. One thing that impressed me was the variety of choices. I always take it to be a good sign when I know that I will have trouble choosing an entrée… Lauren and I were seated in a booth and immediately attended to by a bus boy who brought water and also collected the extra place settings. The server soon appeared and distributed menus and an extensive wine list. She also brought two types of warm, fresh-baked bread (baked daily on-site) and two types of butter (one bread was a parsley-herb and the other was a parmesan-cheese; one of the butters was “regular” while the other was a honey-butter variety). While we sampled the breads and butters, we tried to decide (it wasn’t easy) on our dinner choices. Appetizers ranged from Smoked Duck Quesadillas to Grilled Portabellas with Crawdaddy Tapenade to Crab Cakes; Dinner Pastas from French Style Chicken with Tomato Crème Sauce to Seafood Arrabbiata with Parsely Garlic Fettucine; Dinner Seafoods from Cedar-Planked Salmon to Roasted Swordfish; and Dinner Steaks from Double-Cut Pork chops to a giant 24-oz. Porterhouse. Desserts at Harvest are homemade also. And if you are starting to drool, you should go there and see for yourself… it’s amazing. And the menu is incredibly extensive and each dish is described in almost-too-extensive detail – each accompanied by an extensive list of sauces.
For an appetizer, we chose the Oysters Rockefeller ($11 – baked with Spinach, bacon, and glazed with anise hollandaise). I was very impressed by the flavor as well as the presentation, although I did not taste the anise at all. For dinner, Lauren ordered the Cedar-Planked Salmon ($20 – basted with soy-maple ginger glace and garnished with grilled Bok Choy, served with garlic redskin mashed potatoes). The plate was gargantuan and sported a huge piece of excellently prepared and marvelously flavored salmon. The veggies were done perfectly and all was piping hot; the spuds however did not have very much garlic flavor. Lauren could not finish more than half of the salmon. I selected the Double-Cut Pork Chops ($26 – Two 10-oz Chops, Glazed with Dijon Honey Mustard and Door County Cherry Sauce with Braised Cabbage Compote). The flavors on my plate were excellent as well and the chops were tender and easy to chew. I could barely finish one of the chops – but I did finish the potatoes and veggies. We had ordered a house salad with creamy garlic dressing – also short on the garlic – and this apparently put us over the edge, since not only did we need to take home our leftovers, there was no room for any dessert. We were both impressed by the extent of the menu, the plate presentations, the size of the dinners, the flavors and the service. Lauren also sampled a glass of Montevino Zinfandel – sampled is the wrong descriptor, since the glass was about 8 oz worth – and declared it, too, to be excellent. In all, I must say that my sweeping generalization regarding resort restaurants was proven wrong once again. I really would like to return again to try some of the other dishes. Although the prices were a bit steep (Ap’s: $8 - $13 and dinners: $16 - $42), I believed the dinners to be well worth it. And oh, by the way… it didn’t hurt at all to be able to use an Entertainment Book coupon – ala Lauren – to bring the total bill down to a very affordable amount. I rate the evening as a very solid Four Zins… plus. Kudos to Harvest, Chef Joseph Yurisich and the whole staff! It is open daily for Lunch & Dinner; put it at the top of your list.
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After a long day “at the office”, Lauren and I were both convinced that
cooking dinner was just not in today’s repertoire. Lauren suggested a
relatively new restaurant in St. Charles – actually in Pheasant Run Resort –
called Harvest. I groaned. Resort restaurants are not high up on my list
of places at which I like to dine… not sure why, although I suspect it is a
nagging belief that the prices are always too high, the food is only
mediocre and the service almost never comes with a smile. I am reminded
however, of our unforgettably marvelous experience at the
