Urban Plates Revisit (Carmel Valley): Some Kinks to Work out!

My pre-opening experience at Urban Plates was so exciting that I took the boys back as soon as we had an opportunity (last night when I returned from work and had not made dinner!).

FOOD: Just as exciting as on Sat. (see below)

SERVICE/ORG: Has some kinks that need to be worked out! Now, we went on their *second day* of operation, and it's a cafeteria line with lots of stations, where people are grilling and slicing food fresh, not just ladling it out. But Super-Boy was not really Super-Boy - things took long enough that he was bouncing off the walls and CH was about ready to declare the place a bust.

HOWEVER, the owners are super-keen on getting this place right and are already tinkering and improving. Their goal is that people will get their plate of food within a minute after they order. We were at more like 8-10 mins., but when we talked to the owner, she had some wonderful ideas for why things were crazy on day #2 and how things would improve. They have a wonderful concept, and CH agreed when he sat down that the food is EXCELLENT and healthy and tasty. Here are some of the things they're going to do:

--set up web ordering like Specialty's. Not only can you pick up curbside, but they even might allow you to order ahead for eat in! That would be fabulous for a family like us, that wants the eat-out experience but has impatient kids that want to eat right away. Of course, as CH conceded to Pat the owner, if they do manage to get the timing down to one minute, then we won't need to do that.

--they also see that they are way more popular than they expected, and because they have an INSANE PASTRY SELECTION, they realize they need to have more room in the kitchen than they thought. They're running their kitchen 24 hrs a day right now!

There's probably more to say but I'm exhausted and need my working mom sleep! I wanted to post in case anyone saw my first post and then is disappointed by the initial ordering experience. I think they will work it out, but in the meanwhile the food is delish!

And speaking of food, here's what we got:

--grilled veg sandwich: I got this with roasted root vegetables and summer squash saute: yum; plus a fresh farmer's market salad on the side (yum) and homemade potato chips (good, drat!); I wish I could have gotten farmer's bread but they only had ciabbata

--Urban Kids grilled cheese for SB (on ww): very delicious, plus fruit salad he loved and those homemade chips

--CH got carved turkey, a side salad, and homemade stuffing: he was grumpy on the confusing line but then conceded that the food was good

DESSERT: red velvet cupcake (very lemony - I'm not a lemon person, but this was a serious cupcake) and chocolate truffle cupcake (YUM! except it had coffee flavoring on the frosting and CH and SB don't like coffee - it should be marked! but I ate more than I planned because I thought it was awesome!)