Urban Plates (Carmel Valley)

Another book club dinner post! Yay to books and bites! For July, the girls met at Urban Plates, a farm fresh restaurant located in the huge shopping/dining plaza off El Camino Real and Del Mar Heights. You move through cafeteria style, pick out your main plate, salad, sandwich, etc then select from an eye-catching medley of hot and cold sides. As a heads up, there are two lines, one for salads and one for other dishes so make sure you go in the correct one, especially if it's shorter! Payment is made at the end before you seat yourself.

The urban plates ($10) come with a choice of meat and two sides or four sides with no meat. I ordered the medium rare Grilled Steak Plate on a previous visit. The beef strips looked gorgeous but weren't as tender or flavorful as some other places. It was accompanied with simple rectangular bread and I was curious if I would have liked it better as a sandwich. I picked lightly sauted brussel sprouts and an interesting mushroom squash medley for my sides.

The hand carved sandwiches ($10) come with a choice of one side plus housemade potato chips. My sandwich craving plus guilt over my recent junkfood binge led me to order the Grilled Portobello Sandwich. Vegetables are healthy right? I thought the mushroom slices were lacking in seasoning but felt that the roasted red bell peppers and goat cheese made it work overall.

This was my side of spring pea quinoa (don't remember the exact name). It was more of a raw salad due to the uncooked snappeas and had a hint of citrus sprinkled through. I've been trying out quinoa lately so this was an unique variation, but not my preference.

The urban greens ($10) don't come with sides but still have plenty of ingredients to entertain you. I think this was the Raw Kale Salad plus an order of Grilled Urban Steak (additional cost). I especially loved the colors in this salad, which included vivid purple cabbage, kale and sweet orange. I tasted some beef from here and it was tons better than my last experience, though friend had sprinkled additional salt since she likes salty.

My other friend had the Grilled Wild Ono Nicoise Salad. Each salad had its own set of ingredients and this one had a lettuce blend, green beans, egg, tomatoes, diced potatos, and a few other goodies. The ono is hiding under the pesto-looking sauce.

Someone ordered the corn chowder ($4) and I couldn't wait to try this. I remember it being soothing and warm, plus we could taste the mild chiles besides the corn. The cream circle was the best part.

When I saw the Rhubarb Pie, it was just meant to be! I don't think I've had this flavor since I was in college! I liked the sweeter fruity filling and the criss cross crust. The whip cream was especially light and delicious. The flower accent makes for a pretty picture!

I was hesitant after my first visit with the steak plate but this recent visit was such an improvement. I love the variety of items you can pick from. There's also family meals with choices like large portions of bbq turkey meatloaf or braises & stews that comes with two sides, salad, and bread for $40 . With friends though, it's more interesting to order exactly what you want! I haven't been to Tender Greens in a while (also found through book club) so I think I'll be going there to compare. Hubby won't turn down the chance to get his beloved cowboy cookies!