From what I have encountered in the grand city of Evanston, the movie selection is flawless and the atmosphere is beyond memorable. What I can never forget and will always look forward to before or after I see a movie there is their food. My personal favorite restaurant will always be their burger joint, “Bat 17”, which has probably the best pretzel bites ever. They can sometimes flunk every now and then with “Epic Burger”, but they continue to impress me ever since. The thing is that I have never been to their popular ones, “Farmhouse”, a cool-down, relaxing restaurant where people feel like they are at a legitimate farm.
Every time I look at “Restaurants Located at Evanston” on my phone, it would usually be one of the main ones that would pop up. I would react, “Why not go there and hope for the best?”, because I saw it had really great reviews according to what I looked up on my phone. I looked at their menu of course to see what they had and they had a selection of sandwiches such as a Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato Sandwich, a grass-fed Burger and a Grilled Cheese sandwich. It had strong potential of course as an independent restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner at different hours.
“Farmhouse” provides a wonderful, accurate atmosphere where you feel like you are at a old-style farm from around the early 1880’s as well as fresh, home-style food that is very much worth it.
When I walked into the restaurant entrance where it was literally connected to an enormously expensive “Hilton” hotel, the mood seemed deeply satisfying where you can see two hallways. It would be where one enters the dine-in area and the other entering into a unique, state-of-the-art stairway bathroom, which is one of the most unexpected things you would see at a restaurant. The person by the counter desk was very down-to-earth and let me look at their lunch menu. I saw that there was no Grilled Cheese sandwich on their lunch menu since I was in the mood for it that Saturday afternoon. I saw other things that were on their lunch menu like the BLT sandwich. That gave the flexible urge for me to say, “Let’s give it a chance!”.
To be honest, the atmosphere feels like you are at your own home where in the background, it plays chill-out instrumental music (that afternoon, it was Christmas music) in the veins of classic early ’60’s jazz music and the waiters are flawlessly positive and talkative. The decorations in the restaurant are another big positive where the walls look very wooden and authentic like a farm.
The drink I chose was my signature usual, 100% fresh-squeezed lemonade. Let me tell you this, the drink for sure fits the definition of it. They served my lemonade with a paper straw instead of plastic because of their full-out natural authenticity. It is not what you would expect from something like a typical Minute Maid drink with that being added by natural sugars. It instead tastes like it is squeezed lemons taken seriously as an lemon army.
To be aware, I chose that there was no time to order appetizers because I was going to see a 4:55 showing of Yorgos Lanthimo’s darkly comic “The Favourite”. So I decided to order my main entree right away which would be their BLT sandwich with a side of their fresh Kettle potato chips.
Like the usual chain restaurants “Wok n’ Fire” and “Red Robin”, the food surprisingly comes out really fast with a clean rectangle-glass plate presenting the customer’s food.
The BLT sandwich is cut in half in order to fit on the plate itself as well as the potato chips presented on the side. The sandwich tastes very fresh in a home-style way, but not in a enormously flawed kind of way. (Think of the Eddie Murphy “Home Burger” Sketch) The bread is a fluffy whole-wheat loaf while the Better Boy tomatoes and lettuce look very well chopped. There is also a garlic mayo tin cup on the side to put on the sandwich. Although the bacon might taste hard-to-chew at times, it is for sure a nice eat whenever you are finding for the perfect home-style BLT sandwich around Evanston.
The Kettle potato chips however are an equal version of Panera Bread where they come appropriately salty and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. However, begging the differ came in when I had to nab some of my dad’s fries during his enjoyment of his chicken sandwich he had. (I went with him as always to be aware). I think those are arguably the best-tasting fries that are not made from home-made potatoes I have ever had. The richness of the fried crust tasted no more than flawless and it overall tasted like pure magic. I should probably know for next time to get these instead of the potato chips.
I would highly recommend going to this place whenever anyone is having a nice night-out at Sherman Plaza in Evanston having fun shopping or watching a movie here because of the calm, chill-out mood and food “Farmhouse” has to offer.
Grade: 8/10
