Indy.com
Today:
FARMBloomington...STAY AWAY
Posted: Mar 31, 2008 in Things to do, Dining
Tags:
On Saturday night, we trekked to Bloomington from Indy's northside to celebrate my birthday at the new, much-hyped FARMBloomington. Let's just say, the entire evening, from soup to nuts, was an unmitigated disaster.
Food
Average bordering on bad. Personally I ordered the endive Caesar salad and FARM Burger. Now I realize endive is an unusual lettuce, with some bite, but this was inedible. The dressing was thin and strangely spicy, the hearts of endive were awful, and frankly I just couldn't choke it down. A few people ordered the soup, which was much better, although served lukewarm and a full 15 minutes after half our group received our salads. Awkward! My burger was decent, I liked that it was served on a baguette. I also tasted the skirt steak that was a rather weak presentation of one of my favorite cuts of beef.
Atmosphere
Totally kitchy and very crowded. It is a very casual atmosphere, although the service was pretty pretentious (more on that below). It was loud and the tables were placed very closely together. There are knick knacks and crap for sale EVERYWHERE. Think an independent Cracker Barrel.
Service
This was the real problem. We were a group of 13, all from Indy, to celebrate my birthday in a casual, adult atmosphere. Inexplicably, we were placed in a room of the restaurant labeled "The Quiet Room." Why a restaurant would seat a large group celebrating an occasion in this portion of the restaurant escapes me. We had one frazzled server, who couldn't keep up. As I indicated, the first course was served at all different times. At one point, the server actually spilled some wine on my head. He was unconcerned.
To make matters worse, we were asked to quiet down. Fine, I understand we were getting rowdy (again, this was Saturday night in a LOUD, crowded restaurant, full of adults). However, the service was so openly hostile, that we felt we needed to speak to the manager about it, especially considering we had just paid hundreds of dollars for our meal. The manager then falsely accused an unidentified member of our group of using a homophobic slur numerous times. This is a complete fabrication, as we were a very diverse group, consisting of numerous religious, ethnic, and national backgrounds, including a gay male. No one in the course of the night uttered any slurs whatsoever, although I am sure there was some cursing. However, the restaurant seemed intent on excusing its own poor service because of our alleged behavior. The entire experience was pretentious, self-righteous, and frustrating. And to be insult your guests and falsely accuse them rather than taking responsibility for FARM's own weak performance is inexcusable to me. Our meal was completely unaccpetable, offensive, and it ruined my birthday night.
In conclusion, I would not recommend anyone patronize this restaurant. I sent FARM an email, voicing my displeasure, with no response. I am disappointed that I cannot recommend an independently owned venture, however, their customer service was absolutely atrocious and the food was subpar.
Being seated in a "quiet room," having wine spilled on your head AND false accusations sounds like quite the horrible birthday experience. Hope the rest of your night was better! Happy belated b-day and thanks for sharing your story.
Not to make light but it sounds like the rest of southern Indiana's restaurants. We have some hilarious (but only in hindsight) experiences at restaurants in So Indiana while visiting friends and family.
You should have gone to Opie Taylor's then Sports.
I ate at FARMBloomington recently and had a fabulous experience. Loved the atmosphere, the service was great, and the fool was AMAZING - I had the Ahi tuna and my date had the skirt steak (higly recommend both)! I will definately be back.
Oops! The FOOD was amazing. :)
Your whole comment sounds like an effort to cover up your group's behavior. I was at Farmbloomington the night you were celebrating your birthday. My husband and I were visiting friends and decided to try the restaurant. We were seated in the back room because the dining room was full, but after a few minutes it was clear that if we wanted to enjoy our meal, and company, we needed to be moved. We spoke with management, but could only be moved if we wanted to be on the waiting list, so we decided to endure your celebration. I understand that it was your birthday, but your party had clearly been drinking before you came in to Farm. You were all loud, obnoxious, had an air of self-importance, and expletives were flying around like you were at a frat party. You were also overheard being rude to your server. You might as well have been celebrating at one of the bars on Kirkwood. I am sorry, but you keep mentioning in your article that you were in an adult restaurant. So, why didn't you act like it? As for the food and the atmosphere, everything we tried that evening was delicious. It is comfort food with a twist, and it's done beautifully. The atmosphere is kitschy, yes, but it only adds to the fun, light-hearted atmosphere. I rarely read blogs because I am a true believer in the saying, "Those who cannot do, critique, and those who cannot critique, blog", but a friend of mine, who is a total foodie and looking for new places to try, pointed your's out to me. I will be back to Farm the next time I am in town, and I am glad to hear that you won't be there.
I could only imagine it being over-crowded considering this was IU's graduation day. EVERYTHING in B-town was overcrowded Saturday.
Localvore07 -
First of all, I would like to apologize if we spoiled your night at Farm. I certainly don't believe we were more entitled to the space than the other patrons, and I readily admit, we were a loud and probably borderline obnoxious group. However, that being said, as you yourself stated, it was supposed to be a "fun and lighthearted atmosphere" on an extremely busy Saturday night. The restaurant was by no means an intimate or quiet affair. And considering the casual atmosphere, in Bloomington, on a Saturday night at 8:00, I had hoped that a celebratory group of thirteen would not be a problem. And Farm was thrilled to take the reservation knowing we were celebrating a birthday and was more than happy to sell and serve our group cocktails without reservation.
My major complaint is that the service and food were subpar in my opinion and that we weren't treated as guests who were paying for the experience. I certainly understand that we were not the easiest group to accommodate, but I do believe that professionals such as Daniel Orr should be used to handling parties large and small. And that night, they were not able to. I don't think conflating the two issues of us being loud and receiving uneven service and poor food is reasonable. To be falsely accused of homophobic epithets is just a fabrication that offended me.
The point I most disagree with from your post is the value of food and dining blogs. In fact this very conversation demonstrates otherwise. How lucky for consumers that they can read two accounts of the same evening and make an educated decision for themselves whether they want to spend their hard earned money at Farm. All in all, I think it is great that people are offered differing perspectives, because when it comes to food, it is certainly all a matter of personal tastes and we can agree to disagree.
Your whole comment sounds like an effort to cover up your group's behavior. I was ...
are you kidding me!? can you just admit you work for or have some vested interest in the restaurant, PLEASE!? the girl writes a review of a restaurant and a month later a "friend" of yours tell you about this post bashing the restaurant and you just happen to show up and dispute her post. give me a break.
a. Bloomington is a college town b. it was her f'ing birthday! c. people in our demographic drink d. groups of people in a restaurant are generally a bit louder than the average couple
the bottom line is, this did happen to her and according to many (not just on this site) the service at said restaurant blows goats. i'm sorry if you own this place but maybe you should take comments like Hannah's to heart and learn from them instead of trying to lay blame.
i cannot believe i'm commenting on this post which is almost 2 months old. i need to go to bed.