While in Paso Robles a few weeks ago, we stopped by Thomas Hill Organics for lunch. The restaurant itself is a bit hard to find from the main strip in downtown Paso Robles. We had to walk through an olive oil shop to get to the courtyard, but I think the main entrance is actually in an alley. The prices on the menu were high, but I figured, if it’s tasty and indeed organic, the prices might be justified.
We started off with the olives, which I have to admit, were the best olives I’ve ever had. They were lightly brined, tender, juicy, and just so full of flavor that I wanted another serving by the time this was done. Still, six dollars is a lot to pay for just a handful of olives, even if they were delicious olives. I wish this was a larger serving.
Next, we had a cucumber, melon and mint gazpacho, which was an interesting dish. The coolness of the soup paired with the sweetness of the melon made this taste more like a smoothie than a gazpacho. The texture was also inconsistent because there were foamy, coarse cucumber bits at the top and thin, sweet liquid on the bottom. The fact that the gazpacho separated and the flavors didn’t mesh well at all made this dish a disappointment.
The beet salad that came after was certainly artfully plated. If only the same amount of care went into the actual flavor of the salad, the salad would have been a success. The few slices of beets and walnuts didn’t justify the hefty $10 price. We asked for the Humboldt Fog cheese, one of my favorites, to be served on the side instead of mixed into the salad. Even the delicious cheese couldn’t save this ho-hum salad.
Last came the grilled portabella sandwich with roasted red pepper. This tasted like what one would expect. Nothing really stood out in the sandwich, which is something that could be said about most of what we had at Thomas Hill Organics, save for the olives.
Thomas Hill Organics doesn’t serve bad food. The food was palatable, but not good enough to justify the high prices and small servings. Presentation-wise, the dishes looked good, but they just tasted souless. Maybe we just didn’t have enough wine to make the food taste delicious, but really, food should be tasty without having to drink a lot of booze.
Too bad about those beets. They look beet-iful!
Yeah. The beets were okay, but definitely not as good as they looked. Maybe I was just beet-ed out from all the beet salads I seemed to have had this season.
[...] mixed olive dish at Flora beat out Thomas Hill Organics as the best olives I’ve ever had because they were just as good and only a fraction of the price. Flora is the first place where I [...]