I love it when I visit a restaurant and discover something totally unexpected. The newly opened Urban Spoon did just that. I went prepared for sandwiches and salads. What I found was more of a meat-and-three kind of place. Yet it went way beyond that, too. The menu boasted dishes of home-style appeal with updated culinary touches.
THE MENU
Take, for instance, the pork-n-beans. Yes, shredded pork was in the bowl, but with white beans in a savory broth topped with cheddar cheese, this dish was certainly not any ordinary campfire dish. And the smoked beef brisket? Well, I’ve been judging barbecue contests for years and never had anything close to the brisket served at The Urban Spoon with its zesty green chili gravy. But to keep it like home cooking, it is served with mashed potatoes and collard greens.
One of the things I really like about The Urban Spoon is the portion size. We noticed that children’s plates have the same foods the adults get, only scaled down for smaller appetites. The great thing is, grown-ups can order kiddie portions, called Mini Me meals. It’s about half the price with all the taste.
To get a good field of flavor, we Mini-Me’d the smoked chicken salad, pork-n-beans and Georgia pecan-crusted chicken. The chicken salad was pretty to look at and pretty good to eat. Though onion and eggs in my chicken salad are not to my liking, the salad was still good – the chicken very tender and the mayonnaise sauce quite flavorful. The Urban Spoon put the wow factor in the pecan-crusted chicken and pork-n-beans, though. I could actually taste the pecan in the crust, something I’ve missed in other pecan-crusted items. And the bowl of pork-n-beans was tender and flavorful.