Located in the ravishing lobby of the Omni Hotel, The Conservatory restaurant serves New American small plates and entrées in addition to offering an extensive drink menu. With their Restaurant Week menu priced at $35 for a three-course meal — an appetizer, entrée and dessert — the bill for my friend and I totaled around $90, including tip. However, our meal did not reflect the high price — the restaurant left much to be desired in execution and taste.
A 30-minute walk or 8-minute drive from Central Grounds, The Conservatory is located at the tip of the Downtown Mall, a convenient location for students. Making a reservation is also easily accessible through their OpenTable site, a step which I recommend you take because it ensured my friend and I had a table secured Monday night.
As I entered the building, my first impression of the restaurant came from the dazzling lobby with floor-to-ceiling windows, an open-floor concept and a central bar. Understandably, my friend and I anticipated that our meal would match the elegance of the atmosphere. We were guided to a quieter area of the lobby, away from the central bar, and we were attended to immediately.
To our delight, the restaurant’s Restaurant Week menu featured more than 20 dishes — more than the typical one to three choices for each course. Our server let us know about the special of the night, a braised short rib on grits, which was included in the Restaurant Week menu at no added cost — though neither of us decided to order the dish.
For appetizers, we ordered the cheese board and tuna tartare — some of their more expensive small plates, regularly priced $16 and $15, respectively. The board featured three different cheeses, an assortment of nuts, a morsel of berries, fig spread and two measly garlic-seed crackers. The cheeses and crackers were thrown onto the board, not accounting for the difference in shape or texture of the cheese, and the berries, nuts and jam were placed on mismatched dishes atop the black slate plate. Despite the jumbled presentation, a carefully crafted bite of cracker, cheese and jam was enjoyable. However, this didn’t quite impress me, as a nice cheese and cracker combination is easy to come by both at home and out to eat.
The second small plate, the tuna tartar, was also unremarkable. The cubed fish, two wonton crackers and seaweed salad tasted equivalent to a Bento Sushi poke bowl. The menu claimed that the dish came with wasabi cream, but all we found on the plate was a white glob of cream that did not have the pungent bite of wasabi.
Despite my disappointment in the first course, I was excited for the next dish. I selected the “Prime Steak Frites,” which is regularly priced at $32 — nearly the price of the entire Restaurant Week deal. The presentation was much cleaner than the cheese board, as each ingredient was carefully placed. I began with the fries, which should have been an easy side to get right, but they were soggy and severely deficient in salt. Unimpressed with the fries, I moved onto the steak. Though my friend and I both requested medium-rare steak, we cut into our meat to find a light-grey center. The steak was also submerged in thick chimichurri sauce, and where we were expecting an oily, herbaceous bite, our palates were met with a bitter taste and grainy texture.
While the majority of the dish fell short, the highlight of the plate was the vegetable confit of mushrooms, onions and tomatoes on the side. A mixture of portobello and oyster mushrooms created a dynamic texture and delivered a lovely umami that enhanced the overall dish.
Despite the shortcomings of the previous two courses, I still held out hope for dessert. First up was a flourless chocolate cake which my friend ordered. While the cake itself was dense, a texture I typically seek in cakes, it lacked a rich, robust chocolate flavor and left a grainy feeling in my mouth. The dish especially faltered with a heavy whipped cream. It tasted like artificial sweetener, and I was disappointed it wasn't a light, airy cream.
Our second dessert was a “Virginia pie,” an apple pie with vanilla ice cream that “serves two-ish” people, per the menu. Surprisingly, the pie à la mode was the standout dish of the evening. It came out true to the menu with a healthy portion of both pie and ice cream. The ice cream had a soft, creamy texture. The pie had chunks of well-baked apple with a slight cinnamon taste and a solid crust which paired well with the ice cream.
While the food at The Conservatory was a letdown, the service was flawless. Throughout the evening, the wait staff constantly checked in and tended to us. Moreover, to its credit, The Conservatory’s Restaurant Week menu seems reasonably priced at $35 for the sheer amount of food you receive. However, if these dishes were individually priced at the original menu prices, it would have been severely disappointing.
I will add that there was a section of the menu that we did not test — their drinks. The restaurant is stocked with an extensive red and white wine selection, personalized cocktails, seltzers and beer. Overall, I would not recommend going for a sit down meal, but the restaurant may make for a nice date spot with its high quality bar and attractive location at the top of the Downtown Mall.
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