Stanford's (Northgate Mall)

Stanford's has been open at the Northgate Mall for only a couple weeks now, so I try to keep that in mind as I sit down to eat. The first thing one notices upon entering the restaurant is the decor: deep reds and dark wood, with some Asian-inspired lanterns hanging in various places. It's...unique, for lack of a better word.

The host seats us with a promise that someone "will be right with us." About five minutes later, we are still sitting. Waiting for that someone. (As I'm waiting, I can't help but notice the abundance of water spots on the silverware, though I suppose that can be overlooked.)

Finally, we're greeted by an obviously nervous, and definitely new to the industry young lady, who offers us an iced tea or a strawberry lemonade. Intrigued by the large variety of cocktails, I order a pineapple mojito and my dining companion orders a "hand dipped" milkshake, of the vanilla persuasion. (Upon arrival, the milkshake is really more like a glass full of soft serve ice cream, impossibly thick and not fit for drinking with a straw.)

It takes quite some time for our drinks to make it back to the table (a little over five minutes, probably) and upon their delivery, our server asks if we are ready to order, laughing nervously, as she continues to do throughout our limited conversation with her. I feel as though I'm having to prod her for any and all information. She doesn't seem to be extremely knowledgeable about the menu, and she freely admits she hasn't had many of the items her restaurant offers. We finally decide on our selections: salmon off the fresh sheet for me (normally served with the seasonal veggie and wild rice and orzo, but I opt to sub out the rice for garlic mashed potatoes for $1 more) and for my companion, the blueberry pork tenderloin. I decide to start with the wild greens tossed with candied walnuts in the walnut vinaigrette, and he with a house salad. We are also offered bread with our salads, which turns out to be a traditional sour dough.

Our salads arrive promptly and I immediately fall in love with my choice. The vinaigrette is perfectly tart and sweet, the pecans are crunchy and plentiful and the bleu cheese crumbles are a delightful compliment to both. The house salad is standard, though the presentation is quite pretty. The produce on both salads is extremely fresh.

We finish our salads, anticipating the main course, but the timing of the meal has been a little off, from the beginning. We wait nearly ten minutes between the salads and the entrees. (Though I did say at the time that I would rather wait a little while for my meal than have it arrive while still eating my salad.)

Finally, the main courses arrive, on dinnerware reminiscent of Mom and Pop diners. Quite frankly, I found the plating to clash with the rest of the decor; I might even use the word "tacky."

We dig in to our meals, and immediately I notice that my "seasonal veggie" is exactly five green beans, no more, no less. It was more like a garnish, really, just something green on the edge of the plate. My salmon is...fine. Not great, not terrible, just...good. I might go as far as to say "pretty good." The pork tenderloin? A bit of a disappointment to the both of us. It's slightly dry and the sauce is a bit indiscernable. It too, is...fine. We both eat about three quarters of our meals before throwing in the towel, either full from the food...or maybe just bored with it.

I request to see the dessert menu, as dessert is my favorite part of a meal. We settle on the Texas Pecan Pie, a la mode. (We ask our server if the pie is baked in house but she doesn't know. We later learn that it is.) The pie is quite good, and we figure that it must be called Texas pecan pie because of the size of it. We eat as much as we can, but do not succeed in finishing it.

All in all, I think "mediocre" may have too negative a connotation to use it when describing Stanford's, though I can't really think of a better word. I do want to stress that when I dined at Stanford's, it had only been open a very short time. It usually takes a restaurant a good couple months to iron out the kinks and really start working like a well oiled machine.

At the end of our meal, our check totals just around $60: not bad considering two specialty drinks, two salads, entrees and dessert.

To sum it up:
Food: B-
Service: C+
Atmosphere: B
Value: B

Will I go back? Yes, I'll return to Stanford's in a month or two, to see how they're doing after settling in a bit. I have a feeling that this restaurant has a lot of potential: the menu is quite large with a big variety of foods, and it's priced from around $13 to around $35. The location is great too, and I wouldn't be surprised if Stanford's is in full swing by Thanksgiving.