Plates an American Bistro

Friday 6:30 pm, many noisy kids. Stems are set on each table. A little odd combo. I've seen kids (well behaved) in a wine bar but not this many and this rambunctious.

Food and service are good. Clean bathroom.

Amazing! Everything we tried was delicious and the service was outstanding!

Baked Brie (5): Drizzled in honey and surrounded by apple slices, the Brie was baked in a perfect crust.

Hawaiian Ribs (5): Fall-off-the-bone perfection in a sweet teriyaki-like pineapple glaze. Served with some fried rice which actually paired well with the ribs.

Brisket Grilled Cheese Sandwich (5): Tender brisket paired with melted cheese. There's some mustard in there that contrasted the flavors well. Bread was toasted nicely. We got it with their homemade chips and sweet potato fries.

Spumoni Bomba (5): Chocolate, strawberry, and spumoni ice cream in a dark chocolate shell. The owner, Marlene, said they ship it from Italy. It was the perfect ending to a delicious meal.

Service was also super friendly and personable. We're fans and will return.

Plates, an American Bistro, is a welcome addition to the PV dining scene. It is the best restaurant that we have on "the hill." At the west end of the mall, the restaurant is conveniently located by the parking garage. The space has an upscale bistro vibe - a full bar with surrounding seating, a semi-open kitchen, and an attractive dining room with a mix of banquettes and chairs. The dark woods and black and grey color scheme add a touch of formality to the space.

There was a decent crowd for dinner on Thursday night, but we were able to be seated immediately without a reservation for dinner. There is no kids menu...bummer...but they are kid friendly, which is important on hamburger hill. I would classify the service as semi-professional but SUPER friendly which makes up for oversights in service. Two of the owners - Marlene and Chuck - went around greeting patrons. Marlene is warm and friendly.

Our party of three adults decided to sample a bit of what the menu had to offer by sharing plates. Some plates knocked it out of the park and some did not. We had:

Scallop Special ($23): hands down, the best dish of the night. Four scallops (about the diameter of a quarter and 1" thick) were perfectly seared and served atop a butternut squash-carrot puree with roasted Brussels sprouts and little bacon cubes. Did I die and go to heaven? The buttery, velvety scallops were perfectly cooked with nary a hint of grit. The puree was naturally sweet and perfectly seasoned. The slightly salted bacon and crunchy sprouts were fresh and an excellent compliment to the puree. We shared this as an appetizer - next time, this is my dinner order and I will not be sharing. ;) Also, the plate was BEAUTIFUL but I was too quick to eat it before taking a pic.

Brisket Grilled Cheese ($14): 1/2" thick slices of flavored French bread (maybe wheat) are buttered and grilled around uber tender slices of brisket, spicy brown mustard, broccoli rabe, sliced tomato and white cheese. Yummy delicious gluttony. The LO freaked about the greens and the rabe, but she otherwise enjoyed the sandwich. The adults thought it was AWESOME. It was served with housemade potato chips that DH and the kids loved.

Cajun Shrimp and Grits ($23): a bed of underseasoned polenta topped with five butterflied shrimp with a hash of veggies that definitely included zucchini, yellow squash and onions. This was the miss of the evening - the polenta had no flavor, the shrimp were underseasoned (they had Cajun seasoning color but no such flavor) and nearly overcooked (on the way to tough), and the veggies were okay but not enough to rescue the dish. Edible but I would not order this again.

Gruyere Popovers ($5): three popovers are served warm with ice cold butter. These were another miss. The base of the popover was crisp, but it was tough - a problem throughout this popover. The ice cold butter just cooled the popover down and did not melt. The cheese tasted more like a mild Swiss than a nutty gruyere. Edible but skip it.

Fried Chicken Sandwich ($11): a SUPER generous sandwich made from an 8" fresh, crusty French roll of excellent quality with a bacon aioli that has two deep fried paillards of chicken with a spicy coating and is topped with housemade pickle slices and a tangy slaw. I would skip the aioli next time in favor of that spicy mustard, because it was pretty underwhelming. Otherwise, this sandwich was on-point. The chicken is super tender, and the fresh toppings are crunchy and tangy. This is also served with a very generous portion of the housemade chips.

Brussels sprouts gratin ($8): an oval dish has two cups of halved Brussels sprouts tossed in a cream sauce and finished with toasted breadcrumbs. This dish is very good, but very rich. I would have preferred roasted Brussels sprouts, but it will not stop me from ordering this again.

They have a full bar. DH had the oatmeal stout ($7.50 per 12 oz. glass), which he thoroughly enjoyed. DM had the Pomelo Sauv Blanc ($7/glass) which is a favorite of mine from WAY back. Love this wine.

All of the desserts are made in house - Robert Bell wrote the savory menu, and the head chef in the kitchen was a former pastry chef, so he wrote the dessert menu. We ordered the Caramel Chocolate Tart ($9) and definitely finished the meal on a high note! A fresh graham cracker crust is topped with a layer of caramel and then a layer of pots d crème and sprinkled with powered sugar and served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. OMG. The crust is butter and crunchy, the caramel is toasty and fresh, and the chocolate is rich and delicious. Splitting this three ways was a rich and wonderful way to finish our meal.

Plates is a WELCOME addition to the hill. I look forward to coming back to this warm and friendly restaurant with some excellent options on the menu.

Really yummy! I came in for lunch and they have a ton of options! Picked the 1/2 sandwich and soup or salad. I was about to order the salad when my waitress told me about their great Borscht Soup! It serve red hot with a dollop of sour cream. Really exceptional!

My sandwich was the Miami Roast Pork with braised pork, ham, Swiss, pickles and mustard on a Cuban roll. This is also serve red hot and the first thing that struck me was how wonderfully juicy this sandwich is.

All this for only $12. I could not recommend this place more!!!!

I'm not sure if I went here on what is an off night, or what, but our experience at this restaurant was bad enough that I won't risk returning to see if it is an outlier. Starting out, we had to wait about 10 minutes for even a drink order to be taken and there were only about 3-5 other parties of 2 in the entire restaurant. We ordered the beet salad, a standard cheeseburger and pot of chicken.

Beet salad - baby arugula, beets, pancetta, burrata and pistachios. Wow. If you name a salad 'beet salad', you shouldn't serve canned beet slices (or beet slices that you somehow manage to duplicate the vile taste of canned beets). Start with fresh baby beets and roast them. Second, ICE COLD PANCETTA, seriously, why would anyone ever put disgusting cold chewy pancetta on a salad. On the positive side, the arugula was fresh and tasted great plus the pistachios provided some salt and crunch. The burrata was fine. I would avoid this salad at all costs.

Standard cheeseburger with sweet potato fries. The cheeseburger was ordered medium, and was delivered medium rare. Not a huge demerit, but the meat wasn't great quality and it was simply fine. The sweet potato fries were great!

Pot of chicken - roast chicken, carrots, matzo ball, celery in broth. This was a large serving, unfortunately not good. The roast chicken was so dry that is was nearly inedible (plus it had an odd aftertaste - it could have been old or some odd flavor imparted on the oven roasting). The vegetables were cut too large and weren't really cooked. The matzo ball was gooey and not even close to what I would consider a reasonable approximation of a true matzo ball. The broth had little to no body, so I'm guessing it was canned broth and not in house stock.

It's really a pity because with a little bit of attention this food could be much better. I don't see this restaurant lasting at all with this level of food quality at these prices. Sorry I didn't take any photos, I was so caught off guard by the meal I totally forgot to take any.

The service is slow here...so expect to wait for each item you order...also our server didn't seem too knowledgeable about the menu items. We ordered the brussels sprouts and bruschetta as the appetizer. So for the main entrees I shared the Hawaiian ribs and the oyster mushroom burger. The Hawaiian ribs were fall off the bone, but the marinade was too sweet. Also, they made an attempt with the fried rice but failed miserably...it was soggy and not very authentic. The burger patty was bland but overall it wasn't horrible, just lackluster. I enjoyed the brussel sprouts as the cheese sauce was very creamy and rich and the bread crumbs gave it a nice texture. I did also enjoy the bruschetta but must warn you it's not the typical kind...it's very tangy and it tastes like olives. The others didn't care for it, but I actually liked it. The picture looked better than the actual taste of everything. It didn't impress me and I don't think I'll be back here.

We have been twice already and are absolutely thrilled by this new addition to the dining options in the Peninsula.
The menu features a variety of dishes from different culinary traditions and the quality is excellent.
My first time here I had the 1/2 rack of Hawaiian ribs and they were tasty and tender, cooked to perfection.
The second time I went for a quick bite and had their Plates burger, which was perfectly seasoned. The meat tasted great.
The service was courteous and very friendly.
I also had the pleasure of meeting the owners Chuck and Marlene: when they heard my Italian accent, they shared a lot of funny stories of their trips in Italy (Chuck is of Italian heritage too). I cannot wait to be back and try some of their other dishes!

Fantastic food and ambiance. Today's specialmfor dessert is Bomba. To die for! Well, almost.

Highly recommended!!!
The owners are fun and personable, the menu is eclectic and interesting and the food is fresh and delicious!
Also, great bar!!!!
Will def be back!

Great shrimp cocktail! Personable staff. Discovered them 2 weeks ago. Been in 3 times since then

March 2017 update: went in for happy hour on a Wednesday and there was a rockin' birthday party in the bar. Yay for the birthday girl, but the hostess put us in the dining area and after we were seated she told us we couldn't get happy hour service :/ I would have felt better if they had that on their sign out front. It was really loud and I was a bit disappointed that the owners (who were both there) didn't take more pains to make sure their patrons in the dining area felt that their business was valuable too.