Alice Jones
Food Columnist
Our group of seven mobbed down Chestnut Street and walked into Blue Barn with expectations high and wallets at the ready — our big bucks turned into a long wait. The sign “Slow food takes time” hanging above the cashier shouldn’t be taken lightly.
The slowest plate was the Kid’s Grilled Cheese with white cheddar on Acme’s pan de mie. This tasty but tim-consuming grilled cheese was a whopping $7 and took over a half hour to be served. We should have noticed the “Please allow extra time” next to the Grilled Cheese in the hand-out menus. Nonetheless, it melted not only on the press but in the mouth.
The salads were the first to arrive, lead by the Winter Mix with dino kale, mixed greens, bleached heirloom broccoli, roasted winter squash and kumquat, dressed in a mix on balsamic vinaigrette and Meyer lemon juice. The salad is light and lemony with savory elements from the sprinkled pine nuts and parmesan mixed with the arugula.
The salads are huge and perfectly filling without any guilt, except possibly enjoying them too much. The Winter Mix was light and citrusy, with savory elements from the sprinkled pine nuts and parmesan mixed with the arugula.
The best salad is the Beets & Greens, filled with impeccably creamy, cool and smooth goat cheese with strawberries, cinnamon candied pecans and grilled balsamic onions in a balsamic vinaigrette. It’s always my go-to order, but experimenting with an additional scoop of albacore tuna salad on the side was not as tasty a combo as expected.
The Chinese Chicken Salad was served with chunks rather than traditionally shredded chicken. It was hard to get a perfect bite with the romaine lettuce, chicory chop, orange, carrot, snow peas, scallion, herbs, slivered almonds, a bunch of black sesame seeds and a few soba noodles in a sweet ’n’ sour vinaigrette.
I went out on a limb and ordered a random sandwich, the Truffle. When it was presented to me I was starving and thrilled, but as I dove into the thinly-sliced peppered turkey breast, brie d’affinois, balsamic onion, and Roma tomato, I realized the pieces of the herbed focaccia were relatively small. The portion was fine but the price was 10 bucks and didn’t seem all that worth it.
It was worth it to get the cup of french fries with my sandwich, which saved me 75 cents for the same size a la carte. Some of my dining companions were not fans of the canola and olive oil mix used in the fryer, but I thought the oils gave the potatoes a nice solid salty crunch.
Other friends of mine branched out ordered the Falafel — which ended up to be a disappointment. The falafel patty was overly crispy and pretty hard, making it pretty dry, and came between too-thick pieces of whole wheat bread instead of a more appropriate pita. Blue Barn’s attempt at a falafel sandwich definitely fell short.
A sandwich that always comes up strong is the Skirt, a grilled Niman Ranch skirt steak with melted provolone on a ciabatta roll spread with a rosemary aioli and packed with arugula, Roma tomato and balsamic onion. This sandwich is dripping with the juices from the incredibly tender beef and the heart of the loving chef preparing it.
I have been frequenting Blue Barn for years and I was disappointed to introduce this restaurant to peers of mine when it didn’t live up to my expectations. For first timers I would suggest ordering salads with no additions and trusting the original flavor combinations.
