The Herbfarm

There is a restaurant in Washington State (in Woodinville) called the Herbfarm.

It is without doubt the best restaurant I’ve ever been to, and I consider myself very lucky in that I’ve been to some amazing restaurants all over the world.

This is DEFINITELY a special occasion place, as it’s just too expensive for mere mortals to go that regularly, but if you like a great dining experience and consider yourself a “foodie” I’d totally recommend you visiting if you get the chance.

The restaurant is a farm to table establishment, where they grow most of the produce and have special relationships with a number of local vendors to provide amazing ingredients to create a truly unforgettable meal.

If you like to eat and get out in 20 minutes, this is not for you. You arrive at 7 and are greeted with a cocktail (if you get there a little earlier you can get a tour around their gardens and taste some of the produce off the vine!).

Then service begins and you are lucky to get out by 11pm, so this is an experience, not just a meal.

After the first course, the owner and head chef comes out with the wine sommelier and they tell you about the menu and pairings. This includes telling you how they came up with the menu and where the ingredients came from. They introduce you to all the staff for the night and the meal continues.

You can purchase a wine pairing for each course, and if you aren’t a wine person you can try their botanicals. ( Trust me have the wine 🙂 )

I’ve been fortunate to visit the Herbfarm a few times now, and this year for my birthday I decided to invite James and Abi (and Aidan, Abi’s other half) to a birthday dinner. So, Lisa and I flew to Seattle (as we are now in Colorado) and Abi and Aidan flew in, as they are based in Fresno, California. We stayed at James’ for the weekend and on Saturday night we went to the Herbfarm for dinner.

We made this a “joint” birthday celebration as James had just had his birthday too.

The food was amazing, the wine unbelievable, and someone sensible (wasn’t me) took some pictures of each course. Lisa had the botanicals and James, Abi, Aidan and I had wine.

There were 10 courses in all, and you get a little menu book to take away showing you everything you had.

Below are pictures of the menu and each course.

Again, if you ever get the chance, and LOVE food and wine, treat yourself to an amazing evening.

Here’s a link to the restaurant’s web page. The Herbfarm.

Here’s the menu:

Here’s the family just before dinner:

And here’s the courses in order…