Restaurant Guide 2006

Remember the first time you tried to make a fancy meal for your family? How difficult it was to get everything just right? Well, Farm Cafe replicates that experience. Pleasant staffers mean well here, but often find themselves on shaky legs, wandering away mid-question, forgetting the basics (like utensils) and mangling pronunciations. Luckily, the food is playfully inspired and unpretentiously tasty. Salads feature the best of the harvest, like plump marionberries over hearts of romaine. A special of chipotle prawns with grits and greens was an inspired turn on the classic Southern shrimp and grits—so thoroughly Portland-ized that most locals wouldn't realizing they were chowing on comfort food. The veggie-leaning entrees—fish is the only food here with a heartbeat—tend to lean heavily on the cheese, with stomach-filling dishes like goat-cheese ravioli and a Dungeness crab risotto spiked with pungent Gorgonzola. (AV)