This is a review of their Happy Hour.
The Skinny: overall, the food's not bad - but could use some refinement (3.5) Service: pretty good but we also hit the Happy Hour as soon as they started (3.5) Value: not bad during Happy Hour but seems rather expensive during regular hours.
We walked into Herbs and Rye and immediately felt like we were in some sort of vampiric den. No windows, not much light, my hubby and I squinted as we tried to read the menus. Not to mention being blinded every time the door was opened.
We were seated promptly being the first ones there. We ordered an arugula salad, the gnocchi and the steak with a side of truffled mac 'n cheese.
The arugula salad was okay - but nothing special. The peppery flavour of the lettuce was rather unbalanced - requiring more acidity. It really needed something sweet to even those aggressive flavours out. Perhaps beets or fruit or something.
The gnocchi was delicious albeit it was slightly overcooked (I felt it was a little on the softer side). It was light and fluffy which is really hard to find. The ragu was also quite tasty and mellow. I didn't think that the gnocchi dish was improved with the addition of bacon and could do without it.
The steak was fine- cooked properly. The side of truffled mac 'n cheese was okay but not great. The sauce was a little too runny while the cheese overwhelmed the truffle flavour a bit.
Overall, the dining experience would rate a 3. Just the gnocchi alone would get a 4. So we'll average it and call it a 3.5 star review.