If you are looking for a restaurant that would be good for a date night, a night out with some friends, dinner with the family including the kids or some happy hour drinks with coworkers – I recently tried Flour in Moreland Hills, Ohio and this should be on the top of your list! They have the perfect options for anyone with dietary needs, as they have options on the menu for the meat lovers and for the non meat lovers. From pizza to pasta – and even for the seafood lovers.
Bar Area 
Kitchen
The restaurant is split into a bar area, a dining area with an area that can be closed off for private events and an outdoor patio. They have an open kitchen concept, which I always enjoy being able to see what is going on in the back of the house. The bar area tends to be filled with locals that know it’s the spot to be at. If you do sit in the dining room area, like we did, it is actually pretty quiet. We did not get much noise from the bar side and my guess is because of where the wine cabinet sits it blocks most of the noise from the dining area. I feel like this is important if you are looking for a place to take the whole family or are just looking to have a more intimate dinner.
Private Dining Area 
Let’s get started on the drinks and food.
Orange Fennel Old Fashioned
We started off with some drinks. Flour’s drink menu has many different options from beer to mix drinks to wine. Their wine menu has a good amount of wine by the glass and an extensive bottle menu. I enjoyed when you walk into the restaurant that the wine case is the center focal point. My friend ordered Montepulciano, a dry red wine that she very much liked. Since I have a great love for bourbon I decided to try a cocktail, the orange fennel old fashioned. This was made with Bullet Bourbon, Orange-Fennel honey and has a candied orange, as a garnish. This drink was slightly sweet, but not too sweet with the right amount of bourbon. The other thing on the drink menu that caught my eye is that Flour has the Flour Mule on tap. I have never seen or tried Moscow Mules on tap and this very much intrigues me.
Flour changes their menu a couple times a year. We currently tried items off the winter 2021 menu.
We tried 6 different options on the menu and a dessert. The first course or appetizers consisted of the Big A$$ Meatball, off the appetizer portion of the menu and the Eggplant Meatballs, from the sides portion of the menu. The Big A$$ Meatball comes with whipped ricotta and reggiano cheese and is covered in Flour’s homemade marinara sauce. I am not typically a huge fan of ricotta cheese but the whipped ricotta works really well with this meatball. By mixing the ricotta with sugar free whipped cream it gives it more of a light airy texture. The meatball itself had tons of flavor by itself and the marinara and cheese only added to that. When the meatball came out it is exactly as described and you will not be disappointed. It really is a big A$$ meatball and the perfect size to split in half, or even in fours. Its like having everything you love about spaghetti without all the carbs.
The eggplant meatballs taste like you are having a meatball made of meat without the meat. People who love meat and don’t will both love these meatballs. They use two different types of eggplant. One is finely chopped and the other is roasted and puree. The roasting of the eggplant provides it more of a smoky flavor so that the eggplant meatball has more of a meaty flavor. The mixed eggplant is then breaded and what appeared to be fried. It reminded me of arancini just with eggplant in the center instead of rice. They were served with Reggiano cheese and marinara. These were very unique and a must try item on the menu. The marinara for both of these dishes was not acidic but had amazing flavor.
We were also served bread with olive oil, red pepper, and cheese. I never realized how much salt on a piece of bread can change your world. The bread was slightly crunchy and pillow soft in the middle. The salt really made these pieces of bread. We mixed the olive oil with the red pepper flake and cheese for dipping which the bread soaked up nicely.
Our next course was two of Flour’s more popular pasta dishes. The Tagliatelle Bolognese and the Ricotta Agnolotti. They were both fabulous for completely different reasons. Let’s start with the Bolognese. The noodles for this dish are on the wider side but were cooked to the perfect consistency. They were not too soft or too al dente. This has a traditional meat sauce on it but the sauce seemed to almost have a smoky flavor to it. I normally ask for cheese on any spaghetti type dish I get. I did not with this and it did not need it. The sauce had so much flavor that there was no need for cheese. The second pasta dish we tried was the Ricotta Agnolotti. Once again I’m going to say it “I do not eat ricotta”. Well I loved this dish, ricotta and all. Which is why I am always up to try any and everything at least once. The noodles in this dish are a less dense version of ravioli. It is one noodle instead of two and the noodle is folded over the ricotta cheese. Once again the ricotta was not over powering and work very well with the carrot sauce with mint and truffle. Which who would have ever guessed those four ingredients would work so well in a dish. The consistency of the carrot sauce is like a glaze instead of a traditional marinara sauce, which was also very unique and intriguing to me. The mint in this dish was also very subtle. Lastly, the noodles were topped with a light sprinkle of breadcrumbs. I thought the breadcrumbs gave the dish some added texture with the little bit of crunch with the soft cheesy noodles. These are both must try items.
We then tried the Seared Pacific Halibut, which is a newer item to the menu, and the Grilled Asparagus. The Halibut comes with brown butter, balsamic, caperberries and peas. I am normally pretty picky how my fish is cooked, as it needs to be cooked enough but with fish it can’t be cooked too much. The halibut was cooked perfect and the brown butter balsamic sauce worked very well with the white fish. It did not over power the fish but added to the flavor. The caperberries added a saltiness to the dish, which was fine but I do not believe it needed it. The fish with the sauce was excellent on it’s own. The side dish we tried with this was the grilled asparagus, which is listed under the sides on the menu. One it worked really well with the halibut. Two, who would have ever thought about making asparagus like a Caesar salad? I have been missing this in my life for sure. The grilled asparagus comes out with caesar dressing, breadcrumbs, lemon and reggiano cheese on top. I was completely mind blown at how amazing this was. The asparagus was cooked to the right amount of crispiness, as in my opinion it should not be soft but al dente. The breadcrumbs on top added a nice little crunch to the dish and the dressing and cheese just work so well with this vegetable.
Lastly, we tried the Tiramisu cake. I appreciated that the cake was dense and not too soft. It had the right amount of coffee flavor, as sometimes it can be too over powering. The dessert had even distribution between cake, chocolate, and whipped topping. Even though this was in a cake form the flavor and texture still reminded me of a more traditional version of this dessert.
As we were leaving we picked up a package of Flour’s noodles that they distribute in some local grocery stores, Heinen’s being one of them and a jar of their homemade marinara sauce. This way we could take a taste of Flour home with us. They are also working on selling them online, so keep an eye out for that.
I love when I get to try new restaurants and even love it more when I go and I am mind blown at how amazing everything is. I was impressed at the quality of all the items we tried. The uniqueness of some of the dishes and that they are done so well. The fish was cooked just as well, as some of the restaurants I have been to that specialize in seafood. This speaks volumes to the product that Flour produces. I am such a fan of this restaurant and can’t wait to visit again real soon.