Florida Restaurants

Florida Restaurants

• foodie4eva 15 years ago
  If you want to post a review of any restaurant in Florida, please post it in here as a reply, and just give the name of the restaurant and the city in the subject line. Thanks!
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• foodie4eva 15 years ago said:
  Lately, I have been lamenting about the diminished quality of the food at the restaurants that I have been to lately, blamed it on the restaurateur’s and chef’s reactions to the soured economy, and complained that instead of sacrificing the QUALITY of the food, either raise the prices or practice “portion control”, which I believe is SORELY LACKING in general here in the United States.
  I mean, seriously, who needs to eat until they are stuffed and take a doggy bag home every time they eat out?? You may *feel* like you are getting value for your money, but look at the economics of it more closely. You eat too much at the restaurant because it is in front of you, and then in order to not waste food, you take a doggy bag home; you can’t go anywhere else after the restaurant except straight home because the food will go bad; and how many of you actually eat the leftovers; and if you can’t take the leftovers the restaurant has to throw it out, resulting in higher waste removal costs which they pass on to you. So when taking a closer look, you will find that the practice is extremely wasteful and unnecessarily increases food costs and operating costs for restaurants, which again, results in reduction of food quality in favor of quantity. It makes NO sense to me! Sorry for the rant….I feel much better now…..
  Today, I had the pleasure of eating one of the finest meals I have ever eaten in my life.
  I went to Melbourne to visit my parents, and we went for lunch at a new restaurant, Tonic, that had opened up about 3-4 weeks ago (according to my mother) in Indialantic on SR A1A amid pretty rave reviews.
  Tonic is best described as a New-American Cuisine with a French influence. It is right across the street from the Atlantic Ocean, and on a warm, sunny day there is the opportunity to dine outside on their patio. Today was beautifully sunny, but cold (well, Florida’s version of cold—57*) and windy. It was more the wind that drove everyone inside than the raw temp.
  
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• foodie4eva 15 years ago said:
  The dining room is simple and elegant in a soft mustard and black appointment; modern in style which suits the cuisine and the ambience quite well. The hostess seated us immediately, and service was prompt and professional throughout the meal. Our server took our drink orders, and offered that while we were contemplating the menu to keep in mind that all their vegetable offerings were grown organically, locally bought whenever possible, and they used only heirloom tomatoes grown from 100-year-old rootstock, and heirloom lettuce as well. My kind of restaurant! She also prepared us with the statement “all our dishes are portion controlled, they are petit, so it is quite appropriate to start with an appetizer and move to the entrée and so on…” I had to laugh to myself, because although I was SO excited that she actually mentioned portion control, the real reason she felt compelled to do so was because we (Americans) are so geared to these big, honking ‘nobody-could-eat-all-this-in-one-sitting’ portions, that the restaurants actually have to apologize for the portion control so people won’t walk out. Sad, really. Anyway……
  We started with the seafood bisque all around. I have to mention right here that all courses were served personally by the Executive Chef, Jason Clark, which is the single most impressive operational aspect that a restaurant can practice. The bisque was served in simple square white porcelain dishes, and was sublimely smooth and creamy with a medley of lump crab, calamari (perfectly poached) and sea scallop bits. It was perfectly seasoned for a first course—rich, but not too rich, full of flavor and absolutely the freshest seafood as can be had. It was garnished with a touch of chives for color contrast, and served with a crostini, glazed in the most heavenly quality butter compound, and broiled until it was golden-brown and cracker-like.
  We moved to our entrees which came in just the right amount of time for us to finish the first course and contemplate the delightful feeling the bisque left us with, and anticipate the next course.
  
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• foodie4eva 15 years ago said:
  I ordered the Vanilla-butter poached Chilean Sea Bass with sour-cherry reduction, served over fingerling potatoes and wilted seasonal greens, garnished with daicon micro-greens. Oh, my!! Never has such a decadent mouthful passed my lips! The plating was a work of art, with the greens on the bottom in a light vinaigrette, fingerling potatoes laid on top of the greens, the fish (beautiful white flesh) stacked on top of the potatoes, a drizzle of sour cherry reduction--bright red against the white of the fish, and a daicon microgreen garnish on top. The bass was poached to perfection, and the butter so rich and delicious with the hint of vanilla so subtle and perfect that your mind wonders what that layer of flavor is, really…..the sour cherry reduction on top is balanced so carefully in quantity that it is amazing—any more than was present would have overwhelmed the fish, and any less would have been a disappointment. The only thing that wasn’t absolutely perfect was the potatoes. I hate to even mention it, but if I weren’t perfectly honest, what is the point of a review, right? The potatoes were rather undercooked, or maybe the variety of potato (“baby” California Long Whites) is not conducive to the method of cooking that the chef chose, but whatever it was, it was really inconsequential, because the rest of the dish was perfect, and I was full when I finished.
  My father ordered the appetizer-portion of bluecrab gratin, which was served with four crostini as an accompaniment, and my father, who is a light-eater was hard pressed to finish it, but finish it he did, saying that there was no way he was leaving even one morsel of that behind! LOL
  He did allow me one bite, and I immediately knew why he couldn’t help but finish every morsel. It was the most sophisticated balance of flavors I have ever tasted, everything complementing every other aspect of the dish, and nothing overpowering any other element. One bite and you are hooked….it is more addictive than, well, I don’t know what to compare it to. One wants to keep eating until one pops…thank God for portion control here!! LOL
  My mother had the chicken and goat cheese quesadilla, which sounds like a common dish, and what can you REALLY do that is unique and innovative with a quesadilla and still preserve the integrity of the dish, right? WELL……first of all, it wasn’t round. LOL It was rectangular, cut into smaller rectangles to accommodate sharing—well, if one was inclined to share, that is…..the chicken, perfectly cooked and seasoned and shredded finely was accompanied beneath the crispy white corn tortilla by red and yellow roasted peppers and heirloom tomatoes and leaf lettuce and just the right amount of goat cheese, and to make it REALLY special, there was a very light glaze over the top of the tortilla that was just the right hint of sweet to send the dish right over the top of decadent.
  We finished everything, no doggy-bags necessary, so we didn’t worry about having to rush home; we were very pleasantly full without being stuffed. This was the single most decadent experience I have ever had in my dining life! I plan to write this same review on our local Melbourne restaurant review website, but I wanted you guys to hear it first! If you are ever in Melbourne, visit Tonic and Chef Jason Clark. I don’t know where he came from but I sure am glad he’s here! This is my new (and by far) favorite restaurant! 
  
  
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