Restaurant Review: Sardine

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Kelly

Full Disclosure: I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post. The opinions are completely my own.

Last weekend we went to Sardine to celebrate my husband’s (belated) birthday.

Sardine was somewhere that I had heard great things about, and wanted to try. Yes, we did go there for my husband’s birthday, so I know you all are wondering why he didn’t get to decide where he wanted to go for his birthday. If you haven’t realized already, I am the picky one of the group. Sometimes it is just easier if I make the final decision. He definitely wanted to go there too though, it’s not like I forced him or anything 😉

I did check out the menu online before we went to make sure that I wouldn’t be totally overwhelmed with my food choices. When I got to the restaurant I had a decision to make – how much out on a limb do I want to go with my meal selection? I decided to play it pretty safe – but knowing that there was unlimited bread did ensure me that even if I didn’t love my food I wouldn’t starve.

I started out the meal with a glass of the house red wine.

The husband had a Bourbon Smash – Maker’s Mark, simple syrup, lemon and mint.

Oh, and of course that delicious bread.

For my dinner, I chose two appetizers – one to start and share and one for my meal.

To start I chose the warm goat cheese and crostini with arugula salad.

It was very good! I know I didn’t love goat cheese the last time I had it but this was delicious! I wish that the bread was more bready and less crackery – but I guess that is how crostini is supposed to be. The warm goat cheese was also delicious on the other bread too.

The rest of the table ordered fried smelt as an appetizer.

I was definitely NOT so excited about this. BUT I did try it. (I know, I surprised myself too!) And…..it was ok. It kind of just tasted like deep fried to me.

For my dinner I had the grilled scallops, julienned apples and beurre blanc. It normally comes with braised red cabbage and bacon ladrons, but since I’m not a fan of bacon, I got spinach instead.

It was SO good. I think the were the best scallops that I’ve ever had. And who would have though to put julienned apples with it? Such a clever garnish, and they tasted good too! I had to remind myself that we were in a nice restaurant so that I wasn’t tempted to lick the plate clean.

The husband had the roasted half chicken with balsamic butter sauce, frites, and petite frisée salad.

Some of the other dishes at our table were:

Braised short ribs with baby carrots, brussels sprouts, potato purée and celeriac horseradish remoulade.

Pan seared pork loin with calvados, black currant gastrique, roasted apples, potato cake and spinach.

Penne pasta with oil packed tuna, bacon lardons, garlic, tomato, capers, lemon, chile flakes, spinach and toasted bread crumbs.

Everyone enjoyed their meals, and the majority of the plates were empty at the end of dinner.

The husband decided to order a dessert to share with the table.

I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was some kind of warm cookie with mint ice cream and crispy sugar on top. It looked very tasty – but I didn’t have any. I’m not a fan of mint ice cream, so I opted to stop on the way home and get this:

Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream. YUM.

Overall I would say the meal was delicious, the atmosphere was upscale – but still fun. I should mention that Sardine is overlooks the lake, so if you get a window seat – or sit outside in the summer you see the lake!

I should also mention that Sardine really focuses on local, sustainable ingredients. In fact, we were looking for an item that we had seen on their online menu but not the menu there so we asked the waitress when it might be coming back. She then explained to us that that was one of their best selling items, but it is no longer sustainable so they had to take it off the menu. I’d say that’s dedication to sustainability when you take your best selling item off of the menu because it doesn’t fit into your restaurant’s ethics and concepts!

Taste: A+, really really good. Very fresh tasting with a unique twist on every item.
Cost: B+, it is definitely a higher end place so it is not cheap, but I thought the prices were very reasonable considering the quality (and deliciousness) of the food.

Would I go there again? Absolutely. In fact, I’m kind of craving those scallops after writing about them.