Restaurant Review: VU

Posted on June 1, 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.

For our first night in town, we wanted to go somewhere fun for dinner. Earlier in the day we were walking around and found VU. It was right on the marina waterfront, and looked like a unique place. We checked it out on some review websites and found very mixed reviews. Some people thought it was very unique and loved it. Others said the food was not cooked correctly, and the service was horrible. Since it did sound like a very unique place, we decided to give it a try.

Vu has some regular entrees like steak and fish, but they are best known for their small plates. Since there were so many things that we wanted to try, we decided to order a few small plates to share. But first we started with drinks.

I had a glass of the house Cabernet

and the Husband had the Vudoo – Bacardi Coconut, Limoncello, St Germaine, coke

My wine was good (really I’m not that picky as long as its red) and the husband said that his drink was good, but not as sweet as he had hoped.

The first dish we got was the “Resconstructed” Caprese salad : balsamic-injected cherry tomatoes, basil-infused fresh mozzarella, red hawaiian sea salt, micro basil.

The basil-infused mozzarella was really interesting and delicious. I’m not a fan of tomatoes, but I did like the presentation of the mozzarella wrapped around the injected tomatoes.

The next dish was the Grilled Cheese: toasted brioche, “midnight moon”, tomato jam, micro basil.

Again the presentation was very fun! These were ok, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the “Midnight Moon” Cheese.

Next up is the Pork Belly: crispy grits, root beer jello. Clearly this one wasn’t my choice. This one was, however, one that many reviews talked about, and it did look like an interesting combination.

As I suspected, pork belly is not something I enjoy. However, the crispy grits were delicious, and the rootbeer jello was an interesting touch.

After that came the Peas & Carrots: carrot noodles, pea puree, carrot chips.

This was one of my favorite dishes. It was so simple, but really interesting and tasty. For some reason I am also fascinated by the bright orange carrot noodles as well.

Our next dish was the Lobster Tail: citrus, popcorn jello, fritos.

This dish I think was the least favorite between the two of us – it was also the only one where we didn’t finish the entire plate. The texture of the raw lobster was strange, and kind of gross. The flavor was very citrusy – which probably would actually have tasted delicious on cooked lobster!

The last dish we ordered was the Chicken-Fried Watermelon. This was another dish that showed up on a lot of reviews that we read.

This dish was pretty good. The texture of the fried outside and the watermelon inside is a fun and delicious combination.

The small plates were a good choice because we ended up having room for dessert! We chose the Buttermilk Panna Cotta: liquid nitrogen coke-a-cola, carbonated blackberries. It was good, and definitely still fit in with the unique feel of the rest of the menu.

Overall the meal was fun and unique but not outstanding. They did have an outdoor area that we may check out later in the trip. It faces the marina and has tables with fire pits in them (it does get surprisingly cold at night near the water) and you can just order drinks.

Taste: B, not bad, but not as good as we were expecting. The flavors were definitely unique though, so that is always a plus.
Cost: B-, if the quality of food would have been amazing, the cost would have been more reasonable. Just as an example, the peas and carrots were $7. What may not be clear by the photo is that the serving size is about two fork fulls.

Would I go there again? Probably not, but I’m glad that I did go there once to try the very unique foods!