Back to Savannah Grille

Here is the thing with the Ozarks: there are a lot of restaurants.  However, the number of okay restaurants far outnumber the amount of really good restaurants.  And the number of expensive and really good restaurants outnumber the amount of affordable and really good restaurants.  So, while there are some other great places like Baxter's or Bentley's, they just seem to be the quality of foodie-ness that my wife and I look for in cities. We have never been to the Blue Heron, so I cannot comment on that.  However, online reviews and sources suggest that it is quite expensive and the food and service are just okay.  Anyway, fate happened that on a recent Friday night, my wife and I were found with babysitting and through the stormy and cool evening, we happened upon some great late-night reservations at Savannah Grille.

I know you are probably wondering if a restaurant which had garnered great reviews from me, the first time, can do it again.  And you CAN wonder that, but don't doubt that possibility, for this second time for dinner, the food was perfect.

So, it is a rainy and cool Friday night and my wife and I are there at 8:00 for dinner.  This is what we started with:

My wife ordered the beef and vegetable soup.

So, the soup of the day, was this super rich beef stock and some great vegetables in there with chunks of beef.  It was so good that it made me go home and make some beef stock of my own.  I'd say the soup was an easy 4 out of 5 stars.

Because my entree' came with a soup or salad and my wife ordered a soup, I decided to order a salad.  The picture above is the salad and it came with perhaps the largest croutons I have ever seen.  Bonus.  Still simple salad is good and tasty: 3 out of 5 stars.

As an appetizer, we got the fried green tomatoes and this is what they looked like:

These were crunchy, tasty and tender.  Perfectly sweet and tart at the same time.  A small pepper and onion relish and the topping tasted of seasoned panko crumbs.  The chef did a great job remaking this classic dish of fried green tomatoes.  These were great and worth ordering.  An easy 4 out of 5.

Now, my wife ordered the tuna tartare and this is it:  

It was delivered to us on a board and as you can see, there is a lot going on.  I am not a seafood or fish person and I have to say that even if I wanted to try it, my wife enjoyed it so much that I couldn't get a chance to try it.  It was gone in seconds.  I am sure that my wife would agree that a 4 out of 5 stars for that one would be enough.

Now, what I think is perhaps the best thing I have eaten there yet, is the rabbit.  I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of rabbit.  Wherever I have eaten it, it has been still a bit gamy and not very tender, like eating rubber that tastes like a wet and dirty dog smells.  I've passed it up whenever I can and wherever I am.  But, I trust the chef here and thought I would give it a try.  Now, what chef Robert says, is that they took some rabbit, then cleaned every morsel of meat off of it and made a sausage with some of it, wrapped it up with the rest of it and then some bacon and finished it off.  This is it: cooked and plated.  Now, along with these perfectly cooked carrots and everything worked so well that it was new, interesting, innovative and delicious: which are all the requirements for an easy 5 out of 5 stars.

We never really get dessert when we go out and that is mostly because we fill up on the other food.  So, we ordered both of the dessert options: some home made ice creams and then some chocolate cake with some champagne foam.  The chocolate cake and foam came out and chef Robert came to explain and dish the foam on top of the cake and pieces.

I have actually never tasted so many different tastes on one plate.  There was the strawberries, the banana pieces which were singed with a flame and had the sugar on them like a creme' brulee or Bananas Foster. Then there is the rich and gooey chocolate cake.  Nice and small pieces of mint leaves.  Then some caramel drizzled around.  The white blobs, are the champagne foam, which quickly melted into the cake.  This was a very good dessert.  I'd give a 4 out of 5 stars.

The other dessert was 3 flavors of ice cream.  Chef Robert told us that he has two ice cream machines, which means that he can create a lot of flavors, every day and experiment and have fun.  So, this night, we had the flavors of Bananas Foster, Strawberry Plum and Green Peppercorn.

So, the Bananas Foster ice cream tastes just like the dish, except cold.  The Strawberry Plum was delicious and perfectly balanced so you could taste both flavors, even at the same time.  The last one, the Green Peppercorn, was the strange one.  It was good, but just strange.  We never thought of having green peppercorns as a sweet flavor enhancer; but it worked.

So, for second visit at Savannah Grille, it was a perfect and romantic evening.  I really do suggest this place for anyone going to the Ozarks.