VERO BEACH — The Tides, long regarded as one of the island’s best restaurants, has dropped the price of its sunset prix fixe menu back to the 2011 level in an effort to remain a major player in the highly competitive summer dining environment.
While The Tides had upped the cost of the summer menu to $17 in 2012, they have brought the price of the prix fixe – consisting of a choice of salad and entrée – back to the original $15 this year. A selection of wines is also offered available by the glass for $4.
The combination of great food and decent wine at these prices makes The Tides’ deal hard to resist – even though diners are required to get their order in before 5:30 (ugh) to take advantage of the summer special.
But this obviously works for lots of diners. When we arrived at 5:15 last Tuesday, the attractive front room of the restaurant was already pretty full.
We were seated at a table in the corner, and quickly greeted by Kenny, one of the Tides’ top servers.
We tried three different $4 wines (very decent) and for starters, I ordered The Tides’ house salad, my husband opted for the BLT, and our companion chose the Caesar.
But Kenny told us there was one special appetizer available on this evening for an additional charge of $6: a fried green tomato topped by crabmeat.
Needless to say, that sounded too good to resist – and it tasted even better than it sounded.
The mix of tastes – the crunch of tomato and the beautiful crabmeat nestled on top, all surrounded by a corn and green pepper relish with a hint of jalapeno — worked wonderfully together.
After that, the salads seemed a bit anticlimactic.
But the house salad, a mix of baby field greens, tomatoes, red onion and cucumber, was nice. The BLT was a wedge of iceberg, with bacon, red onion, Maytag blue cheese crumbles, grape tomatoes, and buttermilk blue cheese.
The classic Caesar, with endive as well as romaine, was dressed with asiago, parmesan and crispy applewood bacon.
Then for entrées, I ordered the marinated grilled pork tenderloin, my husband chose the filet mignon and shrimp combination, and our companion had the Scottish salmon.
The other Sunset Menu entrée options were an exotic mushroom ravioli (sure sounded tempting) and a chicken scaloppini Milanese.
The Scottish salmon was prepared in a potato crust, with horseradish and Dijon mustard, and was surrounded by a creamy corn and red pepper coulis.
My marinated pork tenderloin consisted of thin, juicy slices of pork served with an apple and sweet pepper chutney and a bourbon pan sauce.
Both dishes were tasty.
But top honors of the evening went to my husband’s mini surf-and-turf.
The petite prime filet mignon was perfectly cooked rare, served with a peppercorn sauce, and the beef was accompanied by three crispy shrimp in a sauce gribiche.
Excellent.
All three entrées came with carrots, buttermilk mashed potatoes and haricots verts.
At this point, we were not really thinking dessert – but Kenny again tempted us.
One Tides dessert each night, he said, is offered as a $5 add-on to the prix fixe, and this evening it was a vanilla bean cheese cake.
Three forks made short work of this very dense, very creamy cheese cake.
All told, with four glasses of wine, and a couple of cups of espresso, the check for our party of three came to $79 with tax – pretty amazing for a meal of this caliber.
If you stuck with salads and entrées, had a glass of wine each, and skipped the dessert, a party of two could actually dine well at The Tides for just over $40 before tip.
High season or low, The Tides continues to excel – consistently providing some of the best meals to be had anywhere in Florida.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
