While most island residents are not keen about driving more than 15 minutes to dinner, you owe it to yourself to venture up US 1 at least once a year to the Yellow Dog Café in Malabar, a half dozen miles south of Melbourne.
The drive is only going to take you about 45 minutes, and you want to get there while it is still daylight because the Yellow Dog is one of those rare dining spots that combines excellent food with a drop-dead view of the Indian River Lagoon.
Totally redone following the 2004 hurricanes, the restaurant consists of three charming dining areas: a cozy room overlooking the lagoon and an open kitchen; a more traditional room filled with antiques; and a large downstairs that opens onto an outdoor seating area leading to a dock (yes, you can come by boat).
On our most recent visit last week, our party of three was shown to a very nice table overlooking the water.
At our waiter’s suggestion, we decided to start by splitting a new appetizer the chef had just introduced the previous evening, a lobster mousse ($12).
The waiter cautioned us that this dish was going to have neither the appearance nor texture one associates with mousse, and he was right. The dish looked more like two crab cakes, and the texture seemed somewhere between a crab cake and a souffle. The cakes were topped with a lobster-flavored white wine butter cream sauce. All very tasty, and the portion plenty large enough for two or three to share.
We then moved to the soup or salads included with the entrées. I chose what turned out to be a very nice Caesar salad, my husband for a $3 upcharge opted for the Olde Blue spinach salad, and our companion had a cup of crab bisque. The Olde Blue was a particularly nice array of tender spinach leaves tossed with blueberries, blue cheese crumbs, blueberry balsamic dressing and toasted pecans.
Then for entrées, I ultimately settled on the shrimp Louisiana ($34), our companion went with the potato crusted salmon ($30), and my husband ordered one of the evening’s specials, the lobster mornay ($54), a pound and a half Maine lobster boiled and then served deshelled.
The shrimp Louisiana consisted of seven pan sautéed shrimp tossed in garlic, butter and a special blend of Creole seasoning, served over crawfish grits and a succotash vegetable medley that included chayote, corn, green peas, diced red peppers. I found the grits a bit dry, but the shrimp and the succotash were cooked perfectly and the dish was very well seasoned.
Our companion’s potato crusted salmon was served with a sundried tomato risotto cake and asparagus, and was finished with a saffron infused lobster cream sauce. A very nice preparation.
My husband’s lobster mornay, however, was a thing of beauty: The dish was brought to the table with the lobster tail split in half atop a bed of yellow acorn squash, string beans, red Himalayan rice, and topped with puff pastry in the shape of a dog bone. The two lobster claws were arrayed on the side, as though embracing the dish, and the lobster was drizzled with a saffron mornay sauce.
Desserts here, prepared on premises, are wonderful. Our favorite has long been a sinfully rich layered chocolate cake, but on this visit we tried the bread pudding – which like the bisque was topped with a Yellow Dog cracker.
We accompanied our dinners on this most recent visit with selections from the Yellow Dog’s quite decent list of wines by the glass.
Dinner for two is not cheap, and is likely to run $150 before tip, but the quality of the food and service has been consistently excellent over the years.
We would also note that the Yellow Dog Café is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch – giving beachside residents who do not fancy a lengthy drive home after dark another option for sampling this fine restaurant.
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.