When you’re sitting in one of Vero’s top restaurants, agonizing over whether to order from the regular menu or the summer special menu, the items on the special menu must be mighty darned good.
And that certainly is the case this summer at the Amalfi Grille, a superb restaurant on Miracle Mile which is offering a “4 for 29 special menu” with dishes every bit as delicious as the more expensive regular menu items that have made this one of Vero’s favorite places to dine.
This special prix fixe menu – with a choice of appetizers, salads, entrées and desserts for only $29 – is our idea of what a special summer menu should be: a nice variety of dishes representative of this fine restaurant, and available all evening, seven nights a week. No 5:15 cutoff, no one-day-a-week deals.
When five of us arrived for a 7:30 reservation last Thursday, we were quickly shown to a very nice round table. Three members of our party ordered the mixed drink of the day – a very refreshing lemonade made with pureed blue berries and vanilla rum – and the other two started with glasses of chardonnay.
Then the fun began as we started pondering a single sheet of paper with the “4 for 29” menu, a second sheet of paper with the regular specials of the day, and the bound menu.
While four members of our party lost no time in zeroing in on choices on the prix fixe menu, I became engrossed in the Amalfi Grill’s daily specials. More about that later.
But for starters from the prix fixe menu, our party split between the fried mozzarella appetizer and the cannelloni. The fresh mozzarella was sliced and panko-encrusted, served with a light, house-made marinara sauce, and the veal, spinach and ricotta-cheese cannelloni was served with the same marinara. Both were sumptuous.
For salads, we again went in different directions, with two choosing the classic Caesar, and the others opting for the mixed-green salad with either tropical or white balsamic vinaigrette.
Then it came time to choose from among the evening’s seven entrées. My husband picked the beef Wellington, one of our companions chose the shrimp gorgonzola, and the other two picked the veal Sorrento.
What about me? Well, I couldn’t resist the Chilean sea bass ($36) from the list of the daily specials. It turned out to be a great choice. The pan-seared sea bass was a thing of beauty, topped with a peach and sweet cherry relish and served over basmati rice.
But at less than half the price, our party’s four prix fixe entrées got raves as well. The egg-battered veal scallopini was topped with pan-sautéed prosciutto, eggplant and mozzarella and served over penne. The gulf shrimp were sautéed with wild mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach, and were tossed with cavatappi pasta in a gorgonzola cream sauce. And the Beef Wellington, sliced tenderloin with a mushroom duxelle wrapped in puff pastry, and topped with a mushroom bordelaise sauce, was served with garlic truffle mashed potatoes and sautéed green beans.
Finally, for dessert, the prix fixe on this evening offered Italian cream cake or chocolate pecan pie with chocolate ganache topping. You couldn’t go wrong with either – or any other confection that may be a special on the night you go – because the Amalfi Grille has the best pastry chef in Vero.
As we have said in previous reviews, even with comparatively high prices, the Amalfi delivers excellent value. But the “4 for $29” menu is a summer dining bargain that can’t be beat.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at [email protected] .
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
