Walk into Sweet Vidalia, a bistro-style restaurant with a contemporary and newly redefined menu in Long Beach Island's Beach Haven, and you'll notice right away that you've left the fishnet-draped tourist traps of nearby Bay Villlage.
Instead, the restaurant goes for rustic charm, and achieves it well -- a narrow foyer opens into a midsized dining space with hardwood floors and 22 white-clothed tables and booths. Candles flicker in sconces along the walls, and the ceiling is painted with a vine motif. Soft, jazzy tunes from a saxophonist in the corner make the eatery feel even more intimate.
The restaurant switched from a traditional menu to tapas-style dining a year ago, and it now features 20 to 30 scaled-down dishes from "small plates" (a little misleading because they're all miniaturized) to flatbreads, veggie items, meats and seafood. To the uninitiated, the sizable list of choices may be a little overwhelming, but our server -- who was helpful, but seemed nervous and new at his job -- jumped at the chance to explain how it works.
Three plates per diner were suggested, with the explanation that we could go at the menu as we would at any other restaurant, with starter-style plates first followed by more substantial fare, or just go with whatever sounded tasty.
We chose a total of nine dishes from all over the menu and settled back with French bread and some plain but seriously flavorful olive oil. We didn't have long to wait. Our first round of plates was promptly trotted out, and it set the bar high.
The sweet Vidalia onion soup with Gruyere crouton was a surprising twist on the French classic, pureed and made, as the name suggests, with a dose of Sherry-infused sweetness to counter the salt. It was almost a dessert, and it went fast. A plate of bacon-wrapped dates drizzled with a balsamic reduction didn't score high in appearance, but it more than made up for their humble looks with their texture and taste. And the last of the gloriously rich shrimp, leek and Swiss cheese fondue was gone before we knew it.
The next trio of dishes included roasted mussels served Rockefeller-style with a perfectly paired lemongrass stuffing; a creamy, earthy mushroom risotto; and a lentil-, spinach- and mushroom-stuffed onion that was tasty but, next to its companions, unremarkable.
Spot-on seared tuna
We finished off dinner with round of heartier plates that included the best and worst of the night. The seared tuna was spot on: cool, pink and creamy on the inside and warm on the outside, with a thin crusting of spice. With its well-chosen complements of capers and tomatoes, it was the table's favorite. Nearly as good was a pair of lump crab cakes in a shallow bowl of sweet corn puree reminiscent of a frothy chowder base. The disappointingly dry pork brochettes served with polenta were the only real miss of the meal.
Despite being nearly stuffed -- three plates each turned out to be more than enough -- we couldn't resist ordering a dessert to share. The jasmine-scented crème brulee we ordered was small, like the rest of the menu items, came in a charming mini mason jar and was perfectly creamy, with an expertly torched top.
With tapas, timing is everything, and the kitchen didn't miss a beat throughout our two-hour meal. As soon as the last fork hit the last (scraped clean) plate, the empty dishes were cleared and the next course promptly placed in front of us. That kind of attention is what separates the best restaurants from the pack, so it was disappointing that our server dropped the ball at other times, neglecting to refill water glasses and forgetting a request for lemon.
Altogether though, the mostly well-executed dishes, especially the twists on familiar classics, made for an eclectic treat of a dining experience on an island that has more than its fair share of fried seafood shacks. For a date night or a dinner with good friends on LBI, the cozy charm and the fun of sharing dishes at Sweet Vidalia would be hard to beat.
Seared tuna is a triumph at Sweet Vidalia. (Christopher Seiz)
