Try Try Again

Round 2 of tracking what we eat. As Restaurant Week has appeared, Andrew and I reattempt to eat out in DC, remember what we eat, and make a record of it. My eventual goal is to have a long list of restaurants in DC that I feel will be worth the money that I spend.

With that said, Vidalia!

I started off with the wild mushroom soup, described as a "creamy puree with red wine-truffle emulsion and house cured shoat pancetta." Let me start off this review by saying that I hate mushrooms. I am not a vegetable eater, I will dedicate minutes of my dinner to picking out all vegetables and mushrooms out of my meal. With that said, I loved this soup. Loved it. That's how good it was. It made a mushroom hater like me drink every drop and then dig around in my soup bowl for more. First off, the portion given to me was extremely generous. I am not a fan of restaurants who charge you $7 for soup and then give you a tiny bowl/cup/whatever the case may be. The serving size for the mushroom soup was a Campbell's hearty soup can and then some.

The soup was delicately silky and the truffle emulsion. Can we talk about the truffle emulsion? I contemplated trying to spoon it off the top of my soup and eating it on my own. Combined with the flavor of the wild mushrooms though, it was heaven. I'd seriously contemplate going back to Vidalia for just a bowl of this soup, if it didn't seem to be too fancy of a place to do that.

Shrimp and grits. Now there's shrimp and grits and there's fancy shrimp and grits. This was fancy. The shrimp was perfectly plump and juicy, cooked and flavored just right. I received roughly ten-twelve of them on my plate. The grits were decent--on the buttery side, but...overall, this dish does not match up to the expectations for anyone who has ever had true Southern food. Yes, it was delicious, but I would never recommend such a dish at this type of restaurant for anyone who is familiar with shrimps and grits. Perhaps go with Andrew's duck. of course if you've never had shrimp and grits, you're in for a treat!

For dessert, I had a peanut butter crunch. Also, very good. The peanut butter taste was nicely balanced with a molasses peanut brittle like crunch. But like Andrew mentions, if I were in San Diego, I would stick with E.D. instead of paying for a dessert at Vidalia. As part of Restaurant Week though, Vidalia was a good deal. As a poor graduate student, I doubt I'd be able to afford to eat at Vidalia on a normal day (never mind a three course meal).

Vidalia stays on my list of places I'd return to in the future during Restaurant Week. After I try all the other places I want to eat at first, of course.