Oriente: Surf and turf specials are a winner
Two years after the debut of Vero’s first Latin-fusion restaurant at Gloria Estefan’s Costa d’Este resort, the initial excitement is gone – and so is talented young Cuban-American chef David Rodriguez, who now has a cigar shop on Miracle Mile and soon will serve tapas at a new restaurant he is opening in Stuart.
Taking his place when Rodriguez left Oriente restaurant was his understudy and sous chef, Raymond Mumford, a Buffalo native who has retained a number of his predecessor’s excellent Cuban and Caribbean dishes (such as the ceviches) but who now is putting his own mark on the restaurant as well.
And while Costa says it is preparing to unveil a new menu that will continue to offer a variety of the tempting Latin tastes that particularly appeal to the hotel’s weekend visitors, we suspect Mumford may win some new Vero Beach hearts and palates with an expanded offering of dishes that are a little less Cuban and a little more mainstream American than those featured before.
On two recent visits, we decided to try Oriente’s surf and turf special – a four-course menu available nightly for a very reasonable $34.95.
On one evening, my husband and I both started with the asparagus soup – a delicious soup, great texture, infused with tarragon oil. Very tasty. The second course consisted of a very nice salad with baby greens, spiced cucumbers, blue cheese, bacon bits and dressed with an aged sherry vinaigrette.
Then for entrees on this evening, we were served a beautifully plated dish consisting of a single perfectly seared scallop set atop a fresh tabouli salad and three grilled baby lamb chops served on truffle cheese mashed potatoes. Perfection.
The dessert was a very smooth cheese cake made with two cheeses.
The various components of the surf and turf special vary from night to night.
On another visit, the starter was a cream of broccoli soup, tasty and very creamy. The surf-and-turf entrée consisted of calamari stuffed with crabmeat and chorizo in a diablo sauce (good, but very hot – you may wish to ask for the sauce on the side) served on a nice bed of spinach, and again lamb chops, this time in a glaze and served on those same truffle cheese mashed potatoes.
The surf and turf specials are a winner, and we recommend them. We were less excited, however, by our experience a couple of weeks earlier.
On this evening, I opted for an old favorite, the Oriente paella ($27 for one, $38 for two), one of our companions had the churrasco chicken breast ($24), my husband had the ahi tuna loin ($27), and our other companion ordered Key West shrimp in a sofrito sauce ($27) over linguini.
The churrasco chicken, an herb marinated free range chicken breast, and the shrimp in a sofrito sauce were enjoyed by our companions (though the shrimp was a bit overdone). The tuna loin, seared rare and served with a cilantro flavored rice, was delicious, but my husband happily acceded to the server’s suggestion that she substitute a soy dipping sauce for the coconut foam.
The disappointment of the evening, however, was my paella. It was simply not the great paella I have enjoyed at Oriente on numerous occasions.
While all of the principal components – the chicken, clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, calamari and chorizo – were fine individually, it was clear that the chicken had been cooked separately and then added to the dish late in the preparation, preventing the blending of tastes in the simmering that makes a paella truly special.
Dinner for two with a modest bottle of wine runs about $130 before taxes and tip.
It’s always a bit frustrating to prepare a review based on several visits, and then hear as we did a few days ago that a number of menu items will soon change. But we are told the surf and turf special will remain, and what we can say with confidence is if you take advantage of that, you are are likely to leave happy.
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.
Hours
Lunch and dinner daily
Bar
Full Bar
Address (MAP)
3244 Ocean Drive, Vero Beach, FL, Phone: (772) 410-0100
Online
www.costadeste.com
