Wildwood Restaurant
She said:
One of the things I like doing is celebrating people’s achievements, milestones, anniversaries, and birthdays. And one of the ways I enjoy doing that is by going out to eat. Some of my favorite memories revolve around dining out with family and friends. Gathered together. Eating. Talking. Laughing.
So, what better way to celebrate Brian’s birthday than to make reservations at a restaurant he’s been eyeing for a while?
When we arrived at the Wildwood, we easily found a parking spot right in front of the premises. Upon entering, we were greeted by a friendly staff member. She invited us to sit at a table that was tucked in a corner next to a picture window facing the quiet street. Brian and I took our seats along with our youngest son, whom we’d invited to join us.
Looking around, I noticed the following things:
The Wildwood is a long, narrow kind of place that features an open kitchen. Stainless steel-topped tables with wooden chairs sit along an entire wall on one side of the room. The wall is adorned with cream, mint green, and petal-pink striped wallpaper. A long shelf hangs along the wall.
On the opposite wall sit a few grouped tables and chairs up against another picture window and a side window. The latter is encased in wide, cream-colored trim; topped by dark wooden lintel trim. In fact, that’s what the wall shelf is topped with. The genuine dark walnut-colored wood is repeated in the plank flooring.
Anyway, just past those tables is where the open kitchen is situated. It’s up against a combination of mint green-painted sections of wall, stainless steel panels, and a tiled counter. I couldn’t see well enough to properly discern what comprised the front of the counter, but it appeared to be crafted of shiny tan tiles.
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the tree! Between the smaller eating nook and the kitchen sat a ten-foot-tall tree, sitting in a square, concrete planter. I remarked to Brian and our son that it was pretty and looked like a palm tree. Curious, Brian took a photo of it and used an ID app to figure out what it was. Tada! It was a Chrysodracon Hawaiiensis tree, also known as a Hala Pepe. Apparently, it’s a part of the asparagus family. Who knew?
Now, about the food.
First, I was pleasantly surprised that the menu was more extensive than the one I had consulted online. The Fish and Chips, along with the Mussels & Frites, caught my attention. But when I saw that scallops were offered a little further down the page, game over! That’s what I ordered for my entrée. It sounded especially tempting because it came with whipped potatoes, mixed mushrooms, Castelvetrano olives, and a garlic butter sauce. (I think it was supposed to be a curry fondue, but that’s not what was on my plate).
Anyway, when my meal was set in front of me, I was impressed with how beautifully presented it was. Five large scallops sat atop a mount of whipped potatoes and chopped green olives. Surrounding the base of this were the mushrooms and the garlic butter. It looked and smelled delicious, so I eagerly dug in.
The scallops were perfectly seared, the olives were appropriately briny, and the potatoes were smooth. Everything tasted pretty wonderful, but I would have enjoyed it all more thoroughly if the chef had been slightly less generous with the salt in the garlic butter.
Otherwise, my meal was perfect. I’ll let Brian write about our appetizers, but may I say just one thing before I hand things off to him? My compliments to the chef for a job well done with the appetizers!
He said:
Happy birthday to me, I guess. I’m now 54 years old, by the way. I don’t mind saying that. My take on it is that I’ve earned every one of those years, even the difficult ones—especially the difficult ones—so I wouldn’t give any of them up. I’m just proud to have lasted this long, and grateful that Kathy’s been with me for most of those years. Kathy just shared some photos with me from some of my past birthdays. I had forgotten I used to have some color in my hair!
So, off we went to the Wildwood Restaurant for my birthday dinner. The menu, almost evenly divided between appetizers and entrées, had so many tantalizing options that I could probably find several combinations that I would enjoy. The Burrata salad, Croquettes, and Shishitos all piqued my interest. Even the frog legs tempted me. I can’t say I’m a fan of frog legs, as I’ve only had them once, at a diner on the banks of the Mississippi river. I didn’t love those, but I suspect that was due to the way they were prepared. Alas, all these options had to content themselves with a spot on the B team. Instead, we ordered the Lamb Pops, Moroccan Carrots, and Fried Olives. (Since my son had joined us, we figured sharing three openers wouldn’t be too gluttonous).
I had never had fried olives before, and honestly, I ordered them partly out of curiosity. The olives were only lightly breaded, then fried and seasoned with citrus oil and Maldon sea salt. Maldon salt comes from Essex, England, where seawater is collected on the spring tide from the Blackwater Estuary. Due to the estuary’s flat salt marshes and low rainfall, it has a high salinity, making it ideal for collecting salt. In many parts of the world, salt is separated from seawater using solar evaporation in shallow pools. However, eastern England doesn’t always enjoy regular hot weather. Consequently, Maldon salt is separated with evaporation over gas-fired brick flues. This accelerates the process, which results in salt that has a unique, inverted pyramid-shaped crystal. This keeps the salt from caking, but it also creates salt flakes that break down easily to impart great flavor on products like our fried olives.
Anyway, how were the olives? Frying the olives only changed their flavor in one respect, as far as I could tell: it took the briny edge off of them, leaving olives that were slightly milder, less pungent, than raw olives. Whether this is an improvement or not would be highly subjective. I think Kathy would have preferred the brininess of raw olives. On the other hand, I found myself grabbing one after another from the bowl. They had me hooked.
When I ordered the Moroccan Carrots, I had envisioned roasted carrots. Instead, we got carrots—orange, yellow, and purple—in a sauce. Though the carrots were good, I thought they actually took a back seat to their sauce, which was divine. The sauce included chermoula, a Moroccan condiment that typically includes ingredients like garlic, cumin, coriander, oil, lemon juice, and salt. Besides the chermoula, our dish’s sauce also had cashews, wildflower honey, pickled onion, crema, and citrus. It was wonderful! I wish we had been given spoons to more conveniently enjoy the creation.
Our final starter was the Lamb Pops. I might have expected a few small meatballs on skewers. Instead, we got three large morsels on sticks. They were almost the size of corn dogs! They had a crispy sear on the outside, with great seasoning. Drizzled with harissa, they lay atop a bed of mixed greens with a scoop of cooling raita. This toothsome raita combined yogurt, cucumber, and mint in a perfect balance that I adored.
For my entrée, I again found plenty of great choices. The Pork Belly and the Quail Panzanella had to be runners-up, though, as I had two other options in mind. I asked our waitress to help me decide between the Steak & Frites, with its XX Ranch Wagyu Bavette, and the BBQ Pork Ribs. The waitress said she preferred the steak because the ribs came with a slightly sweet and spicy sauce. However, that made my ears perk up. I asked her if it was an Asian sweet-and-spicy sauce and she told me it was a Korean flavor. That closed the deal. Ribs it is!
My entrée arrived with five enormous, meaty pork ribs sitting on top of a bed of jacketed French Fries, with slaw on the side, showing plenty of jalapeño peppers mixed with the purple cabbage. With so many jalapeños in it, I was certain it would have a kick to it, but I think the vinegar must have neutralized the peppers. I could see that the ribs were covered in a generous amount of sauce. With only a single cloth napkin, I decided I would have to fork-and-knife my way through them. Maybe it’s good because it caused me to pace myself a bit, but I think I would have preferred a messier option. Anyway, the sauce was also not as spicy as I might have hoped—even if Kathy might have thought it too spicy—but the flavor was excellent.
I should probably have stopped there, but Bread Pudding with brown butter and bourbon, vanilla ice cream, and caramel? And it was my birthday. So, onward we went. Interestingly, the bread portion of the bread pudding wasn’t entirely integrated with the custardy portion. Instead, it sat above the custard. I didn’t mind, but I don’t think my son has encountered custards very often. He found the texture a bit strange.
Conclusion:
Plenty of terrific, intriguing menu options await at Wildwood Restaurant!