Restaurant review: New York strip is a must-have at this hard-to-find hidden gem
An outstanding restaurant is hidden in Vero Beach and if you don’t know where to look, you might miss out on some delightful cuisine and service.
The Oar Restaurant is tucked inside the charming Seminole courtyard at 1309 19th Place. To the side of the restaurant is 14th Avenue, where you will see a board sign propped on the sidewalk inviting you to walk a few steps down 19th Place to enter the long hallway that leads to the courtyard and the restaurant.
Enter the restaurant, where you will be heartily welcomed and invited to choose lovely seating at the bar, at a table in the front room, in the back room, or in the quiet, open-air Seminole Courtyard.
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The restaurant's name gives you a hint of the décor. Wooden oars abound and a beautiful canoe — a work of art itself — graces the front door. This white-linen restaurant also hosts the work of local artists, providing a venue for them to show their paintings and photographs.
Our server, Jeremy, was superb in anticipating our needs and providing a dining experience that was flawless.
We started with the freshly baked, warm ciabatta breadbasket ($6). Several slices of incredibly soft, chewy bread had lots of bubbly holes and a thin, crisp crust. With a high percentage of water and a long leavening time, this bread is light and easy to digest.
My sister and her friend recently went on a fried green tomatoes "tour," trying this appetizer at several restaurants and ranking them according to their own very strict standards. I hereby challenge the two of them to find a better fried green tomato ($15) than the one we inhaled at The Oar Restaurant. Slices of the lightly breaded fruit/vegetable are gently fried and topped with bacon jam, crumbled goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and a balsamic glaze.
Peppertrail Farms lettuce salad ($12) was very tasty with tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, apples and toasted walnuts dressed with a vinaigrette of honey, thyme and lemon.
The Oar Restaurant makes some beautiful soups. The soup of the day ($7) was pumpkin apple, a smooth, lavish and luxurious soup nicely seasoned with white pepper and other spices.
As far as entrees go, the choices include seafood, pork, lamb, duck and pasta dishes, but we are hard-pressed to deviate from our favorite. The New York strip steak ($44) is a large, juicy strip steak pan-seared and served with pureed potato and cauliflower, sauteed garlic spinach, and baby carrots in a sumptuous pool of delightfully dark wild mushroom cream sauce.
There are tempting desserts from which to select to wrap up a wonderful meal, including the refreshingly delicious honey orange ricotta cheesecake ($9) in an almond crust topped with whipped cream.
The Oar Restaurant
Cuisine: American
Address: 1309 19th Place, Vero Beach
Hours: 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
Phone: 772-226-7155
Online: theoarrestaurant.com
Alcohol: Full bar
Maribeth Renne dines anonymously at the expense of TCPalm for #WhatToDoIn772. Contact her at maribeth.d.renne@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Restaurant review: The Oar Restaurant in Vero Beach is outstanding
