Savannah Eats

posted on March 4, 2010 by Beth // 7 Comments »

Oh, Savannah, I thank you. I thank you for a much needed vacation. I thank you for sunny skies and green grass. It’s been too long since I’ve seen both. And most of all, I thank you for good eats.

We had an incredibly relaxing stay, and will definitely be coming back for a visit again some day.

I also want to pass along a huge thank you to the friendly and ever-so-helpful Savannah folks on Twitter. Lots of great advice was coming my way from them, and they drastically cut down the hours I had to spend on trip research!

Now before I go any further, I want to point out that I’m not listing every meal we had on this trip. I don’t have the time or energy to tell you about places where we had mediocre food or service. Just so you know, that’s always going to be the case with me. I don’t focus on the bad, just the good*. We had a couple of negative experiences (mainly service issues), but our positive experiences far outweighed those minor blips.

So here we go! A rundown of our Savannah favorites:

Cha Bella
102 E. Broad St.
Savannah, GA 31401
(912) 790-7888
Meal: Dinner

Our first night in town we had dinner at Cha Bella with our friends Nathan and Emily who now live about an hour away in Statesboro, Georgia. You must forgive me on this meal, as I didn’t take notes since I was too caught up in chatting with our friends we hadn’t seen in quite some time. I’ll do my best to recap:

Appetizer:
River View Farms Slow Roasted Pork Belly with a fall mushroom Carolina gold risotto and wilted baby mustard greens

Entrees:

Local Black Grouper gently seared with farm pea, sweet corn, and lump crab succotash finished with lemon white wine pan sauce (my dish)
And this was the dish that Ravi ordered:

Unfortunately, neither of us can remember what it was,
Obviously it was some kind of fish with a couple of shrimp on some grits with broccolini. Sorry, not a beautiful description, but just know that it was damn good.

Sapphire Grill
110 W Congress St
Savannah, GA 31401
(912) 443-9962
Meal: Dinner

I’m so sad that I don’t have any photos of this meal, but the room was so dark that none of them turned out well, no matter how hard I tried. Finally I gave up and put the camera away because this trip was about my honey and I, right? Romance! Not food photos!

We chose to do the 4-course chef’s tasting menu with wine pairings and it was amazing. Awesome food and incredible service~

Course 1:
Polenta Encrusted Diver Scallop (Beth)
Champagne Poached Lobster (Ravi)

Course 2:
Roasted Baby Root Vegetables (B)
Grilled Caesar Salad (R)

Course 3:
Grilled Wild Atlantic Salmon with Asparagus (B)
Tenderloin with Frites and Roasted Tomatoes (R)

Course 4: Dessert~ Chocolate Gateau (both)

Then for lunch the next day we decided to follow our server’s advice from the night before and hit Vic’s on the River. It was already on my list of places to go while we were in town, but so were a handful of other restaurants, so I wasn’t absolutely sure we would be able to fit it in. However, once she told us that it was on her Top 3 Savannah Restaurants list, we decided it was a must.

Vic’s on the River
26 East Bay Street & 15 East River Street
Savannah, GA 31401
(912) 721-1000
Meal: Lunch

Crawfish Beignets with Tabasco syrup (pictured to right)

Local Shrimp & Smoked Cheddar Stone Ground Grits with smoked bacon and rosemary barbecue

Fried Green Tomato BLT with goat cheese and sundried tomato pesto on toasted sourdough

Wow, wow, wow!! Did you read that? It was all as good as it sounds and then some. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the fresh biscuits they bring out with this honey butter that I was eating by the spoonful. Yes, I was. Not kidding. I think the lady at the table next to us was a little disturbed.

Elizabeth’s on 37th
105 East 37th Street
Savannah, GA 31401-8611
(912) 236-5547
Meal: Dinner

Hands down, one of the best restaurant experiences I’ve had in a long time. It was the highlight of our stay in Savannah and I’m so glad that it was our last meal of the trip. A perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

Amuse-Bouche
Prince Edward Island Mussel
with smoked tomato & chipotle aioli

Appetizer
Crab 2 Ways (pictured below):
Blue Crab Cake over creamed sweet corn with tomato butter sauce and
Crab Salad over arugula & green tomato with oven-dried proscuitto

Salad
Light Salad of Mixed Baby Greens, arugula, fresh herbs (mint, cilantro), clementine, chevre, light herb vinaigrette

Entrees

Herb Glazed Flounder, low country style
over corn pudding with a hash of sausage, potato, celery, and onion; finished with shrimp, butter sauce and capers (pictured below)

Snapper & Oyster Mushrooms
over a cauliflower & goat cheese flan with kale cooked down with vinegar and country ham; finished with truffle oil & lemon butter sauce

Dessert
Pecan almond tart with bourbon caramel sauce &
homemade praline ice cream

I really can’t even put into words the quality of this meal and the entire experience. You must, MUST, visit here if you come to Savannah. It IS Savannah.

Check back tomorrow for “Savannah Drinks”!

*If you’re ever curious about places that you don’t see listed on my blog, feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to share with you my thoughts (if I have any)!