A^2 Restaurant Week Review: Vinology

Underwhelmed > Disappointed. I'm throwing out there a little dorky equation that I think sums up my visit to Vinology tonight. It makes me sad to have to say it, because I really do love Vinology, and I wanted to come back with a glowing recommendation. But tonight I just wasn't feeling the fresh local love. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I didn't give it a fair shake because Brandon Johns isn't the executive chef anymore. Maybe I'm just in a grouchy mood because I'm still a little bit hungry. Whatever the reason, Vinology tonight was not grand like I wanted it to be, it was just merely "good."
The evening started off just before 7pm as Stephanie and her husband Bradford joined Brad and I at Vinology. We arrived to the restaurant just on the tail end of the rain, and were promptly seated in a booth near the kitchen. Brad and I managed to wiggle our way ahead of our companions, which meant that we ended up on the side of the booth facing the restaurant, as opposed to the mess of a kitchen view that Bradford had to tolerate all night. Other than the view from that particular angle though, Vinology has a cool, dark, cave-like ambiance that I dig. So I reveled in it as much as I could. Then our friendly server Joey brought us the restaurant week menu. I guess this is where things got disappointing for me.

Vinology Restaurant week menu

If you know me, you know that I'm not much of a literature snob, and therefore, don't often complain about language, grammar and the written word. That's because usually any mistakes and mishaps I find are often ones I would make myself! But also knowing me, you know how much I love food. Specifically, well-described food that makes me salivate just thinking about it. Now, did you take a look at the menu above? Sliced Filet? That's the best description you could give me Vinology? You see where I'm going here. The actual food for restaurant week at Vinology could have been complete crap, but if they had only spent a little more time describing it, I might have been more enthused about eating it! In spite of the dismal visual images in my head though, we placed our order. We also ordered up some pre-dinner booze, and I was not disappointed with my glass of brut Segura Viudas cava. No comment on the drink orders from the rest of the peanut gallery, but I didn't hear any complaints either.
Everyone at our table went with the local green salad to start. The salad was good, but not the best one I've had this week. And while I appreciated the generous sprinkling of dried cherries (I'm betting they were local from Traverse City too), Brad mentioned to me that it was an odd choice for a staple salad, because there does happen to be a heck of a lot of people who don't like sweet things (my husband included) mixed in with their greens. The other option was a gazpacho though, which left me even more unexcited. So I think I made the right choice.

Local greens salad (sorry about the dark exposure)

Next up, it was time for the main course. This is the point in the evening where we all made different choices. I went with the gnocchi, Stephanie with the chicken, Bradford with the filet, and my Brad, being a rebel, ordered something off the regular menu, the seared sesame tuna. The first thing I noticed when our entrees arrived, was that the portions were adequate. Now when I say adequate, it's because the raging beast in my belly was screaming "Are you kidding me, that's it!!?" while the calm collected rational voice in my head was saying "portion control, portion control, portion control." Other than that little internal dialog, the food was well presented, and quite honestly, my gnocchi was good. Brad took a bite and exclaimed it be much better than my ravioli earlier in the week at Bella Ciao. While I didn't whole-heartedly agree with that sentiment, I did think the sauce on this gnocchi (a pesto of sorts with some mushroom thrown in for good measure) was very well incorporated with the dish, and I gobbled it up lickety-split. Brad and Stephanie across the table, both thought their dishes were good, but I didn't hear any oohs, or ahhhs, or mmmms, either. The surprise of the evening though, I would have to say was my Brad's tuna. Oh. My. Goodness. It was fanTAStic. I managed to sneak one bite, and my mouth was exploding with the contrast of the crisp sear on the tender tuna, combined with the soft as silk jasmine rice, and intermingled with a heavenly lime oil around the plate. This dish was grand. It reminded me that while Vinology may be disappointing me for restaurant week, there were still plenty of reasons to come back and order off the regular menu when all was said and done.

Ricotta pesto gnocchiSesame seared tuna

In closing out the dinner menu, we returned to our earlier approach and all ordered the dark chocolate mousse (well, all except my Brad, who didn't get dessert and just ate mine). While I thought the mousse was really good, I did once again have to mentally tame my inner beast as it complained about the size of my tiny ramekin. Paired with local fresh strawberries and a cute little sprig of mint though, this is what I think good local cooking should be all about. A clean, refreshing end to a well portioned meal.

Dark chocolate mousse

While I did enjoy the good company and the experience tonight, I don't think I'll return to Vinology next year for restaurant week. I think Vinology's forte is creating well prepared local dishes that might take a bit more time than your average dish to create. So I don't think a format like restaurant week, catering to mass quantities of people, allows them to exceed at what they do best. That being said, I'll save my next visit to Vinology for a quiet ordinary day when the kitchen isn't so overwhelmed and the poorly described menu isn't so overpriced.