Vincente's is a restaurant located at 5914 Kirkwood Hwy in Wilmington, DE. This is a restaurant that I had been to several times before making the plunge to lose weight in January of 2013. Conversely, we had not visited this restaurant during the last 17 months as a result.
Upon arriving, we were told that the waitress we had requested (Danielle) was no longer there. Also, I noticed someone other than Vincent making the renowned table-side Caesar Salad. When I asked our server (Nicky) where Vincent was that night, she was a bit confused and asked, "who"? I responded, "the old man who owns the place". She then said, "he died". This really saddened us because Vincent was a showman and really solicited participation from his diners in making his Caesar Salad, offering his "walking menu" and preparing his table-side bananas foster.
Vincent's son has come out of the kitchen and taken over his Dad's role as the "front man". His brother is the main bartender.
Vincente's always starts the diner with a complimentary hors d'oeuvres which is a small piece of flounder with a few bread crumbs over it and perfectly seasoned. It was delicious as usual-- this is accompanied with a half of a roll with a cheesy beer spread over it. Again, quite good.
We then chose our dinner without using the menu and not waiting for Vincent's son to come over to provide the walking menu. Let me just explain the walking menu briefly for those who have never encountered it-- he will come over and ask you what you feel like eating that night. The choices are endless (steak, seafood, veal, chicken, pork, etc.). Once you make that decision, he will ask spicy or not spicy. He then zeroes in on a dish and will suggest that. This is how I found my favorite Vincente's dish which is named after one of the grandchildren-- Chicken Leah Brie. This is how the walking menu is presented and it is unbelievable to watch as a chef decides with you the diner what you are going to eat that evening.
For my meal this evening, I chose the table-side Caesar Salad for 2 as an appetizer ($9 ea). The salad was prepared by Vincent's son who tried his best to emulate his Dad, but he doesn't have the 50 plus years of being in front of the patrons yet like his Dad did. The Caesar Salad was good still, but just seemed to be off a tad, but that could just be the whole aura of not having Vincent make the salad. Part of the show before you are served the salad is that Vincent would go about 35 feet away from the salad bowl with a few round clumps of romano cheese and attempt to throw it half way across the dining room into the bowl. Vincent had this down to a science and would often yell, "Larry Bird for 3, bang!!" The salad was still very good and provided an ample amount of romaine and dressing.
I am one that tends to like a certain dish at a restaurant and usually do not like to deviate-- this is the case here. I ordered the aforementioned Chicken Leah Brie. This is chicken stuffed with jumbo lump crabmeat with cheese, shrimp and mushrooms in an unbelievable orange cream basil sauce-- the first time this was ever described to me, I had some reservations about it, but my concerns turned into admiration because this is truly an outstanding dish. This is also served with a side of pasta (I ordered angel hair). This dish again did not disappoint and I ended up taking about half home because of the quantity of the food.
My dining companion chose the Veal Marsala and that was a tad bit disappointing. I thought the flavor was off and had never seen a Marsala served with peas before. My companion ended up dipping the veal into my orange basil cream sauce for better flavor and enjoyed that much more.
Normally I would do dessert, but I was too full to entertain the idea. I should mention that the dessert of choice is a table-side bananas foster.
My partner had 2 glasses of wine during the meal-- dinner for 2 before tip was $82.
Overall rating-- 3.75 Brownies
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