Garibaldi’s is in downtown Savannah on Congress Street, home to many well-known restaurants. In here they have something special going on that fits well with most diners. We had a decent size group, I believe it was 10 of us and we were all relaxing from travels and long days of work with a couple cocktails and glasses of wine. This restaurant is a great place to do this. We were seated upstairs, which had what seemed 20 foot ceilings, at a nice round table. I had a couple glasses of Pinot Noir from Walnut City throughout the evening and they were light and not overpowering. The menu had several great options for every part of the meal. I opted to start with a trademark appetizer, the Bloody Mary Oysters. They offer it raw or steamed, and I opted to go raw as the oysters almost always taste better this way. The dish comes with the oysters covered in chopped avocado, jalapeno, tomato and red onion with a soufflé cup of a spicy thin Bloody Mary mix sauce to drizzle atop the oyster concoction. I obliged. It was spicy and had a great bite. All the flavors blended well together, but it masked the oysters flavor profiles instead of enhancing them. Still though, it was a great appetizer that started the meal off nicely. Next, one of the locals that joined us highly recommended the Veal Chop au Poivre. This was easy to accept, as I love a great veal chop and being one of the signature items on the menu I knew I would be in good hands. I decided to not add salad or soup, but the waiter came close by trying to tempt me with one. Maybe if they had she crab soup or crab corn chowder I could have been persuaded. The chop came out as described on the menu – peppered seared in a wild mushroom brandy with mashed potato and haricort vert (I have no idea what this is, but the only thing it could have been were the green beans on my plate). I ordered the chop medium, which was the recommended temperature, and that was exactly how it was served. Delicious. The mushroom brandy sauce was a great sidecar to the veal and I devoured every last bite. Now I am not a big fan of desserts, but had heard a lot about the ones here. The table ordered a few and I sampled them with a spoonful here and there. The one that stood out was a berry basket with ice cream. It was sublime. This is a great restaurant with old southern charm and lots of great choices. Make this part of your next stop in Savannah and you will enjoy it.
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- The Bloody Mary Oysters
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- Smothered and covered in a delicious mushroom brandy sauce
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- Berry basket
Tags: bloody mary, Garibaldi, mushrooms, oysters, Savannah, veal, Walnut City
