Vida offers innovative cuisine using locally sourced ingredients, when possible.   It’s a large building with a bar on one side and the dining room on the other.  The bar offers more casual dining and is in the original part of the building.  They offer a  6-course Chef’s tasting menu (optional wine pairings available) or a 4-course fixed price menu with several choices for each course.   Opening in 2016, it is an elegant space with a super high ceiling that has windows much of the way up.  One wall of the dining room had a cushy bench that was mated with medium-sized dark bare wood tables.  Carpet was on the floor and lots of wood in the room help keep the noise at a good level even with music in the background.  The service was very nice with the team working together.  The pacing was good as was portion control.  We chose the Chef’s tasting with a dessert substitution for me and our own bottle of wine.

Set-Up

 

Food

The amuse bouche were a goat cheese tartlet, potato blini and truffle chicken croquette.  The tartlet was dusted with toasted walnuts, had an ultra-thin crisp crust and was probably my favorite of the trio.  The blini was topped with some trout roe and was tasty.  The chicken in the croquette was on the dry side but did have a bit of spice to the flavor but no truffle taste.

 

Tuna was with ajo blanco, salsa verde, gooseberry, sesame tuile and china rose radish.  The tender fish was perfect with the sauces and the tart gooseberries.  The sesame tuile added texture and fun flavor.  A good overall balance to this nice plate.

 

Shrimp were in green curry with baby golden beets and charred scallion. The excellently cooked shrimp were large and delicious.  The lovely curry was accented with some fresh herbs and the scallions.  This was a wonderful dish.

 

Bread service included garlic focaccia and apple-parsnip bread.  Both were served warm with softened butter. The bread reminded me of gingerbread, it was almost cake-like.  With lots of spices and a soft texture, it was fun to eat but I wouldn’t want to mix it with the foods.  The focaccia had a courser texture and a bit of salt mixed with the garlic.  Two totally different textures and flavors here and both very nice.

 

Tortelloni were topped with morel and chestnut mushrooms and stuffed with preserved lemon potato and sitting in a white wine butter sauce.  This was an amazing dish.  Some of the morels could have used more cleaning as they still had a little grit but not enough to get in the way of the flavor.  The perfectly cooked pasta was grand with the flavorful sauce and mushrooms.

 

A Scallop was plated with pork belly, celeriac and d’anjou pear. Some pickled mustard seed added a fun twist to the flavor profile.  The scallop was cooked perfectly as was the well-cooked piece of pork belly.  The celeriac purée was rich and tasty and delicious with both proteins.  This was rich deliciousness at its best.

 

Strube Ranch (Texas) wagyu ribeye was served with grilled broccoli, Robuchon, cipollini, béarnaise and truffle demi. The broccoli almost tasted smoked and it was good with the rich béarnaise, as was the tender meat.   The potatoes were supposed to be Robuchon style but were not buttery enough and seemed to be an Idaho variety rather than Gold potato, to use that name, however they were still quite good.  The meat was cooked rare as ordered and had good flavor.  One grilled ring of Cipollini was tasty.  Here I found I liked the parts of the plate separately more than I did combined, except for the sauce of course.

 

Meyer Lemon Tart was in a cardamom-ginger crust with toasted marshmallow créme, blackberry, lemon sorbet and sesame tuile.  The ice cream had as much coconut flavor as lemon and the tart was a deconstructed presentation.  There were a number of tasty parts with good textural variation.

 

Ricotta Doughnuts were covered with a bourbon maple glaze, alongside candied bacon, on maple cream with sea salt caramel ice cream on brown butter crumbles.  The doughnuts were like fritters with a wonderful bacon, bourbon and maple combination of flavors. The sweet ice cream had the crisp of the buttery crumbles to mix with it.  Here I enjoyed mixing up all the parts for random combinations of goodness.  It was all I hoped for.