Grove was a medium-sized place that offered a number of dining options.  A Tasting for 2 ($125) included bread, 5 courses of your choosing and dessert and is available on Fri. and Sat,  A Taste of Grove ($50) was 3 courses and available Tues thru Thursday, and the Grove Experience ($300) serves the table the entire menu.   The prices are per table on the first and last option and per person on the middle.  The portions are not scaled, though, so the last option is better if you have 4 or more people.  We chose the 5 course but were hard pressed to pick the courses, every server had a different opionion.  It was a comfortable, modern  looking place with larger natural wood tables nicely spaced on wood and tile flooring with a lowered ceiling and lighting.  Music was in the background but the designer had made a successful effort to keep the noise level amenable to conversations.  A full bar with counter seating took up a portion of the room and there were lots of plants on the walls and placed around.  It opened around Feb. 2022 after the Covid shutdown as a new concept with a rennovated interior.  Service was friendly and helpful, especially in directing the meal plan.  He brought each dish separately so we could enjoy it rather than filling the table with too much at once. It is recommended if you find yourself in GrandRapids.

Set-Up

 

Food

Bread and butter was a Dukkah brioche and cultured butter.  Dukkah is an Egyptian seasoning of hazelnuts, sesame seeds, cumin, coriander and fennel.  It came out as one coiled like loaf and the softened butter was salted on top.  The seasonings are in between the layers of the bread.  The flavor was lovely and the texture was more doughy than crisp.  I liked it a lot and it was good to accompany the upcoming courses.

 

Roasted Sweet Peppers contained goat cheese, hazelnut, tomatillo, basil and urfa pepper.  They are a newer addition to the menu and quite colorful.  The peppers had been charred on the fire and were mixed with some pickled tomatillos.  Most of the peppers were quite sweet but the yellow and red ones had a slight peppery flavor.   The pickled addition nicely accented the flavors as did the creamy sauce.  A good dish.

 

Fried mushroom were made with parmesan, pickled celery, remoulade and lemon.  The several kinds of mushrooms were dredged in buttermilk before frying and then topped with chives and parmesan. Some pickled celery accented these along with the remoulade sauce.  These were a far cry from the fried mushroom you might get as a snack in a bar and much better.  A bit of spiciness helped too.

 

Potato crusted fish used a market fish and was served with carrot-ginger purée, charred bok choy and bay leaf oil.  Tonight it was Corvina in a beautiful presentation.  The fish rested on the carrot-ginger purée and then the bok choy and the plate was ringed with some bay leaf oil.  The carrot sauce was thickened with harissa and the ginger brought a hint of heat to it.  The scales on the top had been perfectly crisped to provide an excellent contrast to the other softer parts.  It was a fantastic dish.

 

Caio e pepe was made with radiatore pasta, parmesan, black pepper, lemon, and charred onion.  Not your standard rendition, this one had a lemon shallot cream sauce and they made the pasta in house.  What looked like bits of meat were actually red onion and the black pepper gave it a hint of spice.  Topping it all was a ton of freshly grated flavorful parmesan.  It was a very good dish.

 

Beef Short ribs were with cherry tomato, shallot, lime cream, pearl onion and green tomato jelly.  The lime cream was on the side and the tomato confit was hidden under the radish.  The meat had been heavily seasoned and cooked to a crisp on the outside.  It was still tender but really needed the sauce to give it moisture and richness.  This dish was a little disappointing, the fish was much better.

 

Vanilla cheesecake was made with cardamom apple jam, oat crumb and lace crisp.  The server said it would be unlike other cheesecakes I’ve had and he was right.  The traditional cheesecake filling was inside a nice pastry shell that was also filled with sweet Michigan apples that were well seasoned.  Topping it wall was a lace crisp that was buttery and crisp.  It was very good and certainly not your usual cheesecake.