bluezoo

Excuse me, but that's "Todd English's bluezoo." I have now been officially cited as being out of the loop. Until I ate at his place at the Dolphin resort in Disney World. I at least had heard of one of his other restaurants - Olives. When I looked him up on the internet, he's a dreamy catch. But, alas, we are here for the food and wine.

bluezoo bar

glass baubles

The bluezoo interior lured me in. Big, tall, round columns with varying blue mosaic tiles. Glass baubles hanging from the ceiling like jellyfish. Copper bar and wavy metal wall panels representing schools of fish. The bar area was loud and contemporary (non-smoking, yay!). The dining area, more upscale, yet, cosy. We started off with two glasses of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Tart and refreshing. It paired well with the garlic shrimp appetizer and the little neck clam flatbread. The clams on the flatbread were sweet and the place did not skimp on the number of clams. The shrimp were nestled in creamy polenta and chives. The chives were a good choice. They added a flavor burst to the shrimp.

For the main dish we ordered a 2002 Stags Leap Syrah to drink. And to eat, I ordered the nori wrapped tuna and my husband selected the mahi mahi with a lemon parsley sauce. We also ordered a side of tempura haricot verts (green beans). The tuna was a leap for me. I'm not a fish fan, but since I was at a fish place, I decided, what the hell. The tuna was served rare, which suited me fine (I've been known to eat tuna sushi on occasion). It was extremely tender. I didn't need to use my knife to pull it apart and it was not that fishy. The nori, however, imparted a fishiness to the tuna. Still, the quality of the tuna won out and the wasabi sauce added just the right amount of tongue-tingling zip. The Syrah turned out to be a great choice with the rare tuna. My husband enjoyed his fish; the only disappointment being that the sauce was not lemony enough for him. On to the tempura haricot verts. Tiny French green beans fried in tempura batter; served Belgium style in a paper cone with truffle mayonaise. A lovely treat.

No room for dessert, but what came out of the kitchen and presented to tables around us looked very tempting.