Acacia, Richmond - Chef Dale and GM Aline Reitzer on Cary and Robinson Street in The Fan

[ktmoomau]

Website

We had graduation dinner at Acacia on Saturday night. I like the new location, it is much more modern, open and light. We had a sauvignon blanc from Glen Manor that was very good, very light and crisp, but in a good way.

I started with softshells and slaw with pickled onion and a curry vinagrette, which wasn't as bold as I thought it would be, but it was good, a little unwieldy to eat, but good. For my main I had the rockfish with:cipollini puree, ramps, local mushrooms, chayote squash, sunchoke, roasted apples, lingonberry sauce which sounds odd, but was actually really good. I liked it. Hubby had the hanger steak which he liked, as well. I also had bites of the crabcakes which were good- even by my own Annapolis standards which says a lot.

The french press coffee they serve is good. I didn't have dessert, hubby had the orange waffle, I don't think he loved it. Nice selection of after dinner drinks, too.

[DonRocks]

Painful that this is only our *second* Richmond restaurant reviewed in over eight years!

Based on Katelin's review, and Tom Sietsema's Postcard from Richmond where he calls it "Richmond's best restaurant," I'm going to go ahead and initiate coverage of Acacia in Italic.

[schulju]

Dale Reitzer is an old friend and a fabulous chef. He honed his craft under Jimmy Sneed of The Frog and The Redneck fame, no one was prouder than Jimmy when Dale was named Best New Chef by Food and Wine magazine a number of years ago. Jimmy and Dale are directly responsible for the foodie I've become as they formed my palate when I was a young professional first venturing into the fine dining scene. (Hint: if you ever see cobia on a Reitzer menu, order it! You'll thank me later.)

[New Foodie]

Anyone have any recent experiences of suggestions?

+1 and I will be in Richmond visiting family mid-February and decided to take advantage of free babysitting to go out Saturday night to celebrate both of our birthdays and Valentine's Day. Acacia showed up on a number of top Richmond restaurant lists, and they had availability.

[Bags]

Anyone have any recent experiences of suggestions?

+1 and I will be in Richmond visiting family mid-February and decided to take advantage of free babysitting to go out Saturday night to celebrate both of our birthdays and Valentine's Day. Acacia showed up on a number of top Richmond restaurant lists, and they had availability.

Acacia is good, but also look into Heritage, Dutch & Company, Roosevelt, or Rappahanock.  I'd personally choose any of those over Acacia.  In 2009 when Sietsema wrote the postcard linked a few posts above, Acacia may have been the best spot in town.  But Richmond has really seen a number of exciting places blossoming in the past couple of years.  Each of the four I mentioned above are newer and more interesting than Acacia in my opinion.  Check out Heritage if they have availability (It's my personal favorite in town.)  Note that any of the restaurants mentioned in this post tend towards a fairly casual vibe.  If you're looking for more of a white tablecloth celebratory dinner in a beautiful setting for your V-day and b-days, something like Lemaire at the Jefferson Hotel is an old standby and would be a solid choice.

Here's a somewhat recent and mostly accurate take from Kliman:  http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/travel/eating-your-way-through-richmond/

[PappyVanWise]

I'll add The Magpie and Belmont Food Shop to the list of places to go in RVA these days. Also, I think that its officially called Acacia Mid-town now.

[New Foodie]

I appreciate the advice given above, but we ended up keeping our Acacia Mid-Town reservation for this past Saturday night. Bonus - free valet!

We showed up a few minutes early and were asked to wait at the bar/lounge. A server came by to take our drink order, and asked for our reservation name so she could put the drinks on the dinner tab, which made it very convenient to move right over to our table once it was ready. Neither of us loved our first drinks (the house white wine - $6 and old tom gin, cocchi americano rosa, cynar, lime twist - $10), but we did like the wine we had with dinner ('11 Three Brooms, Reserve, Marlborough $34). I've heard the cocktails here tend to be very good, but I'm not quite adventurous enough with liquor and mixers to appreciate it.

It sounds like the menu varies nightly, but there are some dishes that are consistent or carry over sometimes (one of our apps and one of our entrees are listed on the current online menu, but the other two are not). We were advised to try anything with pork by a friend who had eaten there a number of times (incidentally most recently the night before us), so we started off with Pork Belly ($9? I believe on a mushroom puree of some sort?) that was as rich as expected, with a little crunch on the outside. But I think I actually preferred the uniqueness of the Salad of fried calamari ($10 napa cabbage, pickled red onions, carrots, cilantro, curried vinaigrette). The curry made for a different combination with the calamari than you'd usually find (compared to asian flavors or marinara), and the salad kept it lighter than a plate of strictly fried seafood.

Our entrees were local jumbo lump crabcakes ($28 cheddar cheese grits, sauteed kale, shallot confit, grilled lemon butter sauce) and grouper ($25? with lentils and ham, greens, and a prosciutto butter). The bite I had of the crabcakes was good, and the cheese grits were delicious. My +1's plate was clean at the end. My grouper was well-cooked, and the ham in both the lentils and the sauce really put the dish over the top. I would be an advocate of ham and/or bacon in just about everything, so this was right up my alley.

For dessert we shared domestic artisanal cheese plate ($9 ~caromont creamery, bloomsbury, cow's milk, bloomy rind, creamy, hint of mushroom ~cypress grove, humboldt fog chevre, goat's milk herbal overtones, citrus, vegetable ash ~great hill dairy, blue, ma, raw cow's milk, soft blue cheese, dense curd), which was served with grilled bread, and what we think was a fig spread and some spiced apples. As usual, the blue was my favorite, but all were good, and the accompaniments were a good match. We could've used a bit more bread, but I wasn't complaining about having too much cheese.

My Richmond friends seem to think Acacia is good, but a bit expensive. We didn't have sticker shock (having lived and dined in DC for 10+ years now), but I'm sure there are other places in Richmond that are just as good and a tad cheaper. Either way, we were pleased with our dinner and enjoyed having a night out with grandparents babysitting. I would recommend Acacia Mid-Town if you're in Richmond and looking for a nice night out.