Restaurant Spotlight: The Red Tomato

The Red Tomato
by Molly Wilkins

Bang for Buck - 3
Service - 3.75
Atmosphere - 4
Food - 3

For this issue’s restaurant spotlight, I headed a little north to The Red Tomato in quaint Bolingbroke. I had been a couple of times, but not often enough to be very familiar with them. Well… except for the dinner house salad and THAT I knew I had to have again! My parents and my husband William made the trip with me. The ambience of the restaurant is very cozy. It’s in what appears to be a former home, without giving the diner a feeling of being crowded. Our server made some excellent wine suggestions. I ordered the Whitehaven and my husband had a merlot.

To start off, we had the Assorted Cheese Plate, the Black Eyed Pea Cakes, and the Escargots, which is something my husband gets wherever he goes. William managed to talk my mother and me into trying the escargots, and I have to say they were quite good. The texture and the taste were both incredible—granted, I do not have a trained palate for escargots but they were good: buttery and just the right amount of lemon. The assorted cheese plate came with Danish blue cheese, green onion, and brie along with a strawberry clover honey. The blue cheese and brie were good alone but even better with the honey. I did not care for the green onion except when paired with the honey. The black eyed pea cakes were amazing, not too crusty, and not much filling but great whole black eyed peas. Very simply, it was as if your mother had condensed a whole pot of black eyed peas into cake form, just salty enough and very tasty. They were served with a bacon cornbread, which was a good compliment with the cakes.

The house salad is just to die for: I could make a meal of it alone. Seriously. I had it once at a wedding rehearsal dinner and knew I had to have it again. It comes with baby greens, candied nuts, cantaloupe, grapes, pineapple and a blue cheese balsamic vinaigrette. It’s so good that after the first time I had it I tried to replicate it at home (not much luck).

For the entrée’, I ordered the salmon, which was served with tortellini and an alfredo sauce. My salmon was too salty for my tastes, but it might have been because it was presented with the tortellini and alfredo on top. My father ordered the Chef’s filet, which was not bad but was cooked a little too much for what he had ordered (that happens sometimes). My mother had the chicken piccata and it was very good, very tender. That’s especially hard to do with such a thin piece of meat but they pulled it off nicely. It was not only good, but the shining star of our entrees.

Side note on the side dishes: the blue cheese bacon grits were amazing! I had to take it home, however, but it was still good the next day. And the double chocolate Godiva cheesecake for dessert for to die for.

The service was good. For example: Our server was amiable and made nice conversation when appropriate, but when he missed that both my husband and my father were out of their beverage, a second server noticed. Even more impressively, she knew my father’s drink of choice. So a few rookie mistakes, but no one is perfect. Other than that our server was spot on. (And I will remember his wine recommendation for next time.)

As expected, the Red Tomato provided a comfortable atmosphere with high-end meals in the charming setting one finds in isolated Bolingbroke. If you don’t mind the drive, you should have a good time.