Gordon’s

This last weekend Josh and I went to Whidbey Island for a little getaway. We discovered a couple of really wonderful restaurants, Gordon’s being one of them. Seriously, if all we did on the trip was eat here, it would have been worth it.

We skimmed the appetizers but decided to forgo as they all either featured shellfish or hazelnuts (allergies) or mushrooms (not my favorite). However, the rest of the meal proved to be incredible.

We started out with a small house salad, and normally that’s not much to write home about, but the buttermilk pesto dressing was really inspiring. I’m going to try and imitate it at home; truly delicious. Maybe I’m unimaginative, but I never would have thought of pairing pesto with a green salad. It was really wonderful.

Josh tried the “Fresh Fish of the Day”, which turned out to be a catfish seasoned with cajun spices and topped with a white peach salsa. The heat of the fish and the sweetness of the salsa were just incredible. The fish was crisp on the outside, flaky and melting inside, and just divine. It also came with grits, which normally we’d both be a little bored with, but these grits must have been cooked in something amazing (bacon fat? entire cubes of butter? manna from heaven??) because they were rich and decadent and made me think twice about my attitude toward this little maize porridge.

I tried the Fillet Mignon and oh glory… Imagine the most tender, succulent steak wrapped in bacon (yes friends, bacon) and drizzled with both a horseradish gorgonzola butter (steak, bacon, butter… if your arteries are going to clog, this is the way to go) and a raspberry balsamic reduction. It was seriously… amazing. I’m at a loss for words. This steak is so good, it challenges The Met’s $50+ steak, and it $20 cheaper. It’s worth the ferry ride my friends.

Both meals were accompanied with fresh sauteed veggies. One thing I so appreciated about these vegetables was it was obvious they were very fresh, seasonal, and just lightly sauteed. There’s nothing more disappointing than having your vegetable either a) taste like it came out of a can or b) be so overcooked that you’re pretty sure all nutritional value was left behind in the water it was boiled in. Our vegetables consisted of rainbow chard, purple cabbage, sugar peas and summer squash and were just delightful.

Anytime you’re looking for a splurge, I’d highly recommend Gordon’s. I know we’ll find an excuse to go back, I’m sure.

By the way, Josh has a new little iPhone toy and was having fun covertly videotaping conversations between drooling bites. See below if you’re interested. :)

Tags: Seafood, Steak, Whidbey Island Restaurants

This entry was posted on August 25th, 2009 and is filed under Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.