Medusa Grill & Bistro - Lake Geneva, WI

One benefit to starting this blog is hearing from other people with restaurant recommendations. So, last night we went to one of those recommendations - Medusa Grill and Bistro. We thought we knew every restaurant in the area, but apparently not! We regularly get the Lake Geneva area newspapers and magazines and we've never seen this restaurant mentioned! It's so nice to try a new restaurant and be very pleasantly surprised.

The first thing we noticed when we walked in was the ambience. The low level lighting really set a nice tone. There was one thing that made me uncomforable, though. There was no obvious host station, so we were not sure what we were supposed to do. For a minute I thought maybe we were supposed to seat ourselves. But then someone grabbed menus from a station near the bar and we were seated.

We arrived there around 6 or so and there were a few people sitting at the bar and a few tables were occupied. Half way through our meal, the place was packed. Every table and every seat at the bar was occupied. It looks like most people at the bar were eating.

Based on the menu, it looks like most of the food is Greek inspired. If you look at their website, it says they servce Greek, French, Spanish, Moroccan, Lebanese, Turkish, Italian, Croatian and Armenian! I'm not sure I would recognize the last few, but whatever it was, it was excellent!

We started with the Saganaki, which was really good. I then had a tomato & mozzarella salad that included artichokes, hearts of palm, bell peppers. It was supposed to be drizzeled with a balsamic vinegar and white truffle oil. I really didn't taste the truffle oil, though. The salad was very good and very unusual. You can get the salads in full or half portions, but I think the prices are kind of high for the half portion.

My husband had the special soup which was a butternut squash bisque. It was made with coconut milk, rather than heavy cream. It was topped with carmelized onions and had a curry taste to it. I tasted it - wow! So creative.

We both had for our main course the wood grilled grouper topped with shrimp butter. I'm always leary ordering fish from a place I've never been before, but I thought I'd take the chance. This was one of the best pieces of fish I've ever had at somewhere that's not Bob Chinn's! Not one bite was fishy and it had a grilled flavor to it that was outstanding. With the fish came way too many other things. I can't even remember them all. There was some mashed potatoes (white) topped with what I thought was mashed sweet potato. That was very interesting - the two flavors together. There was also a beet and some other vegetables. The taste of everything by themselves was good, it was just too many different things together.

I've decided to start talking about the size of wine pours, because after a while you realize that sometimes it makes sense to order a bottle and sometimes the pours are big, it makes more sense to order by the glass. I'm talking strictly from a financial standpoint.

The pours here are generous. I believe the price was $6.50 for a glass of chardonnay. It was well worth the price.

There is a selection on their menu called "Chef's Choice", which is where you let the chef prepare what he wants for you. It says you have to be adventurous, so this is what we will try next time. Can't wait.

http://www.medusagrillandbistro.com/