09 February 2011

Victor's Review: Sage American Bistro - Post 14

Tonight I had the opportunity to try out one of Clintonville's newest restaurants - Sage American Bistro. Reviews thus far have been positive, for example, Alive! named Sage as the Best New Restaurant of 2009.

Sage is located just south of Dodridge Street on the West side of High Street, immediately south of Hounddog's / Ravari Room, so it's easily accessible from Campus, the north side and, generally speaking, most of the city.

Let's dive right in: Chef William Glover frequently changes up his one page menu based on seasonal availability of ingredients which leads to a healthy variety of dishes. Unfortunately, the website is not always current on the offerings - for example, I was heavily disappointed that there was no butternut squash soup today as I had been looking forward to that dish since last week when I read the menu.

The restaurant has a full bar with a variety of signature cocktails and an array of microbrew / craft beers. I went with a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, which was a nice hearty beer with a dark color and a bit of a chocolaty hint to it while my friend tried the Vesper Martini - a tasty beverage, as it was relayed to me.

I skipped out on the starter and jumped right to the entree - Amish Chicken. There was a fair amount of seafood options on the menu, sadly, I've never been a fan of seafood, so I found the menu to be limited to the chicken dish, a steak or linguine. The Amish Chicken ($23) was fairly pricey for the modest portion of one piece which was served with a single inch thick disc of baked potato and red cabbage casserole.

I thought the chicken had a lovely glaze and the jus floating around the bottom of the plate made for a simple, yet elegant, dipping sauce. The chicken, unlike the baked potato - which was still hard, was well cooked and not dried out. My friend, being German, was a huge fan of the red cabbage and ate virtually all of the crunchy topped casserole.

For desert, I tried the Apple / Date Fritters ($6). These were served as 5 fritters, each atop a dollop of whipped cream and finished off with a slice of candied ginger. A nice crunchy exterior, deep, golden brown color and a soft interior made for a delightful after dinner snack.

Additionally, I was able to sample some of the Sweet Potato Brulee ($6), which was not as light as a cremé brulee, but was a great winter time dessert. Toasted, melty marshmallows topped this concoction which had a nice pumpkin-esque flavor to it and seemed very fitting for this frigid time of year.

The restaurant itself was not very busy, though we did arrive at nearly 2000 on a Wednesday and well after the dinner rush. One could walk straight through from the back entry to High Street in a couple dozen paces and the room was only perhaps a third as wide, but the modest space was very well utilized and decorated.

Overall, while visually appealing with a friendly staff, I thought the quality was not up to the price level charged for it. Yes, the desserts were absolutely amazing and the chicken was tasty, but for the small portion sizes and the fact that the chicken was only "tasty" I'm going to have to give Sage one of my lowest ratings yet. I may try this one again when I know they have the butternut squash soup, just to try that, but until then, I would prefer to go to some of my more frequent haunts with lower prices and food that is at least as good.

Basic info:
Website - http://www.sageamericanbistro.com/
Location - Clintonville @ 2653 North High Street, Columbus 43202
Phone - 614.267.7243
Victor's Rating = 2.75 (0-5 scale)