Restaurant review: Tonic

Tonic in Indian Harbour Beach features intriguing dishes, including Lobster Beignets, lower left, Crab Summer Roll, right, and a cheese tasting plate, background, with homemade sauces and jams. This restaurant scored 4.5 palms out of 5. (Credit: Chris Kridler, special to Metromix)

4.5 palms out of 5

Where: 1906 State Road A1A, Indian Harbour Beach

Hours: Monday through Saturday

Information: Call 321-622-8909 or visit www.tonicstateofmind.com

Tonic sounds like a bar, but first and foremost, it's a restaurant, with creative, delicious dishes that make it more than a meal. It's an experience.

Executive chef Jason Clark, formerly of Magnolia's, has put together a selection of mostly small plates that encourage diners to make multiple choices in this hip new space in Indian Harbour Beach.

Most of the entree plates are available in smaller sizes, so our party of five took the opportunity to order several appetizers and half-entrees so we could try more items.

We also took advantage of the bar and started with cocktails. The Manhattans were quite good, though our friend's margarita came with salt she didn't want.

Our server attempted to recite the specials from memory, with difficulty; reading them was fine with us. Cheese lovers can't go wrong with the cheese course, in small or large size, especially when accompanied by the fruity Italian pinot nero we enjoyed. Each cheese is complemented by sauces and jams made in-house. Among them, the strawberry jam was lovely with the Havarti; the figs sublime with the goat cheese; and the pecorino delicious no matter what was served with it.

The lobster beignets ($9) were subtly sweet dough balls stuffed with lobster and other ingredients and served with citrus marmalade. Though I couldn't pick out the lobster, I was intrigued by the flavor, and it was a comfortable, rib-sticking dish.

I was much more impressed by the crab summer roll ($9), with crab, green papaya, herbs and peanuts, enveloped in rice paper. My husband's beef carpaccio ($9) was both beautiful and bursting with flavor, as it was served with 25-year-old balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, crispy shallots and roasted peanuts.

Our friends' apple tempura chicken with sweet chili dipping sauce ($7) would blow away your average chicken-finger fan. Our companions also loved the sweet crusted lamb chops with sour cherry chutney, grilled bok choy and ginger-sweet potato puree ($15 small plate, $19 big plate). I had a taste, and the sweet potato and cherry worked beautifully together.

The lobster mac n cheese may be trendy, but it was rich, creamy and satisfying ($12/$15), and served with panache and a manchego cheese crisp.

The pistachio crusted tuna ($13/$16) was good, but what really made us rave was the accompanying coconut-lemon risotto topped by torched green bananas. Similarly, while my petite crispy filet mignon ($16; full version $24) was quite nice, the accompanying fennel-wild mushroom tart, topped by tangy cheese, was incredible. If you order this dish, don't let your steak stray far from a bite of the tart. The accompanying roasted veggies were yummy, too.

We only had room after this feast for dessert: a brightly flavored apple tartlet, a rich blueberry-chocolate bread pudding, and our favorite, the complex, delectable chocolate custard with hints of lemon and lavender.

Tonic is a tonic to the tongue.