5 /5 Anna Cedro: While visiting the WONDERFUL Wellington animal conservation center (a must visit for kids and adults), we looked for a place to eat that was close. The menu at Kaluz stood out. We arrived just as they opened at 1130am. Surprisingly, the restaurant was already fully staffed. We took a seat outside as it was a beautiful day. Our waitress Tara came to greet us. We explained this was our first time here and any recommendations would be welcomed. Immediately she gave us the run down of the restaurant. She let us know everything is made in-house from scratch, even the sauces. Also all cocktails were scratch made, no store bought mixers. My friend and I were open to suggestions as everything sounded so good. Tara asked if we wanted to put in the kids order and get that started right away while we decided. I appreciated this very much. My daughter also didn’t want to decide on one thing, so she got the chicken fingers and fries as well as the pasta with red sauce. We were able to pick out what cocktails we wanted first. I had the spicy watermelon margarita and my friend had the Key West Rickety. Both were amazing and were perfect for our pallets. Then we ordered the Brussel sprout appetizers and the octopus appetizer. It was very difficult to narrow it down to just two. I personally feel that Brussel spouts for an appetizer is kinda weird. They seem more like a side dish. The menu does state they are tossed in a garlic aioli. They tasted AMAZING! Next time I will ask for the aioli on the side to dip them in, as it was a very big portion and we had to take them home and I’m not sure how they will reheat. But 10 out of 10 for the Brussel spouts. I’ll get them every time.
The octopus….. I love octopus. But this, hands down, was the top 3 octopus dishes I’ve ever had. Tara explained how the spicy aioli with the pico really enhance the flavor. I was skeptical because good octopus shouldn’t need anything else right? So wrong. Eating the octopus, with the pico, and the sauce all as one bite did some dancing on our pallets. The sauce was so good I dipped a few fries in it as well. I could eat that sauce on everything! The octopus was on a bed of roasted potatoes. The potatoes were very good, especially in the sauce. But I didn’t feel that they added anything to the dish like the pico and sauce.
My daughter got her pasta and chicken fingers with fries. She was a very happy camper. We did try her food and it was really good! You could tell even the chicken tenders were made scratch. The batter was very tasty. My daughter said they were the best French fries she ever had. The pasta was corkscrew pasta, which the menu didn’t specify. So when it came out she didn’t want to try it, as she only likes spaghetti. But we tried the pasta and decided not to send it back because it was so good and we’ll eat it for a late night snack.
I ended up ordering what Tara said her favorite meal there was - NY strip steak (medium) with truffle butter, creamed spinach, with an addition of a crab cake. My friend ordered the salmon (rare) with the wild rice and asparagus. Most restaurants never cook the salmon the way she likes it done. But this was cooked perfectly. The rice was technically long grain rice with some wild rice. The asparagus was perfect. My steak was an absolute perfect medium. The butter did not have a strong truffle flavor and was more herby. We all would 100% order everything we ate again. Although it would be hard not to try new things, as everything there was impeccable. Everything from the ambiance, to the service, to the food was amazing. It was a great experience, something I feel restaurants lack nowadays. We will absolutely go back, recommend to everyone, and if I could rate it more than 5 stars I would!
