The Daily Kitchen & Bar: My Soon-to-be New Fav...When They Calm Down

Carytown has another new hot spot!  As if the Charlottesville pizzeria Mellow Mushroom opening a new location in the old Plan 9 space wasn’t exciting enough, The Daily Kitchen and Bar just opened in July at 2934 West Cary St. on the corner of Cary and Sheppard St.  On the home page of their website, they state that they “strive to serve foods that are not only delicious but also health conscious, environmentally friendly and socially responsible”.  Sounded GREAT to me- Richmond needs more restaurants like that IMO.

First off, if you’re not a fan of crowds, WAIT to try this place.  I tried to go on a Tuesday evening around 7:00 and there was about an hour wait.  Given it was the 2^nd week they were open and I expected some kind of wait, we had a movie to make so we just opted to go elsewhere.  But that Friday I went back with a patient friend and all the time in the world.  We were told the wait would be about an hour and a half, but our optimistic selves were sure it wouldn’t take that long, so we gave them our phone number.  Their list situation is cool in that they take your number and send you a text with your estimated wait time and a link to a web page that shows you your progress as your move up the list.  So we walked over to the bar for a glass of wine and I checked our wait page:  15 parties ahead of us….yeah, it was going to be an hour and half.  So I went into hawk-eye mode at the bar, and thankfully so because I noticed a couple of gentlemen at the end of the bar that looked like they were leaving and politely asked them if they were leaving; they were indeed, offered us their chairs, and then stayed and chatted for awhile and even gave us recommendations as to what to order.  We got to sit in about 5 minutes, but this will not be the case with the majority of people that go in the next couple of weeks.

So that being said, we had a wonderful experience getting to view the whole bar and restaurant throughout our meal.  It was madness lol (as it got closer to 9:00, the bar looked like it had stadium seating, with 3 rows of people standing behind the people sitting).  It also didn’t hurt that one of my old friends was our bartender.  Anyway!  We sat there sipping on our $6 glasses of sauvignon blanc, examining the menu in all its tasty looking glory.  Everything looked good.  It’s a good mix of crowd pleasers:  for appetizers they have calamari, lettuce wraps, spring rolls, and seafood like shrimp, scallops and fish (raw and cooked); they have little sections for pizzas, salads and sandwiches; entrees include sesame crusted yellow fin tuna, roasted chicken, mole braised short ribs, Isreali cous cous and veggie stir fry; and they have lots of desserts including avocado blackberry brulee, chocolate panna cotta and lavender shortbread.  Seriously, look at all those options! They have it all!  Chicken, pork, beef and seafood, all with a healthy/fresh/refreshing twist.

We ended up going with the idea of sampling several things.  We had the lettuce wraps (with chicken versus tofu, vermicelli noodles, picked carrots and cucumber, cilantro, and a trio of sauces), grilled shrimp (with tomato, pickled watermelon SAY WHAT, lemon turmeric quinoa, and a cilantro emulsion), and their margarita pizza.

In general, the food was good.  Specifically, the pizza was surprisingly amazing J  When I think margarita pizza (margherita?) I see dark red tomato sauce with round patches of mozzarella scattered throughout.  What we got was the cheesiest margarita pizza I’d ever seen with the most delicious light tomato sauce and perfect crush (not too thin, but not deep dish).  And my friend agreed.  We were in love with that pizza.  Maybe that’s why they spelled it that way versus the traditional way with the “h”.

The lettuce wraps were good, though nothing out of the ordinary and served with the standard peanut, chile, and mystery sauces (oh lettuce wraps don’t usually have a mystery sauce? Well we couldn’t figure out what the hell it was.  The bartender wasn’t even sure but we didn’t want to make her ask). 

The shrimp was REALLY good.  The shrimp by itself would’ve been tasty enough, but when combined with the watermelon, quinoa and sauce, it was a flavor combination I’d never experienced before and it was out of this world. Highly recommend it. 

(Sorry for blurriness in some of these - camera was just overwhelmed by the glory I guess.)

And with the prices set the way they are at The Daily, it shouldn’t be too hard to try anything there because you won’t be breaking the bank.  The appetizers were $9.95 and $8.95 respectively, and the pizza was only $7.95!  Can’t remember what the exact size was for the pizza but it was big enough for us each to have two out of the four slices and be full (would definitely fill up one person as their meal).

While we didn’t try any of the entrees this time around, we heard they’re good and range from about $13 to $23.  I’m sorry I can’t weigh in on those in this post, but was too full to even try to split one after those three dishes.

MOST IMPORTANT FACT ABOUT THE DAILY:  they are now the only restaurant in Carytown besides Moms Siam to have a first floor completely outdoor patio on a corner plot.  It looks like such a perfect hang out spot from the spring, summer, and fall months.  They also have giant sliding doors with big windows that open up to turn the front part of the restaurant into patio seating as well (basically).

With trees/nature as their theme in the menu and the décor of the restaurant, The Daily provides a classy yet rustic feel, while striving to provide “organic, all natural, local and sustainable ingredients as much as possible” (as stated on their website).  The Daily is open Monday through Saturday for dinner only (so far) from 5:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and can be reached by calling 804-342-8990.  Check them out!  Sooner or later.