Vine

The parking lot surrounding Vine—a low, handsome brick building on woodsy Route 202 in Basking Ridge—is large and often filled with expensive automobiles. The wooden sign out front is appealing, understated, and well lit. It’s a classy-looking place inside as well as out, though it can be noisy at dinner when the dining room is packed. Its apparent success makes sense—until you get to the food, which can be fine at lunch but is rather wobbly at dinner.

Chef Antonio Berisha, 44—who owns Vine with his brother, Afrim, 38, the manager—describes Vine’s culinary theme as Southern Mediterranean. The Albanian brothers spent time in Turin, Italy, and have been partners in various restaurants since 1988. The influences, Antonio says, are largely Turkish, North African, and Greek. Yet, there is little evidence of ingredients associated with these regions on the menu. There is a sushi pizza which consists of spicy ahi tuna with soy and chives served over a crunchy rice cake with chili-pepper-tinged wasabi mayonnaise. There is a chopped spinach salad in a cloying strawberry vinaigrette with orange segments but none of the toasted almonds and roasted pears described on the menu.

There is herb-roasted chicken with sautéed spinach, wild mushrooms, and overly whipped mashed potatoes, that, both times we ordered it, arrived bland, with no hint of the thyme-infused jus mentioned on the menu. An ice-cold tuna tartare with sesame wontons should have been warmed up a bit before serving. There is an impeccably fresh Maryland lump crabcake, tasty and perfectly cooked, but as Mediterranean as, well, Maryland, unless you count its caper-scallion rémoulade as Mediterranean.

The only truly Mediterranean fish on the menu was bronzino, a sea bass. It came as a perfectly slow-poached fillet over a tangle of baby artichoke hearts, carrots, and asparagus, with good, fresh pesto (served on the side as requested). Pan-seared Scottish salmon was too salty, as was the undercooked, sun-dried tomato-citrus-thyme risotto with it. (The ingredients in many of these dishes have been modified since we tried them.)

Vine is a much better bet at lunch, when more care seems to be taken with the cooking than at dinner. Lunch favorites included a sliced filet mignon sandwich, served with a palate-opening horseradish sauce, lettuce, and tomato. Linguini Bolognese needed less cream diluting its wonderfully fragrant, slow-cooked meat juices. Lobster ravioli were also aswim in cream, but the ravioli themselves, though broken apart in the cooking, were pleasingly filled with minced lobster. The Vine salad with grilled chicken has shaved Fuji apples and spiced pecans on a bed of Boston bibb lettuce with a champagne vinaigrette and warm brie croutons. The flavors melded and this dish really worked.

Lunch can be delightful. The dining room, dimly lit at night, is splashed with light from several large windows. Tables are well spaced, the room isn’t packed, and the gentle, pleasant waitstaff shines.
Desserts are uneven. Molten chocolate cake was barely warm inside. Crème brûlée lacked its classic vanilla essence and signature crackly crust. Enjoyable pear-apple-cranberry strudel was full of fresh fruit. Coffee was served in a handsome silver pot. A nice touch, but the coffee was thin and bitter one time, rich and smooth another. Order simply, favor lunch over dinner, and you can eat reasonably well at Vine.