Fresh Tapas and Tonics serves up delicious meals in Virginia Beach

By Holly Van Auken

Restaurant critic

Squeezed between the old-ish Strawbridge theaters and a popular tanning salon, Fresh Tapas and Tonics in Virginia Beach is General Booth Boulevard's answer to the small plates-style dining made locally popular by a few Granby Street haunts.

My husband and I thought the place was still under the radar, so we were surprised that it was packed when we met another couple there on a recent Friday around 6 p.m. Seated in the bar area, we were somewhat cut off from the dining room. But we liked what we were able to see - modern fabric chairs at white tablecloth-draped tables; huge, bold, frameless paintings hung on cantaloupe-orange walls, and a rich, wood bar.

First arrivals from the 40-plus-item menu were the pan-fried pork dumplings ($6), six potstickerlike nibbles served with three dipping sauces; crispy fried calamari ($7), breaded and coupled with roasted basil chile aioli; and fried green tomatoes ($7), tomato slices stacked with layers of fresh corn salsa, asiago cheese and chipotle lime aioli. A tuna tataki-tini ($9), tuna chunks piled atop seaweed salad in a martini glass, followed.

The dumplings and calamari were crispy and delish. The tomatoes were a smoky-meets-creamy surprise. The tuna disappointed, as the promised crispy wontons and sauce were M.I.A., the first of a few mishaps by a stand-in cook ( the chef had taken the night off).

Our chef du jour did, however, hit a home run with the cornmeal-encrusted shrimp ($8) - zingy buffalo-style shrimp - my new fave snack in the 757. Tapas versions of the beef tenderloin ($16), brown butter lobster tail ($17) and spicy chipotle prawns ($12) - all available a la carte or as entrees as well - made for a tasty trio. But the star was the steak's accompanying bleu cheese cake, a plump round of panko-encrusted mashed potatoes.

My hubby and I returned a week later and were greeted by a spruced-up menu (with some lower prices. Yeah us!). Everything was close to perfect. Two prior bombs - the pan-roasted asparagus ($4), roasted and grilled this time, and an updated version of the couscous ($3), Mediterranean-style (mixed with diced veggies) - were downright succulent. The spicy Thai beef ($8), sauteed beef tips, toasted cashews and spicy sauces, was all that our server promised.

We threw healthy under the bus with the baked baby brie en croute ($9), a fab version of the pastry-wrapped cheese.

We finished with two house-made desserts: the trio brule ($6), mini ramekins of the crispy-topped custard, and the S'Mores for Two ($7), the expected ingredients encircling a Sterno pot. Both rocked.

For our next movie date, we'll skip the cinema concessions and pre-game it at Fresh, where $20 goes a lot farther.

Holly Van Auken, flavor@pilotonline.com