Restaurant perfection on the Mississippi Coast. Go here for a special occasion
Coraline’s opened in June of last year at the Beau Rivage Casino and Resort in Biloxi and immediately established itself at the top of the fine dining food chain of Coastal Mississippi.
But I waited and delayed my first trip for something that would carry more weight than a mere review. On the evening Mrs. Sports and Food Reporter and I celebrated our four-year anniversary this month, we finally paid the restaurant a visit as the ultimate test for its ability to host a special occasion for two.
As you will read, Coraline’s passed with flying colors and is this journalist’s official recommendation for an anniversary date. Here’s why.
Vibe - 5 out of 5
Stepping through the entry tunnel of Coraline’s serves to transport you from the casino to a lavish setting laced with old-world glamour. The emerald seating, trellises dressed in greenery and art deco light fixtures cast a golden glow that’s equal parts modern opulence and Southern charm.
The central dining area is boxed in by ivory arches and features a raised floral ceiling mural. The booths are a soft green and the tables a hard marble.
There is a quiet sophistication blended with a lively cocktail party vibe thanks to a bustling bar that uses wood accents to tone the greenery with a splash of bourbon.
Even the menus play a role in the scene, matching the tabletops in white but trimmed in gold on the outside and green on the inside.
Coraline’s spares no detail in curating the perfect setting for a classic and charming experience.
Food - 5 out of 5
The menu is short, yet profoundly deep in taste and prepared with unique combinations of ingredients to make your selection process a difficult one.
We landed on a regular menu offering and a chef’s special. First, the Linguini Coraline’s. This was a spicy, Southern twist on an Italian favorite. The linguini is bathed in their signature sauce and tossed with mushrooms, green onions, brown butter breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.
It’s then framed with four plump, Cajun shrimp in a white-and-green decorative bowl. Up until this point I had not had a pasta on the Mississippi Coast that truly rivaled what the now-closed Pere Antoine in New Orleans offered.
It was perfectly textured and richly tasteful with a light spice that danced but was never overpowering. And somehow it did not best the chef’s special my wife enjoyed.
Lying in a pool of butter and sauce and resting in a bed of fluffy whipped mashed potatoes was the crab-topped blackened sea bass served with broccolini. This is where I became convinced of kitchen witchcraft. The fish somehow melted into each bite while still carrying a flaky char that added the seasoned crunch.
The crab and mashed potatoes were decadent overkill. Every individual serving of the dish was a bountiful celebration of sinful indulgence. They did not have to go this hard, but they did.
And they were not done. We were wooed by the dessert menu and ordered the brownie sundae, a name that may be the undersell of the century.
A house-made waffle bowl is the delicious vessel for this sweet and salty packed tower with brownie cubes filling the base. Topping the cubes is vanilla ice cream with caramel popcorn with a rim of cocoa whipped cream, drizzled in salted caramel and sprinkled with salted caramel pearls.
I had absolutely no room available for this but I found a way to do more than my fair share of damage to it.
Coraline’s lands a perfect five for quality of food. To be honest, any other five I’ve handed out this year pales in comparison.
Value - 5 out of 5
Coraline’s is the restaurant you find the maximum number of dollar signs next to when you search it on Google. And I was prepared to levy a three or four in the value category before I even arrived.
So now I have to justify this grade when our two entrees alone ran a $100 tag, not including one cocktail and dessert.
It starts with the service. Four different people were involved in our experience by design. The host greeted us with a “Happy Anniversary” and we even received a card from the restaurant for the occasion. Next we were visited by the assistant server who handled our initial drink order.
Our primary server was extremely knowledgeable of the menu and very helpful. Then there’s a fourth server whose entire job is delivering the food from kitchen to table, further increasing the efficiency of the service.
More than anywhere else, the restaurant makes you feel individually catered to throughout your stay. The food itself was worth the price, in my opinion, but the evening’s journey more than fulfilled the value.
