Guests challenge chefs with off-menu requests

Whether they’re looking for adventure or an old favorite, diners find something special in restaurants’ secret dishes.

Many restaurants offer dishes that aren’t on the menu. They range from almost permanent features to items known only to a few. And talented chefs relish the chance to fulfill these special requests.

“People like to feel special, and when it’s something off the menu, they feel ultra special,” says Toni Elkhouri, chef at Cedar’s Cafe in Melbourne. “We used to have a few things off the menu, and now we’ve gone to people coming in and just saying, ‘Feed me.’ And they don’t know what’s coming. All we ask them is, is there something you don’t want, or what are we in the mood for?”

She enjoys the challenge of creating dishes on the spot, and she also has items she brings out as surprises — for instance, the Middle Eastern-style nachos, with fried pita bread, hummus, tabouli, tzaziki, pepperoncinis, olives, pine nuts, lettuce and tomato. She offers zucchini and squash sauteed in olive oil with onion, parsley, dried mint, feta cheese and almonds. And there’s a spicy skewer dish her staff has nicknamed “Remember Me Tomorrow.”

Just as the restaurant has a “walking wine list” — the staff helps diners choose wines with samples — it also helps develop diners’ tastes.

“I like the adventure of food. ... My goal isn’t to win everyone,” Elkhouri said. “It’s to allow people to evolve their palate and see that there’s other things.”

She also caters to people’s dietary needs.

“I’m a vegetarian, and I have a lot of allergies,” says Cedar’s customer Renee Evans, of West Melbourne, “so when I come here, they kind of know. ... I don’t think I’ve had anything here that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed.”

At Islands Fish Grill in Indialantic, chef and kitchen manager Nicholas Cody Slechta relishes the challenge of creating dishes. Special requests are “growing increasingly,” he says.

“It shows that they know we have good food and they like it, and they’re confident we can always prepare the best dish for them. I enjoy that a lot.”

Islands has off-the-menu items that are so popular, they become regular specials. Onion-encrusted grouper is always available, so it’s the worst-kept secret at the restaurant. It’s a baked grouper filet with caramelized citrus glaze.

“That’s our No. 1 dish,” says owner Karen Maltese. “People won’t let us not have it.”

“Mahi Mistral is also one of my favorites,” Slechta says. “It’s a crabmeat, lemon butter, basil, portabella, mushrooms and white wine sauce over a lightly blackened piece of mahi. It’s also excellent.”

Also popular is the sea bass “in the weeds,” a lightly blackened sea bass filet topped with crabmeat, shallots, capers, garlic and spinach. Sometimes it appears as a special.

Some off-the-menu items require more than a spontaneous craving. Islands Fish Grill needs two days’ notice for the stuffed lobster. Maine lobster meat is boiled; sauteed with portabella mushrooms, garlic, shallots and crabmeat before it’s put back in the shell with a whole grain mustard cream sauce; topped with Parmesan cheese and crisped.

“We’re willing to cater to their tastes,” Maltese says.

Sometimes off-the-menu dishes are inspired by customers and endure for years. At Yen Yen Chinese Restaurant in Cocoa Beach, the Fat Dragon was invented for a pediatrician who wanted a garlicky, spicy dish that combined scallops and chicken.

“Most of the time, customers can request a special order,” says owner Tely Tse. “They get used to the regular menu, so they start requesting or asking for some new one.”

One of the off-menu dishes he offers is a chicken casserole with tea-smoked sauce. It’s a Cantonese dish with mushrooms, onion and sweet peppers.
Yen Yen also has an off-the-menu cocktail: The Moon Shot, invented at astronaut Alan Shepard’s request to celebrate the book he co-authored by the same name.

“ ‘I’d like to have a drink that tastes like rocket fuel,’ ” he told Tse.

The result: an elixir that employs five liquors, including a Chinese herbal wine, that looks like iced tea and packs a potent punch.
Sometimes Tse re-creates Chinese favorites that customers can’t find or makes dishes from ingredients patrons bring to him. And he’s always ready to invent one.

“There are still a lot of them to discover,” he says.