We had dinner at Ventuno last Friday,  and it again proved itself one of the island’s top restaurants. The menu may seem confusing at first, but it really is divided into Antipasti, Primi (mostly pasta dishes), Secondi (mostly meat dishes), some snacks, and Dolci (desserts).

Unlike a lot of other restaurants, Ventuno still serves bread, a half loaf of terrific ciabatta for $6. You can get it with butter, olive oil, or probably both. It’s crusty and excellent!

We started with five local oysters with a grapefruit granita for $21. The grapefruit ice blended well with the oyster liquor to make a wonderful start to the meal.

One of us ordered their outstanding Caesar salad with romaine. Celery, ciabatta-parmesan croutons and Caesar dressing ($19).

For one entrée, we ordered Agnello: slow cooked and grilled lamb coppa ($48).  Coppa is an unusual cut, in that it is part of the collar of muscles that extend from the loin.  There are only two per animal, so it is fairly rare. Usually it is cooked slowly, resulting in really tender piece of meat. In this case, it is grilled briefly for the flavor as well. It was some of the tenderest lamb we have ever tasted. It was served with heirloom polenta, broccoli rabe, and a caper-anchovy gremolata.

For our other entrée, we ordered Capesante e Gamberi: grilled shrimp and Nantucket sea scallops, served with house bacon, grilled spring onions, spring peas herb gremolata, parsnip crema an preserved lemon piccata($51).

Finally, we split a dessert called Bomboloncini ($15): bittersweet chocolate filled donuts, coffee gelato and chocolate sauce. A delightful end to an outstanding meal. The bill, with two glasses of wine, including tax, but before tip was $233.26. It was one of the best meals we had during our visit.

The Boarding House and The Pearl were sold by the Raynors to Blue Flag Partners in 2019, and after the pandemic and some remodeling, they re-opened this spring. The Boarding House does not have any on-line presence, because they no longer take reservations. You just show up at or after 5:30 to have dinner with them.

The new version of The Pearl is less formal than its predecessor (no tablecloths) and very friendly, as evidenced by the substantial crowd dining there on Thursday. While the menu has some similarities to the old Pearl (our 2013 review is linked here), the menu is definitely the creation of the new management. They do not mention their chef’s name in their publicity, however.

The menu has some similarities in style to the old Pearl, including the Salt and Pepper Wok Fried Lobster, now with a Market Price of $80, and the 60-second steak and eggs ($33) share plate. And the menu is divided as before in 5 Snacks, 8 Shares, and 6 Entrees, but it is rather briefer than its predecessor.

What is very different is the style of the new Pearl. The staff are warm and friendly, and the diners all seem to be having a good time. The austere blue décor has been replaced with tan composition table tops, with napkin settings including both silverware and chopsticks, emphasizing the style of the new Pearl as Asian Fusion.

For our visit last Thursday, we selected two snacks: Lobster Rangoons ($27) and Heritage Pork Dumplings ($25). We did ask how much the Wok Fried Lobster was, and it turned out to be $80, but our waitress told us we would be happier with the Swordfish Katsu ($49) instead.

We also asked her whether, with these two starters, we would still need to order two entrees, and she said no, suggesting we could always add in another Share such as the Spring Pea Fried Rice ($25). So, we ordered that too.

We got the Lobster Rangoons first, and –a word of warning—these come right out of the fryer and onto your plate, and are full of hot steam. Don’t bite them directly: cut them open first. They are excellent.

Our Heritage Pork dumplings came second, and considering how dark the sauce was, it seemed more likely to contain black bean sauce than the specified red chili oil. But again, they were very good.

The Swordfish Katzu is a very interesting idea. It is basically swordfish breaded with Panko crumbs and deep fried. It doesn’t specify any sauces in the preparation. However, by deep frying the swordfish, they have solved the problem of dried out swordfish, which is all too common in other preparations. The swordfish was tender and juicy unlike any other version we’ve had. It was served with green goddess curry, spring peas, and mint.

Unfortunately for variety, the spring pea fried rice was rather similar, so we probably should have picked a different side dish. It came with chorizo and mushrooms, cured egg, crispy garlic and mint, but the peas and rice predominated. We show the two items plated below:

Finally, we chose two desserts, Cooper’s Chocolate Chunk Cookies, with sea salt and almodn milk to dip them in ($10) and Miso Caramel Budino ($12) with coffee syrup, milk chocolate crunch, candied ginger and crème fraiche.

The Budino was outstanding! Our bill was right around $200 including tax and $5.16 “kitchen appreciation.”  Definitely a good deal for the evening.

We keep coming back to Le Languedoc almost every year, because we know it will be very good. No surprises: just great food and service. While the menu changes a bit all the time, it always seems mostly familiar.

You may be seated in the more formal main dining room, the downstairs bistro floor, or in warm weather on the covered patio. The menu and service are the same in each room.

Unlike other restaurants, Le Languedoc still serves bread and butter: and a decent pat of it, not little foil wrapped things. They provided a cranberry bread and a garlic bread this time.

This year was not different. We both came with the idea of ordering the Steak Frites ($42): strip steak smothered in bearnaise, with a substantial side of garlicky French fries, and watercress with a white truffle vinaigrette (shown above). You just can go wrong with this one. And it was as excellent as ever!

We chose different starters: one of us had the Chopped Salad with Bleu Cheese and Buttermilk Dressing ($18). It was a substantial serving and as delicious as it always is.

Our other choice was the Selection of Artisanal Cheeses, Honeycomb, Crisps, Marcona Almonds and dried Apricots ($22). This one is also on the dessert menu if you want it afterwards. While not identified, the cheeses seem to be a Brie, a goat cheese and a hard sheep’s milk cheese. A delightful appetizer.

For dessert, they offered a relatively new Small Town Girl Buttercrunch Sundae with Cream, Chocloate and Caramel sauces and butter crunch topping, (Petite $10.75 and Grand , $13). We split the big one. The small one might have been enough, but it was delightful.

The evening was an excellent experience as usual. The only hitch was that the waiters we so busy that the forgot to bring us out glasses of Cabernet to go with our steak. When we got to talk to a waitress, she apologized and delivered the wine late, and at no charge. Again, this is a class act.

Our bill with tax but before tip and with 2 drinks was $182.97.  We’ll be back!

From its austere beginnings a few years ago, Lemon Press has evolved into a lovely full-service restaurant. While maintaining its organic identity (even though “organic” is a marketing term), they have developed a menu containing some beautiful and delicious recipes. Lemon Press is at 41 Main Street, in the spot formerly occupied by Arno’s. They open each day at 8am for takeout and sit-down service, and close at 3pm (2pm on Sundays). They reopen for dinner at 5:30pm on Wednesday through Sunday.

We stopping in for breakfast, and ordered coffee, tea, pancakes for one of us and eggs over easy for the other. Imagine our surprise to see that Lemon Press is one of the few restaurants in the US to bring you tea in an actual teapot, with the hot water already steeping the teabag!

What started out in our minds to be just pancakes, turned into a lovely dish of Rose water Hotcakes ($15) with whipped cream, farm berries, candied sesame seeds and cardamom syrup. You can see the two sausage patties ($5) in the background. This was a delightful presentation and utterly delicious.

Likewise, the eggs over easy and toast turned into 2 eggs, bacon, breakfast potatoes, micro salad and whole wheat toast (butter provided) for just $15.

We noted that there is a pepper shaker on each table, but no salt or sugar. They did bring sugar for our tea, and probably would have brought salt if we’d needed it. Service was simply excellent.

The bill with tax but before tip was $43.34, and we couldn’t have been more impressed.