Month: June 2024

Ventuno is absolutely top notch!

Eating at Ventuno (21 Federal St) is always a great pleasure. The breadth and creativity of their menu makes every visit delightful.

Last week was Nantucket Restaurant Week, and Ventuno gave you a choice of their Restaurant Week menu: 4 courses for $75 or their full menu. The only real difference is that that the smaller menu skips some of the more expensive items, but everything else was the same, and there was plenty to choose from. Either way, you get a selection from Antipasti, one from Primi, one from Secondi and a dessert from Dolci.

We were going to just order from the reduced menu until we discovered the breast of duck on the full menu. Thus, we became a full menu customer.

Our Antipasti choice was a Caesar Salad, made with Romaine, celery, ciabatta-parmigiano croutons, a Caesar dressing and thin slices of parmigiano cheese. Crunchy, delicious and substantial in size.

As a surprise, the waitress gave us an extra little course of the Chef’s Ricotta spread on toast as well. It was smooth, creamy and quite flavorful.

This was followed by Strozzapreti, dre’s spicy chicken sausage, broccoli rabe, and pecorino, served with some extra parmigiano cheese to sprinkle as needed. This was spicy but not overpoweringly so, and quite a change from the usual Nantucket fare.

And finally, the main course: cherry & balsamic glazed duck breast, roasted cherries, farro, radicchio, endive, hazelnut crema & candied hazelnuts, with scallions & pecorino. What a magnificent preparation. Tender, juicy duck breast sitting on the cherries and candied hazelnuts. What could be better?

Well, of course, there was still dessert. We’d had many of the other desserts, so we went with the burnt sugar and orange flan with a candied orange slice in it.

What a great way to finish a terrific meal. We are always really impressed with Ventuno, and hope you will be too!

Le Languedoc — as elegant as ever

Le Languedoc remains one of our favorite island restaurants. It styles itself as a bistro, but it is quite an elegant one, having been in existence since the 1970s. Its core menu changes but a little, but has additions every week to its elegant selections, based on classic French techniques.

You can always count on finding bistro classics such as Steak Frites and their Languedoc Cheeseburger, as well as a number of other outstanding dishes. We very nearly ordered their Seak Frites again this year until we saw that they had a veal chop in the corner of the menu where new additions appear, and we had to try it.

Just as we were about to order, the waitress told us of a special addition that night of a foie gras terrine. It was served with toasts and a generous spoon of blackberry jam to contrast with the smooth silkiness of the delicious foie gras.

This was followe by the veal chop, served with asparagus, and a delicious brown gravy. An incredibly elegant meal.

Meanwhile, our neighbor had the Duxelle stuffed chicken, with corn, bacon & horseradish croquette, roasted carrots, and sherry vinegar jus. It also looked terrific.

And, of course, we had to end with their special Small Town Girl butter crunch hot fudge sundae. Of course we got the petite version, and could barely finish it after all the rich dishes we’d had, but over all this was an outstanding evening and one of the islands highly regarded restaurants.

We are always delighted with Le Languedoc, and you will be, too!

Millie’s is as great as ever!

If you haven’t been out to Millie’s at the far western end of Nantucket in Madaket, you’re missing one of the island’s outstanding restaurants. The menu is mostly seafood tacos and quesadillas, but there is a lot more to it (beef, chicken and even berries), and all of it is imaginative and delicious. There is now a Mid-island Millie’s at the Rotary as well, serving lunches from 10:30-4, with a similar but not identical menu.

When we rented a house out in Madaket, the first place we’d always go would be to Millie’s for dinner, and sometimes we’d go again on our last day. Now that we stay downtown, it seemed as if getting to Millie’s without a car was too much trouble. It’s not.

We jumped on the Madaket Route WAVE bus in front of the Historical Society (across from the Juice Guys) and rode for 20 minutes to the end of the line at Millie’s. And this year the WAVE busses are free! We puttered around Madaket, and went to dinner at about 5, easily catching a return bus at 6:30. It couldn’t be easier! The busses leave downtown on the hour and Millie’s on the half-hour.

This year they’d added a new dish we had to try: Fried Oyster Mini-tacos with purple cabbage slaw, pickled jalapeño, and lemon aioli. There were two fried oysters in each taco, dotted with a bit of mayo and topped with that pickled jalapeno. They also provided hot sauces to top them with if you wanted. We had them without so we could savor the oysters. These were a great, crunchy appetizer that you could pick up or eat with a fork (or both).

There seems to be a bit more lobster on the menu than there used to be: you get a warm lobster salad, a lobster Po’ Boy and a lobster quesadilla. They all cost around $39 so they all probably have quite a bit of lobster in them.

We couldn’t resist trying the Steps Beach Lobster quesadilla with Lobster, slow-roasted tomato, grilled zucchini, and Monterey jack cheese. The lobster was indeed plentiful and with the cheese and veggies this is a very filling and delightful dish. If it’s too much for you, they’ll box the rest, of course, or you can cheat as we did an pick out the rest of the lobster with a fork! It still is a lot of food and outstanding! You can’t go wrong at Millie’s.

Black-Eyed Susan’s is back for breakfast

Thanks to Michael and Orly LaScola, Chef Todd Edwards and Anna Worgess, who purchased Black-Eyed Susan’s from its previous owner, Susan Handy, the beloved restaurant is back and this year serving its well-regarded breakfasts 6 days a week. (They are closed on Wednesdays.) Breakfast is served to walk-ins from 7am to 1pm.

Being that it is still early in June, we were able to walk in for breakfast without the longer summer wait and sit at a table. The menu is similar to the old restaurant, offering eggs, scrambles, pancakes, hash browns, French toast, omelets and breakfast sandwiches. But even if you have to wait for a while on the benches outside, it’s worth it. It is just about the only breakfast place downtown and it is simply excellent.

We ordered eggs over easy with sausage and their excellent oat bread toast.

But more to the point, we got our tea in an actual teapot: one of the few restaurants in the Northeast that serves it that way.

And did we mention the service? The staff is warm and welcoming, and you can watch it your order being prepared in the open kitchen behind the counter. Our bill for tea, eggs, sausage and toast was $30.49 including $1.99 tax. And it is likely to be one of the best breakfasts we’ll have here!

Dune- one of Nantucket’s finest restaurants

Coming to the island for a brief visit, we ate at Dune first. It has always been one of our favorites, with its imaginative menu and outstanding service. And to our delight, this is Nantucket Restaurant Week, and Dune offered a prix fixe menu of appetizer, entrée and dessert for only $68. As usual the dinner was excellent.

We started with their widely regarded roast oysters (traditional chilled oysters are also available). They are served with chorizo-ramp butter, cucumber, shallots, picked ramps and lemon. You actually get 5 oysters in this dish, but we cropped it down to 4 to fit on the page. The oysters are warm, and you can pick up each shell to drink any remaining juices without bring yourself. Absolutely terrific.

We vacillated on the entrée: considering scallops, swordfish and sirloin before choosing the roast cod loin.

The Pan Roasted Cod Loin was served in a coconut-lemon grass broth along with purple creamers (potatoes), Romanesco asparagus, bok choy, shiitake, fried garlic and basil. They server makes sure you have a spoon so you can spoon that terrific broth over your cod as you eat. The result is outstanding: we didn’t leave a drop behind.

Finally, you get a free dessert this week: a brown butter cake served with cherries, lemon cream icing, and candied almonds.

However, travelling solo, we managed to get a couple of photos of other appetizers. One was roasted red and golden beets with whipped goat cheese,pistachios, balsamic and a red sorrel beet vinaigrette.

And the other was Korean Barbecue Short Ribs, with sesame bbq, napa cabbage, Asian pear, red onion lime vinaigrette, fried shallots and cilantro.

What a terrific re-introduction to Dune’s cuisine. We couldn’t have been happier.