Category: Restaurants

Sly Bandit — Wilton’s own brew pub

Sly Bandit has been operating in their South Wilton location (14 Danbury Rd) since last summer, and we finally got a chance to visit it last Sunday night. The ground floor is the actual brewery: the pub is upstairs. And yes, there is an elevator.

The beer list changes almost daily: here is the list last Sunday. We tried the Pilsener that time, and will work our way down the list in subsequent visits.

The food menu consists of Shareables like Buffalo chicken and soft pretzels, Flatbreads like Margherita, Spicy Italian and Pulled Pork. These come on triangles of flat bread on a cutting board. You can share them or make a meal of them. This time we had the Buffalo Chicken flatbread ($14), which comes with cheddar and gorgonzola cheese, hot sauce and lime crema. It was terrific, but way more than enough for one.

The main section is called Handhelds (they mean sandwiches) and in addition to a terrific hamburger which comes with fries, presalted with sea salt, they have a Wurst sandwich, a grilled cheese, tacos, fish tacos and salmon. This time we went for the burger ($16), but the Wurst and the pulled pork are calling out for next time.

There are also several salads, two Crockables: mac and cheese and chili and three desserts. We went for the Chocolate Mousse cake ($10.50) this time.

Sly Bandit is a great place to go for a quick meal or an evening. Service is fast and friendly. We’ll be back, and you should give it a try. They are open every night but Mondays. Wednesday through July 2 are Trivia nights, starting at 6:30.

Le Cremaillere in Bedford

We were always happy to visit Le Cremaillere for an excellent French meal, and this visit was another outstanding one. The restaurant reopened after the pandemic in 2022 with Chef Thomas Burke in charge. The menus were fresh and the chef came and chatted with you during your meal. It couldn’t have been a better experience.

In February of this year, Burke and his partners announced that they were revamping their menu to be “seafood forward,” and renaming the restaurant Le Poisson. They also rearranged the bar area as a lounge where you could eat without a reservation. They started serving in March and those who got there found it impressive. But eventually Burke and the owners had disagreements, and Burke left in late July, taking the “Le Poisson” name with him. The current restaurant simply restored its original name, Le Cremaillere. Watch for Burke to reopen his dream French seafood restaurant soon.

It was this latest incarnation that we visited last weekend. Before we even saw the menu, we received excellent hot rolls and butter and a little amuse-bouche crab puff.

The menu is divided into five courses, Froids (cold dishes), Chaudes (warm appetizers), Les Poissons (seafood) and Les Viandes (meats), and Desserts. You couldn’t possibly eat all five large courses, but they do offer a Chef’s Tasting Menu for $145 , in which you can pick one from each category and receive a smaller portion of it. The only drawback is that your whole table has to order the same 5 things. But this was a disagreement easily resolved, because everything on the menu was outstanding.

We started with the Country Style Duck Terrine, with pistachios, truffle, cornichon and condiments, along with some crusty bread to eat with it. It was silky smooth with a nice crunch from the pistachios. Other choices included smoked salmon, burrata, aromatic house salad and foie gras au torchon.

The Chaudes section included the beloved Billy-Bi (PEI mussels and saffron cream soup) as well as Green asparagus with hollandaise and Hudson Valley foie gras, but we chose the Baked Escargot in Garlic Custard with breadcrumbs, nuts, tomato puree and parsley sauce. This was a really interesting take on escargot: no shells, no curry flavor, but a lovely fusion of flavors.

The seafood course offers sea scallops, sautéed red snapper, and seared Scottish salmon. But the outstanding choice was the Dover Sole with fava bean puree, broccoli, carrot and caviar beurre blanc. I’ve never had a better serving of sole.

The meat course selections include Rack of Lamb, Duck Breast and Roasted Chicken, but we chose the Filet Mignon, with crispy shallot topping, pommes puree, mixed mushrooms and sauce au poivre. It was tender and juicy and much more flavorful than the run of the mill filet you often get.

The waitress suggested come French fries to go with it, but all this food we barely touched them. They were excellent, however.

Finally, while the full dessert menu contains nine selections, the waitress only suggested two when she took our dinner order. We chose the chocolate souffle with Grand Marnier and pistachio. This was a do-it-yourself souflee: you got to poke a hole in it yourself and pour the pitcher of chocolate sauce into it. And, if you look carefully, you will notice a small serving of a rich, chocolate gelato alongside.

And, of course, there were final cookies as well.

This is not an inexpensive restaurant. With 3 glasses of wine, coffee and tea and tax, but before tip the bill for two was $392. But it was a lovely evening, with superb service throughout, and outstanding food in every way. We’ll be back again!

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.

Shrimp and cherry tomato aioli toasts

It doesn’t take long to put together this shrimp aioli dinner. All you need is shrimp, crusty bread, some garlic mayonnaise (aioli) and a few common spices. We made ours using red Indonesian shrimp because they looked the best that day, but any fresh shrimp will do.

1 lb fresh shrimp
2 cups cherry tomatoes, stems removed
3-4 slices crusty bread
Olive oil as needed, probably 4-5 Tb.
3 garlic gloves, thinly sliced.
1 Tb wine vinegar
1 ½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp red pepper flakes
Chopped parsley

The Aioli

2 egg yolks
1 Tb fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 large clove of garlic, mashed and minced (or use a garlic press)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

You can make this in a bowl with a whisk or use a blender. The blender is faster.

Put the egg yolks lemon juice, salt and garlic in the blender, and with the blender running, slowing pour in the olive oil. Let it run another 10-15 seconds and top. You should have a nice mayonnaise. Put it in bowl in the refrigerator while you prepare the shrimp.

The Shrimp

Place the shrimp on a plate and dry them off. Sprinkle with kosher salt and let rest while you make the toasts.
Put 2 Tb olive oil in a cast iron frying pan, and heat to medium high. Put in 2 slices of toast and brown. Turn the toasts and brown the other side. Drain on a paper towel and repeat with the other slices, and drain.

Add more olive oil and cook the shrimp for 2 minutes on one side, and turn and cooka bout 2 minutes more. Remove the shrimp to a bowl.
Add more olive oil and all of the cherry tomatoes. Cook at medium high until they brown on the bottom, about 4 minutes. Turn them all over and cook another minute or two.

Add the vinegar, sliced garlic, paprika, cumin and ½ tsp red pepper flakes and 2 tsp Diamond Crystal salt. Cook, stirring until some of the tomatoes begin to burst. Add the shrimp and stir until heated through.

Spread the aioli thickly on the toasts and spread the shrimp and tomatoes on top of the aioli.
Decorate with parsley and more pepper flakes and serve at once.

The Benjamin opens in Ridgefield

Four of us went to dinner at The Benjamin last weekend, and found it quite enjoyable. The restaurant’s name honors Benjamin Franklin, who brought back many of France’s best culinary ideas to the states while he was ambassador. The Benjamin is located in the building formerly occupied by Bernard’s. It opened just this July, managed by Rob Moss, Dave Studwell and BJ Lawless who own and operate Washington Prime and BJ Ryan’s Restaurant Group in Norwalk.

The new Benjamin décor is similar, but much refreshed with the formal restaurant on the left as you enter, and the bar and some high-top tables to the right, looking out over the gardens. The upstairs has more restaurant seating and there is outdoor dining available in good weather accessible from the main floor, and an additional small patio seating up to 24 off the upstairs dining room.

The menu by Executive Chef Benjamin Travers, formerly of The Modern and Café Boulud in New York City, is styled as “uniquely American and French-inspired.” You will find four salads, two excellent soups, two raw bar items and 6 appetizers, nearly all seafood based, but including a seductive sounding charcuterie for $34. There are eight entrees: scallops, duck breast, halibut, lobster risotto, rack of lamb, roast half chicken, filet mignon and a Wagyu hamburger. There is also a vegetarian saffron risotto with wild mushrooms.

Bread is not provided free at The Benjamin, but you can order their Signature Bread Service for $9, consisting of whole wheat sourdough bread with 3 butters. We didn’t try it.

We started with the soups: we tried the Potato Leek Soup ($21) which comes with lump crab, smoked trout roe and a chive. The service is lovely: they bring you a bowl containing the roe and what is essentially a small crab cake, and then pour the soup around it in the bowl. We agreed that this was outstanding.

The other soup is a Chilled Pea Soup ($17) with grilled spring onions and brioche. Rather than the heavy puree you might expect, this is a lighter soup with actual peas in it, along with the spring onion, pea sprouts and pieces of brioche. Again, an excellent choice.

Our companion who ordered the Olive Oil Poached Halibut ($39) praised it highly. It is served with herbed couscous, fennel, picholine olives, pistachio, and beurre blanc. He noted that it was a good-sized portion and was particularly drawn to the fennel flavor. It certainly looked delicious.

Several of us were drawn to the Rack of Lamb ($49) served with charred eggplant, baby zucchini, piperade lamb jus, and mint. There certainly was plenty of delicious lamb there, but served on a big cutting board, the chops quickly cooled and by the time we got to the last two, they were pretty cold. Since lamb fat congeals above room temperature, many restaurants serve lamb on warm plates. This would have been better.

You will note that none of the dishes on the menu come with much in the way of vegetables or starches. Instead, like a steakhouse, you can order side dishes from the menu. But their choices are minimal, and things like mashed potatoes, beans, carrots or broccoli are absent. You can only order French fries, truffled fries, mushroom fricassee, truffled fingerling potato or roast breakfast radish and red onion.

And consider the lowly hamburger (albeit Wagyu), which is already $25 by itself. With fries, you’d be paying $37! That is a bit much.

Phobe Damrosch, in Service Included her delightful diary of working the first year at Per Se, listed among Diner’s Rights, the right to salt and pepper. At The Benjamin, they will bring around a giant pepper mill and grind where you point. And while they let you touch the salt mill, they whisk both away so you have no chance to add salt or pepper later in the meal. A little dish of salt would help here.

Desserts

There are eight desserts from Pastry Chef Melissa Knauer, formerly of Arethusa A Mano in Bantam, CT. The two we had were excellent.

One dessert we ordered, chocolate mousse with caramelia chocolate and caramel sauce ($14), was quite showy and spectacular, and big enough to share a bit. The other, Strawberry Profiteroles ($13) was quite a surprise. The two “cream puffs” were filled with a delicious, smooth strawberry mousse and served with sliced strawberries and a shortbread crumble.

Overall, we enjoyed our visit to The Benjamin, but the entrée prices are high for Fairfield County, with most of them in the high thirties, and the lobster risotto a eyebrow-raising $58. Only the burger (without fries) and the vegetarian entrée were under $30. The outdoor dining option on the first floor is an elegant little grove to the right of the building, but the upstairs patio is quite plain by comparison, especially considering the elegant interior.

Nova Cafe opens in Wilton

Nova Cafe opened in Wilton just a few days ago and it seems to already be a big hit judging from the steady flow of customers. A sister to Ridgefield’s Tazza Cafe, Nova has a similar but not identical menu.

Nova Café’s menu includes a variety of breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal and overnight oats dishes with various fruit and granola toppings, acai bowls and pastries for breakfast. For lunch, they offer some very interesting wraps like Buffalo Chicken and Chicken Gorgonzola, hot pressed paninis like Monte Cristos and Chipotle Chicken and signature sandwiches including roast beefs and smoked turkey and brie. They also offer sourdough cheese melts and about a dozen creative and delicious sounding salads.

We had breakfast there today, a little after the rush, around 9:30, and were impressed with the pleasant and hard-working staff and the delicious breakfast sandwiches.

One of us had the Bacon Egg and Cheese sandwich ($6.95) on a croissant (they were out of the hard rolls, but the croissant was delicious. In fact, it clearly had 2 eggs in it.

Our other choice was called Power Start ($7.95) and it was my favorite, made from eggs, ham, cheddar on toasted multigrain bread. As you can see from the picture, they did not skimp on ingredients. It was great!

Nova has a selection of their own coffees for sale as beans, or you can grind them on the spot.

One display case shows some of the pastries available, here mostly muffins and scones. Earlier they had a wider selection of pastries. The other display case shows the sandwiches and wraps prepared for the lunch rush.

While they clearly do a significant take-out business, there are a few tables in the main dining room and quite a few more tables in the airy secondary dining room. Considering the early, enthusiastic response to Nova, they will certainly need all those tables.

Our bill for the two sandwiches, coffee and tea with tax, and 15% tip was $25.50. We’ll be back for lunch sometime soon! Hours at their 200 Danbury Rd address are 6:30am to 6:30pm Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 7:00am to 6:00pm.

Welcome to Wilton, Nova Cafe! We wish you well!