Tag: Seafood

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!

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.

The Sea Grille is always excellent

The Sea Grille has always been an outstanding Nantucket restaurant. Locate mid-island, near Stop and Shop, it has been serving visitors and locals for thirty years. The fact that it is still run by the same family explains not only its longevity but the quality of food and of the service. And in these troubled staffing times, that is quite a compliment. Our waitress was hard working, cheerful and experienced and made the whole visit that much more fun.

The menu lists appetizers, salads and Simply Prepared Seafood, as well as Island Favorites and Creative Coastal selections. Even though we have tried a lot of their menu over the years, we keep gravitating to these last categories, because they are so very good.

One of the specials last night was a Fried Clam appetizer ($26), served on a salad base of pickled onions. Since fired clams cam be kind of heavy, this was a welcome change to try a few without committing to a whole meal of them. They were greaseless and really flavorful: just the right amount for an appetizer.

Our other appetizer was a little more elaborate: Lobster Bisque ($16), baked in a dilled puff pastry. It arrived piping hot, but with delightful pieces of lobster in the bisque. This dish has apparently been on their menu since the very beginning. It is very impressive.

One of our entrees was Grilled Lobster and House-Made Fettucini ($44) [shown above], with roasted tomatoes, garlic, marinara, and beurre blanc. We hadn’t had this one before either, and there was a lot of lobster, and excellent fettucine. The mixture of roasted tomatoes with the marinara and the beurre blanc made a delicious sauce for the pasta and enhanced the lobster’s flavor.

Our final entrée was their Free Form Ravioli ($37), a sort of playful version of the dish where the ingredients are cleverly hidden under a sheet of ravioli pasta. The dish includes lobster, shrimp and scallops, served with mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, garlic, and topped with crispy leeks. Odd though it may seem, it is outstanding.

Finally, we had to try one of their desserts, although frankly we didn’t really need it after this delightful but filling meal. We decided to split an order of the Chocolate Brownie Sundae ($14), which comes with vanilla ice cream and copious caramel sauce. It was a great finish, though.

The Sea Grille is at 45 Sparks Ave, and is open Monday through Saturday from 5pm till close. You should make a reservation for sure!

Beer batter shrimp

You can make these nice, puffy beer-battered shrimp with very little effort. You just need to let the batter sit for 30-45 minutes before you start dipping and frying the shrimp. We found that the best frying temperature for the shrimp was about 350˚ F. They still take only minutes to brown.

If you are using a stand mixer, you might find that it can’t beat a single egg white. We usually put in two so the beaters will catch the whites, and then only use about half of the beaten whites.

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined.
½ cup flour
Dash of salt
1 beaten egg
1 Tb melted butter
½ cup beer
1 egg white, beaten
About 3-4 cups canola oil
Lemon wedges
Seafood sauce of your choice

Folding egg whites into batter

Mix the flour and salt and stir in the butter and egg.
Add the beer gradually, stirring only until smooth.
Let the batter stand in a warm place for 30-45 minutes
Preheat the oil to 350˚ F.
Beat the egg white to stiff peaks.
Fold the egg white into the batter.
Dip the shrimp into the batter and drop directly into the hot oil. Cook only 5-6 at a time to keep the oil from cooling.
Serve with French fries, lemon wedges and cocktail sauce.

French fries

Since you have the hot oil, why not make some French fries, too? Cut about 1 or potatoes per person into strips and soak in cold water for an hour, and then drain them.

Turn the oil temperature up to 375˚ F. Dry the fries, and cook them in a couple of batches. Serve at once.

Shrimp and fries, with corn

Rizzuto’s in Westport is still excellent

We haven’t visited Rizzuto’s excellent restaurant (and oyster bar) in too long, and we are delighted to report that it is better than ever. It’s a risk to visit any restaurant in a Saturday night when they are busiest, but the staff was right on top of everything even though every table was full. They were, thoughtful, fast, efficient and never missed a thing. And the food was outstanding.

One of our appetizers was a Pan Seared Jumbo Crab Cake, Maryland style ($14) which may be the closest we’ve ever had to a Maryland crab cake outside that state. I was meaty, with a spicy, mustardy tang, and was served with an excellent remoulade along with tomatoes, salad green and lemon. Really worth the trip for this one alone.

Our other appetizer was their New England Clam Chowder ($9) served with plenteous clams, potatoes and a bit of bacon. Another ideal starter for your dinner.

On their specials menu that night, they served pan seared Chilean Sea Bass ($36) on a delicious Wild Mushroom Risotto, with asparagus and lobster cream. And yes, there were a few pieces of lobster in it as well. Sea bass has proliferated just about everywhere you go these days, but this sea bass was perfectly cooked: tender, juicy and flavorful. And the lobster sauce topped it to perfection.

Our other entrée was also from their nightly specials: Rigatoni al Forno ($24), baked with Italian sausage, eggplant, mozzarella, parmigiano Reggiano, plum tomato sauce and fresh basil. This, too, was simply outstanding and so filling we brought some home for lunch.

We had to split a dessert to see what they were like. The one we chose was called Chocolate Truffle Ring Ding ($8) which was chocolate cake with a chocolate cream filling, chocolate ganache and freshly whipped cream. A nice finish to the meal.

We definitely have to go back there more often, as this was one of our best experiences in some time.

Knot Norm’s: Best lobster roll in the state

If you want one of the best lobster rolls in New England (and probably the very best) you need to eat at Knot Norm’s: a new restaurant cum caterer along the harbor in South Norwalk. While the façade may be unprepossessing, the food is superb and Chef Jay LeBlanc really knows what he’s up to. The restaurant is at 10 1^st Street, just around the corner from Seabreeze Ave. If you’ve gone to Harbor Lights, this is just around the corner.

The menu at Knot Norm’s is straightforward, but everything on it is excellent. In addition to the above-mentioned lobster roll, they have fried oysters, fried chicken, steak and cheese, brisket, BLT and pork belly rolls. Other entrees include roasted oysters, fish tacos, fried chicken wings and beet and apple salad.

They also have a large number of bottled craft beers and a number of wines. On tap were Allagash White and Allagash Hoppy Table.

They also have various daily additions, which on Tuesday included clam chowder, potato-leek soup and lobster bisque. We had to try the Chowder ($8): it was served with frizzled onions and chives on top as well as the usual oyster crackers. The soup was thick without being gluey, full of potatoes and plenty of clams and was absolutely delicious.

But to get to the main event: the Lobster Roll is simply amazing. The lobster is steamed and then the shells removed and the lobster poached in butter. The lobster is served on a traditional toasted New England hot dog roll, with that same lobster butter poured over it. You also get a large bowl of potato chips, lemon, coleslaw and pickles. And, according to the chef, you get an entire lobster on that roll, about 6 oz of delicious lobster. You’ll probably never have a better lobster roll. And it is only $23.

And if that isn’t enough (and it was really filling) it turns out that the chef tries out new dessert ideas on Tuesdays, and I got to sample a delicious Cheese Blintz made by rolling out those same hot dog buns, sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar, spreading sweetened cheese on them, rolling them up and toasting them briefly. They were served with strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream. Utterly amazing!

Here is a restaurant you simply have to go try! The food is terrific and the service excellent. The restaurant is small: about 16 seats, but there will be more outside as the weather warms. Tables turn fairly rapidly, I would expect because the menu is fairly limited. Parking is on-street and you may have to hunt a bit if it is busy. The 15 minute parking sign is not enforced at night.

The waitress told me that next time I really had to try the Lobster Bisque: unlike most bisques, this one has pieces of lobster floating in it!

Match Burger Lobster: outstanding new Westport eatery

Match Burger Lobster opened this fall to ecstatic praise, at least from those of us who revere lobster roles. Located in Saugatuck, it is the brainchild of Matt Storch, the proprietor of the full service Norwalk (Sono) restaurant Match.

Match Burger Lobster is a far more informal affair, seating about 40, plus more in the bar area. The menu features lobster rolls, oysters bags of steamers and actual lobster all from Norm Bloom and Son. In addition, they offer grass-fed sliders and burgers from the adjacent Fleisher’s Craft Butchery.

This is a friendly and informal place, with the beer choices on a wall board and little paper menus in the box on each tables that hold cutlery and napkins as well. On a Thursday night, it wasn’t particularly busy or noisy, but the waiter told us that weekends are very busy. There is limited parking in front, but a large lot behind the building.

From our point of view, there is nothing better than their warm lobster roll ($24), served in a hollowed out brioche bun and soaked in butter. However, they also offer a cold lobster roll with Yuzu lobster Mayo, (also $24). Both are served with plenteous and delicious house-made potato chips.

The lobster roll here is a little different than the one at Match in Sono: it’s more buttery and less drippy than the Sono version. We liked it better.

However, if you want to try their grass-fed sliders, you can order a mini slider and a mini lobster roll ($20). The hamburger ($15) and the smaller mini slider ($7) are served with bacon, cheddar dip and S&S onions, where S&S presumably means “sweet and sour.” We think we ask them to leave off the onions next time ad they were a bit overpowering. The burger, however, was outstanding.

Desserts are limited to a Donut Milkshake, a Slice of Cake, Donut Crazy Holes you can fill yourself, a Brownie Sundae and Key Lime Pie. Of course, we went for one of the latter.

Our bill with two drinks, and tax was only $80, but for a larger group, a lot of $24 lobster rolls will add up. But you can’t do better.

Match Burger Lobster, at 580 Riverside Drive, just off Exit 17, is open daily 11:30 am to 9 pm. No reservations.

Shrimp scampi carbonara

If you think Shrimp Scampi is great, imagine it served on spaghetti carbonara instead of boring old spaghetti! This is the the perfect meld of two excellent dishes, resulting in shrimp on a rich, creamy spaghetti base. And the whole recipe still takes only half an hour.

For the scampi

One pound large (or larger) shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 Tb olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp red pepper flakes
1 lemon, juiced. Save the zest, too.
½ cup dry white wine
5 Tb butter
¼ cup chopped parsley

For the carbonara

2 strips bacon
½ to 1 lb vermicelli
3 eggs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Start by frying the 2 strips of bacon from the carbonara recipe. Cook until dry, and drain on a paper towel. Chop the bacon up and reserve in a small dish. Pour the bacon drippings in the bowl as well.
Rinse out the pan, removing any excess “bacon tracks,” dry and add the olive oil.
Saute the shrimp 2-4 minutes, depending on size. They should be pink and firm, but don’t cook until they shrink. Set the shrimp aside.

Add the minced garlic and pepper flakes and a little more olive oil. Saute for a minute or so until fragrant.
Add the lemon juice and wine and cook down for a couple of minutes.
Stir in the butter, a Tb at a time until the sauce is smooth and uniform.
Cook the vermicelli in boiling water until just past al dente. For this recipe, we prefer starting with dried, rather than fresh, pasta, because it will hold more heat for the next step.

Drain the pasta and return to a bowl. Using two forks, mix in the eggs one at a time so they cook in the hot pasta.
Add the parmesan cheese and stir in so it begins to melt.
Mix in some or all of the bacon.
Reheat the shrimp in the sauce, briefly and pour both over the spaghetti.
Sprinkle parsley on top.

There! Done in half an hour or less, and creamily good. Serve ladling the shrimp, sauce and pasta onto each plate.

Buon appetito!

The Club Car goes for the veggies

The Club Car, right on the way to Straight Wharf has been a popular dining destination since Joe Pantorno and Chef Michael Shannon opened it in 1977 and the structure has been renewed with the new ceiling. It was a white tablecloth restaurant with tuxedoed waiters and well-regarded food and service. After Shannon retired, sous-chef Tom Proch took over, continuing treasured dishes like Shannon’s Shrimp Scampi and Beef Wellington, but in recent years, especially after Proch retired, the restaurant’s service had become tired and the food repetitive, but much less impressive, while maintaining their high prices, where a number of entrees were over $40.

So it is with some excitement that we learned that Pantorno sold the Club Car to a new team: head Chef Mayumi Hattori (formerly the chef at Straight Wharf) Ty Costa, director of operations, and general manager Tanya McDonough. In addition, the interior had been completely redesigned by Tharon Anderson with a lighter and brighter and less formal look (and apparently no white tablecloths).

Hattori, who is of Japanese and Spanish descent, wanted to include some of her home cooking and has overhauled the menu, doing away with the formal dining experience, and replaced it with 6 tapas ($5-$9), 4 toasts ($9-$15), 12 small vegetable plates ($12-$17), 7 Land and Sea plates ($18-$31) and for and for people who want a traditional main course, there is limited availability of 3 larger plates: roast chicken ($39), lamb sirloin ($45) and grilled sirloin for a jaw dropping $65.

We decided to forgo the large plates and play the game the way they wanted us to, ordering toasts, veggies and small plates from Land and Sea. Note that The Club Car does not provide bread, so you are left with your water and wine until the first plate your ordered arrives. The Toasts are probably some of the quicker things you can order and we started with them.

We started with the House Cured Sardine Toast ($10) with basque peppers, capers and olive oil. It was served on a baguette toast, and was interesting but only about 4-5 bites and it was gone. The Roasted Mushrooms Toast ($15)with crème fraiche and at least 3 types of mushrooms was a much larger portion and truly delicious, with plenty to share. This was probably the dish we liked the best: reminiscent of a mushroom stroganoff with better mushrooms.

For an intermediate plate, we settled on the Roasted Summer Squashes ($17) with corn, cherry tomatoes cilantro and lime. This was a huge portion that you could share with two or three people, and while there was a lot of it, it wasn’t really particularly filling. We suspect that may be the case with any of the Garden plates.

Finally from Land and Sea, we ordered Spice Crusted Skate($26) with long slices of cucumber ribbons and walnut tarator (sauce). There were two slice of skate and this was fairly spicy rather like the old Cajun blackened fish, except not black. It was very good, but there wasn’t much of it. We suggested they call it “Skating on Thin Cucumbers.”

Finally our other Land-Sea dish was called King Oyster Mushrooms ($24), with peeky toe crab, Bartlett’s corn and jamon (ham) broth. This was really an excellent dish, but needed a bit more crab in it.

Overall, this was a pleasant meal with very friendly and helpful servers. Our bill, with 3 glasses of wine and tax was only $143, making the Club Car a much more reasonable choice than it used to be. Our server said that despite the major change in style, they had had a very active summer and done quite well. We liked everything they served, but there was only one available dessert, so we walked down the wharf to Jack and Charlie’s Ice Cream instead.

This is the last of our 2017 Nantucket restaurant reviews, but it is not too late to order Nantucket T-shirts from The Nantucket Store, and if you use the discount code MILLIE17, you can get about a 15% discount through the end of September.

The SeaGrille: one of Nantucket’s favorites

The SeaGrille has been a favorite of islanders and vacationers for over twenty years. Located mid-island at 45 Sparks Ave, E J Harvey and his staff serve deliciously prepared seafood (there are also steaks and chicken on the menu) at reasonable prices. We have been going there for years and have never had anything but outstanding. Service is always excellent.

One thing we learned this year is that the Tuesday after Labor Day is when the islanders come out of hiding to enjoy the Sea Grille, too. It was packed and reservations are recommended.

They started us with a bread basket of three kinds of bread and three butter balls to go with them.

We each started our meal with E J Harvey’s excellent Island Quahog Chowder ($9.00). Harvey’s recipe has some celery in the soup and a trace of lemon. The clams are plenteous, and the potatoes minimal. We never skip it!

Then, one of us went for their Free Form Ravioli ($36), which contains ravioli in name only. It is more like a seafood casserole or stew with a few sheets of house-made pasta over top. Under the pasta, you will find lobster, shrimp, scallions, ricotta, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, garlic and crispy carrots, along with a delectable seafood broth. It is fantastic, and really filling.

For our other entrée, we went to the Fried Fisherman’s Platter ($34) which contained excellent fried clams, shrimp, scallops, baby squid and calamari rings and cod, along with perfectly prepared French fries that were piping hot and most probably freshly made. The seafood itself was also piping hot, unlike almost anywhere else, making it utterly delightful, and way too much to finish.

Our bill with three glasses of wine as only $141 and well worth every penny.