Nantucket Grill Blogging: Shrimp and Sea Bass

On Saturday, my 2nd Most Faithful Reader and I went to Nantucket Grill. We wanted to pick up a Non-Blackened Blackened Salmon Salad for my Most Faithful Reader, who is still looking after FIFO. My 2nd MFR had the grilled shrimp, as he always does. The shrimp are great, but it's served with polenta. Some people like polenta.

I chose the Sea Bass, for $14.99. It was served with pineapple salad, green beans, and Yukon Gold roasted potatoes. From a sustainability standpoint, I should have asked, but the menu didn't say that it was Chilean Sea Bass, which should be avoided. In any case, it was quite good and the potatoes were great. I enjoyed my leftovers this evening

Nantucket Grill

This past weekend, I went to Nantucket Grill, which is a place I don't go nearly often enough, considering how often my Most Faithful Readers go. You can see here that it used to be one of my regular destinations. It's in Durham County, but close to Chapel Hill, and is a 34 mile drive round-trip from my house, but it's worth it. They also have other locations, on Fayetteville Road, in Durham, and their original cafe at Ram's Plaza, in Chapel Hill.

One of the nice things that they've been doing for the last year or so is serving puffy-light rolls that are nice and warm. It's hard to beat warm rolls.
That night, I had cod fish and chips. The fish was good and crunchy and I'm guessing there was cornmeal in the batter. The chips weren't outstanding, but they were good with ketchup. Their cole slaw has more mayonnaise than I usually like, but it's good and it has chopped granny smith apple in it, which adds a nice and unusual flavor.

I highly recommend their crab cakes, which are served with a wonderful lemon sauce, asparagus and mashed potatoes. If you eat beef, the French onion soup is excellent. The lobster bisque and clam chowder are great, but are too rich for me. They have delicious pasta dishes and salads, too. If they have soft-shelled crabs as a special, they are splendid sauteed. My Most Faithful Reader gets a Blackened Salmon Salad almost every week (without the "blackening") and divides it into two meals each time. I am happy to report that the chicken pot pie is back on the menu, but they've replaced the puffed pastry with a biscuit, which I will have to try soon.

Uneventful, but Filling

We (my parents and I) went out to the Nantucket Cafe and Grill tonight. We probably go there more frequently than anywhere else, even though it's 17 miles from our house. As some people reading this (ok, I only know of one person reading this) know, my true desired occupation of choice is that of a restaurant critic. I love going out to eat although I'm not as eager as I used to be, especially after coming home from a long day at work. Since I'm still on vacation, I was more than eager to go. Nantucket is a rather casual place with a light nautical theme. There aren't any preserved fish hanging on the walls, but it is vaguely reminiscent of a restaurant you might find near the shore. In fact, the owners originally had a restaurant in the Boston area. I had a combo with fried clams and shrimp, which is accompanied by fries and cole slaw. The fries were rather crispy tonight, which was a treat. Now, I've only had fried clams at one other eating establishment, one of the IBM cafeterias. Needless to say, they are much better at the Nantucket. Regardless of whether they are fried or are in their rich clam chowder, their clams have no resemblance to the erasers that one normally associates with the word.

One of the features of the Nantucket that I like best is their sample cake. They always have a sheetcake available, cut into approximately 1 1/2" cubes. It's just right if you feel like eating something sweet after your meal, but you don't feel like bursting afterwards. I've never been that crazy about white sheetcake, but their sample cake is really quite good. In fact, I've only been tempted to order a full dessert once, in the gazillion times we 've been there since we discovered them.
Part of this is due to their gigantic portions.

For those of you who don't live in the Triangle area in North Carolina, I have a bit of angst to share. I have been trying to come up with a decent title for this blog. "Lenore's Blog" and "Lenore Ramm" are way too boring. I thought of using "Flying Spuds From Space", but this was rejected by one reader, because I used it in my early teenage years. "Grilled Eggplant" was also nixed. Perhaps "Eclectic Glob of Tangential Verbosity"? That's it!