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St. Michaels/Oxford 208 Talbot Since its opening in 1990 in a mid-19th-century house, this has become the best-regarded restaurant in an area of many. A delightful lounge with a marble bar leads into a serene main dining room and three smaller rooms, one a garden room with floral paintings on the white brick walls. Decor is crisp in teal green and white, and the staff is suave and informed. Chef-owner Paul Milne, who graduated first in his Culinary Institute of America class, was featured on the public television series, Great Chefs of the East. He and partner Candace Chiaruttini present here what they call casual gourmet dining. Others call it quite sophisticated. Dinner is prix-fixe for four courses on Saturdays and à la carte the rest of the week. Among dinner entrées might be pan-seared rockfish on a potato fritter with oyster cream sauce, peppered tuna with burgundy-butter sauce, pan-seared sliced moulard duck breast with a red wine sauce and grilled ribeye steak with homemade worcestershire sauce. The signature dish is lamb – New Zealand rack at one visit and domestic loin chops at our latest – both with roasted garlic and rosemary sauce. Start with a chilled shrimp and avocado cocktail with cumin-lime mayonnaise, grilled house-made chicken sausage with sauerkraut and apple-riesling coulis, or baked oysters with prosciutto, pistachio nuts and champagne cream sauce. Candace makes the delectable desserts, perhaps lemon tart, apple spice cake with warm caramel sauce, tiramisu and assorted ice creams. (410) 745-3838. www.208talbot.com. Entrées, $26
to $30. Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday 5 to 9 or 10.
This urbane new bistro was opened by chef David Stein and his parents from Washington, D.C. They converted a 125-year-old clapboard house into an intimate, 75-seat restaurant. The ambiance is authentic French bistro on the main floor with a zinc bar, banquettes and marble-top tables, with a semi-enclosed porch alongside. Upstairs is a more formal dining room with close-together white-clothed tables. Prized century-old French posters and artworks enhance the walls. David and a couple of assistants do all the cooking, favoring local farmers and fishermen for indigenous products. Their dinner menu is short but sweet. On a chilly November evening, one of us made a satisfying dinner of three starters: a zippy borscht that turned out to be chilled rather than warm as expected, a fancy salad of greens tossed with cheddar, honeyed walnuts, apples and bacon, and grilled butterflied shrimp satays with a sweet chili-orange vinaigrette. The main courses included grilled mako with green peppercorn reduction, a choucroute garni, grilled entrecôte with bourbon-cherry sauce and pomme frites, and grilled venison rib chops with cumberland sauce. We were well satisfied with the sautéed red snapper, scallops and shrimp in a fennel, tomato and roasted pepper broth served over orecchiette. A complimentary bowl of olives preceded. Desserts included a classic crème brûlée, chocolate mousse with strawberries and streusel-topped apple pie with whipped cream and vanilla sauce. (410) 745-9111. Entrées, $22 to $28. Lunch,
11:30 to 2 or 2:30. Dinner from 5:30. Closed Wednesday and month of
February. Sherwood
Landing The dining room setting at the Inn at Perry Cabin is as perfect as the rest of the Orient-Express Hotel experience. And British-born executive chef Mark Salter's food measures up. The newly expanded, peak-ceilinged main dining room contains well-spaced tables and bears a sleek nautical look. Expansive windows and french doors look out onto a terrace and treed lawns leading to Fogg Cove. The traditional prix-fixe menu has been eliminated lately in favor of à la carte, although a six-course tasting menu is available for the entire table at $85 each. Three kinds of complimentary canapés – one with boursin cheese and another of salmon – whetted the taste buds for treats to come. So did wonderful cheese-herb and sourdough rolls. The signature crab spring roll with pink grapefruit, avocado and toasted almonds measured up to advance billing. Proper fish service was provided for our main courses, fillet of grouper with a pineapple and mint quinoa cake, mango chutney and pappadams for one, John Dory with wild rice, shiitake mushrooms and bok choy for the other. Options ranged from seared scallops with truffled leeks and bacon-balsamic sauce and coffee-rubbed pork tenderloin with fig jus to the chef’s signature tarragon-glazed lamb shank with sundried tomato sauce. Presentation was in the architectural style, beautiful and in small portions. An obscure (and perfect) Oregon pinot gris for $28 accompanied. A selection of four sorbets (mango, pineapple, apricot and espresso, topped with chocolate curls in a silver bowl) was a refreshing ending to a memorable meal. (410) 745-2200. Entrées, $32 to $38. Lunch
daily, noon to 2:30. Dinner nightly, 6 to 10, jackets preferred. Sunday
brunch, 11:30 to 2:30. Town
Dock Restaurant The waterfront setting at this huge establishment is one of the town’s best. The food was elevated by chef-owner Michael Rork, who had made a name for himself as executive chef at Baltimore's fancy Harbor Court Hotel. With his wife and three children, he sought a more rural location in which to run his own business. Although reviews were mixed, most locals felt he had succeeded in converting a touristy, 400-seat restaurant into his goal of “an upscale but casual dining destination.” The short daily specials menu is where the action is. Typical are grilled salmon topped with roasted leeks and peppers, soft-shell crabs with a tomato-herb cream sauce, grilled shrimp served over saffron orzo, and grilled duck breast with dried cherries and fresh currants. These are standouts on a seafood-oriented menu ranging from wasabi-crusted sushi tuna, cornmeal-crusted rockfish and herb-crusted haddock to fried oysters, lump crab cakes and arctic char. Bouillabaisse is a specialty, as is shrimp and grits with andouille sausage. We were impressed with a summer lunch, served outside on the waterfront terrace. Cups of crab bisque and saffron bouillabaisse preceded the main events, crab monterey and a fried oyster sandwich with brabant potatoes and homemade coleslaw. All proved exceptional, brimming with assertive tastes. The two big chocolate-covered strawberries that came with the bill made dessert redundant. (410) 745-5577 or (800) 884-0103.
www.town-dock.com. Entrées, $18.95 to $26.95. Lunch daily, 11:30 to 4.
Dinner, 4 to 9 or 10. Sunday brunch, 11 to 3. Closed Monday and Tuesday
in winter. The
Bridge Restaurant Taking its name from the adjacent drawbridge over Knapps Narrows (said to be the busiest in the world), this attractive restaurant on two levels has some great water views, especially from the expanded outside deck and from four tables in the upstairs crow’s nest with glass on all sides. The Bridge has had a merry-go-round of owners, names and themes, but new chef-owner David Clarke seems to have found a niche. His fare roams the world, from Maryland crab cakes, crab imperial and deep-fried oysters to a seafood dish from Thailand, chicken marsala, duck à l’orange, wiener schnitzel, steak au poivre and New Zealand rack of lamb. The fish of the day is offered in California, South Carolina or cajun styles, and the vegetarian entrée is from Sri Lanka. We liked the deep-fried oyster dinner, served with garlic fries and coleslaw, and the flounder stuffed with crab imperial. You could start with cream of crab soup, escargots bourguignonne or oysters rockefeller. Finish as we did with alexander crème brûlée topped with ice cream, bananas foster or the specialty key lime cheesecake. There’s some interesting cooking going on, nicely served up in unpretentious surroundings. (410) 886-2330. www.bridge-restaurant.com. Entrées,
$14 to $24.50. Lunch daily, noon to 3 or 3:30. Dinner, 5 to 10.
The Crab Claw This self-styled “tradition” – the first tourist attraction in St. Michaels – has been operated for more than three decades by Bill and Sylvia Jones. “We feel responsible for the development of St. Michaels,” says daughter Tracy. Certainly they are responsible for feeding hundreds of diners at all hours (except at 9:30 one slow September weeknight when we tried to get in and were told the kitchen had just closed). Looking onto the harbor, the knotty pine main room has open windows to let in the breeze, a vaulted ceiling crossed by a mishmash of beams, large tables where you sit family style, a bare floor and mallets for cracking crabs. There's more dining in a back room, and in summer you can eat by the water at picnic tables and a raw bar, watching the staff steam crabs and shuck oysters. The fare is all seafood, except for hamburgers and fried chicken, and rated higher by tourists than locals. The placemat tells you how to tackle your crab. Fried hard blue crab is the house specialty, but crab also is served in soup, cocktail, salad, backfin crab cake, soft crab sandwich, crab fluff, imperial and even a crab dog. There are platters from crab cakes and soft crabs to mixed seafood. Beer and liquor are available. The prices are affordable, and the atmosphere casual and fun. (410) 745-2900. Entrées, $14.95 to $24.95. Open
daily 11 to 10 (most of the time). Closed mid-December to March. No
credit cards. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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