Martins West Gastropub

Whenever my boyfriend and I go to dinner, we do this thing where we pretend we're Gordon Ramsay in Hell's Kitchen--we say things like "It's dry!", "Touch it! It's raw!", and "It's rubber!". However, we have been to Martins West quite a few times, and we can never say anything really bad about the food here. They have a perfect track record; we've gotten scallops, three types of fish, chicken, duck, beef, and pork, and everything is consistently perfectly cooked. This is so rare, but because I have tried so many things from this restaurant, I can say with confidence that you'll love whatever you try. Just keep in mind though, these dishes are quite small, so three entrees are just enough for two people.

A "gastropub" is a pub/bar with good food, as opposed to greasy, disgusting burgers and wings. Martins West is supposed to be Scottish--they serve dishes like Scotch eggs, fish and chips, and sticky toffee pudding--but I would classify it more as New American, just because of the lack of ethnicity of most of the dishes. The Scottish aspect of their dishes come in their choice in grains (lots of oats and barley, because it is too damp in Scotland to grow wheat) and cured meats.

Our mini appetizer was Scotch eggs--quail eggs wrapped in thin slices of sausage, then fried. So, basically, three of the best things ever.

Our first entree was scallops with pork belly. The scallops were perfectly cooked, but it's not the best scallop dish I've ever had. I liked the pork belly (although it might be too fatty for some people) but I thought it was strange to pair it with the scallops--if you ate them together in one bite, it would be half fat and half something really lean and a little sweet, the idea of which is really disgusting. Underneath the proteins is a cabbage and mustard seed slaw, which I felt like went well with both proteins, but it still didn't make sense to put them together on one plate. Either way, all the components of the dish were well cooked and it tasted really nice--I was just confused.

Our next dish was salmon with zucchini. I found this dish to be really balanced; the salmon was a little saltier than I would've liked, but the zucchini and squash puree were very sweet and creamy. What I really like about Martins West is the quality of their ingredients; fish skin acts as a barrier between a fish's body and any surrounding pollutants, so it's bound to trap some nasty stuff. But the skin on this salmon was just fatty (and salty from the seasoning), without the usual bitter flavor, which really points to high-quality ingredients sourced from responsible, sustainable farming practices.

We were still hungry, so halfway through the meal we ordered steak too. The meat was cooked to a perfect medium rare, and I like that it's a small, manageable portion, as opposed to a large, 16-oz. slab of meat. It's garnished with artichokes and the most perfect potato wedges; so crispy, moist inside, and really strong potato flavor.

In my previous post about Incanto, I mentioned that I am really critical about desserts; if I'm going to pay for something, I want it to be amazing and something I can't make myself, and I think Martins West really sets a high standard for desserts. Our first dessert was sticky toffee pudding. Unlike the one from The Smith (which was really, really bad), this one was more like a cake, and a little drier and fluffier. It's not very sweet, but it does have a rich toffee and date flavor, which was absolutely perfect.

My boyfriend got olive oil poundcake with strawberries. The cake itself was perfect; rich, dense, and buttery, and the crust was really crispy. It comes with strawberry sorbet (homemade), which was really light and fruity--not overly sour, like store-bought sorbet can be.

I highly recommend Martins West for really good food and desserts that's more reasonably priced than other restaurants that serve similar food. It's also the perfect place to test how much your boyfriend loves you, because there's a TV that plays basketball--if your boyfriend can stand to not check the score for the entire meal, congratulations, he loves you a lot.

Martins West Gastropub
831 Main Street
http://martinswestgp.com/