Marshall M.
Yelp
The past 2 years we dined here the meals were fantastic, easily 4+ stars. No such luck this year though. When we called for our reservation we were informed that it was the last night of service for the weekend, perfect right? Maybe they had something even more special planned for their patrons? Yeah, right.
First of all, it was roasting inside, it was a very humid day and temperatures in the dining room had to have been up to 80. We heard a couple other tables complaining about it they opened the window near them, we had to open ours ourselves. I don't know what the deal was there if the AC was broken or what.
By 8:00pm with a full house, they were out of three of the six entrees they had, leaving us to pair our 89 Latour with either the chicken, the sole, or the pasta. Great, we all chose the chicken.
The carrot and asparagus was unseasoned, and had a skin so thick on the top I lifted it 3" off the bowl with my spoon. Probably plated 45 minutes before service. And could they maybe add a bit of garnish? Some goat cheese, creme fraiche, pumpkin seeds, a drizzle of oil, something (that may be nitpicky but keep in mind this is a special occasion place and the soup was $11).
The caesar salad was probably one of the worst I've ever eaten, and I love a good fine dining caesar. The lettuce was composed of thinly sliced romaine hearts that had been sitting in dressing for probably a good half hour. The croutons were enormous and very difficult to eat. The dressing lacked any kind of punch and wanted salt. The single anchovy garnish justified the $11 cost.
The chicken while flavorful was extremely dry and way past overcooked. The potatoes they served us were (with no hyperbole) the worst any of us have ever eaten in our lives. I would have killed for a day old microwaved McDonalds hash brown to sop up the jus. I can't even imagine how they were prepared. Just sloppily chop up a couple yellow skin potatoes, roast them for a couple hours without any fat or seasoning, and then reheat them several times throughout the night (week?), and serve them at room temperature, disgraceful. This was for a $36 chicken statler. I get it that there's a Martha's Vineyard tax that you pay anywhere you go on the Island, but I find that disgraceful. $10 more than the roast chicken at Hammersly's. And the fact that we were even EATING the chicken in the first place is ridiculous, out of the pork lobster and filet by 8:00? Talk about mailing it in and just cleaning out the pantry for the night.
We were going back and forth about it but we finally decided to say something about how poor the food was. Our server and the hostess were both at least mildly incredulous, I think my favorite was our server telling us that the same chef has been here for 16 years. The hostess comped us our desserts and coffee (for some reason they weren't able to make cappuccino). I wish I remembered her wording exactly but it was something like "I wish you told us earlier but you guys ate most of it or I would have been able to do more for you". We didn't want free dessert, we didn't want a free meal we wanted special occasion food at special occasion prices that would pair with special occasion wine. They were obviously unprepared for service that night and probably should have just shut down the night before.
I guess I should mention that our key lime pie was dished out of a sheet pan, the corner piece at that. Something you'd pay $1 for at a church fundraiser, must be the 1000% Martha's Vineyard tax at work.
We're not sure if we'll be back for our annual wine weekend. State Road is a definite as they once again impressed, might be time to try out the Chillmark Tavern as another BYOB destination.