The Brit and I took my mother to the Main Street Bar and Grill for her birthday celebration this year. (I am not allowed to say which birthday, she assures everyone she’s 29 1/2.)
It is difficult eating at anything more than an Applebees with my mom. She’s not into gourmet food and it freaks her out when she sees menus where she can’t recognize what the food actually is. I spend my time translating the English menu to her into non-gourmet terms and telling her if she would like it or not. Thankfully, the Main Street Bar and Grill has a straight-forward menu with a lot of choice. It walks the line of being gourmet without the pretensions and confusing menu. A solid win for everyone.
They have a very nicely curated wine menu, with quality wines served by the glass. I was very happy with a glass of Rombauer Chardonnay priced at a very affordable $13 per glass. My only “little complaint” is that the wine was served so cold that I had to sit there warming it with my hands to raise it to a drinkable temperature. Chardonnay needs to be only a little below room temperature so you can taste all the character of the wine.
Looking through the menu, it was hard for me to choose. There were so many delicious dishes that I would love to eat. I ended up ordering the scallops finished in mango salsa to start and salmon with a lemon and saffron sauce over mashed potato and green beans as a main course.
My mother was concerned about the various sauces that were described in the menu, but she settled for no starter, and the filet mignon for her main course. It was served with mashed potato, baby carrots, and a peppercorn sauce.
The Brit was predictable and had the calamari to start and duck in a cherry and rosemary sauce for his main course. His was served on top of a bit of cubed sweet potato with green beans.
The starter dishes arrived and both looked appetizing. The calamari was coated in more of a panko bread crumb than a traditional batter. It was served with a fresh homemade tartar sauce. The cook was light which kept the calamari tender and delicious; a big win. It was a large plate and was made for sharing. (I helped myself to several.)
My dish of scallops was amazing. I would have never put the mango salsa with scallops but it worked beautifully. You get that sweet, spicy, tender party in your mouth thing going. The scallops were delicious! I am going to have to try to make that at home, I was so impressed with this dish.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is lovely. It is comfortable and warm, with nice little touches and soft mood lighting. This is the place you go for a grown-up date or a nice meal. Honestly, I don’t understand why this place isn’t more popular. This isn’t really a place for big groups, although I have seen that a few times there. The service was consistently good throughout the meal. There was nice music playing in the background.
As our meals arrived and I photographed them I was very impressed. In fact we all commented on the beautiful presentation of the dishes. They were as nice if not nicer than plates I have seen in Napa! Great Job!
Biting into my salmon I was equally impressed. Beautifully cooked; moist and tender, it was excellent. The lemon and saffron sauce added richness to the plate. The green beans were a perfect cook, they still had a slight crunch to them. Wonderful!
My mother’s Filet Mignon was truly melt in the mouth. I would not hesitate to order it again. It was so outstanding. The light peppercorn sauce on top brought the dish to truly wonderful.
Finally it was The Brit’s turn to taste his dish. Not only did the duck look wonderful, it smelled good. The cherries were plump and gorgeous on top of the beautifully seared pink centered duck. It was a knock out dish. Even though I don’t care for rosemary in my food, the rest of this dish was so good I didn’t mind its flavor. It didn’t overwhelm the rest of the plate and just added a whisper in there for depth.
The Brit comments: The duck was succulent, with the skin crisp and the rosemary adding an accent and not becoming the predominant flavour. The small cubes of sweet potato provided a textural and taste contrast to round out the dish.
For dessert (it came with our 3 course meal deal) we ordered the tiramisu and a portion of the vanilla ice cream. The plating on both was stunning, especially the tiramisu. The tiramisu was so beautiful that The Brit pulled out his phone camera so he could Instagram it immediately. (I left my phone at home.) Unfortunately, I think in the plating of the dessert, they forgot to sufficiently thaw the dish; it was more than a little frozen. The ice cream too was underwhelming as it seemed like it was ice milk rather than a creamy ice cream. What a shame on both counts and I have to wonder if it was a one-off thing? Once the tiramisu was thawed it was good.
The Brit comments: The tiramisu was not a conventional expression of the dessert, but would have been thoroughly enjoyable if they had waited a few more minutes before bringing it the table. The ice-cream had crystals of ice in it, that detracted from a good vanilla taste and excellent plating.
What a wonderful way to start out our new year blog than with such an outstanding meal. I was honestly happily surprised with this place. We had eaten there in the past and I had always thought it good, but this night it was a WOW! This gets a “Highly Recommended” rating from us.
