The company? Three daughters, my favorite food testers, who do not hold against me some of the awful experiments I foisted upon them when they were younger. We were early diners on a slow Tuesday, and had the dining room to ourselves.
The room? Comfortably sized tables decked with white linen, lovely china and a very nice center candle. One wall is entirely windows that look out upon some of the King's Way golf course. The walls are a muted olive, and the ceiling is open with exposed beams in barn house framing. Chandeliers hung down, and I suspect would have provided a tastefully dimmed and romantic light after dark. The background music played at a level that did not make table talk difficult, but just loud enough to mute conversation from the surrounding tables, with Sinatra and Holiday in the air. The carpet was black and gray, as were the chairs. Booths with half-moon banquettes around tables for two lined another wall, and would provide a very romantic setting for a special occasion.
The service? Our young gentleman greeted us warmly and presented a pleasant personality throughout our meal. He was solicitous of our needs all evening, but not intrusively so, and he had a great sense of humor. This latter is sometimes a necessary trait with me, as I like to engage servers in conversation during a meal. My daughters do not always approve of my playfulness in public, but I find it gives a server an opportunity to display some personality in what otherwise can be rather robotic work. This fellow gave as good as he got in the repartee, and helped make the evening fun.
The food? Well turned out, attractively presented, and worth the visit. Small dipping bowls of an excellent quality extra virgin olive oil with herbs and red pepper flakes accompanied some very good, crusty bread, slices of which were individually placed on our plates. With just a little salt and black pepper for added flavor to the oil, we dipped away while waiting for our first courses.
A plate of sliced heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil leaves, with just a little of that excellent extra virgin olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar and some freshly cracked black pepper, was passed around for all four of us to share, and it was gone in a moment. I also enjoyed very much a wild mushroom strudel. The flavorful mushroom filling had been wrapped in phyllo dough. Slices of the strudel were cut and a small piece of dill Havarti cheese was placed on each slice before being placed in the oven. These slices were served on a small bed of mixed spring greens, and I added what was left of the herbed dipping oil to finish this off. The strudel was excellent, and is a first course every diner should try.
Around the table clockwise for our entrees, we had salmon, scallops, beef tenderloin and lobster cakes. The salmon was oven roasted with a flavored breadcrumb topping and a sundried tomato relish that was, as my daughter reported, “to die for.” The salmon was cooked as ordered, just past medium, and was a generous portion. The combination of the relish, the crumbs and the fish all together on the palate could not have been improved upon.
The scallops were served with a brandy beurre blanc, and were cooked just through so as to be still translucent in the center. Unfortunately, the side muscle had not been removed before cooking, and that little thing gets tough when cooked. It detracted from the dish somewhat, but the accompanying sauce was quite good and was a nice compliment to the otherwise tender and sweet scallops.
The beef tenderloin was a very good piece of meat that had been cooked perfectly to order as medium rare. It was a generous portion that had been coated in several freshly cracked peppercorns before searing, and then finished in the oven. The demi glace sauce was a textbook nappé consistency, and was excellent. Fortunately, this plate was immediately to my right and I snuck a number of bites in when daughter number three was not looking.
Each of these dishes was accompanied by a very good rice side dish and fresh vegetables that had been cooked to al dente for service, thus retaining full flavor and crunchiness that I like. Too often kitchens overcook vegetables, and the texture and taste suffer as a result. Not so at The Artful Table, the sign of a knowledgeable and experienced chef's hand.
My entrée, lobster cakes, was voted the best of the four, and each of the girls decided it would be their order on a return visit. They were large, two to the order, filled with fresh lobster meat that had not been overpowered and lost in filler, sautéed crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The topping was an avocado tapenade, a wonderul accompaniment to the lobster cakes. The side dish was a slaw of julienne pear and mango with a tasty dressing, and it was crunchy and soft and sweet and tart and yin and yang and, well, you get the point. In short, I am hard pressed to come up with a better side for those cakes.
We passed plates around, sampled each other's meals, made those little mmm'ing sounds you make when you taste something really good, had the leftovers wrapped for breakfast the next morning, and considered ourselves very well fed. The portions are large and everyone had something to take with them except me, as those lobster cakes didn't make it with room to spare. We thought we were full at that point until we saw the dessert menu. The list was so tempting, though, that we could not make up our individual minds, so we ordered the Dessert Sampler.
Get a load of this: cheesecake with fresh fruit; a warm cobbler with an excellent cobble of blackberries, raspberries, bumbleberries and pears with a scoop of house-made buttermilk ice cream; a six layer chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache filling and icing; and, a huge martini glass filled with grapenut custard pudding. Each one was a major league portion, and each one was, well, really good. We struggled with this as best we could, and am happy to report we came very close to finishing everything. I will tell you, though, the Dessert Sampler is better suited for six than for four, unless you don't mind having to loosen your slacks at the table.
The Artful Table has a new chef this season. Bob Hickey's food has made a lot of people happy in several Cape Cod restaurants, and I last caught up with him while he was at High Brewster a few years ago. We grew up in the same town and graduated from the same high school together, but for his privacy as well as my own, I won't mention the year. He's written a nice menu for his kitchen to execute, and we enjoyed his work very much.
Our bill for the meal
was $121, exclusive of a tip for our good-humored waiter, so The
Artful Table fits into Cape Dining Out's upscale category for rating
purposes. The company was great, the room is quite comfortable and
lovely, the dining room and facilities are exceptionally clean and
well appointed, the service was good and the food was quite good.
With a Cape Dining Out score of 45 out of 50, The Artful Table is
well recommended to you with a 3.5 Cods rating. Make it a point to
visit them soon, and make sure one diner at the table has the lobster
cakes.
If you go . . . . . . .
The Artful Table
Route 6A
Yarmouthport, MA 02675
508.362.9100
www.theartfultable.com
Copyright © 2005
MLM
Celtic Enterprises
www.mlmcelt.com
No portion of this article may be reprinted or republished without the express written permission of the copyright holder.