East End Eats: The Maidstone Arms

The Maidstone Arms

Main Street

East Hampton

324-5006

Open daily for lunch and dinner

The Maidstone Arms is an oasis of calm in an increasingly noisy, frenzied world. The impression - illusion though it is - that you are in a country inn in the wilds of New England is so soothing that the first thing you do when you sink into your chair is to breathe a heavy sigh of relief: You've escaped.

The main dining room has been enlarged and very prettily redecorated in blue. The waitstaff is friendly and accommodating but no one hovers about or overcossets you, and if you want a three-hour lunch, so be it, you won't be hurried along.

One of the nicest times to visit is at Christmas, when the inn looks like a Bing Crosby film set and hot rum toddies are served at the bar.

Silky Terrine

A good wine list is to be expected, but there is also an armlong list of cognacs and single malt whiskeys. The menu is very imaginative, with dishes showing gentle influences of everywhere from Vietnam to Mexico.

While the prices of entrees, from $19.50 to $30, are on a par with those of other good East End restaurants, the appetizers, $7 to $18.50, are definitely on the expensive side. But the appetizers are rather special.

We didn't go so far as to try the most expensive, a seared foie gras with "orange-scented spring fruits," but judging by how good the silky terrine of chicken and duck livers ($12.50) was, it is probably worth the money.

Care And Attention

The terrine was wonderful, but the cost might still have caused pain if it hadn't been for the care and attention lavished on the plate - the little heap of sweet and sour baked shallots, the drops of an intense onion reduction, and the dark, rich, nutty triangles of toast.

The mixed green salad justified its $9.50 price tag by being twice the size of those elsewhere.

The grilled shrimp rolls ($11.50) with rice noodles and nuoc nam, a Vietnamese fish sauce, provided an unusual combination of flavors, but they paled beside what is described as a "rum-smoked salmon martini."

Have A Salmon Martini

This is a martini glass of lightly smoked salmon that has then been marinated in rum and smoked again by the chef. It'll set you back $12.50, but it's marvelous. If you want to celebrate spring, I suggest taking a midday break from hoeing next weekend to have both a salmon martini and a real martini for lunch. (Just kidding.)

Moving on to the entrees, the grilled sirloin of beef is a fine hefty piece for the price, though the garlic mashed potatoes disappointed, being a little on the dry side. It's a safe bet, considering the quality of the side dishes, that this was but a momentary lapse.

Gilding The Lily

The halibut was served with the most spectacular herb-roasted root vegetables (it might not seem that the words "spectacular" and "root vegetable" belong in one sentence, but try these and you'll understand) and "truffled" fava beans, which were whole fresh fava beans in what appeared to be a rough puree of different vegetables.

The fish itself had been rolled in rather powerful spices, including cumin, that I found a bit dissonant with the fish.

Another dish where perhaps imagination ran away with the chef is an excellent loin of pork, tender and tasty, which is beautifully complemented by a molé sauce and crunchy handmade garlic chips. We agreed that it would have been fine just like that, but to include a crabmeat stuffing was gilding the lily. More was less.

A Winning Duck

But there were no reservations about the roast lacquered duck with coconut almond rice, shiitake mushrooms, and baby bok choy, which was our favorite entree and is highly recommended.

Coming a close second was the rack of Colorado lamb, with its dark spicy outer crust and a rose-pink center. It came with a mixture of onions and a garlic couscous and it brought to mind an interesting piece of food trivia.

Most people will be familiar with the lines from Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam that are a paean to the simple life: "A book of verses underneath the bough,/A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - and thou/Beside me singing in the wilderness -"

Accompaniments

But did you know that in the original Persian, Khayyam includes a leg of lamb in the list? Now that's more like it!

While it is the fish and steaks and such that are always center stage on a menu, at the Maidstone Arms diners should really pay attention to what else comes with the dish, because some of the extras are as good as the big-name draw.

Every dish, as it should for those prices, comes with different accompaniments and it is here that you really see the chef's imagination at work: those amazing roasted root vegetables, the fresh fava beans, some baby bok choy, the garlic chips, three different sorts of onions, and so on.

The Whole Package

The dessert menu is full of tempting choices, including a Texas peach cobbler and very nice individual apple tart rather like a tarte Tatin. The cobbler sat well with me because I like the stodgy cobbler part, but the rest of our reviewing crew complained that it was light on fruit.

When you have finished dining, you can wander into the enclosed porch, where there is live music of an unobtrusive kind, for a nightcap.

The food at the Maidstone Arms is expensive, but imaginative and very good. That would be a sufficient recommendation, but it's the whole package - lovely service, no music, good acoustics, pretty surroundings, a tranquil atmosphere - that makes dining here such a pleasure.