After a relaxing autumn afternoon on Vigilant reading and listening to Spanish Guitar on Pandora, we ventured out to Red Cat Kitchen for dinner on Oaks Bluff.
Oak Bluffs is a funny place. It’s totally crazy during the summer as a major ferry port, but seemed closed for the season when we visited in late September.
We hit up yelp and discovered Down Island was closed for the season. 20byNine was closed on Tuesday nights, and the others looked too much like typical seafood joints. We saw The Red Cat Kitchen had a solid FOUR STAR rating and booked a reservation.
Good Enough for Obama
We really lucked out with Red Cat Kitchen. It turns out that this is one of Obama’s favorites and our server Erin waited on the ex-president and his family every time he ate there.
Mrs. Horne started with a Caesar style salad while I munched on the very fresh warm bread and spicy oil.
Although a number of things on the menu caught our eye, we decided to be adventurous and went with the chef’s tastings.
These are surprise dishes ($14 each). Erin recommends 3 per person ($42) unless you have salad first, then she suggests two which is what we had given Mrs Horne’s love for salads°!
The first was a crispy shrimp salad…
The second was a veal and island grown mushroom dish.
After dinner the chef Ben came out to introduce himself and ask us how we enjoyed his tastings.
By the way, the atmosphere was very chic and quite crowded (for a Tuesday night in late September).
As we were leaving, the couple next to us asked what the tastings were and after we finished telling them ever little detail Erin appeared, overheard us, and said to the young couple “yours might be totally different”.
I’d recommend the Chef’s Tasting (3 course) if you’re looking for a culinary adventure. Otherwise, here are a few other great looking dishes from the menu…
I won’t claim to have tried every potential dinner restaurant in Oaks Bluffs, but I know a great one when I see one (and sample their fare). If you’re in Oak Bluffs for just one night, I suggest you book dinner at the Red Cat.
Dave
My Buzzards Bay 