Market Street Grill

Seafood, anyone? Market Street Grill offers a variety of seafood with a menu that is updated daily. Judging from the prices I would say they fly the fish in fresh from California. Judging from the flavor they don't fly it in on Fridays.

Market Street has gone to the effort making the interior of their restaurant as sea-friendly as possible. The white paneling coupled with the dark wood accents makes me think of Boston. They've also put up fake fish with neon back lighting, it's a little different, but fits the place.

I should also note the soft background music wasn't total crap. It wasn't my favorite music, but I remember hearing three songs in a row I actually liked. Pretty amazing for a chain restaurant.

Our waiter was competent. Although, she was friendly I was surprised by the bantering between her and the other wait staff on the floor. I felt like she forgot we were there whenever she commented about how much she had in tips and what a slow day it was to other waiters. Maybe, it's slow because people know they will be treated like they don't exist there. On another note, for some inexplicable reason they had six or so waiters for Friday lunch on a cold snowy day.

The menu is expensive. I would even say more expensive than their quality of food merits. I ordered the crab and artichoke dip as an appetizer for about $10. The dip was very yummy. If you like crab and artichoke it's delicious. It was creamy and hot with a nice bread crumble across the top. If you don't like crab or artichoke you probably won't like it.

They also serve a complimentary loaf of sour dough bread. The bread was nice and crusty. It was sourdough without being too sour. I'm not usually a big fan of sourdough, but this was fantastic! I loved the bread. As did Ava, I think it's safe to say that if we ever go back we will most anticipate the bread.

For our entrees Ava ordered Cajun Seafood Pasta for about $23 and I ordered the Fisherman's Platter for about $20. Both entrees were served with a side salad. The salad essentially ended up being greens, three tomatoes and three slices of onion. Umm...I know it's a side salad, but are the tomatoes supposed to be the side to the salad?

Our entrees soon came looking delicious. The Cajun pasta was supposed to be served with a fettucine pasta, but came with spaghetti pasta instead. The fisherman's platter came with everything deep-fried (how could I resist?) scallops, calamari, halibut and shrimp along with a side of cheesy potatoes. At this point both Ava and I were stuffed.

So I ended up sampling my dish. In the end, calamari is chewy, but good. Scallops are better when they aren't deep-fried, I could deep fry my own shrimp and they would be just as good and the halibut was not the level I expected it to be. But the potatoes were delicious. Not just because I love potatoes either. They were nicely seasoned, covered with cheese and had plenty of parsley to contrast with the cheddar. Seriously, good.

Ava's pasta was a little spicier than she had bargained for, but it looked great. And from her efforts to eat it I'm going to say it was good. Of course, she can let you know in the comments. It had andouille sausage along with the usual scallops and shrimp seafood.

So in all lunch was about $60. Way, way too much for what it was. Even though we ate a ton of food I don't think lunch should ever be that expensive. Luckily, I had a $50 gift card so it only cost me $10. It was definitely worth the ten bucks.

Here's the bottom line. If you go to Market Street Grill, pray for a decent waiter, skip the appetizer and only order entrees. And to save money, ask the nice people you know hook you up with a gift card.