The Chanticleer

The Chanticleer has been for many years one of the shining lights of fine cuisine on Nantucket. It was known for fine French dining and excellent service. However, when the original owner-chef retired, the restaurant closed and re-opened under the management of the owners of Black Eyed Susan's, a trendy mid-scale downtown eatery, not known for either its service or atmosphere (or its food).

The new Chanticleer is a much more relaxed effort, closer to a bistro in style. While the main dining room looks similar to its original incarnation the lower solarium has been raised to the same level as the main dining room and is now a lovely room looking out on a very pretty garden. All of the window tables have open windows but thehy can be shut with Anderson window style cranks. It can get chilly after 7 pm so this is significant.

We found the food good to indifferent and this describes the service as well. There were only 3 indoor tables with customers while we were there (there were 4 more outside on the patio area as we left). Despite the abundance of staff, service was very slow and inattentive. The waiter actually asked if we wanted him to bring us bread to "munch on," instead of just bringing it.

The bread was warm and crusty, but devoid of bread flavor, like "brown and serve" rolls of yesteryear.

One of us had a beet salad and roast chicken while the other had duck confit and scallops.

The beet salad featured only 3 slices of beets, of limited flavor, and was served with (get ready for this!) iceberg lettuce, as well as candied pecans! There was an indifferent bleu cheese dressing as well.

The duck confit was actually quite good. It was salty (as required by real confit preparation) and was warm and tasty. It was served with crunchy Brussell's sprouts and allegedly with a small amount of "sauce Dijon."

The roast chicken was not dried out and was served with undercooked potatoes and artichoke hearts, but had no particular flavor of its own.

The 3 scallops were served with 2 pastry wrapped sausage slices between them (and fennel puree, so they say), two asparagus spears and an indifferent yellow-gray sauce with no particular taste.

We did not order any desserts, (or coffee or tea) but they were only 5 desserts and nothing memorable among them.

The bill for two people, including one cocktail (12) and 2 glasses of white burgundy wine ($15 each) and a bottle of water we ordered by accident ($8) was $167 before tip.

It was far less than it would have been at the prior Chanticleer in price, quality, and service. Never did the waiter come by to ask if we were satisfied. We weren't.