Monday, February 18, 2008

Madoka - February 13, 2008 - Bainbridge Island, WA

I told myself I wouldn't blog about Bainbridge much, since its such a small community, but I have to share my recent experience about Madoka.

A few of us "locals" will remember this location as the NAPA auto parts store.

Several years ago, NAPA sold to the guy who owned/managed Pleasant Beach Oyster House. He moved to Winslow to attract a large customer base. It worked for a while, I can remember when that was the hot place on the island. He sold out a few years ago, and it reopened as Madoka, featuring a Pan-Asian cuisine.

I took my date to Madoka the day before valentines. She has to work valentines day. This is one of the few places I have not been to yet, and she wanted to go as well.

We were immediately seated into a mostly empty dining area. The lighting, colors and artwork are great. This place has nice ambiance, perhaps the best on the Island.

The waiter quickly came over and brought us our menus. The menu was fairly limited. It was broken down by "small plates" and "large plates". There were probably 8 dishes of each size, but the dishes were unique between the small and large.

There where only a three seafood dishes on the large plates menu, and two of them were Tuna. The other was a scallop dish.

I opted for the Pacific Albacore dish. Grilled with a yam mashed potato side.

It wasn't great. I am pretty sure the fish was previously frozen. The yams, which I don't generally like, where very good.

My date went for the small plate option. She had the Elk Lumpia, baked Tofu and cold crab salad.

The tofu was ok, a bit mushy for my liking, but it was good quality tofu. The cold crab salad was pretty good. It wasn't what I expected though. It came on a small plate, with about 6 ounces of Crab. Underneath the crab was some lettuce and beet I believe. You couldn't see the greens though, It was like a hamburger, with the lettuce being the bottom bun.

She had tried the lumpia before, and said it wasn't as good this time. The meat was a bit old she thought. I didn't try it obviously.

By the time we finished, the restaurant was packed. This place is very trendy apparently.