Fish Tacos at Millie’s in Madaket

by Mr Christian on June 24, 2010

The summer of 2010 brings the return of the old Madaket staple The Westender, re envisioned as Millie’s. Not only is the good old rum punch concoction known as a Madaket Mystery being slung across the bar once again, but the menu boasts six forms of FISH TACOS!!! I myself am quite a fish taco junkie and can go days on end eating nothing but… I probably should have been born in San Diego to take advantage of all the taquerías along with frequent surfing and fish tacos expeditions down into Baja.

So we piled the family into the truck for the six and half mile marathon drive from the middle of the island out to Madaket and the newly opened Millie’s. The interior was nice and casual and definitely family friendly. While I wouldn’t exactly call the decor inside beachy, it’s definitely nice and open with the bars pushed back allowing a lot of room for seating. It’s definitely casual enough to walk in off the beach in wet trunks but being shirtless, barefoot and sandy would probably get you booted outside to one of the many picnic tables in the front or back of the restaurant. Like Jeff Spicoli once said, “No Shoes, No Shirt, Nooo Dice!”

So enough with the niceties and on with the ono grinds cuz. Some how the wife snuck in an appetizer order for the Altar Rock right after we ordered beers. No it wasn’t a giant ice cream Sunday from the Sweet Shop but rather a dish of tortilla chips with a bowl each of guacamole, cheese dip and salsa. The guac was good, the salsa so so and the cheese dip was… well it was cheese dip. The only problem with that whole picture was the $15 price tag. Next up was the main course and it was fish tacos! Did I mention earlier that there were SIX forms of fish tacos on the menu? My wife and I tried two of the six versions and after a couple of bites were ready to make Millie’s a regular stop for grinds this summer.

On the dinner menu there are six different salads, five different po boys (4 fish, 1 steak), a kids meal, a couple of apps, five quesadillas and eight different tacos. Since I’m talking about fish tacos tonight lets get down and dirty. They have grilled striped bass tacos, seared ahi tacos, blackened tilapia tacos, grilled scallop tacos, grilled salmon tacos, and finally grilled shrimp tacos. They also have a grilled skirt steak and then a grilled chicken taco that both sounded good but they were not part of my mission!

Unfortunately you can’t order tacos a la carte but these taco plates are well worth their $15-$18 price. If I were off island I’d be outraged but this is Nantucket and the price is mid range. After all, you do have a spectacular panoramic ocean view of Madaket while you chow down and not the gas fumes and traffic noise of a taco truck parked at a gas station on the side of a highway. All of the taco plates come with two generously sized tacos, a tasty summer rice salad, and fresh lime. My wife Nicole had the Hither Creek (foto above) which consisted of grilled striped bass in corn tortillas with Bartlett tomato and sweet corn salad, guacamole, and lime sour cream. I had the Esther Island which was grilled scallops in corn tortillas with sweet corn, tomato, lima, and blue cheese salad with lime sour cream.

Together we shared a taco so we could try one of each kind. These aren’t traditional fish tacos or any kind of Mexican/SoCal tacos. They are different then your traditional Baja fish taco like you can get at Corazon del Mar in town. They have their own unique island flair to them. The yummy Bartlett tomato and sweet corn salad on top is one of the items that gives these tacos their own character. This is also a side that comes with the kids plates and the quesadillas that is really good. I can’t wait until they are mixing fresh corn with the tomatoes. The tacos themselves were full of perfectly grilled fish/scallops and double wrapped in corn tortillas to help keep the mess down by keeping those tasty delights together. Millie’s tacos even looked good coming out on the plate. They were colorful and just looked fresh so you could imagine what they must taste like… I mean they even look good in these iPhone photos!

I almost forgot about the kids plate. It came with a side of yellow rice, the Bartlett tomato and corn salad and a choice of either a chicken or steak taco or quesadilla or a cheese quesadilla. The kids plate also includes a drink, either lemonade or milk. The tomato and corn salad was the same as on the other entrees and delicious but what kid is going to eat it? I know mine sure won’t! My older daughter got the cheese quesadilla and scarfed it and the rice down in no time flat. My younger daughter who usually eats everything got the chicken quesadilla and was very picky about it. She saw her big sissy with her plain cheese one and wouldn’t eat hers until we picked the chicken off. I tried her chicken quesadilla and would eat it again but there are better more savory choices for quesadillas on the regular menu. They sold the kids plate as a package with drink for $10 which is a little steep for a joint touting itself as family friendly especially since there are only two choices for kids on the dinner menu. Again I didn’t see the lunch menu so I can’t speak for what is on that for the kiddies.

The clear winner of the night was the grilled striped bass tacos which were to die for and I will be back again before the week is out to try some more of the six different fish tacos. My grilled scallop tacos were also excellent as was my mother in law’s 40th Pole Quesadilla which had grilled chicken, goat cheese, caramelized onions, rosemary, and jack & cheddar cheese. The service was a tiny bit wanting but I chalk that up to a young inexperienced waitstaff and the fact that they just opened. They’ll get the bugs ironed out in no time. All in all I’d have to say that Mille’s has some very tasty grinds and that they will make me drive ass out to Madaket a lot more this summer to get my fish taco fix

www.milliesnantucket.com