Restaurant 45

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Andrew, his parents and I have been on an eating tour of Ashland and the surrounding towns in search of a rehearsal dinner site.

First was Stone's Public House, followed by Fusion Cuisine and today, we ate at a strong contender, Restaurant 45 in Medway.

Now on to the fun part, the food! And it was very good.  Andrew and I thought it was a good sign that Restaurant 45 had two different types of calamari appetizers. Going out on a limb, we ignored the typical calamari offering with dipping sauces and went with the Calamari 45 signature dish (deep fried crispy calamari with sliced hot cherry peppers, black olives and tomatoes tossed in olive oil and garlic served with garlic crostini). And it was amazing. You didn't even need a dipping sauce for the calimari with the strong flavors of the olives and tomatoes:

Another appetizer that caught our eye was Gabe's Garlic Bread with Gorgonzola Fondue (toasted italian bread served with a delicious gorgonzola cheese cream sauce) - those two dishes may have had too much garlic bread for some, but not for us!

Since I knew I was going with a salad for my main meal, I decided to get a cup of the Lobster and Clam Chowder. Boy, was that a good decision! It was thick and creamy and tasted great. Another big plus was the huge chunks of lobster in it that you could actually tell came from a lobster - delicious!

My Mesclun salad was chock full of nice things -mixed field greens tossed with sun dried cranberries, roasted walnuts, pears, red seedless grapes, gorgonzola cheese, pita bread croutons and balsamic vinaigrette. I loved everything about it except for the balsamic vinaigrette. My guess was that it was a white wine vinaigrette and it tasted really salty to me but Andrew thought it tasted fine. I adored the pita bread croutons, and was suprised how well they worked considering how thin they are.

I had joked at the table that we all had to order different things so we could try possible menu items for a rehearsal dinner, and it worked out naturally that we all did.  Andrew went with the Chicken and Broccoli (sauteed chicken filets, broccoli, parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper, olive oil and garlic tossed with penne) which looked awesome. I fully intended on grabbing a bite but was honestly too full by the time our entrees arrived.

Charlotte chose the Chicken Parmesan and seemed pleased with her choice.

The only thing left of Tom's Seafood Saute was the angel hair pasta, he ate every scrap of the sauteed shrimp, sea scallops and salmon (with sun dried tomatoes, spinach, roasted red peppers, onions, roasted pinenuts and fresh basil in a white wine and garlic butter sauce):

A shot of Andrew and I, full and contented after our meal:

Overall, we were extremely pleased at the quality of the meal and the function rooms we toured. I wish Restaurant 45 was a little closer to Newton becaue I'd be eating there all the time!