Company description
Ocean House Restaurant offers Banquet Halls, and American Restaurants services in Dennis Port MA, MA area.
More details
- Editorial Text 2
- Dining with a view Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, MA) July 28, 2004 Author: LAURIE HIGGINS For chef Tim Miller, a love of food came at an early age and his earliest attempts at cooking had sometimes disastrous results. "I grew up experimenting in the kitchen. My parents had to put a padlock on the refrigerator when I was little - literally. I used to make stuff for my sister all the time. I'd open up tea bags and mix it with peanut butter and feed it to her when she was little. Probably the biggest experience I had when I was young is I decided to surprise my Mom and make pineapple upside down cake and I put a cup and a half of baking powder instead of a teaspoon and a half. It was a volcano cake," he says with a laugh. Boyish and charming, the 33-year-old still likes to play with food, but thanks to an education at the Culinary Institute of America and years spent working in various restaurants, Miller is being creative in the kitchen with much better results. As he prepares for his fourth season as executive chef at the Ocean House New American Bistro and Bar on Depot Street in Dennisport, Janet Hart-Barbato, who manages the family-owned restaurant, sings his praises. "On a daily basis his talent never ceases to amaze me," she says. "He's very creative and it's fun. It keeps it exciting for us and the customers, which is what its all about, because I think when you're bored it shows." The Ocean House Restaurant was built by Hart-Barbato's family in 1983 on the waterfront next to the familyowned Three Seasons Hotel. After five years the restaurant closed due to a family illness. It reopened 10 years ago and has been offering upscale creative dining ever since. Hart-Barbato's philosophy is sophistication without pretense. "People are coming here for an experience. They want something special and that's what we're going to give them, whether they are ordering a four-course meal or they are ordering a pizza or appetizer," she says. Enjoying the sound The ambiance of the restaurant reflects those values as well. The dining room combines elegance with warmth with high oak tables and chairs padded with hunter green leather in the lounge and white linen topped tables in the adjoining restaurant. The simple d?cor allows the view of Nantucket Harbor, just a stone's throw away, to take center stage. Even though creativity is important to Miller, he likes to keep food simple and inviting. When he cooks dinner at home for his girlfriend Heather Allen, chef at the Regatta Restaurant in Cotuit, he prefers to stick to the simple basic food he grew up with in Lancaster County, Penn. At home, his specialty is chicken and dumplings. For the restaurant he likes to cook "straightforward food that is different, but not crazy different. People can understand the food and when they read it on the menu they're not afraid to order it." While all the entr?es sell at a fairly even rate, Miller says the lemongrass battered grey sole is a top seller followed by the grilled beef tenderloin topped with Maytag blue cheese. Miller changes about 40 to 50 percent of the menu three times a year to reflect the different tastes of the seasons and offer their many regular customers some variety. "There are people that are here almost nightly," he says. This spring they added many raw bar items and have increased appetizer selections from 14 to 22 items so customers can order several appetizers instead of just one entr?e. While they try to keep certain favorites on the menu, Hart-Barbato says the regular customers look forward to the menu changes. She especially enjoys watching customers order the raw bar "Grand Selection," a three-tiered tower of native oysters, lobster, clams, shrimp and crab claws served with cocktail and mustard dipping sauce. "When I see people sitting at a table with that in front of them and a nice bottle of wine, its so beautiful I just want to bring Tim out to show him. But of course he's always so busy. I just love to see people sitting there enjoying themselves on the ocean with that in front of them, as it should be," she says. Labor of love Miller loves his job and says the best part is working with other people who share that love. He explains that the most important part of staffing is finding a kitchen crew that loves and respects food whether they are formally trained in school or not. "You try to learn something new every day and you surround yourself with people that have that same idea. You can't go into work thinking you know everything," he says. That attitude seems to be working. All of the staff from the front and back of the house came back this year and Hart-Barbato hasn't had to advertise for help for several years now. "It's a great compliment to the restaurant and it's so nice for the customers. They see the same faces here all the time and they like that. I just want people to be happy here and feel comfortable," she says. The Ocean House New American Bistro and Bar is open year round for dinner, Wednesday through Sunday during the off-season and Tuesday through Sunday during the summer. For reservations call 508-394-0700.
- Editorial Text 1
- Ocean House fuses view with uneven menu - If You Go Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, MA) - September 8, 2007 Author: Terry Ward Libby Ocean House, located right on the beach at the foot of Depot Street in Dennisport, is a knockout of a restaurant. The building's nondescript brick exterior may not be impressive, but step inside and you'll find a bright, contemporary dining room with wood paneled walls, and tables set with crisp, white linens and flickering votive candles. The color scheme of cool whites and neutral tones is relaxed and soothing, and there's not a speck of nautical kitsch on display. The classy interior makes no attempt to compete with Ocean House's main attraction, a wall of oversized windows that offer an unobstructed view of Nantucket Sound to every table in the house. Ocean House bills itself as the Cape's "shi-shi beach house," and that it is. To me, the scene feels more like Malibu than Cape Cod, and owner Janice Hart-Barbato deserves plenty of credit for betting that a seaside restaurant, absent mugs of chowder and fried-clam platters, would be a success. Her bet must have paid off. Even on a weeknight in high season, tables in the main dining room are often fully booked during prime dinner hours, but guests seem happy to line up for the choicest tables in the cocktail bar, where the full menu is also served. Ocean House is not only pretty, it's also pricey. The average cost of a full-sized dinner entr?e easily exceeds $25. The menu is also ambitious, aiming at "new American" and "fusion" styles. I set out to see if what's coming out of the kitchen can justify the hefty tabs. After multiple visits, accompanied by food-savvy friends, and an outlay of a few hundred dollars, I've got to say no. Fewer than half the items sampled could be called standout dishes, and at least a couple of dishes were, well, extraordinarily bad. But, first, a taste of those that were enjoyed: A pan-roasted Indonesian crab cake appetizer ($12) offered not only an exceptional crab cake, it was nicely sauced in a creamy, fresh corn salsa concoction. Point Judith calamari ($14) was tender, and fried golden and crisp, as promised on the menu, and the addition of tangy peppers provided a good flavor contrast. Peking duck "tacos" ($12), however, consisted of crisp pockets of fried wonton, stuffed with a pasty, Asian barbecue sauce mixed with bits of duck, the meat barely detectable. The tacos were topped with an avocado puree that, on its own, tasted good, but the overall gooiness of the tacos wasn't appealing - an attempt at fusing Mexican with Chinese that, for me, and for others at the table, fused not at all. I couldn't help but calculate the kitchen's cost in putting together my appetizer of Kobe beef lettuce wraps, as I pondered the $14 price tag. A pile of iceberg lettuce leaves was served with a small bowl of hot, minced Kobe beef in Asian sauce. Lettuce wraps, Asian-style, are a favorite dish of mine. This version tasted mostly of bell peppers, and the sweet, soupy sauce overwhelmed any flavor from the scant amount of Kobe used in the dish. Add to these disappointments a bland version of Shrimp Phad Thai ($26); an appetizer that offered but a single fried shrimp ($12); and a bowl of rigatoni ($18) tossed with a mix of grilled chicken, arugula and pine nuts, but that also contained whole, raw cloves of garlic; coarse chunks of tasteless, uncooked plum tomatoes; and tough, fatty cubes of pancetta. The speed with which it arrived from the kitchen made me think the dish was thrown together fast and with little finesse. The cumin-roasted Berkshires pork tenderloin entr?e ($26), however, was flavorful and juicy, perfectly done to medium temperature. Fillet of sole ($25), crusted in crushed potato chips, was a treat with a satisfying crunch, served with a good citrus butter sauce and a side of rich mashed potatoes flavored with sun-dried tomatoes. A lobster ravioli entr?e ($20), actually cheese ravioli topped with a generous portion of lobster meat in champagne cream sauce, will appeal to diners with an appetite for ultra-rich, creamy seafood dishes. Ocean House is famous for its "chocolate bag" sundae for two ($12), a clever dessert with a sack made of solid, top-quality chocolate that holds a chocolate and caramel drizzled sundae with banana. A perfectly turned-out baked Alaska ($10), made with honey toasted coconut ice cream, also plenty for two, was delicious and truly impressive. Despite the expense and the unpredictable quality of the cuisine, it's not surprising that Ocean House is such a draw, given the downright glamorous setting, the well-trained service staff and the general liveliness of the place. Sometimes the fusion style works, and sometimes it doesn't. Sticking with simpler seafood items and the more basic fish and meat preparations may be your best bet at Ocean House, because when the kitchen hits the mark, it can turn out some very fine plates of food.
- Restaurant Features
- Booster Seats / High Chairs, Late Night Menu, Ocean, Online Menu, Photos, Takeout Available, View, Working Fireplace
- Features
- Hot Ten, Reservations suggested, View, Full bar, Private room(s), Valet parking
- Cuisine
- Seafood, Traditional American, Italian
- Rating
- 77% of 88 people liked it on Urbanspoon
- Reservations
- Reservations strongly recommended
- Payment Accepted
- Accepts Major Credit Cards
- Location
- At Depot St., on the beach
- Prices
- Main courses $18-$34
- Reservations Policy
- Suggested (Highly)
- Chef's Name
- Anthony Silvestri
- Sort Chef's Name
- Anthony Silvestri
- Cross Street
- Upper County Rd.
- Season
- Open year-round
- Dress Code
- Upscale Casual
- Attire
- Dressy casual
- Neighborhood
- Around Town
- Area
- Dennisport
- Smoking
- No Smoking
- Cross Streets
- Depot St.
- Price Category
- Expensive
- Price
- $20 - $30
- Meals Served
- Dinner
- Year Opened
- 1994
- Parking
- Lot
- Price Level
- $$$
- Web Site
- http://www.oceanhouserestaurant.com/
