Martin's West Gastropub

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If you saw the menu for Martin's West, you wouldn't believe it was located in downtown Redwood City.  The food is a mix of pub food and culinary twists in a gastropub setting.  It reminds me of a mix of Monk's Kettle (see post HERE) and The Alembic (see post HERE), which is the kind of food I love to eat.  There were lots of interesting yummy options here that I'll have to work in a second visit. 

At first glance, it looks like a mini corndog, but actually its haggis on a stick.  Haggis is a Scottish dish made of sheep's stomach stuffed wtih offal (heart, liver, lungs, etc).  This one is hidden in a deep fried golden cornmeal batter.  That's how you hide something, Jessica Seinfield.

As goes without saying, everything fried always tastes good, but the haggis was seasoned well and flavorful.  There was no funky aftertaste from this haggis, which is common with many offal dishes.  So unnoticeable, I wouldn't be surprised if kids wanted this instead of chicken nuggets.

The Scotch egg was a lot smaller than I've had them before. 

 

The scotch egg here is sausage meat wrapped around a soft boiled quail egg then to top it all off - its deep fried.  So delicious and I wish more places served scotch eggs...

Of course, bone marrow is one of my favorite dishes, but at Martin's West its just a little above average.  A sparse amount of parsley leaves are sprinkled on top of the buttery bone marrow.  I did love the buttered mini toasts to spread the rich bone marrow on.

Mac and Cheese.  A little too al dente corkscrew pasta mixed with melted cheese and topped with a generous sprinkling of toasted bread crumbs.  The corkscrew pasta is a refreshing change from the usual elbow pasta and its nooks and crannies held the melted cheese well.

From left; clockwise:  smoked rabbit, spiced lamb, duck liver mousse, venison pistachio topped with housemade mustard, spicy pork salami.  The highlights were the spicy pork salami and the housemade mustard and pickled vegetables.  The others were more mild in flavor.

Address:               Martin's West Gastropub
                              831 Main Street
                              Redwood City, CA 
 

Type:                     gastropub/American

Popular chomps:   haggis on a stick
                              chacuterie
                              bone marrow
                              burger
                              scotch egg

Chomp worthy:     haggis on a stick
                              scotch egg