What makes them good is the freshness of the ingredients and the light hand with dressing. Even the simplest, the romaine lettuce hearts with pine nut dressing, Parmesan cheese and croutons, is nicely done, while a similar effort, Bibb lettuce with a macadamia nut dressing and marinated goat cheese, is a bit richer. The salad that rises above this pack brings slices of excellent smoked salmon wrapped around a trove of greens tossed with a poppyseed dressing on a plate decorated with capers and little mounds of tapenade. It's a delicious conjunction of flavors and textures. Appetizers concentrate on seafood.
Sea scallops are expertly seared to a thin crust and jazzed up with basil-habanero cream sauce.
Finally, though I normally wouldn't man the barricades for a fried oyster, the little bivalve mollusks at Madidi, delicately fried in a cornmeal crust and served with red cabbage slaw and brandy sauce, were downright succulent. Fish entrees seem more inventive than red meat entrees. On the other hand, the one entree that didn't quite gel was a salmon fillet crusted with thin slices of sweet potato served with grilled squash and a shallot sauce. Somehow the crust wasn't crusty enough and the squash seemed too similar to the sweet potato. Much better was a beautifully simple but flavorful piece of bass accompanied by creamy black bean puree and chive oil over a caramelized shallot risotto.