Labor Day weekend is here, and as many old-timers are fond of saying, “it’s all over but the shoutin’.” Already the crowds have thinned and more locals are venturing out. More often than not, one of the places the Nantucketers end up is at A.K. Diamond’s. Loved for it’s abundance of great food, comfortable ambiance, and friendly and welcoming staff, A.K.’s has been a island favorite for years. And, located near the airport across from an NRTA stop (and with plenty of parking), it’s easy for visitors to find.
And what a find it is!
While the weather stays warm and clear, A.K.’s brick patio is a beautiful spot. Surrounded by tall thick hedges and potted plants, this garden setting is a quiet place to savor cocktails, dinner, and the sun-warmed September air. If you prefer a seat inside, you can sit at a downstairs table or booth or at their large wrap-around bar—with three large screen tvs, the bar area is the perfect place to watch the game. And from 3 to 5 p.m. appetizers are half price. Additional comfy booths and tables are upstairs in the main dining room. Dine here before 6 p.m., and dinner entrees are 25% off.
Starting at 11:30 a.m., AK’s offers quick and hearty lunches featuring more than a dozen hot and cold sandwiches and wraps, freshly made soups, a variety of salads, finger foods, and a different “blue plate special” every day of the week. Their Caprese Panini layers ripe tomato slices, onion, pesto, and fresh mozzarella between slices of ciabatta, grilled till the bread is toasty and the cheese melts deliciously down through the sandwich. Also highly recommended are the Reuben Burrito (all the flavor of the classic sandwich without the soggy pumpernickel) and the Asian Chicken Roll-up, with its cold, crisp pea shoots and water chestnuts a tasty contrast to the warm grilled chicken. Ask about joining AK’s “Lunch Bunch,” and discover there is such a thing as a free lunch.
Their extensive menu is served till closing, so if you want your main meal at midday, you’ve got plenty of choices. If you want afternoon snacks with cocktails, you’ve got plenty of choices. And if you come in after 5 p.m., when the dinner entrees are added to the offerings, you’ve got even more choices. AK’s serves more than 50 different items, plus daily and nightly specials.
A. K. Diamond’s has Nantucket’s best salad bar. Along with a soup or a hot appetizer, the salad bar makes a healthy and satisfying meal. Plates are iced to keep the greens cool and crisp, and you can build your salad with 25 different fresh toppings that include shredded carrots, sliced cucumbers, mushrooms, pickles, grape tomatoes, sprouts, sliced radishes, baby corn, cheeses, several types of peppers, pasta salad, wasabi peas, nuts, dried fruit, and more — all constantly replenished. Six different dressings are available to top off your salad (we especially like the sundried tomato vinaigrette), and warm loaves of bread are ready for you to help yourself to a slice or two. The salad bar comes with all dinner entrees; it can be added to AK’s light entrees; or it can be your meal: unlimited salad bar is just $10.95.
AK’s also offers a tempting selection of entreé sized specialty salads, including six varieties of Caesar Salad—classic, chicken, steak, cheeseburger, shrimp, and lobster.
Also very good is their Grilled Fresh Tuna Nicoise Salad. This features a generous six ounces of very fresh tuna, thickly sliced and arranged over a huge salad of mixed greens, kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, hardboiled eggs, and green beans liberally drizzled with a slightly spicy dijon vinaigrette. A goat cheese bruchetta is tucked along one side.
Even better is their sensational Asian Salmon Salad. This is a superb mix of tastes, textures, and temperatures. Moist salmon, cooked to order and hot off the grill is served on a generous bed of fresh mixed greens. Chilled crisp water chestnuts, fresh pea shoots, and juicy mandarin orange wedges are tossed in with crunchy sesame sticks, spicy-hot wasabi peas, and tender edamame. Orange-ginger dressing is the spicy-sweet finish.
AK’s serves a tempting selection of finger foods that are perfect to share around the table: baskets filled with spicy Buffalo Popcorn Chicken, crunchy Pizza Sticks, and the addictive Killer Onion Straws. Their peppery Zing Wings are a patron favorite, and the cheesey Artichoke and Spinach Dip is creamy and flavorful spread on the red, white, and blue tortilla chips served with it. One of our favorite AK starters, the Vegetable Spring Rolls, are so good that you won’t want to share them—deliciously crisp packets stuffed with vegetables and served with a hoisin dipping sauce.
They say at A.K.’s: “If you leave hungry, it’s your own fault.” There’s no arguing with that when you see the portions of their entreés. Designed for hearty appetites, light eaters can count on leaving with enough left over for lunch the next day.
Beef gets top billing on the two-page list of dinner entreés, and it’s always a great choice at AK’s. Whether you select their Peppered Twin Filets of Tenderloin, their Prime Rib, or their Grilled Sirloin, you’ll be served a great steak, well marked and full of big beefy flavor.
One of the restaurant’s specialities is a Surf and Turf that showcases a fork-tender petite filet slathered with luxurious bearnaise sauce and three plump baked stuffed shrimp. The stuffing on the shrimp is so buttery and flavorful that we used the drawn butter for the baked potato served alongside. This is the ideal selection if you want a taste of land and sea.
New to the menu is the Santa Fe Pork Tenderloin, possibly the best pork dish that we’ve tasted this season. Served on a grilled tortilla, the hot pork tenderloin is sliced and fanned out along the curve of the plate and topped with cool and colorful black bean salsa. Country style mashed potatoes, green beans, and purple cabbage finish the dish. The look is festive; the taste is fantastic! Impressively tender, the pork has just enough spice added to make the dish exciting and to consider a refill on the cold draught beer you ordered.
A.K.’s Chef Matt Sullivan is just as skilled with seafood as he is with meats. Tuna, sole, shrimp, lobster, salmon, or swordfish—he has just the right touch so the fish and shellfish are moist and flaky, and his sauces highlight the clean, fresh flavors of the seafood.
Sweet and Spicy Salmon is a fabulous dish of complimentary and contrasting flavors: a raspberry and chili glaze on the grilled salmon; peppers and mango in the chilled salsa that is served overtop the fish. The salmon is cooked just through, slightly crisp on the outside edge, rare inside, and moist throughout. The sweet heat of the salsa and the juicy chunks of mango make for a succulent feast.
The Zebra Striped Lobster Ravioli is listed among the Pasta selections, but we think it belongs under Seafood. The striking large, striped, lobster-filled ravioli does form the delicious base for this dish. But the real star is the topping. Overtop the pasta is a luscious sauté of tail and claw meat, whole shrimps, sundried tomato, fresh peas, julienne squash and zucchini, and garlic that has been folded into a smoked gouda cream sauce. It’s much lighter than it sounds—rich without being heavy—and the flavors of the shellfish and vegetables shine through the creamy sauce.
Desserts at A.K.’s are sweet and indulgent. If you have room, the dark and cinnamon-spice Carrot Cake deliciously tastes of home cooking. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie is simply over-the-top and well worth breaking every diet promise you made. If you’re full but just can’t say “no” to dessert, then order a Monkey in the Middle Sundae with extra spoons for sharing. Be sure to dig deep for extra hot fudge, caramel, and the sweet candy pieces.
Of course, you can always end your meal with one of AK's sweet specialty drinks (we like the Chocolate Covered Caramel Coffee), or one of their single malt scotches or cordials.
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