Buoy One review
A bucket of plump and briny local steamers are served at Buoy One in Huntington. (July 27, 2013) Credit: Barbara Alper
At the new Buoy One, it's fully possible to get a great meal. Or a mediocre one. The menu treads the line between inexpensive and costly. Order carefully, though, and you'll eat well without having to drop a bundle.
Sure to impress are the looks of the spacious new place, attired in swaths of white: fabric-draped walls, pale wood floors, modernist chairs. A few pops of color -- like a riveting 1940s-style painting of a bathing beauty -- offer counterpoint. The restaurant's designer, Lorraine Girard, is married to its chef, David Girard. This is the third Buoy One for the pair, who, with Lorraine's brother, manager Robert Pollifrone, also own places in Riverhead and Westhampton.
One meal begins with a fine New England clam chowder -- served, like most everything, in a metal bowl that disconcertingly resembles Rover's food dish. The soup is velvety, more brothy than creamy, filled with lots of fresh clams. Plump, briny local steamers, served in a metal bucket, auspiciously open another meal. But unevenness shows in a crabcake overwhelmed by its crusty exterior, paired with a bland bean salsa. On the other hand, a special of mini duck spring rolls with hoisin dipping sauce goes down easy.
Grilled scallops, sold by weight, are fat, smoky, delicious, although starkly presented with a lemon wedge in an otherwise empty metal bowl. Girard produces a fine mixed-seafood basket of scallops, shrimp, clam strips and tilapia fillets. His fried cod is deftly done. Both dishes, though, are diminished by previously frozen fries and astringent coleslaw.
A special of pistachio-crusted basa -- a flaky white fish topped with a more tart than sweet mandarin orange sauce -- is surprisingly good. An overdose of herbs, however, undermines linguine with white clam sauce, rife with mollusks both in and out of their shells. For the fish-phobic, a garlic-crusted half chicken with mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach gratifies.
Dessert isn't offered one night. Another, when it's available, the top choice is a dark, intense chocolate mousse; it's far superior to a doughy, unevenly nuked apple crisp.
Conversation can be difficult on weekends, when the place reverberates, and the affable crew can socialize among themselves a bit too much. Best idea: Go on a weeknight, navigate the menu carefully and hope for smooth sailing.
