Red Fish Grille
UPDATE FROM FEED ME BLOG 4/2010
Lunch with the girls at Moules et Frites. Looking over the menu, we wondered what could make a pretzel worth $9. Our charming waiter informed us that it had been made in Bavaria and then flown in to be baked and served. Of course we ordered it and it arrived piping hot, measuring a full 10 inches across. The piping hot part proved to be a problem: bread really needs a few minutes to cool once it comes out of the oven lest it turn gummy at the point of entry. Which this pretzel, pulled apart savagely by hungry journalists, emphatically did. Not the pretzel’s fault though, nor Bavaria’s.
I enjoyed a large “salade maison” made with two increasingly rare salad ingredients: bibb lettuce and Dijon vinaigrette. What a relief not to be confronted with more balsamic-dressed mesclun. One friend enjoyed her burger, another found her chicken salad tasty but a bit too runnily mayonnaise-y. A “curry wurst” sandwich was compromised by a candy-sweet sauce. No one ordered moules (mussels) but we all agreed with Peter Gianotti’s assessment of the frites as merely routine.
Moules et Frites is at 4 Berryhill Rd., Syosset, 516-802-0713.
END UPDATE FROM BLOG
Restless restaurateur Art Bloom, who couldn't quite reach the distinctiveness he was seeking when he opened Fat Artie's in Plainview, has achieved liftoff with that restaurant's reincarnation, Red Fish Grille. Credit skilled chef John Brill (who cooked at Mesa Grill and Gotham in Manhattan), along with a creative seafood-slanted menu, and a wait staff schooled in the art of hospitality. Decorated with chic informality, this is a bistro that exudes excitement.
Start with sensational kung pao calamari, tender fried squid with a spicy Sichuan glaze, chopped peanuts and sprouts. Mussels -- a huge potful -- may be had in eight ways. We shared the Pacific Rim .variation, the plump mollusks basking in a fragrant red chile and coconut broth so good that we used our empty shells as soup spoons to scoop it up. A spicy tuna maki roll was fiery, fresh and pretty; if only the rice hadn't been icebox-cold. Crabcakes served atop a lively guava aioli were crunchy and crab-intense. I liked the Maytag blue cheese salad (greens, pears and candied pecans arranged atop endive leaves) but it's the same salad being served everywhere these days.
What you probably won't find elsewhere is Brill's delicious macadamia-roasted Florida grouper with pineapple sambal (think Asian salsa), sticky rice and a piquant-sweet banana rum sauce. Or his grand Bahamian jerk-rubbed mahi mahi, the mild fish vivified -- but not overwhelmed -- by a Caribbean chipotle orange barbecue sauce.
Five-pepper seared tuna, requested super-rare, came medium-rare but, even so, gratified. Fine, too, the horseradish- potato-crusted salmon with Dijon sauce. Chinatown duck with cherry hoisin sauce and sticky rice was as beautifully plated as it was delectable. Vegetarians will be pleased that the chef offers a bento box assortment of vegetable preparations.
Crave simplicity? From the "wood roast grill" roster, try the simple but marvelously smoky fillet of Chilean sea bass with mashed potatoes and julienne vegetables. Roasted half chicken also was infused with that applewood essence.
Offered at lunch, the smokehouse burger, topped with caramelized red onions, bacon, barbecue sauce, tomato and coleslaw, was so juicy, smoky and wonderfully drippy that its overcooking was forgiven. As for the sliced steak sandwich with shiitake mushroom gravy, the fact that the meat was tender and imbued with that irresistible char made up for an only slightly pink interior.
Conclude with the terrific banana crème brûlée rice pudding, an inspired hybrid. An assortment of fruit sorbets is cleverly presented on Chinese porcelain soup spoons. On an even lighter note, try the zinfandel-poached pear with figs and dried fruit.
Weekends are busy (and noisy), so plan accordingly. Reservations are accepted, but you must confirm by 5 p.m. Do so, for Red Fish Grille is that rare seafood restaurant that gives seafood restaurants a good name.
Reviewed by Joan Reminick, 11/22/02.
