Last Friday night Alan, Jeff and I found ourselves free for dinner and looking for somewhere to go. Once deciding it would be down our way, Alan suggested we try the new fish place in Red Bank, Blue Water Seafood. It's BYO and the menu looked great so we made a 7pm reservation and away we went.
Located close to the intersection of Broad and West Front Street, this new Red Bank establishment occupies a pretty busy spot. Lots of foot and car traffic pass by...and the restaurant was packed on this particular Friday night. The restaurant seems tall, narrow and long and we were taken upstairs to our table smack tab in the middle of the room. I don't mind being in the middle of the floor except when you are too closely packed in with other tables making the art of walking past your table to (1) take orders, (2) deliver food, or (3) exit the dining room one that frequently results in getting bumped or having people's butts near your face. Not a fan of this seating arrangement. Also, it was freezing cold.
On the wall was a pretty LG flat panel TV showing nothing but a revolving clip of the ocean's blue water (get it?) lapping up on a beach while a sailboat passes by on the otherwise empty horizon. A little distracting and mesmerizing at the same time.
We had all looked at the menu ahead of time but it was hard to choose with so many interesting choices. http://www.bluewaterseafoodredbank.com/. For appetizers we ordered the lobster roll (Alan), Prince Edward Island mussels (Jenn) and Tuna Duo (Jeff). Alan's lobster roll was two potato style hot dog buns, toasted and cut in half to present four servings filled with chunky lobster. I tried his and thought it lacked flavor. I really couldn't get a sense of the lobster over the mayo/dressing and bread. And it seemed to heavy and filling...one roll would probably have been enough. Jeff's duo of tuna consisted of seared tuna with wasabi aioli, ginger marinated poke and soy drizzle. I wasn't paying much attention to his dish and forgot to ask if he liked it or not. Nor did I get a clear picture of what was making it a Duo; were there two different preparations on the plate? I'm not sure. The mussels I ordered were in a deeply flavored broth of white wine, garlic, tomato, basil, sherry and lemon and was AWESOME! Really, really good flavor and the mussels themselves were plump, juicy, clean and just briny enough to be truly memorable. Good start!! I had a picture to post here but in the since that meal have upgraded phones and didn't transfer the photo. So take my word for it, yummy.
For our next course we ordered soups and salad. Alan and I split the lobster bisque and the Caesar salad. Jeff also ordered the bisque. Now, in fairness, the waitress warned that the bisque was very creamy and heavy so to go ahead and say it was heavy is going to come out wrong. It was and that was perfectly ok for me. I thought it had nice flavor - could clearly get a lobster taste and there was a decent amount of chunk lobster in the bowl. Alan's salad on the other hand, he thought was bad. We swapped and I ate it...it was so basic it was boring. No anchovy taste, no creaminess...but I'll pretty much eat a bowl of undressed iceberg lettuce and still be ok.
For our entrees we ordered the pan seared yellow fin tuna (Jeff, on a tuna kick); blackened Chilean Sea Bass (Alan) and the Clams on linguine with white sauce (Jenn). Here's where the majority of the problems came in. Jeff's tuna was a very thick cut fillet and while ordered medium rare was delivered rare with only the tiniest sear on the outside. He didn't eat most of it. Alan's sea bass was pretty good actually, we both liked it ~ Creole aoili and vegetables. My linguine, the staple to which I measure all restaurants that have it on the menu was...inedible. Really, really bad. I was so disappointed. I took two bites and left the rest.
So the restaurant wasn't great but had just enough saving points (being BYO and some good dishes) that we may try it again. Having a decent seafood place nearby would be helpful and it's new enough to give it one more attempt before writing if off completely.
Jenn's rating: 72
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