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Fancy Seafood

Ann Mitchell

Melissa Haneline
The Post and Courier

Seared tuna with caramelized onions, oven-roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and black olive vinagrette at Hank’s Seafood.

What does a seafood dinner have to be to be "fancy"? It might be just as easy to say what it doesn't have to be: It doesn't have to be fussy. It doesn't have to be elaborate. And it doesn't have to be expensive.

For our purposes, a "fancy" seafood dinner is about the imagination, innovation and creativity of the chef in making the most of the best seafood he can get. It's about knowing when to let the beautiful fresh tuna or grouper or scallops or shrimp speak for themselves. It's about attention to detail. And it's about a certain grace in the presentation.

Any number of restaurants in Charleston offer good seafood, mixed in with their New York strip steaks, veal chops, duck breasts, pork tenderloins and racks of lamb. For our "Fancy Seafood" reviews, we stuck to restaurants that have staked their claim on their seafood. All these restaurants change their menus regularly to reflect what's in season, and it shows in the outstanding flavor of the seafood they serve.

Coast

39-D John St., downtown

722-8838

www.coastbarandgrill.com

$$-$$$

Some seafood restaurants might shy away from calling themselves a "fish house," but Coast embraces the term. There's a "Fish House Specialties" section on the menu, but even more than that, the term seems to fit the restaurant's relaxed, comfortable feeling and the just-out-of-the-water fresh quality of the seafood.

While the restaurant's setting is pure Lowcountry (an old indigo warehouse with upscale-rustic decor), Coast's flavors are international. Touches of Morocco, Mexico, New Orleans, Buffalo, N.Y., the Far East and Baja California exist happily alongside hometown favorites such as Carolina crab cakes, shrimp and grits, sweet onion jam, okra and stewed tomatoes.

If you don't know how stellar a simply grilled piece of fish can be, you owe it to yourself to taste the fish prepared on Coast's "Smokey Oak Wood Grill."

During our most recent visit, available choices were Atlantic salmon, mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna, black grouper, snapper or a chef's mixed grill that included two types of fish as well as shrimp and scallops.

The dozen sauce choices cover all the bases: classic tartar, pineapple-chili salsa, orange mojo, a spicy adobo rub, a simple lemon-white wine sauce and a garlic-parsley butter, to name a few. Sauteed matchstick-cut veggies and Parmesan mashed potatoes rounded out our plates in flavorful style.

Appetizer favorites at Coast include the smoother-than-velvet crab soup, rich with nuggets of crabmeat; and bacon-wrapped scallops that are positively out of this world, grilled to perfection and basted with spicy/sweet pomegranate barbecue sauce.

Coast's menu is large and diverse. So many flavors, so many decisions, but so much more reason to plan future visits to Coast.

Fish

442 King St., downtown

722-3474

www.fishrestaurant.net

$$-$$$$

Since it opened in August 2000, Fish has built its reputation around sophisticated seafood, presented with creativity and prepared with a skilled hand. Eight years later, we're still hooked.

Fish blends the charm of a historic downtown Charleston home with a chic, polished style in its dining rooms, bars and piazza. The menu changes seasonally, not just because of variations in what seafood is freshest at different times of the year, but because local, seasonal produce plays a key role in many dishes as well.

We've made a meal off the appetizer section of the menu before, in part because they are so many temptations that we couldn't choose just one. The Crab Rangoon will make you sigh, it's so good: jumbo lump crab and Boursin cheese wrapped neatly in fried dumplings, with a plum coulis to add pure, sweet balance and put the whole package over the top. The Tempura Shrimp & Chips, served with a soy-ginger vinegar for dipping, similarly show off the kitchen's artful frying.

A welcome touch at Fish is that the origin of the entrees is included on the menu. The offerings change seasonally, with the current (Winter 2008) menu offering red snapper, triggerfish and bass (all "South Carolina"), as well as a "local" bouillabaisse with fish, scallops, shrimp and mussels.

We love the Naked Fish, an elegantly simple preparation of whatever might be "fresh off the dock," as the menu puts it. On our recent visit it was swordfish that was positively sumptuous. Pan-seared scallops (Maine) were a favorite, too, served on a bed of pineapple salad with coconut plantation rice, green peas and cremini mushrooms.

For fresh, mostly local seafood, Fish is a great catch.

Hank's Seafood Restaurant

10 Hayne St., downtown

723-3474

www.hanksseafoodrestaurant.com

$$-$$$

When Hank's opened in 1999, owner Hank Holliday told The Post and Courier that he wanted the restaurant to offer the caliber of food and service that distinguishes one of his other restaurants, Peninsula Grill, but at a more moderate price. He also wanted the place to have the languid style of the late, great Henry's, a beloved Charleston restaurant in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

Fast-forward to today and Hank's is a Lowcountry classic in its own right.

Some of the old favorites from Henry's still grace the menu at Hank's and are winning over a new generation of fans, but don't think for a second that Hank's is mired in the past.

The inspired, contemporary flair of executive chef Frank McMahon, who's been with Hank's from Day One, keeps the menu as fresh as the seafood, and that's as fresh as it gets.

Among entrees, the roast local grouper is a standout, melt-in-your-mouth perfect and an ideal partner for the accompanying risotto with sweet corn, lobster and rock shrimp and a Champagne citrus beurre blanc. The Seafood a la Wando, an updated version of a Henry's classic, also is a star, featuring sauteed shrimp, scallops and fish lightly sauced with a shellfish saffron cream studded with crab, mushrooms and scallions, and served on a fried grits cake.

And a generation from now, when someone recalls the classics from Hank's, the rare seared tuna with caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and black olive vinaigrette will surely be at the top of the list. It's one reason we're happy as clams here in the 21st century at Hank's.