THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504060048
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Restaurant Review
SOURCE: BY DONNA REISS, Restaurant critic
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
WE DISCOVERED the Dockside Inn shortly after its opening late in the summer of 1994.
At first it was all deck: just a wooden floor and tables added to the area behind Lynnhaven Seafood Market.
Added over the winter were a bar and lobster-tank room divider. Windows keep out the cold air but let through the breezes from the Lynnhaven River in during spring and summer.
It's the kind of utterly casual place locals will want to keep to themselves - but visitors are bound to find out about.
Draft beer comes in plastic glasses, Budweiser memorabilia decorates the corners, and food is served in plastic baskets or on heavy-duty plastic plates.
The view is wonderful: boats docked at the marina, grand houses across the Lynnhaven River and a fish-processing area. This is serious seafood.
Owners Costas and Angelique Kambou also own the adjacent market and send out three boats to bring in dinner. The fish cases display octopus, several sizes of shrimp, various fresh catches, and all the seasonings and accompaniments one could wish for. For do-it-yourselfers, there's crabbing and fishing equipment and bait.
Not inclined to do it ourselves, we ordered clams and oysters shucked for us on the half shell - plump and salty and slightly gritty versions with a scoop of well-balanced horseradish-laden red sauce. A combination platter contained oysters, clams, mussels and shrimp with the same tasty red sauce on the side. We would have preferred everything pulled out of the steamer a few minutes sooner; already the oysters and mussels had begun to shrink a bit, but the shrimp and clams were perfect.
Fried oysters were offered only as appetizers, but the serving was generous and included a little tub of slaw. These were old-fashioned, home-style oysters with the right amount of breading and crispness. Another less satisfying starter was stuffed mushrooms, nice enough caps lightly sauteed and seasoned but filled with a bready dressing barely reminiscent of crab.
The kitchen had just whipped up a batch of tuna salad and brought out a sample, a delicious blend of fresh fish chunks mixed with chopped onion and celery and just enough dressing to hold it all together without making it too creamy.
Dinner prices were pleasing, ranging from $9.95 to $12.95 except for lobster. Shrimp and scallops marinara, for example, was $9.95 for a light herbal Mediterranean blend not burdened with chunks of tinned tomato. The seafoods were tender and plentiful, the whole ladled over lots of angel hair pasta.
Fish offerings for the evening were mackerel, swordfish, flounder and tuna. At the recommendation of a diner at a nearby table who had just finished a blackened tuna, we ordered the same. The $12.95 portion included a substantial inch-and-a-half-thick steak encrusted with moderate blackening spices, plus broccoli, potato and side salad. The fish was good but a little overcooked for our taste; we had neglected to request our preferred medium rare.
Service was casual on a slow, cool Friday night. Our waitress admitted her lack of familiarity with various items but checked the kitchen for us. She brought us plenty of warm bread with well-browned crusts and salty whipped spread (we would have preferred pats of creamery butter).
Except for the steamed broccoli, accompaniments were a weakness. Slaw was too sweet and saucy; fries were too greasy. The small dinner salad included with every entree was mostly iceberg chunks, fresh and crisp but dull, with thick creamed commercial dressings.
Unsampled sandwich offerings were Boar's Head deli meat sandwiches, a half-pound beef burger, chicken breast, crabcake or blackened tuna. Other dinners were fried shrimp, crab imperial, or fettuccine Alfredo with scallops or shrimp - and lobsters from the tank and steamed crabs to spread on the table and pick.
The Lynnhaven River is lined with casual restaurants for locals to pop in year-round in their comfiest clothing, to eat fresh fish fried or broiled to their liking, and enjoy the changing light over the water.
The Dockside adds another welcome 80 or so seats and takes reservations as well. Our experience suggests that raw, fried and steamed items are good and fairly priced. We'd gladly return to sample the spring and summer fare. MEMO: Reviews are based on a single, unannounced visit by a party of four,
unless otherwise noted.
BILL OF FARE
Dockside Inn, 3311 Shore Drive (turn onto Vista Circle), Virginia
Beach. 481-7211.
Cuisine: Straightforward seashore-style seafood, including steamed
crabs, raw or steamed oysters and clams, live lobsters, and a few meat
and chicken dishes. Beer and wine available; full ABC license pending.
Atmosphere: Marina-side casual wooden tables on wooden deck with
securely enclosed windows for winter, breezes in fine weather; long
weathered-looking wooden bar separated from the dining area by lobster
tanks.
Prices: from $3.95 to $12.95; childrens portions on request.
Hours: Breakfast from 7 to 11 a.m., lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to
10 p.m. daily.
Reservations: Accepted but not necessary.
Smoking: 25 percent. ILLUSTRATION: ROY A. BAHLS photo
Costas Kambouropoulos, above, knows his seafood is fresh because he
sends out the boats that haul it in. The Dockside Inn also is known
for its Lynnhaven River view.
by CNB