Restaurant Review

Friday, October 27, 2000

Ancient Mariner hooks a regular local crowd

Seafood restaurant's menu features Gulf-caught fish as well as frog legs and gumbo

 

Ancient Mariner's decor recreates an undersea world. The royal-blue-painted walls and plastic tablecloths covered with colorful fish create a festive air; the trickle of a fish tank soothes.
   The server was quick to greet us, offer us drinks and suggest an appetizer. She readily bragged about the gumbo and said regulars order it frequently. It was obvious that many of the restaurant's patrons weren't first-time customers. One waitress welcomed a diner and told him what he was going to order; he joked that he wanted "the usual."
   We decided to start with the gumbo and an order of hand-battered onion rings. The onion rings were crisp and fried perfectly. The gumbo was a hodge-podge of okra, rice, green pepper, celery, shrimp and fish. The black pepper's bite was just right, and the amount of seafood in the small cup was plentiful.
   Homemade dressing
   Because a sign on the restaurant's front door boasted its tender frog legs, I ordered them and my companion ordered the fried shrimp and fish. But first came the salads.
   Homemade dressings included bleu cheese, which I chose, and my companion selected the Thousand Island. The dressings alone were reason enough to return. Without being overpowering, the bleu cheese dressing was thick and full of chucks of the fragrant cheese. The Thousand Island was thinner, but tasty enough to contemplate asking the owners for the recipe. We settled for taking some home with us, supplied by our waitress, who wasn't surprised by our request.
   Frog-leg fluke
   We had a nice amount of time to relax before our dinner arrived. My companion's fish and shrimp were fried with two different kinds of breading. The fish's breading had the same texture and taste as that of the onion rings, with the outside crispy and the inside tender and clinging to the fish. The fish was only slightly greasy, but not so much so that it spoiled the tenderness or mild flavor. The shrimp had been butterflied with a softer breading that was ground more fine than that covering the fish. The double-baked potato my companion had with his meal was tasty on the first bite, but when he got to the center of it, it was quite cool.
   My frog legs weren't as good as my companion's seafood meal. Although they didn't have an odor, they were overcooked to the point that I left more than half of them on my plate. The waitress noticed that I wasn't eating my meal and immediately offered to get me a different meal. Because my companion was nearly finished, I opted not to, writing the experience off as a quirk. She took the price of the frog legs off our tab.
   For dessert we ordered the key lime pie. It was delicious - cold and fresh with the right amount of zing from the limes.
   We would visit this restaurant again, not just for the salad, but to taste some of its other affordable seafood selections. For the price, in a city where menu selections feature fish caught not too far from home, Ancient Mariner is a good deal.
  
  Ancient Mariner Seafood Restaurant
  4366 Alameda St.
  992-7371
  Hours: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday
  Entrees: $4.95-$13.95
  Checks: Yes
  Credit cards: Yes
  Full bar
  Wheelchair accessible
  Food: **
  Service: ** 1/2
  Atmosphere: **
  

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