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Friday, August 4, 2000
Jay's earns its reputation for fine food
Seafood a step above most other island restaurants' has developed a following - better arrive early
A geodesic dome caps the cozy loft at Jay's Seafood & Spaghetti Works.
Inside, for 23 years now, diners have delved into some of the best seafood on the island, some of the best pasta in the Coastal Bend and some of the finest steaks in Texas beneath that dome. Consider it a gastronomical landmark of sorts.
And if the dome's not enough to catch your eye, you can't miss the 6-foot shrimp skewered on the gigantic fork on the sign out front.
Perhaps the best tip to someone planing to sup here would be to arrive early during the hot summer months. While the kitchen staff here really cooks, the crowd of seasonal regulars stacks up pretty thick after 7 p.m. or so.
On our recent visit, we were lucky enough to get squirreled away at a table in the upstairs loft, under the curve of the dome. It was fun. The rough 2-by-4 plank and plywood construction of the dome is softened whimsically with a collection of kites that keeps the kids pointing and looking throughout the meal. Ours counted 25 crazy-colored kites in all. But cloth napkins and real flatware - an increasing rarity in restaurants - let diners know that this isn't a greasy-spoon fish fry.
Tables ring the edge of the dome and the steep stairs lead up through the middle. With more than a dozen tables, an eclectic salad bar, two blackboard menus and hoard of T-shirt-and-shorts clad employees scurrying about, it can get a bit crowded - but in a pleasantly cozy way.
Of course, the dome and the kites and the elaborate way that owner Jay Kenigsberg has filled every available square foot of his restaurant isn't the real draw. The menu and the consistent quality of the food are what keep people coming back year after year.
Jay's Seafood & Spaghetti Works offers a menu of many choices - pizza, steaks, chicken, pasta and seafood.
On our recent visit, we started with an unusual appetizer, a deep-fried spring roll. A traditional spring roll consists of a delicate rice-flour tortilla-like wrap filled with cabbage, spices and shrimp or chicken. This larger version was dunked into a greasy hot fryer until bubbly and golden brown. Served on a bed of lettuce with a weak fish sauce, it was good, and certainly something new for all but the regulars here.
Each meal comes with a trip to the communal salad bar - not a fine dining experience, but an interesting mix of items like pickled okra, pepperoni slices and chopped ham keep the line long. The best part of the salad bar for us was the soup of the day, a wonderful tortilla soup with a spicy broth that was so thick with goodies that it was nearly a stew: avocados, jalapenos, tomatoes chunks and chicken.
The highlight of the meal, however, was the Robert's Flounder - a pan-seared filet topped with a light dill and white wine cream sauce, sliced avocados, chopped green onion and diced tomatoes. It comes served with a crunchy, nutty long grain wild-rice pilaf.
This dish is a long-time favorite for good reason. The dill sauce over the flounder, while piquant, wasn't pickley, which is accomplished by cutting the strong flavor of the spice with white wine, the kitchen staff said. It was wonderful.
For a more basic look at what the kitchen can do, we tried the fried seafood sampler, consisting of two crab cakes, fried flounder, four fried shrimp and a generous amount of fried potato wedges.
The crab cakes were great, and unusual in that they added carrot shreds in the mix to help bind it all together. The fried flounder was neither greasy nor tough, but crispy and light. And the shrimp, battered in a tempura-like breading, were similarly light and flavorful, not crunchy and greasy as you find at so many other coastal seafood haunts.
The two children split a 4-inch pepperoni pizza, devouring it with no complaints.
One menu item that we vowed to make a return trip for, however, was the ginger shrimp; a lightly fried shrimp in a sweet and tangy ginger sauce, mushrooms, raisins, green peppers, lemon and toasted almonds, that sounds fantastic and has a strong following here.
If there's room left, we also strongly recommend the desserts. We tried the fudge cake and a piece of white chocolate cheesecake. The fudge cake was more like a pie, but was so rich and intensely chocolate that they can call it whatever they want, we'll order it again. The white chocolate cheesecake was exquisitely simple, baked fresh and topped with fresh berries, and it was smooth and rich.
Consistency and quality have made Jay's Seafood and Spaghetti works an island landmark for more than two decades now. It's bound to endure.
At a glance:
Jay's Seafood & Spaghetti Works
710 Alister Street, Port Aransas
749-5666
Entrees: $6.95-$23.95
Checks: Yes
Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair accessible
Full bar
Hours: 5 p.m.-10 p.m. M-F, S&S, past 11 p.m.
Food: ***
Service: **
Atmosphere: ***
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