Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris
Originally published March 1, 2008
Ten Best Seafood Platters
This time of year many of us feel compelled to eat more seafood. As we scope out the possibilities, the image of the seafood platter looms into view and begs to be sampled.
That pile of fried everything, stacked high, lifted higher still by strata of French fries and slices of toast, is the icon of casual seafood eating in restaurants.
You probably wouldn't make a seafood platter at home. Who has all that seafood in house? Who likes the mess of deep-frying? Restaurants have the advantage of large, deep fryers whose temperatures don't plummet when the seafood drops in. That's necessary for crispness, and crispness is necessary.
The classic New Orleans seafood platter as defined at West End a century and a half ago includes fried oysters, shrimp, and fish. (The fish changed over the years. Once it was trout. Now it's almost always catfish.) Also on the platter is some variation on stuffed crab. In the deluxe models, you also get a soft-shell crab. French fries are universal. Hush puppies are sporadic.
Unfortunately, the measure of a good seafood platter for most people is by number. One would think that a requirement for six each of oysters and shrimp and two fish fillets must be met for a platter to be sold legally. Most platters go beyond those benchmarks.
As they do, however, a commensurate drop in quality usually shows up. Restaurateurs know that quantity is more widely demanded than quality, and so shove a few extra pieces onto the platter so they can streamline the more bothersome quality-control lookout.
That's the weakness of the seafood platter. Most restaurants a) cook everything together at the same time, or b) hold the fried seafood under a heat lamp until needed to assemble a platter. Or both. Different seafoods need different coatings and different frying temperature and times. And fried anything is at its best the second it emerges from the fryer, and goes quickly downhill.
All that noted, here is my list of the restaurants I find serve the best classic fried seafood platters. You will notice some famous names missing. The omissions are intentional.
1. Bourbon House. French Quarter: 144 Bourbon, 522-0111. Seven days. Most of the menu at Dickie Brennan's seafood house flies higher than fried seafood, but the fried platter is the best in town and beautiful to behold. The pieces are large, golden brown, hot, fresh, fried to order, and seasoned nicely. The stuffed, deviled crab is the best of its kind.
2. Bozo's. Metairie: 3117 21st Street, 831-8666. Tues.-Sat. The seafood platter at Bozo's is a little off standard. The stuffed crab is broiled instead of fried (this is a good thing), and the shrimp are breaded and panneed. That reveals what makes this place so good: each part of the platter has a different recipe, different utensil for cooking, different timing. It's all cooked to order, and comes out hot. The oysters and catfish (the only wild-caught catfish routinely served anywhere) are the best parts.
3. Fury's. Metairie: 724 Martin Behrman Ave., 834-5646. Mon.-Fri. John Fury ran a restaurant in West End for a long time before he opened his little neighborhood place, so it's a West End menu you find here. (He even has the rare whole fried flounder, a West End standard.) Everything here is fresh and fried to order, with a politely-seasoned, thin flour coating that will leave those for whom an emphatic crunch is essential wanting more. But this is the authentic old style, and done perfectly.
4. Grand Isle. CBD: 575 Convention Center Blvd., 520-8530. Seven days. The casual seafood house of Chef Joel Dondis has a terrific oyster bar and the feeling of a joint way out on the bayou somewhere--an environment pitched at tourists, of which there are many here. However, they have a good touch with seafood, and the platter is beyond reproach in terms of the quality of its contents. And the fries are fresh-cut, and fried to order--the only seafood-platter fries about which that can be said.
5. New Orleans Food and Spirits. Gretna: 2330 Lapalco Blvd., 362-0800. Bucktown: 210 Metairie-Hammond Hwy., 828-2220. Covington: 208 Lee Lane, 985-875-0432. All: Mon.-Sat. The drawback first. If that's not the same coating on everything, then the differences are very subtle. But it's a good coating, with more seasoning than most platters get, sent out crunchy and satisfying, nice and hot. The stack is loftier than average, too.
6. Galley Seafood. Old Metairie: 2535 Metairie Rd., 832-0955. Tues.-Sat. The Galley is famous for serving its boiled seafood hot. Most of the time (but not always, in my experience) the same is true of the fried seafood platters. As a vendor at the Jazz Festival, they're famous for their soft-shell crabs, so that's always part of the platter. Good hush puppies.
7. Charles Sea Foods. Harahan: 8311 Jefferson Hwy., 305-2720. Tues.-Sat. This venerable seafood house finally returned from the storm a few months ago, to the glee of its generations of regulars. The seafood platter is crisp, hot, generously served, and made with handsome-looking seafood. They overcook everything a touch, but that's typical of the older places.
8. Vera's. Slidell: 2020 Gause Blvd W, 985-690-9814. Tues.-Sun. Vera's original location on Lake Pontchartrain was levelled by the storm, but the same people reopened on the old highway just shy of the mall. This is the only seafood restaurant I know that fries shrimp so well that I get excited about them. The seafood platter shows the same distinction. It's also one of the more generous platters, while still fried to order.
9. Middendorf's. Manchac: I-55 at Manchac Pass. 985-386-6666. Tues.-Sun. Chef Horst Pfiefer promised not to change any recipes when he took over, and he hasn't. The catfish is the famous dish, but as an item in a seafood platter it's not diminished. It takes a long time to get served here because they still fry everything to order. There is no prettier, more golden cornmeal coating than here.
10. Acme Oyster House. French Quarter: 724 Iberville, 522-5973. Metairie: 3000 Veterans Blvd., 309-4056. Covington: 1202 US 190 (Causeway Blvd.), 985-246-6155. The Acme has some consistency issues, but fried seafood there is almost always perfect. That makes for a great seafood platter, with the oysters being the best part and the stuffed crab better than average. I'd leave off the soft-shell.
© 2008 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com