The Restaurants We Can't Live Without By Tom Fitzmorris. . . Revised March 2009 #110 Red Fish Grill Seafood. French Quarter: 115 Bourbon. 504-598-1200 . Map. Lunch and dinner, seven days. Casual AE DC DS MC V www.redfishgrill.com   WHY IT'S ESSENTIAL   It's a casual seafood restaurant, but nothing like what those words usually imply. Frying, for example, is at most a footnote here. Grilling, on the other hand, is accomplished with a wood-burning grill. An oyster bar enhances the appetizer possibilities. It winds up being a lot like a gourmet bistro, both in terms of goodness and price, but in a very easygoing way.   WHY IT'S GOOD   All the fish is fresh and local, which is more of a rarity these days than one might imagine. The cooking style leans more heavily on updated version of very old dishes than most places, and they pull these off well. The grilling is done deftly, with a generous application of Creole seasonings throughout.   BACKSTORY   Ralph Brennan, who was present at the birth of the seminal Mr. B's, opened the Red Fish Grill in 1996. It was unusual for the Brennans in that it was much more casual than its other places. And it was the first Brennan establishment owned solely by one Brennan. When the Bourbon House--operated by Dikie Brennan's side of the family--opened with a somewhat similar seafood menu across the street, there was a bit of stress. As it turned out, both restaurants have done very well.   DINING ROOM   What once was the men's department of the old D.H. Holmes department store looks as if it had been bombed, patched up just enough to function, then painted and furnished as if by a street artist. Walls, floors, and tabletops are fancifully decorated by artist Luis Colmenares in a way that almost suggests a slick chain restaurant, but this is the one and only.   ESSENTIAL DISHES   Raw oysters on the half shell. Barbecue oysters (fried, then tossed with a pepper-butter sauce and blue cheese dressing). Coconut shrimp. Crab cake. Alligator sausage and seafood gumbo. Shrimp remoulade salad. Pasta jambalaya. Barbecue shrimp. Hickory grilled redfish with crabmeat. Chocolate bread pudding.   FOR BEST RESULTS   The Red Fish is very busy at lunchtime, with a mix of visitors and people who work downtown. It's also a packed house during any big tourism event, with its gateway-to-Bourbon Street location.   OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT   The menu here, as it is at Ralph's other restaurants, is much too abbreviated. I always have an "is that all there is?" reaction to reading it.   FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD   Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter. Dining Environment +1 Consistency +1 Service +2 Value Attitude +1 Wine and Bar Hipness Local Color +2   SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES    Private dining room (fewer than 25) Good for business meetings Private dining room (more than 25) Open Sunday Open Monday Open most holidays Oyster bar Good for children Click here for an index to all 200 Essential Restaurant reviews. © 2009 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com