Walking into Seafood Unlimited from the 20th Street sidewalk elicited a similar feeling in me as when I step off an airplane and take that first deep breath of fresh air. Not that I don’t love Rittenhouse—I lived in the ‘hood for years, and it still holds a special place in that coal-pumping lump that beats in my critic’s chest—but it can sometimes get a little (how shall I say this gently?) high-maintenance.
But this unassuming restaurant, with its small retail space up front (fresh fish is flown in six days a week), well-stocked, intimate bar, and seating in the back as well as a smattering of sidewalk tables, may as well have existed not only in a different neighborhood, but in a different era as well.
This is a place that takes its name to heart. There’s a wide range of fish and seafood on offer here, only restricted by what’s either fresh or in season. And thankfully, because the culinary gaze here is trained on the bounty of the ocean, the preparations tend toward the straightforward, the better to showcase the flavors, rather than obscure them beneath layers of sauces and unnecessarily involved pretensions.
Rock shrimp popcorn, for example, is a dish that seems to be popping up (sorry…) all over town lately. And while, like fried calamari, it’s difficult to truly ruin, surprisingly few restaurants do it well. (Pearl is a notable exception.) But here, those knuckle-sized crustaceans were crusted in a perfectly thick batter, fried just long enough to lend them a sense of nuttiness, and paired with a side cup of tangy-spicy remoulade. And amazingly, that dipping sauce, while fabulous, wasn’t even necessary. The shrimp themselves were so perfectly seasoned—aggressively but not tongue-raising—that they didn’t really need the help.
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DINING TIP
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Make sure to save
some of the Cajun
remoulade that
comes with the rock
shrimp popcorn. It's
fantastic as a dipping
sauce for the fries,
and a lot more
interesting
than ketchup.
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Niçoise salad, a classic example of
a dish whose humble origins have
been altered by years of (warning:
made-up word alert…) pretensifying preparations, was here brought back
down to earth, where it belongs.
Soft-yet-snappy haricots verts, hearty
red bliss potatoes, sweet halved
grape tomatoes, skinless cucumber
cubes, sliced red onion, a hard-boiled
egg, a tangle of fresh greens, and
a well-emulsified vinaigrette were
made a touch more luxe with layers
of thin-sliced, seared yellowfin tuna
draped off to the side. But there was nothing unnecessarily “fancy” about
this Niçoise: It was, as it should be, a simple showcase for the season, and not a palette upon which the chef imposed his vision.
Any of the thirteen choices from the fish market can be ordered pan seared, grilled, fried or broiled, a set of options that seems like a throwback to a simpler time. But when you’re dealing with components as fresh as these, simplicity, I’d posit, must rule the day.
Which, thankfully, it does. A delicately pan-seared filet of arctic char, all pastel pink and butter-fleshed, needed nothing more than a squeeze of lemon and a light, white beer like a hefeweizen as accompaniment. Anything else would have obscured what really mattered. Only the side of vegetables could have used a bit of work - they were buttery nearly to a fault.
Not everything, of course, was as monastically restrained as that char, but even a special like the sautéed soft-shell crabs with pico de gallo and bok choy benefited from a well-considered side of brightly tart tomatoes that never once overwhelmed the focal point.
The straightforward selection of desserts worked in the same vein. Sometimes, American classics need no dressing up. Chocolate mousse was creamy and light while still retaining a sense of density, and carrot cake, a moist, fist-sized slice, was brought into sharper relief by its notably tangy, cream cheese-rich icing that tended just as much toward the savory as it did the sweet.
There’s a certain kind of honor in Seafood Unlimited’s steadfast refusal to give into the more glamorous tendencies of the neighborhood. And because of that confident sense of self, it seems to have found a rather successful niche.
It’s often too easy to overlook the pleasures of a dining experience like this. The upside is that, when you do take a step back, put aside the pretenses and indulge in the pleasures of a simple, straightforward meal done right, you’re likely to find yourself charmed.
