ALLURE in Southold review in NYTimes

[erica]

From yesterday's Times; in the old Seafood Barge location at Port of Egypt between Southold and Greenport. Sounds like a welcome addition to the area. Has anyone been yet?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/nyr...

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Seafood Barge
150 Old Main Rd, Southold, NY 11971

[giftergirl]

i went during the week after the 4th of july. the place was packed. service was ok, nothing out of the ordinary. food was forgetable. i think i had a beet salad and was complaining to my sister that the "salad" had no greens. i can't even remember what i ordered as my entree. i don't know if the space has poor acoustics or what, but the space seemed cavernous and loud with everyone's conversations. it felt almost cafeteria like with the little tables and open space. it was oppressively hot inside, not for lack of air conditioning but because the door kept being opened in order to serve those sitting outside. it's nice that there is waterfront dining now available but it left a lot to be desired.

the barge used to seem somewhat old school and more intimate and always our go to for family lobster dinners. yeah it was incredibly dated and the food was abysmal toward the end- myself and others in my party were served parsley leaves rather than the arugula specified in the menus in our salads, gross, but i am still somewhat nostalgic for those lobster dinners.

[Motosport]

The Seafood Barge is missed by many who just want a good simple lobster dinner done right.

[EZ Pass]

If only good simple lobster dinners were what the Seafood Barge was serving towards the end. Every time I went there I was subjected to over-thought, under-executed "fancy" food. Is there anyone on the North Fork where you can get simple lobster, raw bar, fried local fish, belly clams, etc?

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Seafood Barge
150 Old Main Rd, Southold, NY 11971

[Motosport]

Buoy 1 in Riverhead

[EricMM]

Billy's by the Bay in Greenport. However, I went there last June and the food was awful. I had the twin lobsters, and while they were impeccably fresh and packed with meat, they tasted dull and muddy, no sweetness at all. Maybe they're not putting enough salt in the water of their lobster tanks, but that is not a taste I expect from lobsters in June. Maybe September when waters are warmest, but June still has cold water and they should be sweet.The raw oysters were.....weird. Almost rubbery. I wonder if they were irradiated, or pasteurized. Regardless, despite having a decent meal there last year, I have sworn off this place for good.

[EricMM]

Went back to A Lure this past Tuesday. They now have a mid-week prix fixe menu, for $35. I ordered the lobster ($5 extra). I'm normally reluctant to order lobster this late in the season, especially smaller ones, because they usually lose their flavor as water warms. This was very good though, possibly the best small late season lobster I have had in a while. Packed with meat and roe (I requested a female) and larger than the stated 1 1/4 lbs. The appetizer I unfortunately chose was the seafood salad. Bad...refrigerator taste, with those boring farm raised bay scallops. My wife chose better- spinach salad, which was large enough to share with a table of 5 and still have leftovers. Came with a chunk of blue cheese and a roasted peach, along with shiitake mushrooms. The rest of the table ordered mussels, which were also excellent. My wife ordered salmon, my son and his wife ordered duck, their friend ordered blackfish. My wife's salmon was fine, the kids were happy with their food but I didn't try it. Although it has been pilloried on CH, my family has always loved the Seafood Barge, back to the days when it was Armando's. My son in particular has great associations with it- his Bar Mitzvah was held there, his engagement dinner with his fiance was there, he even went to their last weekend. We were glad to see that some of the previous staff is still here. While I've seen complaints about service at the SB, and now here, we never had problems before...and even though we came very late on Tuesday, we were treated very well.

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Seafood Barge
150 Old Main Rd, Southold, NY 11971

[synergy]

We went a couple of weeks ago and were not impressed enough to go back. Our overall impression is that Schudel is getting too full of himself. The cerviche was way overpriced, and was not a true cerviche. It has white stuff all over it, like mayo or yogurt, and had a lot of lettuce filler and very little fish. The salad I had was just lettuce...not a tomato, not a cucumber, not an onion...just lettuce. They took their simply grilled fish off the menu. The drinks, local wines, were WAY overpriced. The fish I had was cooked well, but for $200 for 2 people, I'd much rather go to the North Fork Inn or Jamesport Manor. The place was packed, so no matter what my opinion is, the place will do well.

[mcf]

I've kind of been over Schaudel for years after lousy, shriveled oysters on two visits to Coolfish, candied, not merely sweet/spicy calamari, and plenty of mediocre dishes among some that were wonderful. Just too scattershot and consistently inconsistent. I think the success of these partnerships really depends on the skill and culinary integrity of the partners in each.

[Motosport]

I was resisting the urge to make a negative comment on the Schaudel restaurants thinking it was just me.
After "bad experiences" at two of his places I tend to avoid the new offerings. Terrible service on two occasions at Hawkins when he ran it. I ordered a bottle of expensive red wine and was offered the usual "approval" taste. Sour and spoiled is what I tasted and asked for another bottle. I was told I would have to pay for the bottle either way and was charged. Management didn't give a hoot. Food was good, service was sloppy and items from another table were added to our tab. YIKES!! Once again management was snooty.
Similar sloppy service @ A Mano.
I do hope it is a sucess since it is such a great location and there is a scarcity of nice
"al fresco" restaurants on the North Fork.

[EricMM]

Wow! I can't speak of his time at Hawkins (I only made it there for the first time last week, its now Luce-Hawkins, and excellent,BTW) but I only know his cooking from Amano and my one time at A Lure. I have never had a bad experience at Amano. Sometimes the food isn't as good as other times, par for any restaurants course, but I only found food I didn't like on my first visit. Service has always been excellent....and much of the time I've seen older (relatively) experienced waitstaff, not just the summer kids. Maybe I've just been lucky.

[mcf]

No, it's not just you; it's also me and several folks who've been with me at three of his restaurants with mixed and often disappointing results. The stuff that's good is really good, but there's just no guarantee that what you get or who brings it to you is going to be good.

[synergy]

We too were not impressed with Amano. Went once. Had the much raved about pizza...bleh. Doesn't even come close to Grana's. The rest of Amano's menu didn't impress us enough to go back. Again, it's another one of his places that is packed and will remain so.

We also went to Luce-Hawkins when Schudel owned it. It was a horrible experience. Cold soup served with a teaspoon. Waitress that acted like it was a diner, not an upscale restaurant. The plating of my entree that literally looked like someone upchucked on the plate. Never went back. ...until the current ownership (and have had good experiences). Again, we are done with Tom's places...they don't impress us with the food nor hype.

[coll]

I had the same experiences at both A Mano, and at J Hawkins when they first appeared on the scene. Service was fine at both places but the food was nothing to rave about. Especially the pizza at A Mano, which I was looking forward to; luckily we ordered a few other things which were a little better. Hawkins, let's just say our 30th anniversary dinner was memorable, for all the wrong reasons.

[Motosport]

Coll, you're 30??? You don't look a day over 29!!!!!!!!!!

[coll]

Thanks, and even better, I don't feel a day over 19! Selective memory is an awsome gift.

[EricMM]

Well, as I said, I only had food I didn't like on my first visit...my wife ordered the pizza. She was OK with it, but I thought it was awful. I have since counseled people we go with not to order the pizza. I also didn't like the grilled octopus on my first visit. Small portion and grossly soft. But I risked it again last week, and it was totally different, and very good...firm, but not tough, larger portion, and flavorful.

[mcf]

Repping the western edge of things, our mixed experiences have been at Coolfish, Passionfish and Rockfish, so a while back. We gave up on any place he's affiliated with years ago. Of those three, despite the crummy oysters and a couple of other misses, we had some very good food at Coolfish on each occasion, too, and mostly very good service there and at Passionfish. The partnership at Rockfish was awful, have nothing good to say about that one.

[synergy]

Same for us. The only restaurant of his that we loved was the first one in Roslyn...don't remember which "xxxfish" that was. We were sad when he closed it.

[EricMM]

I was there opening weekend. I posted about it here...so it must be searchable. Look for late May. Its been awhile, so I've forgotten the details, but we enjoyed it a lot. Haven't been back since then, but do intend to revisit. Its since gotten quite a bit "cooler"....not into a lively bar scene or music while I'm eating. As far as I'm concerned, its one or the other...when eating, I prefer more sedate conditions. But as I said, I enjoyed my food- seared scallops- a lot, and the fried oysters were as good as the review said. While I like the seafood heavy menu, I'm not so sure that I prefer it to Amano overall. (By the way, the lobster pasta dish is much better at Amano than alure, at least the night we went. Alure had very little lobster...Amano has almost too much.)

[mcf]

To search it, though, you'd want to use the correct name: "A Lure." :-)

[erica]

Thanks. Sorry I missed your original post. The "scene" would be a turn off to me as well but I will get there one of these days. We need all the good food we can get in that neck of the woods!