Tony Mandola's Gulf Coast Kitchen
This entry was posted on 7/9/2006 11:30 AM and is filed under Old Reliables, Seafood.
This longtime West Gray seafood destination continues to be a crowd pleaser, particularly judging by the packed place on a recent Saturday night. We recommend reservations unless you want to sit at the bar, which isn't a bad choice, particularly for a drink and a snack.
Six of us dined on this occasion. Our initial unhappiness with a table in the corner of the room typically used for private dining (if you care, specify a seating location when you make your reservation) was quickly overcome by our very perky waiter (a little bit much at first but entertaining after a few glasses of wine) and some great food. We shared a number of appetizers -- calamari (good, but skimpy serving size may cause us to remove the recommended status we previously gave it in our calamari review), fried oysters with pico de gallo, fried green tomatoes (topped with a miniscule shrimp and too little remoulade), and Mexican shrimp cocktail (okay, but not Goode Company's campechana). Overall, the entrées were better than the appetizers. Three of us greatly enjoyed the soft shell crab (a house specialty) served a couple different ways -- sautéed (with a topping of crab, shrimp and lobster) and fried in cornmeal (also topped with crab and shrimp). Two persons enjoyed a couple of the many snapper options, and the one of us who strayed from the seafood theme cleaned the plate of his veal piccata.
For seafood, this place (together with Goode Company) would get our vote for some of the best in town. We'll be back.
1962 West Gray
713/528-3474 http://www.tonymandolas.com/
