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“The Tides”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Seafood	Lower East Side	Moderate	Good

Last week, for my first Saturday night in the city since what seems like May (because it was May), I had a reunion of sorts with my girlfriends. We wanted a casual place, since Saturday night is Zoo night at restaurants, and so we gathered at the Tides, a modern lobster roll joint from chef Judy Seto, formerly of Mary’s Fish Camp.

The Tides does not take reservations, and since it has been getting a fair amount of good press and word of mouth, we showed up on the early side, and found it buzzing and bright, a modern wedge of a restaurant tucked into on a desolate construction zoned stretch of Norfolk Street. One of the owners, Steven Yee, a charming guy with a very warm smile, greeted us outside on the street and told us he would have a table in about half an hour and recommended we have a drink next door at Sunita, a cozy exposed brick bar that is clearly benefiting from its new neighbor.

Perfectly timed after we had almost completed our first round of cocktails, Steven called my cell and told us our booth was ready. We were welcomed inside, and seated in one of the three pod-like booths constructed of blond wood that line the length of the far wall of the restaurant—a tiny place that is maybe the width of the wingspan of a professional basketball player, with a small exposed kitchen, and a wavy ceiling constructed from of thousands of bamboo sticks.

Seto’s menu will be a familiar affair to those who have dined at Mary’s—a modest and reasonably priced document listing creatures of the sea: oysters, lobster rolls, grilled whole fish, fried calamari and clams, and the like.

All of us seemed to have some boy stories to tell, and as we caught up on the latest affairs of the heart or simply of the bedroom, we dug into our appetizers. We started with a mixed green salad with goat cheese topped crostini ($6) that should not have been difficult to deliver, but the kitchen dressed the nice greens in a vinaigrette that was overly acidic—it actually hurt to eat it. Fried calamari ($8), however, were tender on the inside and crunchy and greaseless on the outside—served with an addictive spicy aioli. But that greaseless perfection was absent in the bowl of fried clams and oysters ($9) that were too wet, leaving the batter soggy rather than crunchy. The octopus skewers ($9), set on a fresh corn and radish salad, were absolutely inedible—the octopus were so small and so charred that t ... [more, click below]

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Posted: September 19, 2005

Other restaurants in Lower East Side :
+ Mojo   + WD-50   + Schiller's Liquor Bar   + Azul Bistro   + Barrio Chino   + 71 Clinton Fresh Food-- Closed   + Little Giant   + Kuma Inn   + Falai   + The Stanton Social   + The Tides   + Thor   + The Orchard   + El Bocadito-- CLOSED   + Bondi Road   + Rayuela   + Suba   + Bun (boone)   + Sorella   + The Fat Hippo   + Pulino's   

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