Skip to main contentLunch 11:30 am-3 pm daily; dinner 5-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, 5-11 pm Friday-Saturday. $$$ Expensive.
[FISH!] This roomy downtown institution offers real value, and not just in its specialties, seafood and wine. The cheese plate, offered as either appetizer or dessert, is done right, with three generous wedges of properly aged, room-temperature cheese, served with glazed walnuts and green apple slivers. (An involuntary moan escaped my mouth when it made contact with a Brie-ish morsel of triple-cream.) Rotating Northwest oysters appear on the half-shell, always with a gently peppery mignonette, and the signature jamón Serrano-wrapped dates look disconcertingly like plucked kidneys but taste like a dream. Not everything is perfectly executed—a Cucumber 75 cocktail that should have been effervescent arrived almost flat in a highball glass. But if you want your martini dry it will be dry, and servers are very adroit with suggestions from Southpark's voluminous wine list. If the main dining room sometimes feels dominated by tourists and guys in Topsiders, the sidewalk offers a jauntier experience. Even better: the wine bar, with its full menu of light fare. The dessert lineup could use tweaking—panna cotta and crème brûlée? ANGIE JABINE.
Ideal meal: Share a few appetizers, then split the paella, a hearty mélange of rice with chorizo, clams, mussels, prawns, chicken and just enough saffron in the sofrito.
Best deal: Starting at 3 pm daily, the bar menu features a $4 white, red or sparkling wine special and plenty of light bites.
WWeek 2015