Seafare

There are plenty of choices at the Pelican Bay Pasta & Seafood Grille

by Jim Johnson

Pelican Bay Pasta & Seafood Grille
820 Boston Post Road, Marlborough
480-0688
Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Full bar
Major credit cards
Handicap accessible

From the outside, Pelican Bay looks like any of a million generic lounges where you can down beers, watch whatever game's in season, and maybe chow on some nachos or wings. Although the right-hand side houses a bar and features a bar menu, the main restaurant is cheery, modern, and bright. The space is crisply decorated: blond, spindle-back chairs with matching tables, and colors that matched perfectly. Mirrors and a cathedral ceiling compensate for a dining space shaped much like a bowling alley. Plenty of green plants add color and life.

But it was the menu that definitely surprised and impressed our threesome.

"I almost never see anything prepared `puttanesca,'" said one guest. "The only place I can count on having it is at my mother's. This place must be authentic."

He went on to explain that "puttanesca" means "sauce of the prostitutes" and was named such because it had to be thrown together quickly. I'm not exactly sure how speedy hookers, Italian sauce, and my friend's mother all fit together, but the menu says the sauce contains tomatoes, olives, garlic, and fresh basil sautéed in olive oil and white wine.

"My mother puts in anchovy paste," my friend added. "You need anchovy paste for it to be really authentic."

Whatever.

The menu features other Italian sauces, too, like stimperata (sautéed with white wine and white vinegar and topped with sautéed onions, celery, capers, and carrots) and trapani (simmered in brown sugar, white wine, garlic, and capers). I can't vouch for their authenticity, but I can vouch for how flavorful and intriguing the trapani was.

The term "Pasta and Seafood Grille" is apt. One page features seafood choices (admittedly not all grilled), while the other is almost exclusively pasta dishes with seafood mixed in. There's fried seafood like oysters, haddock, scallops, and clams. There are baked fish, like stuffed sole, stuffed shrimp, scallops, and schrod. You can mix or match two items or get a whole bunch in the fisherman's feast. Lobster comes steamed, baked, in a lobster pie, as part of a clambake, stuffed with scallops and shrimp, and served with steak tips.

If you want to move upscale with your fish, you can order baked salmon dijonaise, halibut with puttanesca, char-grilled tuna, or tuna trapani. Seafood pasta specialties include linguine di mare (with fish, seafood, mussels, clams, and shrimp), smoked salmon fettucine, and lobster and shrimp alfredo.

Veal, chicken, and steak entrees also abound, like veal saltimbocca with ham sage, white wine, and garlic; and char-grilled New York sirloin.

We started with a pound and a half of steamers ($11.95). The clams were especially sweet, and the broth of white wine, herbs, and spices added plenty of flavor. (I don't admit this to everyone, but I love drinking the broth. This broth had plenty of zip to it, maybe even a few pinches of cayenne pepper.) We also had an order of fried calamari ($5.95), with thick breading and a rich, garlicky marinara sauce. We passed on other tempters like mushrooms stuffed with seafood, clams casino, and New England crab cakes.

Less successful were two chowders (soups come with dinner, while the chowders add a buck). Both the seafood chowder and the crab and lobster bisque were bland and starchy and served luke-warm.

Our entrees, however, were splendid. One guest ordered veal syracusa ($14.95), an absolutely delightful special that touched every taste bud. Sun-dried tomatoes added sweetness and depth, while prosciutto, black olives, and capers added the right amount of salt. Fresh sage added sort of a musty richness. Care was taken with textures as well, with portabello mushrooms cooked just short of tender, and with gorgonzola cheese adding creamy richness. The veal was tender and plentiful.

Swordfish penne ($11.95) was an equal delight. The fish had been cubed and lightly battered and then sautéed with fresh tomatoes, basil, olives, and capers. Like the veal, this dish featured an array of flavors, which the swordfish coating carried nicely. The pasta were cooked al dente.

I rarely order fish for dinner, but the tuna trapani ($13.95) intrigued me. Tuna simmered with brown sugar? Quite frankly, it was superb -- surprisingly so. The wine, garlic, and capers cut through the sweetness, while the brown sugar added to the overall rich flavor. The fish was tender and moist.

We decided to split two desserts: a slice of key lime pie that we liked, and a slice of gummy cheesecake and spoiled strawberries that we didn't.

Service was generally okay but not great. Our waitperson neglected to clear away most of our appetizer dishes when she brought our entrees. When she ultimately cleared our entrees, she didn't ask us if we wanted to bring home our leftovers. She also could have been more apologetic or at least gracious when we brought the dessert problem to her attention. Still, she was certainly friendly, bordering on perky, and she was enthusiastic about her job.

Plan on spending $15 to $20 per person and feeling you spent it wisely.