In the fresh

What owner Joey Crugnale did for pizza, he now does for seafood at the Naked Fish in Westborough

by Margaret LeRoux

Naked Fish 95A Turnpike Road (Route 9), Westborough 366-5959 Lunch Mon.-Fri.11 a.m.-4 p.m. Dinner Mon.-Thurs. 4-10 p.m., Fri. 4-11 p.m. Sat. 5-11 p.m., Sun. 4-10 p.m. Major credit cards Full bar Handicap accessible

If dining out has been a little ho-hum lately, I suggest you join the crowd at the Naked Fish Wood Fired Grill, where everybody -- the cooks, staff, and customers -- seems to be having a good time. Maybe it's the Latin music playing in the background, or all those exotic rum drinks offered at the bar; I predict you'll be dancing the samba -- or at least feeling like you could -- by the end of the meal.

It's been a long time since such an infectious sense of bonhomie greeted me as I opened a restaurant's door. Even the hostess's warning that our party of three would have a 45-minute wait didn't seem to dampen our spirits.

Actually, it was barely a half-hour before we were led to a booth. We spent a while watching the 10 line cooks at work in the open kitchen. Their frantically busy movements seemed choreographed for our enjoyment. The delicious smells that came wafting out of that kitchen certainly set our appetites to dancing, so did the appealing assortment of appetizers. We bypassed garlicky shrimp on grilled flatbread ($6.50) and Latin-style baby-back ribs ($6.25) for the crispy seafood platter ($10.95), a generous assortment of our favorites: fried oysters, shrimp, and calamari. The calamari were some of the best I've eaten. The batter was light, with a splash of lime juice, and a sprinkling of grated coconut topped the crispy rings. The combination was a winner.

Hunger pangs abated, we surveyed the large dining room. It has a very sophisticated, yet welcoming, look with sleek, low-backed booths and tables in warm, red maple, contrasting with the dark green, cantilevered ceiling. A cheerful army of wait people -- we were attended by no less than five during our dinner -- is well-dressed in smart, black-and-white checked shirts and long aprons that tie around the waist. The staff is also well-trained, but that's to be expected. Naked Fish is the product of Bertucci's owner Joey Crugnale -- we spotted him surveying the crowd -- who's out to duplicate his success with pizza by targeting a more upscale audience.

The Naked Fish concept is a simple: food is grilled over a wood fire. Fish is brushed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice only -- so health-conscious diners can feel virtuous, and the rest of us justified in indulging in deep-fried appetizers and cream-laced soups. We shared a cup of clam chowder ($2.95), thinner that most but no less caloric for the lack of thickening. Naked's version, a creamy stock, chock full of diced potatoes and clams, is a bit under-seasoned, but a sprinkle of salt and pepper is all it needs.

There are nine versions of "naked fish," from farm-raised trout ($14.95) to grilled Maine lobster ($18.95). Wood-fired meats range from citrus-marinated chicken breasts ($12.95) to boneless breast of duck ($14.50), to a 14 oz. sirloin ($19.95).

The not-so-naked list includes grilled swordfish over tomato-and-pepper coulis, topped with roasted leeks in a cream sauce ($17.95) and pan seared mahi mahi in a ginger orange sauce ($15.95), both highly recommended by friends who dined the night after my visit.

All entrées come with two choices from a lengthy list of appealing side dishes. The biggest hits on our visit were Yukon gold garlic mashed potatoes (rich, creamy, and garlicky); snap-pea salad (cool and crunchy); grilled, smoky asparagus; and pan-fried plantains. Plantains are Caribbean bananas, not as sweet as yellow bananas. Here they're sautéed with a splash of lime juice.

Two of our entrées were wonderful. Arctic char ($16.95), a cold-water salmon, was a perfect choice for the naked treatment. This fresh, delicate fish was perfectly complemented by the olive oil and lemon juice; the grilling gave a slightly crispy texture to the edges -- a most satisfying dish. Roasted Chilean sea bass ($17.75) with tomatoes, capers, and kalamata olives was tender and juicy under its coat of red. Yellow fin tuna ($15.95), ordered medium rare, was a bit drier than my companion would have liked.

Though many of the merrymaking diners around us were sipping Cuban drinks, our waitress recommended the jazzman ($6.75), a mixture of gin, cointreau, blue curaçao, lemon and lime juice. But we decided to share a bottle of sauvignon blanc from Chile ($16).

Desserts were superb. Chocolate coconut cheesecake ($5.50) looks like a mini bundt cake; mango key lime pie ($4.95) isn't a pie at all, rather layers of tangy lime and sweet mango mousse atop a citrusy cake-like crust. A rich, four-layer chocolate cake ($5.50) is served with fresh diced mango. Our bill came to $94.03 before tip.

We had such a good time, we're tempted to take samba lessons so we can dance down the aisle when we return to the Naked Fish.