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Narragansett/Wakefield Dining Spots Spain of
Narragansett Here is one beautiful restaurant, with food to match. The pale yellow dining room looks ever-so Mediterranean with arches and a waterfall trickling down one wall. The large outdoor Spanish courtyard off the bar appeals for a drink or Sunday dinner. Also appealing is the canopied deck off the upstairs dining room. Both yield a glimpse of the ocean. Almost universally acclaimed as the best local restaurant, it’s better than ever since relocating from its original quarters in the Village Inn at Narragansett Pier. Chef-owner Salvadore Gomes plies his legions of customers with gargantuan portions of Spanish food and drink. Spanish music plays in the background as diners sample typical Spanish appetizers, from grilled smoked chorizo and shrimp in garlic to the signature pan-fried calamari with a blend of mild and hot peppers. Entrées include two versions of paella and two of the shellfish casserole mariscada, plus basque-style fillet of sole, four chicken and three veal dishes, pork chops and a Spanish steak dish served for two: sliced tenderloin with artichoke hearts and mushrooms in a rioja wine, dijon and garlic sauce. Flan and chocolate truffle mousse
cake are favored desserts. The drink list features sangria and Spanish
wines, brandies and cognacs. (401) 783-9770. www.spainri.com.
Entrées, $11.95 to $18.95. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday 4 to 10, Sunday 1
to 9. Turtle
Soup The restaurant in the recently restored Ocean Rose Inn maintains a low profile locally. But it seems to pack in the passersby who view it from the seawall, stop perhaps for a drink on the rose garden patio or the broad veranda, and stay for a meal. The restaurant is leased to Linda Cinco, who used to own the Duck Soup Deli in Warwick, and Amy Streeter. “We have zero turtle on the menu,” admits chef Leigh Ann Saunders, except for a “turtle salad” that’s really chicken. What they do have is a lengthy list of appetizers, salads, pastas and entrées. The latter include lobster ravioli with vodka cream sauce, grilled salmon with balsamic-raspberry glaze and toasted walnuts, chicken roulade, pork au poivre and grilled sirloin marinated in ale. The cooks and the staff have fun and there’s a lively bar. The two-level white dining room with
a bead-board ceiling is mostly windows to take advantage of the ocean
views. The prices are a pleasant surprise, given the million-dollar
location. (401) 792-8683.
www.turtlesoupri.com. Entrées, $13 to $24. Lunch in summer,
Tuesday-Sunday 11:30 to 4. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday 4 to 10. Coast
Guard House Lunching on the expansive upstairs deck beside the ocean is fun, watching all the swimmers in the distance on the Narragansett Town Beach and all the windsurfers riding the waves. In fact, one of us had his first lobster dinner here as a child and gave it short shrift to escape outside onto the rocks with his kid brother to watch the pounding surf. The oceanfront setting in the National Register-listed landmark beside the Towers is usually better than the fare, although that situation is said to have improved lately. There are big wraparound windows onto the ocean. A large canopied rooftop bar is popular with the beach crowd. At our latest lunch on the deck, we enjoyed a lobster roll ($12.50) and a chicken caesar wrap sandwich. Dinner is served by the windows in the long and narrow Oak Room. The menu offers a Mediterranean seafood stew, a veal and lobster sauté and rack of lamb amid the more plebian choices of baked scrod, baked stuffed shrimp, grilled seafood and steaks. Key lime, toffee and coconut cream pies are touted for dessert. The Sunday brunch buffet for $16.95
packs in the non-beachgoers. (401) 789-0700.
www.thecoastguardhouse.com. Entrées, $15 to $24. Lunch, Monday-Friday
11:30 to 3. Dinner nightly, 5 to 9 or 10, Sunday 4 to 9. Sunday brunch,
10 to 2. Amalfi
Mediterranean Restaurant The second best water view (after the Coast Guard House) is offered on the breezy outdoor deck with a bar at this restaurant beside the Village Inn at Narragansett Pier. Here is where Spain got its start locally, to be succeeded by a number of lessees who have come and gone. Amalfi’s has gotten better reviews under chef-owner Kenneth Young, both from the restaurant critics and from the young beach crowd that favors the place. The bar and deck are where the action is and frankly appeal more than the lineups of close-together tables packed into the vast white-clothed dining room, where big windows yield views of the beach scene. Chef Young includes in his Mediterranean theme the cuisines of Greece and Morocco, with an assist from chef de cuisine Gene Allsworth, formerly of Narragansett’s acclaimed but short-lived Trieste Café & Trattoria. Start with their garlic and mint tzatziki or perhaps mussels provençal to accompany your seafood paella, pork shank osso buco or seared lamb saltimbocca. Grilled striped bass with lobster-basil butter sauce, seafood paella and grilled filet mignon with cabernet demi-glace are regular features. The ganache-filled chocolate
dacquoise is a stellar dessert. (401) 792-3999. www.amalfiri.com.
Entrées, $18.95 to $29.95. Lunch daily, noon to 4. Dinner nightly, 4 to
10.
This tiny, dark Victorian charmer – stuck in a time warp of 1950s French and, for most, pleasantly so – is lovingly run by Vasilios (Basil) and Kathleen Kourakis. Formerly a chef in Vail, Colo., Basil took over the quarters once occupied by our favorite Le Petite France in 1984 (to be closer to Europe, he said). Here he does all the cooking himself, shunning the robust flavoring of today’s cooks for a more refined, restrained style. He offers a French-continental menu of steak and veal dishes, including his specialty veal medallions topped with a light cream and mushroom sauce. Poached salmon, scampi provençal, chicken piccata, duck à l’orange and beef stroganoff are traditional favorites, done to perfection. Escargots bourguignonne and frog’s legs are among starters. Dessert could be a smooth chocolate mousse, coupe Basil, a French-style parfait or baked alaska. The service is professional and the
wine list is good. The pretty dining room is intimate (make that very),
with banquettes along the walls and tables lushly dressed in white
linens over print cloths. (401) 789-3743. Entrées, $17 to
$35. Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday 5:30 to 10. Material excerpted from Waterside Escapes in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2005. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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