Harry's Seafood Grill

On Thursday, June 17th the Divas had a wonderful evening at Harry’s Seafood Grill. (http://harrys-savoy.com/seafood.asp) This restaurant is located on the Wilmington Riverfront and we were lucky enough to score an outside table on a beautiful night with low humidity and light breezes.

The wine: Harry’s Seafood Grill, like its sister restaurant Harry’s Savoy Grill, has an extensive and well-chosen wine list with prices to please every budget. There is also a good selection of wines by the glass (with the exception of the chardonnays). This is perfect for us since it allows us to taste a number of different wines. Our selections were: 
Harry’s Private Label Chardonnay: pleasant and light, and a bargain at $5.95 a glass.
Murphy-Goode Chardonnay: lovely, with reasonable oak.
Alvarinho Vinho Verde: wonderful on a summery evening.
Leth “Steinagrund” Gruner Veltliner: excellent example of Austria’s most famous wine.

The appetizers: As we enjoyed our wine, we struggled with choosing from the appetizer menu; so many items sounded enticing. Our server James was a big help here, and we finally settled on the Grand Seafood Plateau, which included oysters, clams, shrimp and king crab, and the White Tuna and Strawberry Ceviche with Sweet Potato Chips. In addition, we shared a Baby Spinach Salad.

All of the items in the Grand Seafood Plateau were briny, fresh and delicious, although the clams were just a tad sandy. We found the mignonette sauce to be a little astringent for our taste. Linda especially loved one of the oysters, a small one she was not familiar with. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask immediately for its name; it seems the kitchen uses various oysters in the seafood plateaus over the course of the evening. As best we could determine later, it seemed to have been a Point Reyes, CA, oyster. Linda searched online to try to determine the exact type but was unsuccessful; she will just have to return to sample all the oysters until she can nail it down! Our server James had recommended the White Tuna and Strawberry Ceviche. We all loved it! The tuna was so flavorful and tender. The sweetness of the strawberries was cut by the addition of very thinly sliced pieces of jalapeno peppers. The Sweet Potato Chips served with the ceviche could become an addiction, they are so good, and James thoughtfully brought us a second plate of them. Be sure to try this ceviche dish if it is on the menu when you go there. The Baby Spinach Salad was served with spiced pecans, sundried cherries, red onion, Maytag blue cheese and a fig-walnut vinaigrette. It sounds so over-the-top, but it was a great combination and the fig-walnut vinaigrette was just lovely.


The entrees: After much deliberation (and a second glass of wine each), we finally made our selections: Oven Roasted Mahi-Mahi; Grilled Alaskan King Salmon; Rare Seared Big Eye Tuna; and Tangier Island Soft Shell Crabs. Never ones to shy away from going over the top, we added sides of Lobster Mashed Potatoes and Truffled Wild Mushrooms. All the main courses were expertly prepared and it was evident that the seafood was absolutely fresh. Here’s how the individual items stacked up:

Oven Roasted Mahi-Mahi, chosen by Nanzie, was served with applewood smoked bacon, brussels sprouts, broccoli rabe and watermelon pineapple salsa. This was an excellent preparation. The only negative about this dish was the brussel sprouts, which had been roasted and were still quite firm. Some vegetables really do need to be cooked through and brussels sprouts is one of them.


Grilled Alaskan King Salmon was Linda’s selection and it was all salmon should be. It tasted delicious. It was served with wasabi scallion sticky rice, white swiss chard and a yuzu dijon drizzle. Yuzu was new to us; it is a sour Japanese citrus fruit with an aromatic rind. I don’t think any of us could pick out its taste distinct from the other ingredients, but the overall effect was a pleasant one. The wasabi in the rice was not overpowering, it merely gave it a bit of zing, and the sticky rice was a great accompaniment to the salmon.

Rare Seared Big Eye Tuna, Nancy’s entrée, is a species closely related to yellow fin tuna. This entrée, like the King Salmon, had a definite Asian flare. It included a yuzu glaze, pea shoots, soba noodles, scallion, shiitake mushrooms and a grilled lime emulsion. This got the vote for best entrée of the evening. Each of us thought it was outstanding.

Tangier Island Soft Shell Crabs, my choice, were somewhat of a disappointment. Since I am not fond of fried food, I asked that they be sautéed. The soft shells were served with mirliton slaw (mirliton, sometimes called chayote, is a member of the gourd family, like squash) and a horseradish-lemon aioli. We all felt the crabs were a little on the mushy side and lacking flavor. Perhaps they would have been better with the buttermilk batter called for on the menu.

Lobster Mashed Potatoes and Truffled Wild Mushrooms were our outrageously good side dishes. The potatoes had nice sized chunks of lobster meat and the mushrooms were wonderfully meaty and flavorful. Needless to say, we cleaned these plates. Of course, we didn’t leave any of the other items on our plates, either.

Dessert and Coffee: Since we had pretty much stuffed ourselves by this point (must have been the lobster mashed that did us in), we decided to split a dessert. The dessert menu is very enticing, so we were once again torn about a decision. We finally decided to go seasonal, and so chose a rhubarb and strawberry cake topped with ice cream. We all enjoyed it very much. Three of us opted for decaf cappuccino and one brave Diva had regular coffee.

In Summary, we thoroughly enjoyed our evening and our meal. Harry’s is not a bargain destination, that’s a fact. But the quality of the seafood was outstanding, we loved the creativity of the menu and the service was excellent. It is definitely a place to return to – once we rebuild our bank accounts.

Postscript: Since our meal, I have learned that Big Eye Tuna is considered endangered, so I don’t know that I would order this even though it was delicious. Of course, that is an individual choice.