Reviews
InTown Magazine, June 2002
Gone Fishin' for Some Good Seafood
By Kate Benedict
Seafood. Just like that infamous little girl with the curl…when it's good it's very good, and unfortunately, when it's bad…well, you finish the sentence. We recently went fishing for a great seafood restaurant and ended up with one surprising great new catch and one old favorite that sadly wasn't a keeper.
Tropical Reef Gets It Right
We'll start with the surprise - The Tropical Reef on the North Trail in Naples. We are reviewing this small, friendly eatery against the pleas of many of its very loyal patrons who don't want the word to get out about this hidden jewel. The cozy dining room is often crowded during season, and we've watched lines form at lunchtime to wait for tables. This past year the Caribbean - colored spot adjoining Naples Cheesecake experienced a real rebirth when Bryan Sutton, the former sous chef at Campiello's, took over the kitchen and started plating up some truly outstanding dishes.
Bryan and his wife Cynthia have made the renovation a family affair. Cynthia is involved with the business; Bryan makes a point to visit with diners; and even Zachary, the couple's beautiful baby boy, has been known to make the rounds of tables. The friendly welcome may charm patrons, but the food keeps them coming back for more. During a recent lunch, we overheard two diners telling the chef, "We were here yesterday for lunch. We're back again today, and we've already made reservations for Friday night." We also heard of a vacationer who visited five nights in a row to enjoy the Boston Scrod baked with a cracker crust and served with a white wine and garlic butter sauce.
In the course of several visits, we've sampled many dishes and found them to be consistently good, with some real standouts. The appetizers include a very good, very generous, spicy pile of small conch fritters served with a slightly sweet honey mustard sauce. The mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat were just as generous, but the success was marred somewhat by the strange combination of textures in the dish. The real eye-opener has to be the incredible seafood chowder. Among the perfectly cooked, perfectly balanced ingredients were tender potatoes, sweet corn, flaky fish, scallops, clams and some large chunks of salty sweet lobster, all in a well-seasoned creamy broth.
At the Reef, make sure you move beyond the salad standards. Try the Reef Chop Salad for a flavorful mix of shrimp, chicken, onion, finely chopped celery, tomatoes, peppers and hearts of palm, all topped off with sweet slices of mango and papaya. Also good is the seared tuna salad served with an intriguing blend of peppery arugula, thinly sliced sweet red onion and fennel and topped with wedges of grapefruit and orange and a splash of lime.
The crunchy pan fried grouper is outstanding. Topped with a nutty crust, the snowy white fish is fried until deep golden and every bite is a delight. With a spoonful of the tangy mango chutney on top of every forkful, the plate was clean in minutes. The menu also offers hot-n-crunchy chicken with the same sauce.
Even though seafood reigns supreme, meat eaters aren't ignored here. One salad features spinach and onions seared with tender marinated beef tips, and more tender beef appears as a marinated New York strip steak, cleanly trimmed and topped with a spicy mango mayonnaise in a sandwich of arugula and crusty warm bread. A tower of excellent onion rings accompanies this one.
Even the chicken bowtie pasta is special here. Mellow roasted red peppers, mushrooms and more of the fresh arugula are tossed in a smoky, spicy chipotle pepper butter sauce for a decidedly non-traditional pasta dish. The shrimp scampi is balanced, with just enough garlic, vibrant fresh lemon and sweet butter topping the linguine. As good as these dishes were, we reserved our raves for the special of the day - a generous bowl of coconut curry shrimp over sticky rice. The curry was complex enough to lead with the essence of sweet coconut, tease with a tropical pineapple undertone and finish with a sneak-up-on-you hit of hot.
We'll be back to try the grilled salmon Napoleon, layered with garlic mashed potato, garlic potato chips, and grapefruit sauce. Or maybe the pescado dominque, a pineapple, ginger and soy glazed fish served with vegetables and rice. Whatever we choose next time, we'll definitely have dessert. With Naples Cheesecake right across the hall, you can take your pick of a mind-boggling list of flavors, and the key lime is rich and refreshing. But do try Bubba's brownie. This soup-bowl-sized delight featured two traditional cake-like brownies cradling a layer of pure chocolate ganache, drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce and topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Good luck getting up from the table.
Try the Tropical Reef. Just make sure you don't tell anybody about how good it is.