August 21, 2009

The Calamari I have known - Naples, FL

Pinchers Crab Shack
Kelly's Fish House

I guess I should preface this posting by saying that I love calamari. Every time and I really mean every time I visit a restaurant and they serve calamari I MUST try it. So now I've decided to blog about the calamari I've tasted and the best and worst places to get it. Keep mind I'm no food critic so I'll mostly use words like yummy, not yummy, fried, oily, grilled, etc. Please don't expect too much.

My dad and I were in Miami earlier this week and decided to drive down to Naples for the night. Such a quaint little town. They were in their off-season which is what I think I really liked about the place.

For dinner the first night we went to Kelly's Fish House and it was the most awful experience ever. The wait staff was nice but the food was horrendous. My dad ordered salmon and thought he was getting fresh salmon but it was the same thing you'd get if you ordered it at Outback or TGIFridays. I'm not necessarily slamming those places but we expected more from a seafood place right on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. I felt that it was worthy of a mention because of how bad it was. I got the calamari, oyster, shrimp and grouper platter. Everything was quite average. Nothing I consumed was memorable. The location was great and the tabletop was quite interesting. I'm not going to slam the restaurant itself because the location and ambience of the restaurant was quite appealing but the food just completely lacked flavor. I'm sure you could have fun there if you just went for drinks or something.

Pinchers Crab Shack was where we had lunch the next day. I'm insanely happy that we went to lunch there. It made up for our dining experience from the previous night. My calamari was just regular fried calamari but one noticeable and memorable thing about it was that it wasn't very oily. It was crisp and yummy without being drenched in oil. My dad had that Mahi Mahi and although I was against trying it I finally gave in and had to admit that it was delicious. It was worthy of a mention because of how awesome (thanks to E for getting that word stuck in my head) it was.

So that was my attempt at being a food critic and bringing information to you on calamari. I know I strayed a bit but I just had to mention how good and awful the other dishes were. For my three followers I hope this helps one day. Ciao ciao.