Shrimp are part of a shellfish assortment plate, but we found them to be too salty and dry.
Orsa & Winston is more or less the fine dining in that lineup, a tasting-menu restaurant that mostly but not entirely crosses the structures of Mediterranean cooking with the strictures of Japanese technique — agnolotti with geoduck in a seafood ramen broth, for example, or beef carpaccio presented as part of a shellfish sashimi plate, or a truffled omelet flavored with yuzu.
It offers choices in food, from sashimi to shrimp cocktail to grilled tuna to Wiener schnitzel, and it offers choices in size, from huge platters of lobster and shellfish to small plates of smoked fish.
The menu at Echo is organized by five elements: Water (beverages, sushi, seafood and shellfish); Wind (small plates to begin the meal); Fire (from the wok); Earth (meat, game, poultry, vegetables) and Echo's fifth element: Flavor (desserts and sweets).
Patrick's favorite thing in life is corn pudding, so I cooked individual ones, drizzled an intense shellfish reduction around the plates and, to gild the lily, passed heaping platters of fried green tomatoes around the table.
A pianist, a cellist and a violinist play downstairs in the four-story, skylighted building; dinner is served on big, handsome blue-and-white plates; and shellfish, the house specialty, are delivered directly from Nha Trang on the South China Sea several times a week.
WHAT WE LIKE -- Escargots, foie gras, shellfish platter, salade maison; sautéed skate, grilled chicken, steak frites, braised short ribs, steak tartare; cheese tasting plate, chocolate terrine, cheesecake, fruit crostata.
And the shellfish platter was far too large to be set on the table as if it were a serving plate; it would have worked better had it been elevated.
Any would enhance a sandwich, a seafood stew, a plate of cold shellfish or an array of grilled vegetables.
The Caberfeidh (Main Street, 01571 844321, thecaberfeidh.co.uk) serves tapas-style small plates of local shellfish, fish and game including Caberfeidh crab cakes, wild venison meatballs and creel-caught langoustines.
