As you may have guessed by now, Oceanaire is one of our favorite restaurants in San Diego when we are in the mood for some fine dining.
The other night, the BF surprised me with a dinner reservation there. We got seated at an intimate booth in the section of our favorite server, Josh.
I don’t know why but I completely forgot to take a picture of the menu that night. If you haven’t been to Oceanaire, the menu changes daily depending on the fresh fish they have available.
As we perused the menu, we got a plate of vegetables on ice and some sour dough bread to munch on.
For the starters, we stuck to the crab cakes. We both love the crabcakes so much that we can never seem to bring ourselves to give it up just once to try another appetizer.
For the main course, I ordered the Angry Snapper. It’s a whole snapper that is flash fried and then drizzled with hot spicy mayonnaise and peppers. As if having a whole fish isn’t filling enough, it’s served on a huge bed of mashed potatoes.
This is one of the priciest entrees on the fish list, but it also is quite filling. I’ve never finished one on my own. I always have BF help me out. It’s also not too complicated to eat. Our server Josh came over and was able to fillet the fish off the bone for both sides so that the fish meat is easily accessible.
Sometimes it’s fun to eat an entire whole fish as opposed to a fish fillet. It allows you to enjoy other parts of the fish, like the cheek, which is considered the best piece of meat on the fish.
BF decided to try a new menu item. A striped bass encrusted with Parmesan.
The parmesan cheese crust was rich and creamy. The fish was mild and sweet and there were some cherry tomatoes on the plate to add some additional sweetness as well. The flavors on the plate was definitely a play on the sweet and salty combination which the BF really enjoyed.
We were too full for dessert when our server asked us. But he decided we couldn’t go home without any dessert, so he brought us some milk and cookies.
I’ve gotten such a kick out of seeing milk and cookies on dessert menus at restaurants. It seems to be popping up more and more. It really brings out the kid in you to be sitting there eating warm cookies and drowning it with a cold glass of milk. It was the perfect finish to our evening.
My previous posts on Oceanaire can be found here, here, here and here.
Oceanaire Seafood Room
400 J St
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 858-2277
https://www.theoceanaire.com/
I love how the Angry Snapper looks angry! I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a whole fish. I do love the cheekbone meat as well. 🙂
Heehee. It was a little intimidating to eat with it glaring at me.
Hahaha, when I saw the word ocean in the name of the restaurant I thought it was a chinese seafood restaurant. But then I saw that you go there when you are in the mood for some fine dining and I thought ok, this is definitely not an asian restaurant!
Just thought you’d get a kick out of my thought process.
Have a great weekend, J!
Haha! I do like hearing your process. It’s funny how most chinese restaurants use the word “ocean” or “seafood.” I can never keep the names of the ones in the SGV area straight since they are all “___ Seafood” Have a good weekend!
That angry snapper looks AMAZING. I like the milk and cookies for dessert, too 🙂 Next time I’m down in san Diego I’ll have to check the place out, sounds like a great dinner!
It’s a little on the pricey side but it’s a great dining spot in San Diego, especially if you love fish