EATING Out

Ocean Club’s Taste of the Sea

The Ocean Club (23 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach) is a wonderfully inviting place to have lunch or dinner. The large skylight in the dining room creates a bright and airy space, accented with lots of hanging plants and colorful creations on the walls from local artists.

There was light jazz playing in the background when we arrived, which segued into a live guitarist who provided perfect music for the rest of the evening.

Our waiter, Chandler, was a delight. He was very attentive, friendly and, most importantly, he knew his menu!

Ocean Club serves a broad array of seafood, including such staples as crab cakes, oysters, shrimp, crab imperial, scallops, flounder, lobster and tuna. There are also surf and turf combinations that include lobster tail, fried shrimp, fried oysters or crab imperial with a 6 oz. filet mignon. For those of you who don’t care for seafood, there are also a number of steak, chicken and pasta dishes, including prime rib and delmonico steaks.

From the many great-sounding appetizers we chose to start with Oysters Rockefeller, deliciously baked with herbed spinach and topped with hollandaise sauce. We also split a Stuffed Portobello, served on a large plate with lots of crab meat, sundried tomato, green peppers, and artichoke hearts with a side of salad. It was enough for a meal! Other appetizers include crab artichoke dip, baked brie, scallops wrapped in bacon and clams casino, among others.

Chandler brought out a basket of wonderful warm bread with our salads. We tried the Caesar and a house salad, both summer fresh and crisp.

Now, time to decide on entrees. Everything on the menu looked good, but we opted for two of the many specials of the day, all of which sounded tantalizing. We ordered sautéed softshell crabs and a seafood casserole. The softshells were served on toast with a tartar sauce, and were sautéed to crunchy perfection. It was a little difficult getting my guest to let me try some they were so good, but she reluctantly let me have half of one. How kind. And how good! The seafood casserole was brimming with tasty scallops, shrimp and lump crab in a rich sherry cream sauce with cheese. We also had sides of roasted red potatoes and a green bean medley that was fresh and tasty.

For dessert there was a great selection of homemade pies and cakes offered, everything from key lime to peanut butter cheesecake and mandarin cake as well as crème brulee, but we opted to be good for some reason and pass. Next time we’ll start with dessert and work our way back!