PHOTO: B.A. Nilsson

Seafood at a Snail’s Pace
By B.A. Nilsson

The Real Seafood Company

195 Wolf Road, Colonie, 458-2068. Serving Mon-Thu 11-10, Fri 11-11, Sat 3-11, Sun 3-9:30. AE, D, DC, MC, V.

Cuisine: seafood and continental items

Entrée price range: $16 (fried shrimp) to $29 (stuffed filet mignon)

Ambiance: bustling

Back in 1984, before Wolf Road exploded with chain restaurants, the Real Seafood Co. established itself as one of the area’s better restaurants, and certainly the best seafood emporium. When I first visited, three years after that opening, I was impressed by the casual decor, the extensive menu, and the efficient service—efficient almost to the point of being frantic.

Such was not the case during a recent visit, when what should have been an easygoing dinner dragged on for over two hours, well beyond the length of time it should have taken. Part of the problem may have been the number of servers—I didn’t see many bodies working the floor—but most of it stems from a handicap I noted in my last review, in 1996. It’s an epidemic in local (and not-so-local) restaurants. It’s the lack of cooperative service, remanding you into the hands of one server only, whose skill—or distractions—will completely color your dining experience.

When servers work together, customer comfort increases a hundredfold. When they don’t, you, the customer, will suffer that all-too-common annoyance of seeing one server after another whisk by with nary a glance in your direction because “you’re not my table.”

During my recent Real Seafood visit, I sat not far from a party of 12, and watched as a harried server hauled a tray with several plastic-lidded entrée plates to a nearby traystand, then leave it there. For five minutes (I timed it).

My inner waiter was horrified. It’s been 30 years since I hauled a tray, but I could feel my old maître d’ breathing fire. He would have lopped off my hands.

Here, there’s no such supervision. And, as I feared, when my party’s entrées finally arrived, they, too, were lukewarm (at best). At that point, we were well past the point of complaining. We just wanted to get out of there.

Just as well, too, because the entrées were a disappointment. Not only in and of themselves, but in the context of a meal that began with a magnificent raw-bar assortment. For $10, I was treated to a platter (heavy on the ice) of two pieces each of poached shrimp and raw cherrystones and oysters.

Thirteen years ago, reporting on a pleasant visit to this restaurant, I noted my lack of enthusiasm for oysters. This has changed. Perhaps, with the vaunted link between oysters and romance, I’m growing more romantic. In any event, I found myself first coursing through the shrimp (with a dollop of horseradish-laced cocktail sauce) and the clams (with a dollop of nothing), before savoring the two little mollusks. Like a glass of good wine, they contributed mightily to that elusive sense of well-being.

Other appetizers were similarly appealing. Fried calamari ($7), a reliable standby, here is presented in a light, tempura-like batter. Stuffed mushrooms, escargot, coconut shrimp and crab cakes are among the regular-menu apps, priced from $8 to $11; specials of the week included roasted-garlic grilled scallop skewers, salmon quesadilla and a marvelous winter beet salad ($8) that filled out the plate with chunks of gorgonzola, sunflower seeds and mandarin orange slices on a bed of spinach, with a warm, spinach-friendly bacon vinaigrette.

We assumed that our appetizers took as long as they did to arrive because we still were being eased into the service stream. Not so: The pause between courses grew longer. Salads arrived at the time when we should have been finishing our entrées, and we never caught sight of our server when we weren’t actually being served. Salads, by the way, are $2 extra with the entrées, which otherwise are served with a less-interesting side of cole slaw.

And so, as I noted, by the time those entrées arrived we had grown restive. Had we the forbearance to send back the plates, we would have asked, first of all, that the items be hot. And that’s usually just a matter of timely service.

The lemon crumb cod with hotel butter ($16), one of the day’s specials, had an excellent piece of fish at its core, but those crumbs go from crisp to soggy the longer it sits. Fresh seafood doesn’t need much in the way of enhancement, a fact stressed on the restaurant’s menu and Web site (www.real seafood.com), but that shouldn’t stop you from having fun with the food.

Thus the Tandoori salmon ($19), a novel approach that gives the fish a yogurt marinade—but then puts it under a broiler, which doesn’t replicate a hot Tandoor oven. Still, the leek-curry cream served on top had a diverting, pleasing flavor. It was served atop a basmati rice cake laced with almonds and raisins, but overcooked to the point of crisping the rice.

The worst problem was with what should be a signature entrée: a shrimp-and-scallops combo ($20) that pairs crumb-coated, herb-scented baked shrimp with a handful of plump, broiled scallops. Because they were overcooked, the shrimp were palatable at best—but the scallops bore an aftertaste of baking soda, belying the restaurant’s claim that the scallops aren’t chemically treated.

We should have fussed. We should have protested. But we were exhausted, and we slunk out into the night like the cowards we’ve learned, thanks to years of mediocre service, to become. Ten years ago, the Real Seafood Company went through an impressive physical overhaul. It’s time now to do one of those overhauls with the servers and kitchen.

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