Flanders Fish Market & Restaurant

Posted By Michael Stern on September 3, 2007 9:54 AM

We confess to having bitched frequently that the Connecticut shoreline doesn't feature as many good seafood meals as it should. Flanders Fish Market & Restaurant shuts us up on that account. This is a superb fish house, just what the traveler in search of local specialties would hope to find.

It's slightly inland, and it really is a fish market. When you walk in the door you are confronted by glass-fronted refrigerator cases filled with filets and whole fish and, to the left, a saltwater tank holds live lobsters. Farther back are the interior dining rooms; for good-weather dining, there are rows of picnic tables on a broad deck that circles around the restaurant and under a canopy out front.

If you choose clam chowder to start, the waitress will ask if you want clear or creamy. Creamy is classic New England style; clear is the rarer kind unique to Eastern Connecticut -- steel-grey, briney broth loaded with hunks of clam and pieces of potato. If you like a super-plush soup, an alternative to chowder is lobster bisque -- creamy, butter-rich, and laden with spoon-size hunks of sweet pink meat.

The menu is vast, from raw clams and oysters on the half shell and crusty fried clam fritters to whole lobsters and six kinds of shrimp (scampi, blackened, Creole, steamed, stuffed, fried). The fried seafood is masterful; we love the virtually greaseless, yet intensely luscious, fish and chips; and the whole- belly clams are major-league satisfying.

To be honest, we've always eaten so much lunch or dinner at Flanders that we have never even thought of trying dessert. Some day we will! Our top choices from the menu will be turtle ice cream pie and chocolate cappuccino mousse torte. Out on the deck, there is a window that serves ice cream cones.

Flanders Fish Market ships lobsters anywhere in the U.S.A. The lobster hotline is 1-800-638-8189 nationwide, 1-800-242-6055 in Connecticut.

Bowl of Cappy's Original Clear Clam Chowder

Lazy Lobster Sautee Dinner

Mussels Formica

Turtle Ice Cream Pie