The thrill of discovering Red 36 in Mystic

March 26, 2015 12:00 am • Last Updated: March 25, 2015 10:54 am

By Alex Nunes

Trying a new restaurant is always a gamble.

For every perfectly cooked burger, there are two or three hockey pucks and one or two bloody messes. Seafood dishes to write home about can be preceded by the kind of freezer burnt fish my grandmother used to prepare and call "fresh frozen."

But our affinity for the novel keeps us chasing the thrill of discovering that new favorite restaurant and that new special dish.

It's with this somewhat dramatic preface that I say: all my most recent culinary misadventures and dead-end dining experiences have been negated by my visit to Red 36 in Mystic this past weekend.

I'll explain:

The Washington Street restaurant is in a large, wood shingled building surrounded by boating docks at the end of a marina. To get to it, you drive through a few rock parking lots with yachts, motorboats and sail boats flanking you on both sides.

The location and the decor might give you the impression that this is your usual seafood joint, but it's a bit deceiving.

The dining area is a sort of Crate-&-Barrel-meets-summer-cottage motif. There are wicker chairs and gray painted booths, an exposed timber frame above, Ball jars holding beach sand and a candle at each table, and wall accents like seaside photos and a red surfboard.

From virtually every corner there's a view of the point where the Mystic River meets Mystic Harbor as well as the Amtrak bridge that travels over it. (There's substantial outdoor seating to take in this sight in the warmer months.)

At first, I was a bit skeptical of the menu. The dishes were unique and boundary pushing. But, I thought, maybe a little too boundary pushing ...

For instance, the appetizer menu alone features the likes of fried oysters with cucumber kim-chee and ginger vinegar ($15) and smoked salmon chips with chipotle pepper remoulade ($15).

However, when my round of starters arrived, I realized the clever chef in back had aimed for the moon and reached the stars.

Case in point were the lobster corn fritters with chipotle pepper remoulade ($13). Think of this delectable as a clam-less Rhode Island-style clam cake married with a Southern hush puppy then subjugated by substantial chunks of lobster meat. There's a bit of a kick to both the fritters and the chipotle dipping sauce, but there's also a side of tartar sauce for anyone looking to tone down the experience (not me; ha!).

Another starter I tried was the plate of blackened sea scallops from the specials menu ($13). The smoky charred outside of these scallops puts the crust in crustacean and nicely contains the moist flavor. This texture was juxtaposed exquisitely with a creamy white polenta and a sprinkling of arugula.

I was experiencing greatness on a plate, a culinary magnum opus, but little did I know these appetizers were merely a prelude to something even bigger.

My first and most recommended entree was the truffle mushroom ravioli with seared sea scallops, asparagus, sweet potatoes, shitake mushrooms and pancetta in a sherry wine butter sauce ($25).

Usually these types of seafood pastas come in a cream-heavy sauce that dominates the dish and drowns out all the other flavors. This sherry butter sauce was more the unselfish point guard - there to highlight the roles of his teammates. There were delightfully chewy shitake mushrooms, aldente chopped asparagus, chunks of firm but not undercooked sweet potato and savory pancetta.

The next one up was the seared swordfish from the specials menu ($26). It had a bit of a Southwestern vibe to it and came prepared with roasted fingerling potatoes and haricot vert served in a roasted pablano sauce and black bean tomato salad. Again, this was the kind of meal where I said to myself: am I gonna regret this? But like the skillful thespian Daniel Day-Lewis, this eclectically flavorful meal takes unconventional risks that pay off. It's also my opinion that swordfish and tuna are the perennial winners of the "Easiest to Mess Up and Overcook" award for seafood, so this dish is singular for its soft and almost buttery preparation.

Finally, for the sake of those looking for the traditional summer seafood experience, I tried the fish and chips ($18 adults, $10 kids). It's a fluffy, beer battered-style that comes served on a pile of shoestring fries. It's fish and chips done very well, but it's fish and chips. If you go out to Red 36, I'd tell you to skip it and go for the gold!

I considered throwing in the towel after my main courses, but I was so impressed by what I'd seen - and tasted - so far that I knew I'd have to give at least one dessert a try. I was drawn to the sea salt caramel nut popcorn ice cream sundae ($9). It was like the Snuggie blanket - so simple yet so brilliant an idea, you wonder why no one thought of it before.

This dessert could be described as a Cracker Jack hostile takeover of a bowl of ice cream accented with sweet and salty caramel sauce oozing between virtually every scoop of ice cream. It's so delicious and so easy to replicate that your natural response will likely be to buy a box of Cracker Jacks this summer, mix it with vanilla ice cream, top it with caramel sauce then tell your friends: "Hey guys, look what I came up with."

I went to Red 36 on the first day of spring, thinking I'd celebrate the arrival of warm weather with a seasonally festive, yet enclosed, waterside dinner. It snowed.

But I seemed to have forgotten about that by the end of my meal. Then, as I paid my bill and took my final reviewer's note, my mind drifted to thoughts of me this summer, sitting in an Adirondack chair on the outdoor patio, throwing back corn fritters like tequila shots and ordering up one or two caramel nut popcorn sundaes.

What a way to spend a summer.

Alex Nunes can be reached at alexisnunes03@gmail.com