Salt and Pepper Dive Into Coastal Flats

Name: Coastal Flats

Cuisines: Seafood

Payment: Cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover

Alcohol: Full bar

Price: $$

Location: 11946 Grand Commons Ave., Fairfax, VA 22030

Hours of Operation: Sunday-Monday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Tuesday-Thursday 11a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Salt says:

I've never heard of Coastal Flats before this week, so as usual I did a little research on the restaurant. Their website describes it as a, “casual 1950s coastal Florida inspired seafood house.” That did absolutely nothing to prepare me for the experience. I was expecting it to be one of those places with an overbearing theme—talking bass and gaudy mermaids all over the place; the menu resplendent with items filled with over thought and long, ocean-esque connotations.

Thankfully, I was wrong. Schools of fish, kissing fish, floating mermaids and coral-like chandeliers made the restaurant seem like a sunken ship come to life in the middle of the sea. A mural along the kitchen wall reminded me more of present-day Cuba than the Florida coast 60 years ago.

When I first walked through the door I was reminded of the Cheesecake Factory. Hundreds of people were dining in the restaurant when I went during the early part of the lunch hour, and still there were quite a few empty tables waiting to be filled. The hostesses were friendly, but I got the feeling that they were overly stressed. The wait staff was a bit less friendly, but they were as efficient as the kitchen would allow them.

It took about 25 minutes for me to get my order. Thankfully, I asked for a basket of bread while I waited.

Word to the wise:It might not be the best idea to ask for bread. Don't get me wrong, it was quite delicious, but out of four pieces, one was sort of plain, one was raisin and the other two could best be described as deep-fried dinner rolls. They came served with sweet cream butter. The butter was literally over-whipped heavy whipping cream with added seasonings.  If you ate the rolls with the butter, it would be like eating a fresh doughnut.

I decided to order the shrimp roll which came with an order of fries. The sandwich consisted of about 15 shrimp loaded on a grilled lobster roll with tartar sauce and lettuce. It was so huge, I couldn't eat it as a sandwich without taking out most of the shrimp. The bread was a tad bit too grilled and way too buttery. I think it took away from the other ingredients, but even so, it was delicious.

The fries were amazing. They were shoe-string style and were gently fried and topped with salt and pepper. They weren't crunchy or soggy, but they reminded me of potatoes in a clam bake. I've never had fries like that, and while I wouldn't want them every day, it was good.

Paying for the meal was a bit strange. First of all, my waitress gave me the bill while I was in the middle of dining, but I digress.

When I was finally ready to pay I gave her my credit card. As I waited for her to return it, I noticed her going on with her duties as if she had forgotten about me. About five minutes later, another person on staff returned it to me along with the receipt. I think that's standard practice for Coastal Flats, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable.  It seems like a system that could have more than a few flaws.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal and would recommend it to anyone who wanted to try something different with seafood. Personally, I think I'll stick with my regular haunts.

 Pepper Says:

Walking into Coastal Flats, the place seemed to have a decent crowd and we were seated fairly promptly. Within a few minutes, we were greeted by our server, who then disappeared for about 10 minutes.

This was rather unsettling, as we were both starving. When she returned for our drink order, we jumped on the chance to order our food.

While we were waiting, we were brought some sweet bread that resembled donut holes and tasted like them, too. This was no ordinary dinner roll. The menu seemed like it had a lot going on, but for those who don’t eat fish like me, it’s easy to make a choice.  It reminded me of the menu.

For the appetizer, we had the blue crab and rock shrimp fritters. They were dressed with corn salsa, and were way better than I had expected. They were fried perfectly, had a slight ginger taste and didn’t have that gross fishy smell. Too bad there were only four. I could have eaten way more.

Next was the salad. Now, I pretty much have three dressings I stick to, Caesar, Italian, or Greek. Anything else, just does not appeal to me.

However our server recommended trying the buttermilk herb, which did not sound very good at all, but my dining companion had tried it before, so it was two against one.  And I figured if it wasn’t so great, I would still have my main course. Or maybe more fritters. The salad was nothing special:Lettuce, radish, croutons and corn. But the dressing was spectacular. It’s hard to describe what it even tastes like, not like anything I’ve tried before, but I would recommend it to anyone.

Time for the main course, and I’m pretty well stuffed by this point. My mains were the fillet mignon and crab cake with red skin mashed potatoes. The crab cake was stock full of crab meat and delicious. The steak? Tender and cooked to my liking. And the potatoes were similar to those at Bonefish. All in all, everything was very good.

When our server returned to inquire about dessert, we could not possibly take her seriously after all we had eaten.

I would definitely recommend this place to anyone. You’ll spend more than at T.G.I Friday’s or Chilis, but it is definitely worth it.

The only complaint I would have, is that our server would disappear for long amounts of time and we worried she had left the building. Especially since she told us we were only her third table that night and the other two had left. Perhaps, she was off supervising the preparation of our meal.

All in all, I was pleased with the place. There was nothing overwhelmingly special about it and it's hard to distinguish chain restaurants  from one another sometimes. It had a sea theme but I  almost thought I was in Cheesecake Factory for a second. But the food was certainly memorable and I have no doubt that I will return.