Long Island Restaurants

George Martin's Coastal Grill

The summer season starts with a splash at George Martin's Coastal Grill.

Energetic, colorful and already jammed, it's the festive offspring of the fine George Martin in Rockville Centre. Coastal Grill is also the group's second winner in Long Beach, following Nick DiAngelo.

Decorated to emulate an old New York seafood house as much as a seaside spot, the new restaurant also sports enough nautical details without descending into fish nets and harpoons.

Cassandre's classic poster of the liner Normandie fills a little niche behind the bar. A stone-facade waterfall cascades amid the bottles. And the bustling dining areas show off dark bearboard and subway tiles, plus a mini-colonnade as a room divider.

Jump-start dinner with a fired-up seafood-and-chorizo sausage gumbo; or take a mellow route with the back bay clam chowder. The fried calamari, with lemon-pepper aioli: crisp and tasty.

Spinach-and-artichoke dip with toasts, chips and salsa is a good choice for the table. Likewise, the Asiago-cheese dusted zucchini fries, each log about 7 inches, with blue-cheese sauce.

The house's lobster spring rolls are a bit dry and the shrimp enchiladas routine. But they send out a respectable shrimp cocktail, and pots of mussels with sauces spicy, garlicky, lemony and casino-style.

Seafood dominates the main courses, whether you're ready for something casual and light or heartier fare. Try the tender monkfish saltimbocca, a seaside variation on the Roman veal dish, complete with prosciutto, fontina and sage, atop spinach.

Or enjoy the savory riff on cioppino, the San Francisco fish stew, turned Eastern with lobster, shrimp, clams and mussels, borne on a platter of linguini in saffron-tinted tomato broth.

Potato-wrapped grouper, in a red-wine-and-peppercorn reduction, trails these. But the lobster-enriched production of macaroni-and-cheese, toasty and rich, more than rivals them. And the simple basket of gilded scrod-and-chips, with malt vinegar and shoestring fries, is irresistible.

A lobster roll, on hero-size brioche bread, needs more seasoning. Or maybe, drop the extras altogether, and just stick with buttery lobster. It does, however, hold a generous amount of meat. All the appetizers and entrees are ample affairs.

The meat of the matter includes a maple-grilled Berkshire pork chop, moist and sweet; and a hefty, tender flatiron steak of Wagyu beef, with a hint of caramelized garlic and first-class onion rings.

A homey apple betty and a sturdy brownie sundae highlight the sweets. So do the lush cheesecake and tangy Key lime pie.

The party has started. What are you waiting for?

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 5/27/07.

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