Sea for yourself: Blue Point Grill serves up wide variety of fresh catches

Escolar, Blue Nose, Bronzini, Pompano and Opakapaka. No – these are not entries from a foreign dictionary. Instead, they are a sampling of the daily cast of fresh fish that the Blue Point Grill trots out each evening for its eager audience to savor. Located on Nassau Street next door to the popular Tiger Noodle, Blue Point Grill is a haven for devotees of fish, oysters and calamari. It is an unpretentious restaurant with fresh ingredients, a different menu every day, and good cooking that elevates a simple fillet to extraordinary heights that are well worth the price.

I went early on a Friday evening because the grill does not take reservations, and, by 6.30 p.m., the line rivals the ones snaking out of Theresa's on weekends. We were seated promptly near one of the big windows with a basket of bread and oyster crackers for company. The raw bar glistened enticingly from the back of the brightly-lit restaurant, and a big wooden marlin watched us from the wall as we grappled with our menus, which resemble extensive lists of 22 fish, and a host of other entrees, side dishes and appetizers.

For starters ($5 - $2), would it be half a dozen oysters (3 varieties from each coast), or garlicky and spicy barbeque shrimp, or perhaps the mixed Mediterranean grill with octopus, calamari and Portuguese sardines? Then there are the entrees, which range from $12 - $26. You need one of the highly skilled staff to help at this point, because every single fish is cooked differently, and half of them are so exotic that you need a translator to tell you exactly what it is that you are ordering. The Blue Point Grill gets all its seafood from a little shop next door, where one can view the daily changing cast of fresh fillets before they enter the pan.

This evening whole striped bass, Greek sea bream and red snapper were pan-seared and served bone-in or fillets of swordfish, sole, and sea bass competed for attention with a sun dried tomato crusted salmon. We had barely finished deciding if we wanted a lobster cream or lemon butter sauce, or our fish grilled, pan-seared or roasted when we were faced with a selection of side dishes - fries, garlic mash, baked sweet potato or rice. If one does not fancy fish, then there is also seafood gumbo, lobster ravioli, homemade bouillabaisse and New England lobster rolls, though one could also settle for a plain old steak or fish and chips.

For an appetizer, I highly recommend a creamy dip with generous chunks of delicate crab meat in a thick, lemony avocado base. My entrée – wild Canadian lake trout – was glistening in a fragrant golden carapace of lemon caper butter sauce, and I was at a loss deciding if I preferred that or my friend's escolar – two chunky steaks of white tuna grilled and lightly coated with a drizzle of olive oil. They complemented each other beautifully – the delicate trout melting on the tongue, the meatier escolar releasing a rich flavour with every chew. Together, they formed a formidable combination that made my taste buds sing. The food is so good that conversation comes to a standstill, and we only paused from savoring the fish to have a mouthful of wild rice or squeeze a little lemon juice tenderly on the sweet white flesh.

By the time we were ready for dessert, the line outside had begun to form, but the interior remained pleasantly airy and calm. High ceilings, simple hard wood chairs and booths, and huge windows flooding the interior with light are typical of this unpretentious restaurant, simply decorated with a few maritime prints of fish or ships on the walls.

All the desserts ($6) are homemade, served with half a plate of whipped cream, and well worth saving some room for. A classic brownie a la mode with vanilla ice cream is a satisfyingly rich, dark brown slab of chocolate. The waitress specially recommended the apple cobbler (also a la mode) as her personal favorite. I had another great favorite, the key lime pie – a generous wedge of thick, tangy lime curd accompanied by cream on top of a cinnamony graham cracker crust that crumbles deliciously as it enters the mouth. Talk about an evening of gastronomic ecstasy! This meal will keep me in seventh heaven for a while to come.