Sel de Mer - Visited 1/10/10 3 Forks

Sel de Mer 374 Graham Ave(between Conselyea St & Skillman Ave)

Dan and I frequent this seafood joint b/c it's literally 2 blocks from him house. This place used to be a middle eastern joint that was always empty, but now it's been taken over by the former chef at Sweetwater focusing on seafood. They have a small menu, but what they always have a long list of specials on the chalkboard outside. I've been there for both brunch and dinner and it's a solid go to in the neighborhood, which was once void of anything good. It's also pretty affordable considering how seafood restaurants generally are overpriced.

We started with 15 oysters, a mix of malpaque and some other one that I can't remember now ($1.50/each). The malpaques were quite good and the other one was a bit too fishy for me, but the vinegar sauce that they use there is excellent. I ordered the mussels in white wine ($12), which came with perfectly cooked thick cut fries. The broth was so yummy and I could have just drank the whole thing but I didn't for fear that I would regret it later. Dan got the Cobia, which is a flaky white fish, and it came with Israeli couscous and a variety of veggies ($16) and Andrew got the Sea Bass bouillabaisse with shrimp, mussels, shrimp and clams ($17). The food was all very good but clearly had about 8 sticks of butter in them as they were pretty rich tasting. We split the chocolate cake ($7), which was warm and had hot fudge poured on it. I'm generally not a chocolate fan but I must admit it was pretty damn tasty. We also split a bottle of Malbec wine ($30), which was good and provided about 6 small-medium pours, but in retrospect I don't think we needed the whole bottle for dinner. The waitstaff is very nice and friendly and they remembered us when we came back.