I am a huge lover of seafood so when there's a restaurant that's dedicated to seafood I'm totally there. Unsurprisingly, the menu at The Clam is focused on the clam. When you think about it there's a lot of different ways to have clams, raw, steamed, fried or de-shelled in a pasta. This place had all of those options and more. And yes, if you don't like clams they also have non-clam options such as crabcakes, swordfish, and even chicken. Nancy and I decided to split a the scallop crudo ($15), clam fried rice ($16), steam littlenecks ($14) and the creamed kale ($8). If we had room I would have loved to have tried the fried belly clam sandwich but the waitress mentioned that this would be enough food and we were also leaving room for dessert.
It was still relatively early in the night (6pm) so we were the only people in the restaurant for a while but it definitely started to fill up as the night went along. They start you off with warm, fresh parker rolls that were buttery and delicious. I could have eaten an entire pack of them. The scallop crudo came out first and it was a lovely plate of 5 raw scallops with pear, hazelnuts, chives and lime on top it. While I liked the flavors that the toppings gave the dish, it was a bit much and the taste of the actual scallop was a bit lost. The cut of the scallop was thin so piling it up with heavy bits of hazelnuts and pear was too much. Next they brought out all the rest of the dishes. I tried the littlenecks first and oh my. It was incredibly delicious and reminds of why I love steamed clams. It was served with a garlic type bread and it was soaking in "natural broth" but it sure tasted like 10 sticks of butter instead. The clams were all perfectly steamed, plumb and juicy. If they had more of the parker rolls, it would have been the perfect vehicle to sop up all the broth. Next I tried the clam fried rice. It was a pretty large plate of fried rice with pork belly, snow peas, pickled onion and of course clams. In true fried rice fashion it was kind of salty but in a good way. The flavors all seemed to work really well with each other and I actually really liked it mixed with the creamed kale. On to the kale - yes, it's technically a super food but when it's creamed like this (essentially it's creamed spinach but with kale instead), I'm pretty sure all the health benefits went out the door. But it was fabulous and a different twist to a food that has become pretty trendy these days.
Even though we were pretty full, we managed to save some room for dessert and the waitress recommended the ice cream sandwich ($9) because it was already pre-cut into two pieces. I do love a good ice cream sandwich and this one did not fail. In fact, it may have been one of the best ice cream sandwiches I've had in a long time. It was a soft but still firm gingerbread cookie with creme fraiche gelato and brown butter caramel drizzled on top of it. The gelato tasted exactly like creme fraiche, so if you don't like a slightly sour taste this might not be for you, but I loved it. The cookie was amazing, so soft yet still held the ice cream tightly and it had that perfect ginger bite to it. I'm glad that they had cut it into 2 pieces because I could have easily eaten the entire thing myself.
By the time we left around 8, the place was totally jammed packed. As we were finishing up, the chef Michael Price (he also owns Market Table) personally came out of the kitchen to thank us for coming - what a nice touch! I thought that was really nice of him to get out of the kitchen and to interact with the customers. I would totally come back and try the fried clam sandwich and the clam pasta - along with another ice cream sandwich! Total bill: $39/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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