Red Snapper: Exceeding Expectations

by Chris Becicka

Red Snapper owners, Linda and K.C. Chao

I had no expectations when I drove up. Absolutely none. I’d never seen this restaurant, somewhat tucked away between Ward Parkway and State Line on 85th Street; perhaps more shamefully, I’d never even heard of this restaurant, despite the fact its owner, K.C. Chao has been in the restaurant business some 30 years. Its name brought visions of a more common fish restaurant chain which I feared it might be related to. (It’s not.)

So when I stepped through the door of the Red Snapper and stood eyeball to eyeball with the magnified tropical fish in the two lighted convex globes, I was already somewhat surprised.

It was a Wednesday night, and the place was pleasantly full with a mixed-age crowd—so apparently, others knew of its existence. Our host told us it is a pan-Asian bistro. A bit large for a typical bistro I thought, and then, looking up bistro, I find it means a small restaurant, bar, or nightclub. Small is relative; this bistro seats 148 in two red, beige and black accented rooms.

We’d arrived too late for the bar-only happy hour, 4-7 p.m. five nights a week, so we started with a glass of wine from (again) a surprisingly wide selection of 39 different wines from $19 to $45, with most resting in their mid-$20s. There are 18 by the glass; some were available by the half bottle, and I liked how they are described: off dry, rich and full, soft and quiet, spicy, and hearty with both red and white in each category. There are martinis, too; try the saketini (I wasn’t brave enough).

So, dinner. We went straight to it, though deciding took us quite a while. There really is quite a large variety, and everything sounded really, really good. Well, almost everything—sautéed sea cucumber and cold jelly fish did help me shorten the list. There were 16 specialties listed, five stir-fried plates, noodles Chinese, Thai, or Japanese style, three hot noodle soup bowls, three vegetarian entrees, and that’s not all.

I chose the namesake—a crispy, whole red snapper which was true to its first names—spicy and garlic. Though I’d ordered a small one (again, that relativity issue) for $16.95, it arrived on a rather huge platter which it filled, covered with shiny and crisp veggies in a sauce into which my portly companion eventually poured my rice after he’d finished his own panko breaded grouper, also scrumptious—not that he was still hungry, understand, it was just rather addictive.

At lunchtime, the place takes on a somewhat different personality. It was very busy the day another friend and I tried it; all tables full at 12:30 p.m. But it’s a fast moving crowd who didn’t mind talking rather loudly. Although you can order any of the dinner items, a simplified lunch menu exists: 15 different items that come with the soup of the day, a smoked salmon Rangoon, and rice, most for $6.95. My lunch-mate Martha’s hot and sour soup was spicy enough to startle her a bit—but she slurped it all up. Her General Tso’s shrimp was not as spicy, but still very tasty. From the other dishes—which included vegetarian, Chinese, Polynesian, Thai, or Japanese—I chose stir-fried black bean with chicken. It was fine, and certainly more than I could eat, but I somehow wished I’d sprung for the fish again, since I already knew how good it was. Alas, reviewers do have obligations.

But I will go back because of the variety, the reasonable prices, and of course, the taste. I want to try the basil shrimp rolls, the fried king calamari with a lemon chili dipping sauce, the peanut chicken salad, the hot pots, the honey-banana tempura with green tea ice cream, and about six other things. And now I know to have great expectations.