Coronado Restaurant Provides Tasteful Blend of Seafood and South Seas’ Decor

Yet another delayed reaction to the 1950s and Eisenhower Era recently breezed into Coronado in the form of Peohe’s, an eatery that has resuscitated the “islands” atmosphere that once threatened to convert a whole generation of restaurant-goers to the cult of the mai tai.

An upscale member of the Chart House family, Peohe’s is in the new Old Ferry Landing development (the construction “new Old” does not seem to amount to an oxymoron in our interesting corner of the world), just across the bay from downtown San Diego. You can, in fact, take the ferry there, and quite a few tourists and locals do exactly that.

This sizable restaurant specializes in seafood and frankly does rather well with its something-for-everyone menu. The place is fun and funky and jammed on weekends, and woe betide those who casually waltz in without reservations.

The front door to Peohe’s opens onto a scene that was familiar three decades ago to patrons of such places as Don the Beachcomber’s and Kon-Tiki Ports, the “Polynesian” establishments that had branches in many large cities. The decor rather effectively re-creates a Hawaiian rain forest, and guests dine amid lush plantings, rock outcroppings, babbling brooks and pools as limpid as Brooke Shields’ eyes.

The view, which sweeps along the water from the graceful arch of the Coronado Bridge to the Point Loma yacht basins, is about as panoramic as they come, and thanks to elevated seating areas, almost all tables share in it. This is a thoughtfully and cleverly designed restaurant, and its proprietors doubtless plan to stay in business far longer than most.

Contemporary Tone

The menu pretty much takes a contemporary tone except in one fascinating nod to the past, a drink list that offers such exotica as the lapu lapu (a full quart of fruit juices and mixed rums), and the extraordinary, neo-Cubist ice castle. Carved from deep-blue ice, the Castle looks rather like a rough-hewn bowling ball and brims with a daunting blend of fruit juices, rum, gin, Galliano liqueur and blue curacao.

The food takes a less adventurous path than the drinks, but the dishes do reflect a certain degree of imagination. In its simplest mood, the menu offers a better-than-basic list of cold appetizers, all of which (except for the Japanese sashimi, in this case sliced raw ahi) appear on the seafood sampler. This plate can be shared by two or three, and includes a couple of fat shrimp; pairs of fresh, good raw oysters and clams on the half shell; mussels crowned with a pleasingly piquant blend of peppers and cilantro; cheese and fresh fruit; excellent smoked fish, and Tahitian-style poisson cru .

San Diegans will recognize the poisson cru (literally “raw fish”) as a variation on ceviche; in both dishes, the fish is chemically “cooked” in a bath of lime juice, but the Tahitian brand includes coconut milk. Because it lacks cilantro, the poisson cru may at first seem rather tasteless compared to ceviche, but on further examination it reveals a delicate, refreshing subtlety.

Among the hot appetizers are the garlic-jalapeno cheese bread, a rather zesty indulgence that serves equally well at entree time; oysters Rockefeller, and an entire, steamed artichoke that is executed rather handsomely.

Good News in Soup Department

Locals will find the ho-hum list of salads rather easy to ignore (tourists from greenery-starved regions may find this less easy to do), but Peohe’s redeems itself in the soup department. The selections are far from novel--lobster bisque, Manhattan-style clam chowder and French onion--but they are reasonably well-prepared, especially the creamy bisque, which boasts hefty chunks of lobster meat. As a pleasant innovation, the restaurant offers a sampler that includes small portions of each.

The standing entree list offers pepper steak, rack of lamb and prime rib, but seafood dominates, and continues in a nice list of daily specials that pays plenty of attention to fish imported from Hawaii.

Among the standing seafood offerings is one of the most sure-fire crowd-pleasers around, a plate of giant, butterflied shrimp coated in coconut and deep fried to a crisp finish. The serving is more than generous, and the flavor unsophisticated but absolutely satisfying. And for those who don’t care to trek across the border, Peohe’s serves up a large lobster that is split, seasoned and grilled somewhat in the manner typical of Baja California seafood houses. The result does not really approximate the glorious dish served south of the border, but it is not bad, either. Beans, tortillas and salsa, all hailing from the middle-of-the-road school, do their best to “Mexican-up” this plate.

The fresh fish list is printed daily, a nice touch that should be standard at all San Diego seafood houses. It recently started with char-grilled local swordfish and continued with sauteed sablefish (served with rouille , the French pepper mayonnaise); poached Norwegian salmon with dilled hollandaise, and steamed halibut served on a bed of creamed spinach, a combination that texture-wise seems unappealing.

Among Hawaiian fish were hebi, or spearfish; opakapapa; ono; uku, and ahi. Most were grilled and served with melted butter or mango chutney. Chutney, a sweet relish that would seem at odds with most fish, did help tame the rather strong taste of the uku (described by the menu as “gray snapper”), a meaty, delicately textured fish that may be something of an acquired taste.

Peohe’s is another of those restaurants that falls apart when it comes to side dishes, which are important and deserve closer attention than they generally receive. All entrees arrived garnished with gooey, unfortunate rice that possibly intended to be Mexican in its seasoning, and a saute of squashes and other vegetables that was more a mishmash than a mix.

The kitchen redeems itself with the desserts, however, which, like the specialty cocktails, tend to be explosive in flavor and almost too generous in size. First prize goes to the rum cake with fresh banana topping, a dessert that gives the tropics a good name. The key lime pie is straightforward, honest, creamy and deliciously tart; the chocolate mousse pie is good but almost cloyingly rich, and the coconut cream cake should be avoided at all costs.

PEOHE’S

1201 1st St., Coronado

437-4474

Lunch and dinner served daily.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $40 to $80.