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MadFish Covers All Bases

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

This restaurateur doesn't burden diners with all the fuss and expense of having to order accompaniments to complete their entrees.

By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 26, 2009

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ST. PETE BEACH - Call Dan Casey the "Anti-Ala Carte Guy."

With 22 years in the business, this restaurateur doesn't want to burden diners or their wallets with all the fuss and expense of having to order accompaniments to complete their entrees.

Salads, bread and vegetables are supposed to come with the meal, and they do at MadFish, an upscale diner tucked along resort row on Gulf Boulevard.

"It's a value," Casey says of his smart, delicious seafood and steak dinners served with green leaf lettuce salads topped with gorgonzola cheese and a garden vinaigrette dressing that reminded us of a light green goddess concoction.

But first came the bread: thick, crusty Cuban wedges from Tampa wrapped in a paper cone and served standing upright in a chrome holder with an olive tapenade on the side.

Then our enormous, 16 ounce-plus hand-cut rib-eye steak - soaked in Guinness Stout and grilled to a perfect medium rare - was delivered with a sweet little dauphinoise potato, a fancy French style similar to au gratin that jazzes up this beef dish staple with cream and cheese (here, a piquant gorgonzola).

If that wasn't enough, MadFish trotted out beautifully-sauteed asparagus to round out our plate.

We really didn't want to share, but we had to after our dining companion ordered the Miso Snapper, a gorgeous piece of white fish soaked in a Dashi miso broth and presented with wilted watercress, jasmine rice and fruity Enokitake mushrooms.

That dish also came with crunchy spinach so delectable we had to ask for the secret: deep fry it for 30 seconds, drain off the oil then quickly drop it into a metal bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

This is the way to get your kids to eat more spinach, not hiding it in the cupcakes.

The dinner menu also offers a tempting veal chop served with roasted garlic and Asiago risotto and a cremini mushroom and merlot demi glace; salmon with a guava and lime barbecue glaze, roasted corn arepas (tortillas) and jicama slaw; and a filet and lobster tail paired with a potato souffle.

You'll find Florida's famous Gulf grouper and shrimp and lump crab as well as chicken and prime rib.

Appetizers offer the same impressive variety from Doughnut O-Rings - a sweet beer-battered Vidalia onion dusted with powered sugar (take that Bloomin' Onion!) - to sushi grade Ahi Poke' and the Chilled Shellfish Platter featuring king crab, shrimp, oysters and mussels served on a bed of shaved ice.

With our taste buds satiated and our stomachs bulging, we had to ask for a to-go box. But we just couldn't resist inquiring about dessert. Listening to our waiter describe the molten chocolate volcano cake with its soft, creamy center was painful. We wanted it, really we did. But we settled on a traditional key lime pie.

It was light and fluffy, and yellow like it's supposed to be. It was good, but, come on, it's tough to follow a chocolate volcano.