Craig LaBan’s guide to the best seafood down the Shore

There are a gazillion great crab cakes at the Jersey Shore, but I dream of the lightly packed and lumpy beauties here. Perfected in 1994 after a stint at Le Bernardin, chef-owner Christopher Sanchez’s top-secret recipe is filled with chives and requires the chef to hand-shape the cakes himself (“90% of the time!”) before they’re pan-roasted and served with caper remoulade.

Is there a better example of classic Italian American cooking than at this hard-to-book A.C. classic from chef-owner Joe Lautato? His baked clams oreganata, topped with basil, breadcrumbs, and grated cheese, is just one example of his finesse.

What happens when this venerable Avalon charmer marries an Italian seafood standard with a classic diner sandwich? You get the “BLT scampi” pasta. Lobster replaces the lettuce, and it comes with shrimp in garlicky wine sauce over fresh fettuccine. Tossed with fresh grape tomatoes and apple-smoked bacon, it tastes like a summer picnic in a bowl.

The grilled romaine salad is a flashback to the late 2000s, when chefs began getting more creative with live fire. But I’d probably eat more salads in general if they were all topped with fistfuls of colossal crab and plump shrimp sauteed in garlicky olive oil like the “OMG” at this Longport Italian mainstay. A whiff of grill smoke from the singed greens adds an extra layer of savor to the house Caesar dressing.

The Esposito family serves what may be the definitive version of flounder francaise at their homey 105-year-old Italian gem. The egg-washed fillet of fluke is one of the plumpest, most delicate clouds of white fish possible, even more irresistible when topped with fistfuls of lump crab.

There’s serious lobster roll competition on L.B.I., but this updated vintage seafood shack is my lobster roll champ. Here, they jam a butter-toasted bun with six ounces of sweet knuckle meat dressed oh-so-lightly in mayo. The cod tacos with peach salsa are also great.

I love all the handmade Oaxacan specialties at this tiny restaurant, which is easily one of the Shore’s best Mexican kitchens. But its caldo de piedra is an event: The bountiful seafood stew arrives bubbling from hot river stones that were dropped into the bowl just before it left the kitchen.

I love the elegance of the seafood carpaccios here — especially the branzino and mosaic-like octopus crudo, with bright garnishes that display the light Italian touch the Iovino family has long brought to their Neapolitan menu.

After half a century in business, and now in its second generation of family ownership, Harvey Cedars Shellfish Co. is still the sweet spot for a classic steamed lobster platter, where a properly cooked crustacean comes with gently steamed littleneck clams and a sweet ear of local white corn. The fried calamari Veracruz with chopped cherry peppers and Jersey tomatoes is also essential.

There’s no perch more picturesque for savoring the local bivalve harvest than a picnic table beside the Barnegat Bay at this open-air raw bar and grill operated by the Barnegat Oyster Collective, a leader in local oyster farming. An icy platter of briny Sugar Shacks, Laughing Gulls, and Violet Skies from Barnegat’s salty waters will make you realize just how far New Jersey’s oyster revival has come. Now entering its third season, the patio has evolved into a full-service restaurant. 

The blackened John Dory platters, bigeye tuna tacos, and Jersey stone crab claws are made extra special by the fact that most of it has been fished by the family itself, led by patriarch Capt. Bill Bright. The tradition makes this al fresco fixture along the Rio Grande Avenue causeway one of the state’s most essential seafood shack treasures. 

Come to this evocative Irish pub for the creamiest pint o’ Guinness at the Shore, but stay for spot-on fish and chips that crisps flaky haddock inside a tawny and greaseless beer-battered crust.

Stuffed lobster is a classic seaside dish, but chef David Viana — a two-time James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist — gives it a bold update at his modern tribute to Italian American cuisine inside the boutiquey St. Laurent Social Club. A locally caught two-pounder is gently poached, picked, and stuffed with sweet meat before getting tossed in a creamy vodka sauce that takes on the buttery crumble of a shortbread tuile and the spice of a chili crisp made from dehydrated cherry peppers, garlic, and shrimp.

The Cajun catfish at this casual soul-food cafe is one of this region’s rare examples of Southern food done right. The fish is marinated in a zippy oregano-cayenne spice before it’s fried crisp inside a greaseless cornmeal crust. It’s a perfect match for sides of toothsome black-eyed peas, smoked turkey collards, and warm corn bread.

The Prohibition-era glamor of Boardwalk Empire is alive and well at this 114-year-old classic, where a $77 combo of crab and corn chowder, creamy lobster Thermidor, and filet mignon (plus a buffalo mozz-tomato salad) will have you living large like Nucky Thompson.

This zuppa di pesce is proof, with its second- and third-floor beachside perch at the eastern end of John F. Kennedy Boulevard, that a big bowl of seafood pasta in fragrant broth tinted with tomato and basil tastes even better with an ocean view.

I come for the leche de tigre, a tangy gush of citrus jolted with ginger and chile that bathes the Peruvian seafood ceviches. Then, I dig into a fragrant pile of arroz con mariscos and a crispy Jalea medley of fried mixed seafood laced with tangy criolla onions.

The couscous alla Trapanese is a nod to the Sicilian side of chef-owner Domenico “Dom” Rizzo’s family, a paella pan of pearl-shaped couscous laden with seafood treasure that’s a master class in harmonizing myriad flavors — fennel, golden raisins, pine nuts, and shellfish broth — that showcases every morsel of littlenecks, lobster, prawns, and calamari cooked to perfection.

The fried scallops at this thriving marina tavern are the height of simple perfection, their micro-crusts sealing in the sweetness of beauties hand-plucked from the Lobster House’s own fishing fleet. They also come with some of the best house-made french fries you’ll find at the Shore.

Your hot seafood summer can officially begin once you’ve landed at this century-old seafood institution on Sea Isle’s “Fish Alley.” Bib-up for the deviled clams, Hank’s hot sauce “shrimp from hell,” and the “Patio Paul” mega-combo, a three-pound feeding frenzy in an aluminum pan that brims with lobster, crab legs, and shrimp.

A seafood feast doesn’t get much fresher than a clambake at this Beach Haven standby. The fragrant pile of 50 steamy littlenecks that overflow from a pan of garlicky wine broth were dug from the bay just beyond the al fresco deck of this historic boating pier.

I admire all the South American touches Argentine chef Lucas Manteca brings to his modern makeover of the classic seafood shack. The tuna comes as watermelon ceviche, the seafood combo is stewed Brazilian moqueca-style in coconut-achiote broth with chorizo over green rice, and a whole branzino is deep-fried into a basket cradling herbs over a plate of gazpacho.

The snappy, hand-cranked house spaghetti tossed in wine-infused spicy marinara with fistfuls of jumbo lump crab is just one of the many reasons this beloved BYOB is often booked out in advance all summer. 

Here’s another generous lobster roll that’s a favorite of mine. This cash-only takeout window by the beach makes it warm and buttery (with just a touch of mayo). I’m also a fan of the all-veggie Uncle Charlie hoagie

If you’re doing the cooking at your summer digs, the signature scallops here are about as perfect and fresh as they come. The catch is harvested and flash-frozen on the boat the day they’re landed by captain Brady Lybarger, whose wife, Amanda Axelsson, runs their market at the Cape May airport. The monkfish chowder, crab bisque, and smoked bluefish dip are also worth driving for.

This clam shack’s briny littlenecks on the half-shell, textbook chowders (I always get a red-and-white mix), and the fried platters of fresh-caught flounder are without peers. But longtime regulars of this South Jersey icon know that the baked tuna casserole with gingery wasabi, soy, and olive oil sauce is the essential move.

There are seafood hits all across the menu at Cookie Till’s timeless Margate oasis, from an array of local oysters topped with caviar to notably delicate crab imperial with sweet lumps as big as golf balls. But S&C’s seafood pan-roast — always listed as a special — is the height of refined simplicity, a mother lode of lobster, crab, scallops, and shrimp all cooked perfectly together in a single pan, then served over basmati rice moistened with lemony butter.

This old-school tavern at the base of the causeway in Ship Bottom is a classic stop for locals who stock up on quarts of to-go chowder. I’m especially partial to the Manhattan red chowder, which is zingy and packed with clams.