Surf Diner

FOOD

Friday’s fish fry is Surf Diner’s unlimited attraction: fried fish accompanied by hand-cut fries. The fish is the food you can keep eating under the AYCE offer. That is a focused Friday pleasure for anyone whose ideal seafood dinner involves finding a favorite and sticking with it. The appeal is another helping of fish, with the pier outside for the walk afterward.

Hand-cut fries give the meal its familiar fish-and-potatoes pairing. They are explicitly part of the special, so the plate has more going on than fish alone. Keep the fish as the main event and enjoy the fries alongside it. The fry decisions then lie with you – ketchup, vinegar or another sauce on request.

Beyond Friday’s special, Surf Diner has a separate à la carte seafood program. Its ordinary fried lunch plates include shrimp and oysters, with fresh-cut fries, slaw and hushpuppies alongside. Those accompaniments make a fuller coastal diner plate, but they should not be counted as fish-fry inclusions. Choose the ordinary seafood plate when that combination is what you want, and confirm the Friday special’s accompaniments when choosing AYCE.

The sandwich side has an especially cheeky specimen: Joni’s Crabby Patty combines a smashed burger patty with a grilled crab cake and fried pickles. Beef, crab and pickles have all turned up for the same assignment. It is a separate menu order for someone at the table who wants a substantial sandwich while you concentrate on fish.

Dinner stretches further into seafood with whole flounder, crab-cake dinners and seafood pasta. A crab-cake dinner brings two cakes with a choice of two sides, giving a crab enthusiast a meal of their own. Crab legs are sold by portion, too. These belong to the ordinary dinner menu and carry their own charges. Friday’s all-you-can-eat wording applies to the fried-fish special, so keep the crab-leg ambitions on a separate tab.

Shrimp and grits brings a Southern coastal pairing into the separate dinner choices, giving a companion another seafood supper while the fish fry keeps you occupied. Thursday’s recurring prime-rib night gives meat eaters a reason to choose another evening. Its roast-and-sides dinner has featured red-wine au jus, baked potato and Brussels sprouts. Check that evening’s special for the accompaniments; the Thursday roast has its own terms.

Breakfast has personality of its own. Look for the pork-roll sandwich introduced on a grilled bagel with two over-hard eggs, American cheese, salt, pepper and ketchup. Calling it Taylor ham can remain a table discussion. The sandwich is a breakfast order, outside AYCE. Seasonal additions bring another reason to check the specials: October’s limited-time pumpkin-spice waffle gets cinnamon and powdered sugar.

For the fish fry itself, plan around Friday and confirm the serving time and price before heading over. Availability is limited by supplies. Once those details are settled, the attraction is uncomplicated: fried fish you can have more of, hand-cut fries alongside, and a pier outing that gives the meal somewhere memorable to happen.