Dube’s Seafood
The Phantom Gourmet team lives to turn you on to quirky restaurants with great food and great value — places you wouldn't necessarily stumble upon on your own. I’m talking about places like Dube's Seafood in Salem. When you pull up to this place, besides the big red sign, it kind of feels like a speakeasy. It’s sandwiched between two Salem houses. Then you walk in, and the ceilings are low, the bar is wooden, the floor is wooden, and the walls are wooden. That is the holy trinity of wooden. It creates this great old-school vibe.
Alexis Bedard is the GM who wrote this interesting menu. She knows her seafood, and she’s got a lot of energy. I’m willing to bet she could swim from Salem down to the docks in Boston.
“A lot of our customers walk in, they sit, and we already have their drink there. We have their order in because they get the same thing every time. They know our names, we know them, and it just makes for a great experience.”
“Our kitchen works really hard to prep everything every single morning, and they do a great job making sure we stay consistent and get fresh seafood deliveries every single day, so the food that comes out is the same as it was two days before.”
People from all over the world want to try fresh fried New England seafood, so if you have guests from out of town, this is a great place to take them. The fried seafood platter features scallops, shrimp, and clams over a big bed of fries with their special coleslaw and, of course, homemade tartar sauce. Gotta dip it in the tartar.
This has got to be the only TV show where coleslaw could be a serious topic. Here, they make their coleslaw with vinegar, not mayonnaise, because they feel it pairs better with fried seafood. And having tried it, I’ve got to tell you, I think it’s possible they have it right and the rest of the world has it wrong.
The Howard Johnson's chain popularized the clam roll all over the country. It’s where I had my first clam roll. Here, it’s a lot better than they used to do it. These are big, bellied fried clams, and there are so many piled onto that toasted roll. I’ve got to dig through these fried clams just to find the roll. I feel like a fisherman searching for clams on the beach.
This place is definitely old school, but the menu has some interesting modern twists, including the tacos. These are made with haddock served in traditional tortilla shells, topped with pico de gallo. So this is New England meets Mexico, and I love it.
I find that restaurants that make great fried seafood are also great at making onion rings. Here, they are special. They have one guy in the back hand-slicing them every day, and these are about as good as it gets. It’s definitely a specialty of the house. I counted them on at least half the tables.
“They are definitely our top seller. You can get a mini ring, and it’s going to serve about three people here, and it always surprises customers. They hand-slice them out back, batter them, and prep them fresh every day. People love them. They’re battered, not shoestring.”
“They’re like the perfect in-between. They’re always nice and light, not greasy, and they definitely make the meal for sure.”
That is a great onion ring.
This may look like scallops, but it’s actually fried chicken. There’s tons of white meat chicken fried up and served with their famous onion rings. If you want to create your own fried Thanksgiving, they do offer cranberry sauce with this. But I say go with the homemade sweet-and-sour sauce. They add a little pineapple, and the flavor is great.
“It’s definitely one of our most nostalgic meals as well. People who came here as kids remember having the boneless fried chicken dinner, and to this day they still get it for that nostalgic feeling. The cranberry just gives it a nice, homey vibe — kind of like Thanksgiving.”
“And the sweet-and-sour sauce gives it a nice sweetness and just a little more flavor and texture.”
If you want to get some surf and turf going, ask your friend to get the London broil. You don’t see this dish too much anymore. Here, they do a teriyaki marinade and serve it alongside a tomato topped with breadcrumbs.
If you want classic New England comfort food cuisine, you’ve got to get the shrimp and lobster casserole, served in the traditional casserole dish. Tons of shrimp, tons of lobster, butter, and breadcrumbs. This makes me proud to be from New England.
“The drawn butter just gives it that extra comfort and amazing taste. You feel like you’re having a nice home-cooked meal. It’s definitely one of our top sellers that people love and come back for every week.”
“It’s definitely a comforting dish because it has those crumbs on top and that nice buttery flavor throughout.”
“It’s amazing.”
Salem is known as the Witch City, but I think they should rename it the Fish and Witch City because of all the great seafood around these parts, including Dube’s Seafood.
