Net Gains

There’s a splashy new seafood place on the horizon here. That would be Bluewater Grill in Santa Ana, where the motto is: “We could serve it cheaper, but it wouldn’t be fresh.”

Nice thought. But as anyone who has eaten freshly caught fish can attest, there is fresh, and then there is heartbreakingly fresh. The latter may just be too much to expect from a landlocked restaurant like this one.

I don’t mean to imply that Bluewater Grill is without its virtues. South Coast Plaza Village needed a decent seafood restaurant, and now it has one. And it’s a handsome, cheerful place with an appealing nautical theme; blow-up photos of sport fisherman line the walls.

The dining tables are wood, as in a Cape Cod clam house. The best of them, for my money, are in a small, intimate room just to the right of the hostess stand, and there’s also a quiet enclosed patio. But I prefer to sit at the long wooden counter, which is an oyster bar and the ideal spot to watch the chefs at work.

You should have no problem finding something you like. Chef Brian Hirsty’s menu is huge; every popular sea creature seems to surface here in one form or another (except abalone, which the management considers too expensive for its price range.) There will be at least 15 kinds of fresh fish any given day, many of them prepared in original ways.

For instance, one evening I enjoyed sauteed Hawaiian onaga, a pink-fleshed snapper, which came with a deliciously tart papaya relish. On another occasion, a companion heaped praise on her flaky Alaskan halibut in a lemon-pepper-macadamia nut crust. Hirsty is creative, no doubt about it.

But sometimes he just gets too ambitious. I’m from New England, and one of my favorite foods as a kid was fried Ipswich clams, a.k.a. littleneck clams. They’re long-necked clams with large, squishy bellies. At Massachusetts clam stands, they’re rolled in cornmeal batter and deep-fried like French fries.

When Ipswich clams are fresh, they are one of life’s ethereal delicacies. The ones I’ve had at Bluewater Grill, though, lacked the sweet brine tang you’d get at a clam stand in my home state. They they were deftly fried and served with a fine homemade tartar sauce, but, I’m sorry, they struck me as a poor imitation of the real thing. Likewise, the chef goes to great lengths to bring you hard-to-get fish from outside our area, such as sand dabs from Eureka and walleye pike from Minnesota. The problem is that if you’ve ever eaten these fish close to the source, you’re probably in for a letdown.

Take the sand dabs, sauteed in lemon caper butter; they’re smooth, delicate and delicious, but not quite as good as you can get in the Bay Area. As for the walleye, I asked the kitchen to fry a few filets in beer batter, the way you get it around the Great Lakes. But the filets didn’t have much flavor, which made me wonder how long they’d been out of the water.

I’ve had mixed reactions to other things on the menu. The restaurant buys alder- and oak-smoked albacore, salmon and trout from the Chesapeake Seafood Co., and though the fish are flavorful, they’re too dry for my taste. Hirsty makes a properly rich, coral-red lobster bisque, but it would be even better if the kitchen threw a few chunks of lobster meat into the pot.

The best appetizer I’ve tried here was an off-menu ceviche of huge prawns in a freshly made tomato salsa. The dish was as delicious a concoction as you get on the Mexican Riviera. The Maine red rock crab cakes are another good choice. They’re crisp, richly flavored and all crab meat.

I liked Bluewater’s clams Casino, in spite of all the oil that spilled out of the shells onto the metal serving dish. The stuffing of these tender baked clams was subtle and irresistible.

I’ve also had a variety of fresh fish here, some well worth their price tag. The local snapper and Northwest ling cod are particularly good either blackened (a trick this kitchen performs well) or with the chef’s teriyaki sauce.

Bluewater Grill wants to please. As soon as I mentioned to my waitress that I wasn’t thrilled with the Pacific swordfish--it lacked that distinct swordfish flavor--the management graciously substituted another entree for it.

Every entree comes with a choice of two sides, the best being the nicely moist rice pilaf and the huge, perfectly steamed spears of fresh broccoli. There is also a terrific list of wines by the glass, including a fruity, complex Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Toad Hollow Pinot Noir from California (nice long finish on it) and dozens of other boutique choices.

The desserts are a stodgy range of choices. There’s Key lime pie with a creamy custard filling and a flaccid graham flour crust, a passable apple pie and something called chocolate chocolate chocolate cake, a commercial product that would be just as well described using the word “chocolate” once.

I know it’s hard for a land-locked restaurant to have all its fish absolutely dead fresh, particularly when it offers as large a variety as Bluewater Grill does. But our best sushi bars pull it off, so it’s not unreasonable to ask for an American restaurant to do the same. Time will tell.

Bluewater Grill is moderate to expensive. Oyster bar items are $1.50 to $13.85. Soups and salads are $2.50 to $12.95. Entrees are $9.90 to $34.80.

BE THERE

Bluewater Grill, South Coast Plaza Village, 1621 W. Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana. (714) 546-FISH (3474.) Lunch and dinner 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. All major cards. There is also a Bluewater Grill in Newport Beach at 630 Lido Park Drive. (949) 675-3474.