Sea Food Online

Fresh seafood flown from the source

Elegance, value put Real Seafood at the top of the heap

The message at the top of the Real Seafood Company's menu says it all: "As close to New England waters as your taste can travel."

The reasons why Real Seafood is our Readers' Choice favorite seafood restaurant are as varied as the items on its menu.

Of all the restaurants in Ann Arbor, none combines the simple elegance, moderate pricing and fresh seafood that this fixture of the Main Street restaurant scene has offered for more than 20 years.

Part of Real Seafood's charm is the way it pares its menu down to the basics without missing a trick. Shellfish? Check. Ocean-caught fish from scrod to Atlantic salmon to perch? Covered. Raw bar? Ditto.

All that and more awaits the seafood lover, who demands fresh, delicious seafood but doesn't want to break the bank.

That's not to say Real Seafood qualifies as cheap eats. Entrees range from $16 to $33 and side dishes are a la carte.

But for fresh seafood flown in regularly from the source, Real Seafood, a part of the Mainstreet Ventures collection of restaurants, which also includes Gratzi and Palio, is among the best values around.

Of course, as with any good restaurant, Real Seafood is about more than its food. The restaurant offers a relaxed-yet-elegant atmosphere just as suited to a romantic dinner as a business lunch.

That's just what Frank Williams was doing on a recent weekday afternoon. A Kalamazoo-based sales representative for a industrial supply company, he regularly takes clients to Real Seafood, at 341 S. Main St., when he's in Ann Arbor on business.
And when he's in town on football Saturdays, he often takes his family there for a post-game meal.

"For me, it has everything - friendly service and really good food," Williams said. "I like that I can take my clients here for a productive, working lunch or take the kids here for a nice, family dinner."