Seafood, even in the Coastal Bend, is a treat. It often loses to chicken, mainly because the chicken dish on the menu is so much cheaper, and paradoxically, usually much more creative than the typical fried, baked or broiled seafood. Though its a defining characteristic of all seafood restaurants to offer fish, shrimp, and oysters, in their fried, baked and broiled forms, when I go to a seafood restaurant, I like to see what else the chef can do with seafood. After all, it doesn't take a degree in culinary arts to fry, bake and broil seafood.
At Two Georges, I was not disappointed with the chefs beyond-baked creation. Snapper Pontchatrain was a generous slab of snapper baked with a thick white wine cream sauce chocked full of shrimp, crab, mushrooms and green onions. Soup or salad, rice pilaf and steamed veggies (the usual along with red peppers for color), and a serving of Two Georges own crazy bread, rounded out this filling nightly special for $16.99.
Not too bad for all that food, but for an establishment that bills itself as a family restaurant, Two Georges is limiting just what kind of family can afford to eat there, with most of the menu items priced in the mid teens. The atmosphere does say "family restaurant though. Tastefully decorated in blues and white, with stuffed shark and swordfish to amuse and amaze the youngsters.
The only other disconcerting thing about Two Georges besides a lack of less expensive options on the menu, was that almost all the seafood offerings are not priced at all. One must inquire the price, which varies according to the daily market. Though I do not fault the restaurant for employing this pricing strategy, they could use that wonderful large blackboard on which they list their specials to also list the market prices of seafood. I believe many people out there are just too timid to ask, perhaps too afraid of what the server will say, afraid they will not be able to afford it. And most of them would be right. Market prices on the day of my visit were in the low-to-mid $20s, except for Alaskan King Crab, which was in the high $20s. Upon further questioning, the server informed me one can also order a ½ pound for ½ price. That puts the dishes within "family restaurant" price range, but a ½ pound of seafood wont satisfy a big appetite.
Having beat my point about the prices firmly into the ground, I must also say the food was very good. Two Georges offers unexpected dishes in each menu category and a few of their own creations, like the Crab Balls appetizer ($6.95). One of the values of the menu is the Bombay salad, a family-style plate that serves up to 4 for $6.95.This tuna-salad-style salad is a blend of avocado, sour cream and curry with lettuce and tomato on the side.
The seafood entrées come any way you like them, boiled, broiled, baked, blackened, Mesquite grilled or fried, and all come with generous sides like the twice baked potato with cheese and chives mixed in. Two Georges stands out from many other local seafood restaurants for offering calamari and frog legs. On the menu are also three steaks, Filet Mignon, Rib Eye and T-Bone and one chicken dish. For the kids, there are three standards choices, all at $3.95.
If not as my calamari connection, I would dine again at Two Georges just to get to dessert. I have sampled many a disappointing key lime pie in the Coastal Bend and when I ordered it, my dining partner knew the pie would make or break the review for Two Georges.
Having been introduced to Key Lime Pie in the Low Country, (Savannah, Charleston) where it is indisputably at its best, I have a high standard for Key Lime Pie. Two Georges met that standard, if not surpassing it with the presentation of the pie in a pool of strawberry sauce and with a slice of not only lime but orange too.
The other knock-out dessert was the Magnificent Seven, a cake with each of its seven layers being a different kind of chocolate. In anticipation of this dietary violation in the first degree, I tried to think of seven different kinds of chocolate-milk, white, bittersweet, dark
I know there must be more. But I dont think those were the kinds of chocolate to which this recipe refers. More likely the kinds are chocolate icing, chips, fudge, brownie, cake, pudding, etc. I left without fully understanding the Magnificent Seven, and may well need another visit to investigate it further. Two Georges is located in the Market Shopping Center at 5884 Everhart. It opens Monday through Saturday at 5 p.m. and at noon on Sunday. 993-8008.
