Devon Seafood Grill (Hershey PA) 01/2011

That the town of Hershey, famous for chocolate kisses, should have a street called Chocolate Ave is not surprising. That they should have an excellent seafood restaurant is more surprising. At 27 West Chocolate Ave Devon is just that. Their seafood, which comes from all over the world, is served within 72 hours of being caught, usually much sooner than that. At night the venue is not impressive. It's very dark with over head lights only on the tables. It's also noisy which is distracting and interferes with quiet conversation. What is so very good about Devon is the food.
We started with jumbo lump crab cakes.
Two domes of crab meat in a light sauce separated by a root vegetable salad, served creole remoulade, mango tartar sauce ($14) were as good as any we've ever had. With no bread or filler there was plenty of sweet, moist meat to enjoy.
The Prince Edward Island mussels white wine and garlic ($8 or $12 for a large plate),
were EXCEPTIONAL. The mussels were plump and tender, not over cooked and well matched with the wine and lightly garlic flavoured soup they were cooked in. We were glad we asked for a spoon to help savour it.
I opted for macadamia crusted opah, orange buerre blanc, grilled asparagus, seasonal berries ($30)
While Sandra went for the lobster tails. It turned out that, at 7-00 pm on Saturday night they had no 1 and 1/4 pound lobsters left. Yes they use pounds not kilograms here. but they did have a one pound lobster left, ($29). Mesquite grilled, as all there fish is unless otherwise specified, it was served simply with a butter sauce and accompanied by a garlic mashed potato and grilled asparagus.
Opah is a fish I had never heard of before. It arrived at the table over cooked and the macadamia crust was burnt.
although I had asked for it to be as lightly cooked as possible. Our server asked me to cut into the fish to see if it was too well cooked, and immediately offered to replace it or change to another dish. Their second effort was much better. The fish has a delicate flavour, quite moist, and the flesh is very soft. It was a nice idea serving it with berries and we both enjoyed it. Evidently this fish has only become popular in the last 20 years or so and is usually caught as a bycatch.
The following information and photo come from http://www.wildoceanseafoods.com

(Lampris regius)

Opah or moonfish is one of the most colorful of the commercial fish species available in Hawaii. A silvery-grey upper body color shades to a rose red dotted with white spots toward the belly. Its fins are crimson, and its large eyes are encircled with gold. The moonfish's large, round profile may be the origin of its name. Moonfish landed in Hawaii range from 60 to over 200 pounds in round weight.

The opah's large-grain flesh is rich and fatty, with a versatility of use that is attractive to restaurants. Opah is used for sashimi, for broiling, and occasionally for smoking.

Service was outstanding and we would strongly recommend Devon to anyone in the area.

Score 14.75/20

Without deciding the importance of these things we might score Ambiance 4, Service 8 Wine 5, Food 7.5 Presentation 6, Returnability 5 Value 6 all out of 10