Summerhays Serves Halibut and Chips With a Tropical Twist

A plate of halibut and chips arrives with the straightforward appeal that has kept Summerhays in local conversation for years: thick pieces of flaky fish, a crisp fried coating, broad fries, and tartar sauce close at hand. It is familiar fish-and-chips territory, but the halibut is substantial enough to give the meal a little more presence than the usual quick fried-fish stop.

Summerhays is a casual, family-oriented seafood restaurant with an unexpectedly playful dining room. Palm trees, sea-themed novelties and a waterfall or water feature put a tropical spin on a meal built around cold-water favorites. The result is relaxed rather than fancy, with enough visual oddities around the room to keep the setting from fading into the background.

The namesake halibut and chips is the natural place to begin. The fish is known for arriving hot, with a crisp exterior around moist, flaky halibut that comes in hefty chunks rather than thin, quickly disappearing strips.

Chips can mean wide steak fries here, browned and crisp on the outside with a softer middle. They are sturdy enough to work their way through tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, ranch or fry sauce, depending on the direction dinner takes.

For a less fried route, halibut also appears in grilled lemon-pepper form. Baked herb halibut, paired with Parmesan toast, offers another way to keep the fish at the center of the plate without repeating the classic basket.

The tartar sauce is a regular companion to the fried halibut, and it is one of the house touches that diners tend to notice. Summerhays also keeps cocktail sauce, ranch and fry sauce in the mix, so a table trying several baskets does not have to settle on one flavor lane.

The coleslaw deserves its own mention because it is not the heavy, mayonnaise-forward version many seafood places default to. This one is a lighter vinegar-based cabbage slaw, bringing a bright, tangy counterpoint to fried fish and richer sides.

Crab cakes come with a sweet-spicy dipping sauce, another useful option for anyone who prefers a little heat to the traditional tartar-and-lemon approach. The crab cake itself has a crisp shell around a tender center and is substantial enough to stand as more than an afterthought.

Halibut may be the headliner, but the menu has plenty of room for a group whose members are in different seafood moods. Shrimp, calamari, clam chowder, grilled salmon, haddock and crab cakes all appear alongside the fried-fish standards.

Coconut shrimp is one of the more popular detours. The shrimp have been described as notably large and tender, giving the sweeter, crisp-coated choice enough heft to hold its own beside the halibut baskets.

Clam chowder provides the creamy, familiar bowl many seafood meals seem to call for. Its style is straightforward and comforting, closer to a homemade-tasting chowder than a heavily embellished restaurant version.

Fish tacos broaden the choices further, with fillings including shrimp, tilapia, halibut, lobster and salmon. Lobster also shows up in sandwich form, useful when a diner wants the flavor of a seafood roll without steering the whole table toward a more formal meal.

Along with the standard chips, Summerhays offers Piccadilly fries. They have been described as battered fry pieces and as a notably indulgent side, which gives them the happy-job-of-being-a-little-too-much quality that often works at a casual seafood table.

They are not a subtle choice, and they do not need to be. A basket of Piccadilly fries alongside a fried seafood order gives the meal an extra-crunchy branch to explore, especially when several people are sharing bites.

The dining room has the character of an older casual restaurant that has held onto its personality. Sea-themed details mingle with tropical touches, including palms and the water feature, while awards, news clippings and other references to the restaurant’s past fill portions of the walls.

It is a setting that works for an unhurried lunch, a weeknight dinner or a family birthday gathering. Booths, indoor tables and reported outdoor patio or terrace seating give the restaurant a few different ways to settle in.

Regulars are an important thread in the room’s identity. The long-running local following is evident in the easygoing, neighborhood quality of the place, where the food is familiar enough for repeat orders but the menu remains broad enough to encourage a new choice now and then.

The format is casual: order at the front counter, choose a table, and have the food brought out when it is ready. Dishes are commonly prepared to order, so the meal arrives as a fresh plate rather than a preassembled display-case lunch.

The counter-service setup keeps things informal, but first-time diners can still get help sorting through the menu and deciding among the many seafood options. That is useful at a place where a simple halibut basket can quickly turn into a debate over chowder, tacos, coconut shrimp and sauces.

Conversation tends to fit comfortably here. The room has a relaxed, generally quiet feel even when families and groups are dining, and the restaurant has accommodated everything from solo meals to parties of eight or more.

Free parking has been reported in a lot, with street parking also available at times. The exact availability can vary, but the restaurant’s everyday, come-as-you-are format carries through from arrival to the last fries on the tray.