Ocean Boulevard Review

[Kim Shook]

Every year, if possible, we try to spend a weekend in the Outer Banks of NC to celebrate our anniversary. This year was our 27th. We always have our celebratory dinner at Ocean Boulevard. Every year we worry that it will have gone down hill and that we will be disappointed. Every year, we discover that we have worried unnecessarily. This year was no exception. We ate at the kitchen pass through and got to watch the fun:

Mr. Kim started out the with a small plate of Jerk beef tenderloin, rice & black beans, guacamole, tomato concasse and roasted red peppers. He really loved this - probably his favorite thing that he ate that night:

My small plate was pulled duck confit & local greens en crepe with candied pecans, orange supremes and Humbolt Fog bleu. This was fantastic - the confit was excellent - so tender and deeply flavored:

Mr. Kim's main was fried rice of NC shrimp and swordfish, cured pork belly, julienned vegetables and baby shiitakes and hot sweet & sour sauce. I thought that the fish was a little dry (but I almost always fine swordfish a little dry), but he liked it a lot.

My main was Crispy Panfried NC Catfish & Blackened Oysters on an Heirloom Grits cake, braised collard greens and lemon aoili and smoked peanuts. I almost never order catfish because it can be so muddy tasting, but figured that it was worth the gamble here. It was. So tender and sweet. Everything tasted wonderful and went together so well. The oysters, while tasting perfectly sweet and being so tender and properly cooked, had a very gummy coating - it was too thick and in not overcooking the oysters, I think they undercooked the coating because it was so thick:

We didn't have room for dessert, so we took home some Orange-Cream Cheesecake. It was delicious - thick, creamy and moist without being wet. I forgot to take a picture of that.

We are so glad that we can still recommend this restaurant to folks looking for a really good meal in the Outer Banks.