The concept of sustainable seafood has been steadily gaining ground with American consumers, in large part thanks to chefs such as Rick Moonen. The idea is that many of the world's traditional fisheries are threatened with collapse and Moonen and others are making sure not to serve fish from them.
But there is more involved. Farmed fish often have compromised immune systems and contain higher levels of toxins and metals than wild fish, with contaminants such as mercury, PCB and other pollutants usually stored in fatty tissues. What's more, the taste profile of these fish tends to be insipid.
Atlantic salmon comes to mind, as does Chilean sea bass (a.k.a. the Patagonian toothfish), plus all species of shark, blue-fin tuna (a delicious fish being depleted by the Japanese) and a whole variety of other species.
You won't find any of these fish on Moonen's menus, at either his downstairs café, R-Bar, or his pricier upstairs restaurant, RM, where the menu soars with creativity. Rather, Moonen is committed to serving top-notch sustainable seafood, with the hope that other chefs will follow his example. Both his restaurants, as it happens, are terrific.
R-Bar is the more casual of the two, located in a high-tech complex on the casino floor at Mandalay Bay, with a design by San Francisco architect Cass Calder Smith. There is a lot of metal here, a small suite of rooms that includes a raw bar, casual outer tables and an inner sanctum near the open kitchen affording a little more privacy and less ambient noise.
R-Bar, thusly, is the sort of place you can visit for a quick seafood fix or a proper dinner, and tailor the bill to match. Sometimes, for instance, I'll just stop by for a bowl of Rick's white clam chowder, the best I've ever tasted, and since I am a native New Englander, I don't say that casually.
On other occasions, I'll do it up big-time, with oysters on the half-shell from the raw bar, one of the restaurant's creative salads, and a simply prepared main course from the wood grill, such as wild salmon seasoned with extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt and some lemon juice.
Oysters, the freshest available, tend to have names like Kumamoto, smallish and from the West Coast; and Malpeque, also small and from Prince Edward Island. There are the Little Neck clams I grew up with, briny and sweet; and beautiful white shrimp from the Pacific. The crab is Dungeness from the Northwest. Lobsters are Maine, the industry standard.
Then there are the cooked dishes. First and foremost is the clam chowder: a rich, salty chowder thickened by cream and the natural starch that leaches out of the potatoes in the broth, as opposed to the library paste thickened with flour that passes for New England clam chowder in 99 percent of restaurants west of the Mississippi.
This chowder is beautifully stocked with clams, celery, bacon and other rich flavors. A spoon won't stand up in it but it still manages to be the richest clam chowder in town. On the bottom half of the menu's first page is a section titled "From The Biscuit Bar," that should not be missed. Here, you may choose from jumbo crab with fine herbs, Maine lobster with tarragon and lobster oil, and rock shrimp with Cajun spices, each sitting in a bowl of transcendentally delicious cream gravy and served with Moonen's amazing fresh-cream biscuits on the side. No Atkins dieters need apply.
The menu's main page is divided into salads, small plates and big plates. Salads are creative, a Greek-style chopped salad with cucumbers, red onion, olives and feta; another with roasted Bosc pears, micro-greens, toasted walnuts and Maytag blue cheese; and the one I always choose, sugar beets and Belgian endive with watercress and toasted hazelnuts.
My favorite small plate might be the smoked trout with horseradish cream and a tart apple salad, but the salt-and-pepper calamari with sweet chili dipping sauce isn't far behind. The kitchen also does a mean crab cake with chipotle mayo, and terrific Cajun popcorn (fried rock shrimp), to boot.
Big plates to share include Rick's Seafood Gumbo, a roux gumbo chock-full of all kinds of shellfish; something called Everything Crusted Tuna (picture one of those "everything" bagels using a piece of fish instead of high-gluten flour), and grilled branzino, an Italian sea bass, with an artichoke and fennel ragout.
From the wood grill, choose any manner of land or sea entrée: yellow-fin tuna, wild salmon, organic chicken, filet mignon, Maine lobster and many more, all done in a basic manner and all terrific. Also not to miss is the raft of side dishes, among them a macaroni and cheese casserole; salted, roasted fingerling potatoes, and Chinese-style garlic bok choy.
The dessert list is short but the standout is a homemade apple pie. That, and the rest of the excellent fare here, should sustain anyone for quite a while.