Table 9 Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Atlantic Beach

Atlantic Beach has a place for those who like a good chef cooked meal. That place is Table 9. Table 9 is located in the City Hall Shopping Mall Complex, so there is plenty of parking. At the time of my visit they were not taking reservations, probably too early in the season for this town. The wait was not regrettable, but BEWARE, the texting system did not reach our out-of-state phones, we had to double check to discover we had been paged 15 minutes prior. Please do not wander off without checking in if you are likewise an out-of-state visitor.

The interior is very on trend and my daughter is absolutely bonkers about the chandelier over the bar. The menus are varied, but not pages and pages worth. This place knows it is best to keep the list reasonable and fresh versus outrageously long and impossible. We ended up going there twice during our vacation at the insistence of our finicky daughter who hates most places. Between the two visits we had the OBX pasta, the Jumbo Shrimp and Filet Tips, the Wedge Salad (2x), the Scallops, and the Lobster Ravioli.

The OBX pasta was a genius of peppery sweetness. The sauce may be red, but it is the red of sweet peppers, not tomatoes. The pasta tasted like it had been made locally, not packaged. (Score!) The seafood mix in the sauce tasted of freshness, which is the best thing for good seafood.

The Jumbo Shrimp and Filet Tips was a wonderful asian wok stirred infusion of Dutch colored sweet peppers, onions, etc, which showed off the tenderness of the filet bits to perfection. It was served on a plate with a wild rice pilaf, not a package mix mind you, a real pilaf. Yum!

The Lobster ravioli was a delight, but I was surprised and happy to discover that the pasta was cheese filled with a lobster and shrimp topping. The ragu used was another infusion of the delicious sweet pepper cream sauce, sweet and delicate flavors from the lobster, which was perfectly cooked and not rubbery, and shrimp, also cooked correctly.

The Scallops were a seared delight and my husband was finished with them in an eye blink, probably didn't want to share. The Wedge salads were scrumptious with REAL blue cheese and bacon. (Other places on the island seem to have forgotten the CHEESE, and therefore, not as good.) My daughter ordered off menu and for a child who barely eats what she likes, let alone food from a new place, she cleaned her plate like a pro.

The Chef du Cuisine of Table 9 has much of which to be proud. Do yourself a favor and dine here at least once on your vacation. You...

I gave it a lot of thought before submitting this 2 star rating, but I felt compelled based on the overall quality of the food. The food is good if you like overpaying for overly salted food. Surgeon general's note: if you have high blood pressure, you should consult your doctor before eating here. I'll start with the positives - the service was good. When we arrived they were able to seat our party of 8 quickly and the food came out pretty fast too. I ordered the blackened salmon and they were able to customize my salmon so it wasn't blackened and was cooked perfectly - just the way I asked (albeit salty). The zucchini was very good and the asparagus was quality, nevertheless quite salty. The negatives - we ordered the "clam" chowder. I add parentheses around the word "clam" because a better name for it would be salt chowder. It didn't taste anything like clam chowder for 2 reasons - 1) the salt and bacon were overpowering and 2) there weren't many clams in it. We ordered a classic mojito, which wasn't very good and we had to send it back. We ordered the fish tacos, which no where on the menu said it was blackened. The blackened items on the menu specifically stated it was blackened in the title, except for the fish tacos. Apparently the fish tacos come blackened, so keep that in mind. We don't like blackened so that was quite unfortunate. The menu items are way overpriced too. This is a little beach side shack with mediocre food - not NYC. Fortunately, they credited us the mojito and fish tacos. My daughter ordered the kid's pizza and it tasted stale and the cheese was awful. My 4 year old could go to the Food Lion next door and put together a better pizza using a naan flatbread, cheap tomato sauce and packaged shredded mozz. She barely touched her pizza, but at least ate some of my salmon and asparagus though. My wife and daughter went home hungry. And we all went home disappointed. Service was good, but the food was 1 star. We will never...

Table 9 is a bit of a break from restaurants on the island in that it reaches beyond fried/broiled seafood indicative of the area. It isn't for folks looking for this and it definitely isn't cheap. Here we go:

Setting: Pretty good ambiance/decor and maybe even classy. Perhaps upscale-ish. Excellent bar area and strives to offer a decent selection of wine. If on the island and looking for a date place, this would hit it. Can be loud and busy however. No reservations either.

Food: Have tried the Seared Tuna starter ($14) and Crab Stuffed Mahi ($29) entree. There are pictures uploaded of these and if you are one to eat with your eyes, you would eat away. Both are excellent tasting, presented well, and a reorder. These are expensive however for portion and both left me unsatiated.

Booze: Decent selection and probably better than most on the island, particularly for wine.

Service: The flaws are evident here. Inattentive--perhaps because of high traffic, not enough staff, or just lack of customer service.

The down and dirty takeaways:

1)Table 9 tries to separate itself from restaurants on the island and does by way of menu, food presentation, setting. It is different and I like the reach.

2)Very expensive for this area. Some people don't mind the splurge but this will eliminate others. I would think that on average one person would spend $60-100 or more if really indulging.

3)Service is lackluster. It is painfully slow. Needs work. No hiding from this. I don't mind making it rain if the service is there. The setting loses a little bit because of this. Fix this and you will reap the rewards.

Come with open pockets, lots of time to burn, and to enjoy good food that is a break from the norm...