AQUA — Restaurant in Clinton

After getting past the hostess whose idea of welcoming this party of four on a Saturday evening was to turn her back to us and talk to a friend, the pager went off at the bar right when we received our drinks, and we were brought to the room our friend had requested, for its table side views of the marina through large open air windows. The breeze flowing over the table with bench seats was warm and steady. Arriving later than we planned, we were all pretty hungry.

Though the menu includes meat dishes, tacos and burgers, we were all there to eat fish.

We ordered Ahi tuna with cold wasabi and a soy lime glaze, Little Neck clams with white wine, garlic and butter, and fresh mozzarella with tomato and basil to share as starters. Additionally, our friend who suggested this restaurant, ordered a bowl of New England clam chowder.

When we received our appetizers, we noticed there was no basil on the mozzarella dish, and we noted how plain it looked. Our pleasant and efficient waitress must have overheard us, because she came up to the table to tell us they were comping us this order because the chef was out of basil. The cheese and tomato were tasty, but it did need the basil.

The best starter for me was the Ahi tuna. Cooked perfectly and served on a bed of mixed greens, the two accompanying sauces paired perfectly with the rare fish. Delicious. The clams were a little overcooked and chewy, but the broth was worthy of using the complimentary bread to soak up and enjoy. The chowder reportedly was good, but it didn't appear as thick and chunky as I like mine to be. It could have used a garnish, as well, for presentation.

Dinner entrées were all satisfying. The winner was the Baked Arreganata Combination, a mix of sea scallops, shrimp and scrod dusted with garlic butter bread crumbs. The chef includes a scalloped potato that is tender and creamy. The seared salmon with the soy lime glaze and home made dill sauce was cooked well, but portion wise on the small side. The dill was just a tad off for my palate.

The order of sea scallops was also small and disappeared quickly off of our friend's plate. They came with the same soy lime glaze. All three of these dishes came with cooked soybean pods. The fried oysters were good and plentiful, but the fries they came with were truly lacking; limp, greasy and thin.

Crème Brûlée has been around a long time and has been making its way back on to more menus recently. This restaurants version is sublime. The burned sugar crust cracked easily with a tap from the back of a spoon. After dinner cappuccinos with Bailey's and Amaretto cordials, washed each bite of this delicate custard down.

Drinks, apps, entrées, dessert and coffee for the four of us, with tax and tip, came to about $75. pp. A diner could certainly come to Rocky's Aqua for less. It all depends on what and how much one orders, of course. This coastal seafood destination is...

The decor in this restaurant is beautiful and the setting is directed right along the water. There's a beautiful closed in patio for chilly days that is open during good weather.

I always appreciate a real wood floor and the one they have there is just gorgeous. The management was friendly and gave us a rose because it was mother's day.

I've mentioned the decor in the atmosphere because that is the best thing about this restaurant. Be careful what you order and only order seafood because that seems to be their specialty. Do not order anything beef. The ribeye wrap was probably the worst steak I have ever had it was not too thin like sandwich steaks and it was quite grisly and did not taste good in a mushy wrap. The waitress disappeared after serving our food even though it wasn't busy she was busy cleaning up the bar. We still left her a tip but she didn't give us the best service. She didn't know how bad the food was because she didn't come back in time.

We will go back to this restaurant because it has such a great atmosphere and the management was friendly.

However we will order something that is seafood or find out what the specialty is before ordering. We will also make sure that the waitress knows ahead of time to come back in just a couple minutes after stopping the food off to make sure everything is good and make sure we have everything we need. Cuz that is not what happened in our case.

It was nearing the closing so it seems like the waitress wasn't concerned with us but the management was friendly and seemed to care but it seems like their staff needs more training.

So find out what their specialty is I do not make a mistake like I did and do not order the ribeye wrap. They are very few restaurants that are actually along the water and have a terrific waterview like this one so I hope you have a nice dinner and experience and Rocky's...

My boyfriend and I went to Rocky's for dinner last night and the place was packed. (Which is a good sign) The hostess at the front, dark hair young girl was so friendly and nice. She was very helpful with us trying to decide to sit outside or at the bar. We took a buzzer to be placed on the wait list for outside and had a seat at the bar. The bartender was an older gentlemen who just didn't care to help us or is super slow. We wouldn't tell. It took him 10minutes to just come over to us and ask for drinks. The bar was not overcrowded and we were able to find 2 open seats easily. I returned the buzzer to the hostess and told her we would just sit at the bar. WRONG MOVE!!! Table opened up and people were sat and they had drinks before we did. When we were trying to decide on what to order my boyfriend asked the bartender his opinion on the Mahi Mahi Tacos or the Ahi Tuna Wrap. We saw the Tacos come out for someone else and there was the smallest piece of Mahi on the tacos. Like smaller than a 6 inch rule....no lie. So he went with the wrap thinking it would be a little more seafood size. The wrap barely had any sauce on it and the Ahi tuna was the same size. Super small portioned. The firecracker calamari was delicious and my salad was great as well. We were out of our drinks and the bartender had not even checked on our food turn out, another round of drinks or anything. At this point the only reason for coming here is the scenery outdoors and the nice hostess haha. Not sure how they are so packed we won't be back. We looked up the reviews before coming here and saw a lot of service negative comments and we were thinking well at least the food would be good. Nope. Won't be back. Def could have spent that much money on better...