Aioli
The Ocean House Cape Cod

The Ocean House Cape Cod

02639 Dennis Port, United States

Pub • Cafés • Seafood • American


"Ocean House Restaurant had just opened for the season so it seemed like a great place for a birthday dinner. We knew nothing about the restaurant so all was a surprise and a great surprise! Driving up it appears to be a stogy restaurant a bit old fashioned but once inside it had a much different feel. And very different from your typical Cape Cod restaurants. The food was delicious, and again, very different from your typical Cape Cod restaurant. We were really hungry and needed something quick so started with the onion dip wow! It was great! Home made potato chips, creamy onion dip that reminded us of a grown up version of the make at home Lipton dip. But so much better. Next we had Point Judith calamari which should have been called frito misto as it contained fried Rock Shrimp Calamari Scallops Pork Belly Ponzu Pickled Chiles Ginger Soy Drizzle Togarishi Aioli. it was a really unusual dish. The pickled Chiles were my favorite part of the dish though every element was good and nothing overcooked. For our main dish we split the Seafood Paelya. Sea Scallops Rock Shrimp Chatham Littlenecks P.E.I. Mussels Chicken Chorizo Saffron Coconut Rice English Peas Hot Sour Tomato Broth Shrimp Lumpia. It was explained as being a Brazilian version of traditional Spanish paella. Our only issue with the dish was coconut milk base a little too gluey and heavy. The seafood had a tomato broth base which complemented but didn't take over the other elements. I have to admit that I was a bit jealous of the steaks we kept seeing served to other diners. I'll have that next time. Our favorite part was the service. Our waiter was dealing with a large party along with a few tables and clearly it was too much. Whenever he wasn't available the manager stepped in. The menu is a bit hard to understand so both the manager and the wait staff carefully went through it, making recommendations. They were both very friendly and once the large table was taken care of we had more than enough time and attention. We felt like we had much better than average service but because the manager stepped in to help out they ended up giving us a 20% discount on the meal. If you are celebrating a birthday let them know on your reservation. We had a delicious (and complementary) surprise of a molten lava cake. Take your time when you are going. We spent a few hours over dinner."