Seafood with no Sea in sight.

I'm not gonna lie, growing up in Boston, we never appreciated how good the seafood was.  In fact, we really didn't eat it too often.  The obvious geographical barriers make it tough to find good seafood in Iowa so of course we now appreciate it.  But, we've found a few local places that do a good job.  One of the restaurants on this list is the Waterfront Seafood Market.  We've tried the one in Ankeny and it was very good.  But my favorite, is the original in West Des Moines. It's not flashy and new, but it's cozy, clean and fun.  You can choose to eat in the main dining area, at the bar or at the sushi bar.  Or you can just get some fresh seafood and take it home to cook yourself too.  I recommend dining in though if you can because they seem to cook everything just right.

When I eat seafood I don't like to cover it up with too many sauces or other junk.  If you have quality seafood, you won't need extras for it to taste good and that's why I like Waterfront.  The other night I went with the Seafood platter and here is where they show off how fresh the seafood is and how well they can prepare it.  The scallops were cooked just right and scallops are easy to mess up, you can easily over or under cook them and they are ruined.  They fly in Maine lobster, which is the best and you can even pick your lobster from the tank if you want to and they'll cook it whichever way you want it.  The platter also includes shrimp.  I get everything grilled, but you can order it with seasonings as well.

Josh got the gumbo and liked the flavor but was surprised that there was no sausage in it as that's his favorite part.  For his main course he got the mahi mahi blackened which was good and was a huge portion.

They do a good job with their sushi as well and it's really fun to sit at the sushi bar and watch them make it.  The sushi bar is a great place for a girls-night out or date-night!  They are also are offering sushi classes on weekends.  $75 for a 3 hour class including sushi, drinks and supplies to make your own sushi at home.   Call your closest Waterfront location to find out the dates and times.  I bet that would be fun!