Oceana Restaurant and Wine Bar

Description:

• Upscale, hip, and stylish, this local favorite occupies what functioned as the Russian consulate during the Danish occupation of the island. Outfitted with slabs of carefully oiled paneling, and painted in bright blues and greens inspired by the colors of the ocean, the restaurant offers two distinctly different venues. There is a wine bar-cum-singles bar, where small platters of food (blini, crostinis, and cheese platters) are specifically designed to go with the changing array of wine. This area buzzes with convivial after-work chitchat. In the restaurant, within a relaxed but relatively formal dining room, candles and oil lamps flicker amid bouquets of flowers. Menu items focus mainly on fish, with a healthy roster of beef and lamb as well. Expect a menu that includes spicy shrimp served with a cup of Andalusian-style gazpacho; house-marinated salmon; mussels in white-wine sauce; pan-fried freshwater trout from Idaho; oven-roasted sea bass with a white-wine, thyme, and olive oil sauce; grilled sirloin of lamb; several different preparations of Caribbean lobster; and New York strip, porterhouse, and filet mignon steaks. If the ambience and conviviality of the wine bar appeal to you more than the relative formality of the dining room, the staff will set up a dining table for you.

• © Frommer's 2012