Paul Wright had modest aspirations. He managed Greer's, a small but popular takeout fish spot in Belmont, and wanted to open his own small place in the Boston area.
It's been two months since Wright Seafood opened in a former D'Angelo's in a Needham strip mall, with takeout fish meals, a five-table restaurant, and a fish market.
It's exceeded all expectations - a mixed blessing as it turned out. Did Wright know - could he have possibly predicted - that in just a few weeks the lines for takeout fish would be stretching out the door on weekend nights? That dining room patrons yowl that he made the place too small (it has 18 seats)? That they'd tell him his fish was so good it deserved to be served on china plates, not on tacky paper, with plastic forks?
Acknowledging a few key miscalculations, Wright is now re-thinking his strategy. "I probably should have made it a little bigger," he says. "People want me to expand already. I say, let me get in here a couple of months!" He promises that china dishes will be arriving soon, however. But we liked what we ate on the paper. A contributing factor has to be that for four years Wright was executive chef for Legal Seafoods at Park Plaza, Kendall Square, and Chestnut Hill, a restaurant that sets the benchmark for fish standards. He says that he's picked up a few of Legal's secrets along the way, such as the careful way to shop for and handpick fish - not from wholesalers, but directly from the fish piers.
"I get the same fish Legal's uses," he says. "You have to make sure you quality check it. I buy top of the catch. Eye appeal," he asserts, is "buy appeal." There's no doubt that his fish is of high quality and great value. Complete dinners are $12.95 and less: It's fair to say that you pay only half the price at Wright's for the same sort of meal you'd get at certain other locations in the area that serve fish on real china, with more ambience.
Atmosphere is in short supply at Wright Seafood, although the place is clean, bright, and mercifully free of the odor of the adjoining fish market. Another Wright aphorism: "If it smells like fish, it isn't fresh."
The restaurant and take-out menu is about 98 percent fish, with the exception of a chicken breast dinner ($7.95) and items on the kids' menu ($3.50-$4.95), which includes the standard chicken fingers, hot dogs, pasta, hamburgers, fish and chips and fried clams.
There are daily dinner specials, that vary from day to day, such as a very satisfying swordfish stirfry ($8.95) with a large quantity of swordfish hunks, tenderly sauteed with chunks of tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and onions. The $9.95 broiled salmon steak (like most dishes, it can also be ordered grilled or blackened) had a thick honey mustard sauce, and arrived with very crispy, colorful grilled vegetables.
Chef's specialties include shrimp scampi; shrimp and scallop marinara (both $9.95) - a huge portion of seafood in a fine, mild sauce, over linguine; and a modestly priced $5.95 fish stew with mussels. We ordered a delicious and ungreasy dish of fried calimari ($6.95) for openers, and an excellent grilled shrimp and caesar salad ($7.95), with a dozen sizeable shrimp - a rather generous number, in our experience. The clam chowder ($2.50) was quite spectacular - rich, creamy, and teeming with potatoes and clams. He is assisted in the kitchen by his mother, who makes some pretty mean clam cakes and stuffed mushrooms.
High praise goes to the abundant sword kabob ($9.95), loaded with large chunks of tender swordfish and roasted vegetables.They were all good enough to be served on real plates.
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