Norma’s Seafood and Steak

Seaside is a semi-honky-tonk town in a divinely beautiful location along Oregon’s Pacific shore. You can buy all kinds of t-shirts, fudge, and salt water taffy; and at Norma’s Seafood and Steak (formerly known as Norma’s Ocean Diner), you can have a real Northwest meal.

The waitress congratulated us on our choice of petrale sole mid-April: “Oooo, it’s in season right now,” she cooed. It was wonderful, as refined as an ocean fish can be. Nor could we resist Dungeness crab, which is available in all sorts of ways. We chose the “Louis” presentation, a classic array of crab chunks sided by 1000 Islands dressing and accompanied by garlic toast.

People at a nearby table were all eating fish and chips. The menu lists cod, salmon, halibut, and even albacore available as the fish part of the equation. We asked our dining-room neighbors how they liked it. Between bites, they were able to exclaim that this is the best fish and chips they have eaten anywhere, any time.