"With good looks and great taste, this beach boy is a winner."

Located adjacent to the Sands Harbor Hotel and Marina on the Intracoastal in Pompano Beach, Joe's Riverside Grille has been owned and operated for more than a decade by chef Joe Cascio and his affable wife, Erica. They offer appealing décor, a great view of the water and adjoining marina, fine service and clever, if sometimes overly constructed, seafood preparations.

At the top of the restaurant's entrance ramp sits an outdoor dining area floored with flagstone tiles. Inside are two comfortable dining rooms, one on the main level and a more intimate one several steps above. Some nautical paintings, a few tropical fish tanks and faux fish line the walls. Comfortable captain's chairs match the white linen tablecloths, and servers wear black exclusively. Had the lighting been brighter, diners wouldn't have such difficulty perusing the extensive menu. Notwithstanding the dim lights, our meal ended as well as it had begun.

We started with a large bowl of garlic-steamed mussels ($8.95) and, instead of the tamer marina sauce, selected fra diavolo, a heady and mildly spicy tomato concoction augmented with slices of onions and red peppers. The medium-size shellfish were fresh and tender.

An appetizer of Riverside coquille ($9.95) was the hit of the evening, though we enjoyed everything we ate. In a shallow bowl sat sweet, plump and nutty-flavored scallops accompanied by shrimp in a rich sherry sauce with mushrooms. Mashed potatoes with a mild brown crust surrounded the rim. This dish was the perfect marriage of flavor, texture, freshness and presentation. It was so good, in fact, that had it been an entrée item, we would have ordered it twice. Oysters Rockefeller ($9.95) and baked stuffed clams oreganata ($9.95) also tasted delicious. Raw-bar items include a trio of oysters, clams and shrimp ($9.95).

The house entrée specialties ($23.95 each) are its three stews: what the menu calls a "slow country boil," zuppa de pesce and bouillabaisse. In its Cajun-spiced broth, the boil contains andouille sausage and a wide variety of seafood, while the zuppa features linguine in a light tomato-garlic broth. Joe's serves its bouillabaisse in a massive bowl that's almost too heavy to lift. Fresh fish fillets, half a small lobster, tender shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, calamari, half a cob of corn and sliced potatoes mingled with the light saffron broth's briny flavor. But the fillets were a bit overcooked, and the lobster was a bit chewier than it should have been. Nevertheless, diners who enjoy fish — and plenty of it — should choose any of the three stews, then take the remainder home for lunch.

Joe’s does its sauces as well as its stews. Grouper Newburg ($24) was a thin slice of fish topped with crabmeat and smothered in a sauce composed of butter, cream, egg yolks, sherry and assorted seasonings — definitely not for the diet-conscious. Swordfish Oscar ($24), topped with crabmeat and paired with crunchy asparagus, proved a little less daunting in the calorie department. Béarnaise sauce provided a lush richness to the entire dish.

Dry-seasoned preparations found as much success as sauced ones. Blackened dolphin ($24) — thinly sliced, spicy and accompanied by shrimp and scallops — turned out to be another enjoyable selection, as did Cajun dolphin ($24), topped with perfectly cooked shellfish. Wahoo ($22) was blackened, then seasoned with sun-dried tomatoes and almonds for a Mediterranean taste. Cooked with strawberry jalapeño butter and garnished with additional jalapeños, blackened tuna ($25) made for another interesting selection.

In an Asian-flavored dish, sesame seeds encrusted tuna ($25) that arrived with a soy glaze and wasabi. And for something a bit out of the ordinary, there’s whiskey Maine lobster and shrimp (market price), which are removed from their shells; sautéed with mushrooms, leaks, onions, bourbon and spices; returned to the shells; topped with hollandaise sauce; then baked.

Anyone who doesn't’t want seafood can choose from lemon chicken ($14.95), a grilled chicken breast ($15.95), a New York strip ($28), a center-cut top sirloin ($18.95) and a filet mignon with béarnaise sauce ($28). But seafood is the real reason to eat at Joe’s.

Desserts cost $6.95 each and are sure to please. The inclusion of hot fudge made the already-rich chocolate bananas Foster even more so. Peach crème brûlée offered a nice touch on a familiar theme. Cheesecake, topped with sweet peaches and slathered with buttery bread crumbs, also satisfied.

As a waterside eatery, Joe’s is head and shoulders above its competitors. The service works as it should, and the seafood is fresh and beautifully done. And with the talented and gracious Cascios at the helm, this is one of South Florida’s best seafood restaurants.

Joe's Riverside Grille 125 N. Riverside Drive, Pompano Beach, 954/941-2499; www.joesriversidegrille.com. Lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; dinner 5-10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, till 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. No smoking. Major credit cards and reservations accepted. Wheelchair accessible.

Average dinner tab for two: $97

Rating: ***.5

How to get there: Exit I-95 at Atlantic Boulevard. Head east, over the bridge, to Riverside Drive, then turn left.

Congratulations!

Your customers have rated your restaurant as one of the best in the city in the recently published Zagat Survey 2002 Restaurant Guide. In recognition of your restaurant receiving a food rating of 20 or above, we are pleased to present you with a certificate featuring your review. We have also enclosed a Zagat Decal indicating your inclusion in the guide. We hope that you will proudly display these awards in a prominent location in your restaurant in recognition of this significant accomplishment.

Again, congratulations! We trust you will take pride in the knowledge that your patrons appreciate your hard work in creating a superior dining experience.

Sincerely,

Nina and Tim Zagat

Attached to the Sands Hotel, just north of Atlantic Boulevard on the Intracoastal, Joe's Riverside offers the quintessential setting for seafood lovers. Owner Joe Casio works the kitchen and his wife, Erica, runs the main room at this informal 180-seater that offers a fine view of the water from every seat. The food is as good as the view with a selection of fish entrées that includes about a dozen fresh catches each day. The signature dish is the blackened tuna, seared rare, then topped with a dollop of strawberry-jalapeno butter. Maine lobster is taken from its shell and sautéed in leeks, mushrooms and shrimp then de-glazed in a bourbon whiskey sauce. Stone crabs are available in season and dinner-size servings of bouillabaisse and zuppa di pesce are mainstays on the daily menu. There's outdoor seating on the veranda, which makes Joe's quintessential on pleasant nights.

"Menus, plates and ambitions are huge at seafood eatery
on Intracoastal in Pompano."

FOOD = VERY GOOD! SERVICE = HUSTLING & FRIENDLY

Big. Things at Joe's Riverside Grille, a fine seafood restaurant in Pompano Beach, are big.

The servings: One bowl of pasta is large and deep enough to comfortably hold a school of snapper. The menu: Choosing from the dozens of entrees leaves the head swimming. The culinary ambitions: Beyond mere blackenings, you'll find intriguing flavors like curry and a mango Thai chili butter.

These are all very good things, and Joe's, entering its fifth year, is a very good restaurant. With an impressive nightly selection of fresh local fish, Joe's -- owned by the husband and wife team of Joe and Erica Cascio -- is clearly one of the better choices for seafood in Broward. The only caution is that the sense of culinary adventure occasionally gets too grand and overly complex. Goat cheese drowning delicate pompano? Say it ain't so, Joe!

The best advice for a fine evening here is to simply follow the oldest rules of seafood cookery: Less is more.

Relaxed decor
Aside from an amusing giant squid sculpture dangling from the ceiling, Joe's keeps the nautical kitsch and bric-a-brac to a minimum. The main room, overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway just north of Atlantic Boulevard, bubbles nicely with crowd noise. The decor, aside from an arty and interesting ceiling grid, is as relaxed and unpretentious as the atmosphere. There's a wrap-around patio as well should the evening prove appealing enough for open-air dining.

Thankfully, despite the bustling business, our waiter makes a point of stressing we take our time in ordering. We need it because wading through this menu takes time. The influences seem to span the Seven Seas as well as assorted oceans and bays and other bodies of water.

There's Pacific in the sesame-seared tuna ($24), Mediterranean in the bouillabaisse ($23.95), Caribbean style in the red snapper escaviche ($26) - a whole fish pan-fried with red peppers, fiery Scotch bonnets and onions and seasoned with spices and a dash of vinegar. And our own warm Atlantic, and Joe's original approach, seems the source of the grouper fisherman ($20), a sautéed fillet topped with mushrooms, garlic, sherry and toasted almonds. Red Lobster, this is not.

Rich or simple
You can eat light and simple. The nine fresh choices the evening we visit -- pompano ($20), yellowfin tuna ($24) and queen snapper ($21), among them -- can be ordered grilled, blackened, broiled, sautéed or oreganata. But many of the signature dishes are marked by a much richer style. Take Riverside coquille ($9.95), an appetizer of shrimp, scallops and crab mixed with a mushroom sherry sauce topped with mashed potatoes and hollandaise sauce. Consider downing that and then tackling the whiskey Maine lobster ($24) -lobster sautéed with mushrooms, leeks, onions, bourbon and spices, then topped with hollandaise and baked in the shell.

For starters, we go down the middle. Simple steamed Alaskan king crab legs ($11.95) rival lobster with a salty-sweet tenderness that is better served by a squeeze of lemon than accompanying drawn butter. Oysters Rockefeller ($9.95) are fine versions of the classic, notable for the moist spinach and an actual detectable taste of Pernod so often missing. Both seem quite pricey for what you get, however. The fine Caesar salad at $4.95 is a bargain, big enough for two and replete with actual anchovies.

The entrees also are priced well, particularly considering the quantities, and are generally quite good. Tequila-spiked swordfish ($21) sounds dangerous but is really smartly restrained, the sauce light and carefully sweet, a complement to the fresh, perfectly pan-seared steaks. Instead of the sautéed new potatoes sprinkled with Parmesan or rice that normally accompany the dish, we chose a giant side order of the smashed potatoes with roasted fresh garlic topped with Parmesan ($2.50). The potato could be more subtly flavored, but it's a step up from simple baked ones. Still, $2.50 extra seems a tad much.

The rum and peppered tuna ($24) is another winner, a hunk as thick and tender the finest filet mignon, marinated in a rum-soy sauce spiked with peppercorns and cloves. The orange-chardonnay sauce is again just the right complement, sweet but not cloying. Excessive dishes Two other dishes aren't as impressive, weighed down by excess. Pasta corrar ($21) features a bed of angel hair and an assortment of fish -- shrimp, mussels, calamari, clams, scallops and who knows what else - in a simple clam broth and olive oil sauce seasoned mainly with garlic. In size it's mind-boggling. The bowl is like a tub. The serving could easily serve two. But drowning in broth, it's almost a soup and lacks much character.

The one serious overreach is the grilled pompano special ($21). The fish, one of the finest and most delicate around and a treat on any menu, disappears under a mound of powerful goat cheese, roasted sweet pepper and garlic.

Desserts, which we didn't sample, include Key lime pie, ($3), mocha mud pie ($4.50) and a white chocolate mousse cake ($4.50). For the average diner, there probably won't be room. With most entrees, there's plenty left to provide a mighty nice lunch the next day.

JOE'S RIVERSIDE GRILLE
Food: VERY GOOD.
Service: Hustling and friendly.
Atmosphere: Casual enough for shorts; nice enough for a sport coat.
Price range: Appetizers: $2.50 to $11.95; entrees: $13.95 to $27; desserts: $3 to $4.50.
Hours: Dinner. 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Phone: (954) 941-2499
Address: 125 N. Riverside Dr., Pompano Beach, FL, adjacent to The Sands Harbor Hotel.
Designated nonsmoking areas: Yes.

"With a delightful view of the Intracoastal, comfortable, al fresco dining, reasonably priced and intelligently prepared seafood, and a high level of service, Joe's is what waterfront seafood houses should be."

= GOOD!

It seems axiomatic that South Florida restaurants with a great view of the water don't have to serve good food to stay in business, so they don't.

Then there's Joe's Riverside Grille, located in (but not controlled by) The Sands Harbor Resort Hotel on the Intracoastal in Pompano Beach.

Erica and Joe Cascio opened Joe's three years ago. They serve reasonably priced, trenchermen-size portions of thoughtfully conceived and prepared fish, meat, poultry and pasta. Service is several cuts above its lesser waterside counterparts—living proof that restaurants can offer scenic vistas, good food and fine service.

Arrive by land or sea, and whether you dine al fresco or indoors, enjoy a fine view of the Intracoastal. Dining rooms, upstairs and down, are colorfully appointed. Tables are formally set and servers are similarly attired. Comfortable, softly lit booths, along one wall allow for intimate dining, presumably for unmarried hotel guests.

Appetizers including raw clams and oysters, mussels, smoked chowder, fried calamari, fried soft-shell crab, oysters Rockefeller and baked stuffed clams. The house coquille excelled, and was enjoyable on several levels. Precisely cooked shrimp, scallops, crab and mushrooms were in ample supply and the sherry-based seafood veloute (a rich white sauce) was excellent. Rimmed with mashed potatoes and topped with Hollandaise sauce, this delectable, well-portioned dish went over the top of the cholesterol chart, but was worth every calorie. Both the standard and the more adventuresome daily menus lean heavily on seafood, and so should you. The word fresh is a given. Try fish whole or filleted: dolphin, wahoo, redfish, grouper, salmon, swordfish and tuna in addition to Maine lobster, shrimp and scallops. Each can be prepared grilled, blackened, broiled, sautéed or oreganata.

More adventurous diners should focus on the daily menu, where seafood preparations are bolder. Cajun-influenced dishes include blackened redfish and crawfish étouffé with sausage, peppers, onions and corn in a spicy bayou-inspired broth and the rich snapper Pontchartrain, a sautéed fillet generously topped with assorted shellfish, toasted almonds and Hollandaise sauce. For a taste of the Caribbean try: curry-spiced sautéed shrimp and lobster with scotch bonnet peppers, sweet red peppers and onions, or the similarly seasoned Spanish-style Kingfish or whole snapper escaviche.

Whiskey Maine lobster is another house favorite. The meat is removed from the shell, sautéed in bourbon with mushrooms, leeks, onions and other spices, the shell is replaced and topped with Hollandaise. Joe's does a lot with tuna, and it's all good. They marinate a large, thick sushi-quality fillet in a rum and soy reduction, add peppercorns and cloves, sear it on the outside and leave a cool, red center within. It's garnished with a tangy orange-chardonnay sauce and enjoy a rum and peppered tuna. Or have it Oriental style, with a tangy soy and lemon-glaze garnished with pickled ginger and wasabi. Grouper teams with Portobello mushrooms, and two tender snapper fillets are crusted with crushed almonds and served with a mild, lemon butter sauce.

House specials are variations on seafood stew. They all have shrimp, scallops, lobster, mussels and clams in common, but the preparations are different cultures. The slow country boil with andouille sausage, has a Cajun background. A light saffron stew anchors the bouillabaisse, which is their French connection, and the zuppa de pesce, in tomato garlic broth with penne pasta, is clearly Italian.

Desserts are few but good. Joe's mother's key lime pie is cool, tart and nicely portioned, and white-chocolate mousse cake is rich, yet light. The mud pie is all you'd expect from a thick piece of chocolate fudge holding up a large scoop of coffee ice cream.

With a delightful view of the Intracoastal, comfortable, al fresco dining, reasonably priced and intelligently prepared seafood—some with a unique flair—and a high level of service, Joe's is what waterfront seafood houses should be. Would that it were the rule rather than the exception.

""I'll be returning sooner rather than later."

I've lost track of the names and numbers of restaurants that have occupied this prime space overlooking a large marina a few yachts north of the Atlantic Boulevard bridge.

But the new owners of Joe's Riverside Grille, Erica and Joe Cascio, are good enough to break the predecessors. He is in charge of the back room and she runs the front, a spacious, high-ceiling room with a fine wrap-around outdoor deck for those who want to dine on the water.

Seafood is the specialty of the Grille, and Joe does it well. Among the choices: a rum-and-pepper marinated thick slab of fresh tuna, swiftly pan-seared and served with a chardonnary-enhanced orange sauce; grilled grouper with smoked portobellos, and sautéed dolphin with a light caper-freckled lemon sauce.

For those who dine from 5 to 6:30, there are complete dinners built around a fresh catch of the day broiled, grilled, blackened, sautéed or with oregano; a trio of chicken creations, including half a roast chicken and breasts in a ginger or lemon butter sauce for two dollars more.

The pasta choices feature shrimp, scallops and mussels with linguine, green noodles or angel hair. Sauce choices are Alfredo, garlic-sherry and marinara. London broil, a petite top sirloin and a chicken and London broil combo range from $10.95 to $13.95.

I ordered from the regular menu and was tempted to order the braised lamb shanks served with a vegetable and mashed potatoes, but after all, why order something landlocked when you're sitting over the water?

Three of our party of five did just that, however, zeroing in on a queen-size cut of prime rib—easily enough for two meals. It was very good, accompanied by a generous puff of Yorkshire pudding.

Another ordered the lemon chicken, and it too was good.

Two who came there for seafood ordered the tuna, which was excellent, and something called a Slow Country Boil.

I was tempted by the blackened swordfish coated with seasoned sun-dried tomatoes and slices of toasted almonds, and the almond-crusted yellowtail, but decided to throw an anchor into that Country Boil.

What a production. A huge, deep platter filled with a rich harvest from the deep. Mussels and cherrystone clams, scallops and shrimp, a thick fillet of fresh dolphin, whole potatoes, sections of corn on the cob (put in raw so they were not overcooked) and slices of Italian sausage.

It was a shellfish lover's dream, and I could find fault with nothing but a couple mussels that were gritty and past their prime. I would certainly order it again, but only after skipping the starter courses, no matter how good they are.

I would not indulge in the fried calamari or the kingfish dip spiked beautifully with cilantro and jalapeno, or the fantastically flavorful warm goat cheese served with seasoned sundried tomatoes and roasted garlic. But each one of those appetizers was very good. I know I am going to have trouble charging right into the main course when I return.

After all, a fine dinner salad is served with the meals, and the salad dressings are way above the norm, served in separate containers. Of the four I tried, I liked the sambucco-tarragon the most, and the soy-ginger the least. The creamy basil and creamy garlic were more than acceptable and had a fresh-made taste to them.

I'll be returning sooner than later, especially now that the Grille is open for lunch. It's a great place to breathe in the Florida of the waterways. Now that Joe and Erica are firmly in place, it's also a great place to lunch, munch or dine.

FOOD = VERY GOOD. SERVICE = EXCELLENT!

South Floridians, rejoice. A respite from cream sauces, lace curtains, caponata and wood-burning trattoria ovens is at hand. Nestled among the many fine French and Italian restaurants in Pompano Beach is a dining room of a different breed, unpretentiously called Joe's Riverside Grille. This local renegard marches to its own drummer, and the tune it plays is an ode to South Florida and Caribbean cuisine.

Fragrant thyme
Overlooking the Intracoastal, the herbs—fragrant thyme in our case—signal the freshness of the food at Joe's. Seafood is the star. You won't find the same old shrimp cocktail, clam chowder and a paltry selection of the daily catch, either. On the regular menu, Joe has dishes of oysters, mussels, kingfish, shrimp, scallops, squid, crab, mussels and lobster. Add to those the specials on the evening we visit, and they're not talking turkey, they're talking fish: yellowtail, swordfish, tuna, dolphin and crawfish. Joe's offers three chi8cken dishes, including a Jamaican jerk dish, a couple of steak dishes and a special of braised lamb shank.

Even before our friends arrive, our waiter rushes a basket of hot sourdough rolls to our table. These tast sensational with a seeminly impossible subtle garlic flavor, and they're not dripping oil as garlic rolls are wont to do. Later, the basket is replenished, and one among us sops up broth from his starter of garlic-steamed mussels with the big, chewy rolls. His plate boasts an amazing—14 tender bivalves sitting pretty on a bed of curly lettuce garnished with ruby-red tomato wedges.

Glorious array
A friend makes short work of another generous starter called Seafood Portofino, a glorious array of pached shrimp, scallops and calamari, which have been tossed in a basil inaigrette and chiled. Dotted with fresh basil and garnished by sliced cucumbers and wedges of tomato, the dish is elegant and delicious. Another outstanding selection is my special of crawfish salad, a chunky array of the juicy morsels tossed with leeks, onion and celery in a sassy mango-mayo chutney. All the ingredients are hand-cut and snappy; the mudbug chunks are tender tailmeat of fresh Flordia crawfish, and the flavor is enhanced by the nutty taste and a spake of chili-fire in the chutney.

Service is, for the most part, swell. Probably because Joe's is a family affair with chef Joe Cascio holding forth in the kitchen and his wife, Erica, presiding over the dining room. Our only complaint is that our waiter, rather than relaying to the chef our questions about the safety of eating big game fish from certain suspect waters, is blase about it. There are a number of delectable sounding kingfish items on the menu, but we have recently been alerted to a health problem with this species. Our water dismisses our inquity by insisting, "all our seafood is brought in fresh every day." In this case, freshness has nothing to do with it, but before we can protest, he dashes off.

Spirited cuisine
We find plenty of other items to enjoy. My regular dining companion is thrilled with his dish called Slow Country Boil, which must be a typographical error or someone's idea of a joke. Surely the name is supposed to be Low Country Boil after the spirited cuisine of South Carolina. One bite tells us it's certainly not a dish in which the seafood has been slowly boiled like a hard-cooked egg. On the contrary, it is a bountiful array of seven mussels, lots of red potatoes, two ears of corn, bits of soft-shell crab, many chunks of andouille sausage, morsels of fresh fish and a spark of spices.

House salads are kicky as well. Although containing mostly iceberg, their flavor is boosted mightily by right red tomato wedges and red onion in a vinaigrette spiked with just a hint of Sambucca, an inspired touch. If you simply can't abide iceberg, you can pay a surcharge and get an excelelnt Caesar salad, complete with anchovy.