5 great places for seafood at Belmont Shore in Long Beach

Sitting astatine a array successful beforehand of the recently opened Liv’s Oyster Bar connected the eastbound borderline of 2nd Street successful groovy Belmont Shore, it struck maine that, with the opening of an oyster bar, I was sitting successful what’s evolved into the champion destination for seafood successful Long Beach.

It’s not conscionable location to Liv’s, but besides to 1 large food house, 2 sushi bars, and a food market. Which is capable for maine to deliberation of this extremity of 2nd arsenic Seafood Row — nary tiny accomplishment successful a metropolis upon connected the water, wherever food is beauteous overmuch everywhere. But not successful the profusion of close here.

Liv’s Oyster Bar (5327 2nd St., Long Beach astatine Belmont Shore; 562-343-2285, livsoysterbar.com/menu) is simply a minimalist mentation of the oyster bars on the eastbound coast, but without the eldritch marble oyster bar, and ammunition shuckers with hands that look to person been marinated successful brine.

The barroom is woody with comfy seats, and a presumption of a lawsuit afloat of crystal and oysters. The bivalves are listed connected an overhead board, conscionable a fewer of them for this is not the encyclopedic enactment recovered at, say, the Swan Oyster Bar successful San Francisco, oregon the Grand Central Oyster Bar successful New York. But determination are surely capable — particularly if you adhd connected the sundry different food dishes prepared here.

The paper astatine Liv’s includes respective pokes — the Hawaiian is made with bluefin tuna and macadamia nuts. There’s a spicy avocado exemplary arsenic well. The oysters are turned into a classical oysters Rockefeller, determination are gallic fries “drowned” successful chowder, there’s a Caesar crockery topped with fried oysters, a cioppino, a due bid of food and chips, a cod and kale salad.

Sitting outside, Liv’s is simply a pleasant experience. But then, truthful is simply a repast astatine the galore fishy neighbors.

Across the street, Roe Seafood (5374 2nd St., Long Beach astatine Belmont Shore; 562-546-7110, www.roeseafood.com) takes up a bully chunk of 2nd Street existent property — a spacious joint, with a agelong bar, outdoor seating, and booths wherever ample groups tin capable their array with awesome amounts of grub.

It’s got a sizable paper that matches the space, breached up into a fig of pages and categories. There are “Starters: Chilled/Cured/Raw.” “Hickory Grill: For the Table/Mix and Share.” “Bayside Nibblers/Sides.” “Sushi, Oysters, Etc.” “Seafood Towers.” “Seasonal Rolls & Chirashi Bowl.” And, of course, “Cocktail/Beer/Sake and Wine.”

The galore twists and turns connected the paper allows you to make a wide assortment of wildly antithetic meals. If you privation to deliberation of Roe arsenic a semi-Japanese sushi bar, determination are 5 sashimi options (yellowfin tuna, scallops, salmon, kampachi and a seasonal omakase “chef’s choice” from “our sushi team”), there’s a lobster roll, and a shrimp tempura crunchy roll, on with a nigiri sampler (kampachi, capsicum salmon, snapper and scallops) and a sashimi implicit atom chirashi bowl.

If you similar for Roe to beryllium a earthy bar, there’s a regular West Coast oyster selection, on with oversea urchin, crab, Mexican chaotic shrimp, scallops, pickled mussels and lobster. If you’re livin’ large, there’s a caviar selection, including Russian Gold Osetra. And if you’re surviving truly large, you tin capable retired the repast with 1 of the 2 Seafood Towers — Little Fish and Big Fish, the second packed with oysters, shrimp, mussels, scallops, sashimi and fractional a lobster.

Roe besides exists successful a much minimal version, a fewer doors to the west, wherever you’ll find Roe Seafood Xpress (Fish Market, 188-198 Claremont Ave., Long Beach astatine Belmont Shore; 562-434-2763, www.roeseafood.com). Rather than herb-stuffed grilled oversea bream, oregon wood-roasted chaotic Mexican shrimp, there’s a Fisherman’s Plate of immoderate of 14 caller food from the solid lawsuit adjacent to the counter, which travel either grilled simply and elegantly, oregon blackened successful the long-lived Paul Prudhomme benignant of cooking.

It’s the benignant of simple, basal food provender you mightiness expect to get from a bully basal astatine the pier — if piers inactive had places that did simple, basal food dishes, alternatively than grease-laden velocity balls of cholesterin and salt.

A portion of salmon — and a generously sized portion astatine that — was perfectly, exquisitely grilled. It was a hunk of food that was precisely what it should be, and tasted similar the bully salmon it was. If I wanted, it could person been seven-spiced arsenic well. But I didn’t privation thing getting betwixt maine and my salmon.

If I hadn’t been successful the temper for the salmon (though I’m ever successful the temper for salmon), determination was a prime of ahi tuna, mahi mahi, tilapia, shrimp, wahoo “ono,” halibut, cod, oversea bass, yellowtail, octopus, scallops, branzino and swordfish. (With a enactment that the enactment is babelike connected what’s disposable due to the fact that caller is caller is caller astatine Roe Xpress.) And arsenic exotic arsenic immoderate of the selections mightiness beryllium adjacent door, the paper astatine Xpress is simply a counterbalance of to-the-point seafood dishes.

And rounding retired the food houses connected the eastbound borderline of 2nd, we person a brace of good sushi bars — some the larger Sushi connected Fire (5325 2nd St., Long Beach astatine Belmont Shore; 562-433-0221, www.sushionfire.com), and the smaller @Sushi (5372 2nd St., Long Beach astatine Belmont Shore; 562-343-7470). They’re some hotbeds of rolls, some classical and madcap, much than 50 astatine @Sushi, and much than treble that fig astatine Sushi connected Fire. Which makes this conception of Belmont Shore not conscionable a hotbed for fish, but a large volcano of rolls.

How these places negociate to juggle that galore variant preparations is simply a puzzlement. And a precise awesome one. This is Seafood Über Alles. This is Fish Heaven, some connected a plate, and wrapped successful seaweed.

Merrill Shindler is simply a Los Angeles-based freelance eating critic. Email mreats@aol.com.