Lily's Seafood: Royal Oak, MI 10/22/07

So four people-Laura, Cassandra, Linna, and myself-went to Lily's Seafood in Royal Oak. The place had cool mobil with fish made of recycled, let's say, metal. The lighting's weren't dim but a little low for a lunch setting perhaps. Because it was a rather late lunch, 2PM, it wasn't very busy.

Huntsman Burger $8.95

Laura ordered a half pound burger with red pepper aoli. It was supposed to served with huntsman cheese, a mix of cheddar and blue, but Laura got it just with cheddar.

Prince Edward Island Steamed Mussels $8.95

Linna and Cassandra both ordered mussels from the starter section, cooked in broth of garlic, shallot, Chardonnay, butter and huntsman cheese. The mussels tasted good and both of them were quite happy with it. They later additionally ordered another from the starter section to fill them up.

Calypso Crab Cakes $9.95

Signing up for the Lily Pad, I received a coupon for a free order of this starter. Crabmeat, minced onion, pablano and red bell peppers and such. It was crispy out soft in, overall good. However I'm not sure if I fully enjoyed honey mustard with it. I personally think crab cakes go better with creamy dressings such as aoili or remoulade. Maybe it could be a creamy type honey mustard.

Daily Special: Gulf Shrimp Linguini $9.99

This was one of today's lunch specials. The spicy tomato basil sauce with chopped andouille sausage, mushrooms and peppers were good, except that it was different from the discription: spicy tomato basil "cream" sauce. I was thinking something similar to "tomato cream." Still the sauce was good and there were enough shrimp to be called "shrimp linguini." My only disappointment is that the linguini was overdone.

Southwest Shrimp in Three Pepper Cream $8.95

So Linna and Cassandra were, of course, not filled up with the mussel starter. So they each ordered one more, and this was Cassandra's choice. The cream sauce with julienne pablano, serrano and jalapeno peppers and marsala wine, was not spicy as it sounded but just had "a spice" to it, which was good. This was probably the best choice of the day.

Pork & Scallop Satays $8.95

Linna's second dish was Satays marinated in giner, garlic, lime, soy, and rosemary. The sweet and spicy peanut sauce went pretty well with it. Both the pork and scallop were cooked nicely, though maybe the scallops were just a little bit fishy.

Originally aiming for a quiet lunch for two, with two unexpected guests the lunch got a lot more colorful than expected. We had a good time, and my only regret would be about the overdone linguini and the misleading discription of the sauce. Perhaps I would have liked flash fried king clips with remoulades better, but I liked the spicy sauce and enjoyed it anyway.