(This venue is closed.) Very fresh seafood is the order of the day.
Showcasing it to good effect, seasoning is sparing. Fish entrees are offered with a choice of sauces on the side but are better undressed; even on the superbly flaky hake sandwich, you'll do well to go easy with the housemade tartar sauce. Raw bar items, which can be dear when purchased a la carte, are a good value as a tasting platter for the table.
Atypical of many raw-bar combos, you'll encounter not only crustacea and bivalvia but also univalvia — snails, for short — presented with pushpins and toothpicks with which you twist free the meat. Below, beside a bowlful of marble-size periwinkles, are a quartet of English whelks. Compared with the channeled whelks you may espy in Chinatown markets, this species is much less common in New York waters (Prima's, I believe, come from Maine), and the meat is more tender. Also shown, above: meltingly fresh mackerel ceviche.
Prima
58 East 1st St. (First-Second Aves.), Manhattan
646-559-4823
