The Little Tuna

What makes a restaurant successful? Is it a well executed vision of food profiles and flavor? Is it friendly, passionate and knowledgeable staff? Or, is it in a name?

I had heard good things about The Little Tuna, located on "Restaurant Row" in Haddonfield, NJ, which is why I leaped at the chance to buy $50 worth of food for $25 on LivingSocial a few months back. However, when I got home that same day, in the weekly coupon saver, was a Little Tuna PAGE of coupons. It made me wonder if the restaurant was struggling, which in turn made me wonder about its quality.


Luckily, they (do) do tuna very well.


Let me preface this by saying that I have, thus far in my short relationship with fish, had a very volatile relationship with fish in any raw form. My first meal after becoming a pescatarian, about a year ago, I had sushi- nothing crazy, but some tuna rolls and some salmon ones. Taste-wise it was pretty uninteresting to me (I guess I'm all about the tempura-based sushi), but the real horror was that on the walk home and for the rest of the night, I started swelling up...everywhere. I had a severe allergic reaction- and to what exactly I'll never know- but that's enough to make anyone avoid raw fish.

Seared Tuna wins MVP

But, this tuna was seared, so I decided that I would try some peices off of their appetizer menu, instead of getting a tuna meal, and that it was safe enough.


The Little Tuna offers a series of tuna plates (they make it a point to tell you that it's "sushi-grade") that can be served with (a) wasabi and ginger, (b) jamacian jerk style, or (c), what we got, sesame encrusted. Truly delicious, and not overdone with sesame, the pieces came out a touch before warm with one sesame and one wasabi-based sauce for dipping. The tuna was a great pink, with no sliminess. In the past, I find that tuna in extended slices can get strange in the middle with the flesh tearing in strange, unappealing ways (especially at the moment where cooked meat meets with uncooked), but the transition on these pieces was perfect. I felt that I was actually just enjoying tuna in a very pure form with my own choice to enhance the flavor as much as I wanted. By far, my favorite part of the meal and something I would come back for.

Coconut Crusted Tilapia with Lime (?) Chutney

My main entree wasn't quite as delicious. I ordered the coconut crusted tilapia with a (supposed) lime chutney. I say supposed because the chutney was comprised of apples, and what I can only assume are a bevvy of spices, with (maybe) a squirt of lime over it. Very little lime was there to help cut through the coconut- which was thick and of the sweetened variety. This threw me off because between the reduced apples, the coconut, and the white fish (which was soft, and relatively tasty on their own) left the meal very sweet overall. Relatively delicious, but very strange. I had to salt it quite a bit to help the flavors balance out. The sides were decent- vegetables weren't too over-boiled, and my potato was yummy, as potatoes always are.

The Little Tuna served good food, however the restaurant was inconsistent to the point where it did not live up to my expectations. The Little Tuna did a nice job of creating a feeling of private dining even though most of the seating is an open table style. The tables were draped with immaculate white table clothes and came with its own bottle of imported, bottled water, which I'm sure was not complementary. We were seated immediately and our waiter hurried over. He was very eager, but that didn't make up for his lack of focus/forgetfulness since we ended up waiting for him most of the night. To put this in perspective we started out just getting water, he then said he would bring us bread, he came back and took our appetizer order without bread, reassured us he would bring us bread, came back minutes later with our appetizer with no bread, took our entree order, asked if there was anything else he could do for us, and I replied, "just the bread, please." Five minutes later we had bread. I know this sounds petty, but the point is I must hold The Little Tuna to a higher standard than Ponzio's Diner down the road.

Flounder Stuffed with Lump (?) Crabmeat

For my entree I ordered the Flounder Stuffed with Lump Crabmeat. As a rule, if I have the opportunity to eat more than one animal in an entree, I usually take the opportunity. The flounder was delicious. It was very flaky and tender. It was seasoned with an expected Old Bay-type crab seasoning making it feel very Maryland. Although it made sense it was boring. I expected that the lump crabmeat on the inside would tie everything together and bring the dish to the next level that it should be at. I was met with something I did not order. The lump crabmeat was much closer to a paste crabmeat. It was a bland texture that could have been fulfilled by the delicious garlic mashed potatoes (skin included) next to the fish. The end result tasted like delicious flounder stuffed with mushy crab-flounder. The second side on the plate was a pile of steamed, unseasoned vegetables. It was sadly uninspired and lacked an overall freshness that I look for in seafood. The natural texture and taste of crabmeat is what makes it special when paired with a flaky white fish. Don't pulverize the crab, please. Maybe I'll get a double order of seared tuna next time.

OM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM!