Goombay's Restaurant
By T. Bennison
I’ve had a lot of crappy jobs in my day, believe me; more than I care to count. It’s odd though that one of the crappiest turned out to be one of the most memorable, and thanks to some unexpected perks, one of the most rewarding.

Plunging my hands into ice on a foggy pier at 4:30 in the morning was, to say the least, humbling. But once I dug out a brilliant red $2,000 tuna loin the size of Mr. T’s thigh and portioned it out for delivery to Michelin-rated San Franciscan restaurants, I felt, well...important. I smelled like hell, and looked worse. Squishing along in scale-encrusted galoshes with a halo of flies encircling my head, I was the very picture of a blue collar man. My tuna selection skills endeared me to the area’s best chefs, however, and I often ate $50 meals gratis. Brittany lobster, Beluga caviar, Sole Meunier, monkfish medallions, Danish halibut steaks - name a high-end seafood delicacy and I’ve had it, my friend, and all without ever removing those galoshes. Nearly every day, I ate like a Rockefeller. Those galoshes are long since gone, thank heaven, traded in some time ago for grass-covered landscaping boots nonetheless, but at Goombay’s in Satellite Beach, I can still enjoy top-notch seafood without sacrificing my blue collar credibility.

Do spruce yourself up a tad bit, and expect to pay for your meal, but be prepared to enjoy some delicious, insanely fresh fish worthy of any chandeliered restaurant. Run by Cocoa Beach native Robert Duterman, Goombay’s serves up quality seafood for the masses in a casual beachside setting. Trust an old (well, youngish) San Francisco fish slinger, Duterman and kitchen manager John Farr know their fish. Very well.

We started off with two tuna “roses,” translucent sashimi-grade center loin slices coiled into a petalled blossom, one raw, the other rolled in sesame seeds and briefly seared. Sound aristocratic, don’t they? They tasted aristocratic too, I’ll have you know, but the last time I had anything comparable I was sitting in the Ritz Carlton. I was in the back of the kitchen, mind you, and wearing those damn galoshes, but there you go. Served with wasabi and a ginger soy sauce, they melted in our mouths. And here we were eating them in a breezy, open Caribbean-style shack out of a paper-lined basket. It doesn’t get any better than that, you say? It does.Next we shared some amazing jumbo lump (lumps of crab, not flecks) crab cake with a creamy remoulade sauce, and some excellent lightly-fried seafood egg rolls (filled with more lump crab meat, shrimp, and cabbage) which we dipped in a piquant Thai chili and a homemade seafood sauce. A word here on their sauces: you could probably order the same item day in and day out for months and taste completely different shades of it by mixing and matching them together. Whether it’s buttermilk blue cheese, citrus teriyaki, ginger soy, Thai chili, horseradish, or honey ginger, all of them have that subtle taste of having been whipped together on the spot. You won’t find any pre-packaged muck here.

The incredible thing about Goombay’s is the versatility of its menu: a seemingly unending choice of combinations await you. Take their Chef’s Combo, which I ordered as an entree. First you figure out whether you want two soft tacos (which can be ordered by their lonesome as entrees) or two sticks (kabob-like skewers, also available alone). Lessee: the tacos (soft tortillas served with sweet corn cheese salsa, greens, and a fruit cup) can be stuffed with either chicken, steak, tender mahi, tuna,or shrimp. The sticks (all the above meat choices, with an option for straight veggies) can be prepared (like the taco filling) grilled, blackened, or rubbed with fresh ground Caribbean jerk spices.Not so fast, buster - you’ve got to chooseone of those sauces I mentioned earlier, too.

You can’t figure it out, so you mix it up. You ask for a blackened mahi taco and a tuna stick (grilled medium rare) with honey ginger sauce. You wash it down with a pint of Belgian-style Blue Moon beer and wonder what another combo might taste like, this one’s so good. And then you work out some tasty permutations in your reeling head and promise to come back.

We do need to return to try the items we missed, and there are plenty. Check out these appetizers: teriyaki tuna bites, macadamia (real macadamias, freshly crushed) coconut (fresh, too) shrimp, snow crab clusters, clams, and their twist on wings (all with a selection of those sauces). By the time you read this, you’ll be able to enjoy some new additions to their starter menu: a crab cocktail served in a chilled martini glass and slipper tails.

Others dishes include sandwiches (chicken, steak, chicken salad, or mahi, on a fresh potato bun served grilled, blackened, or dry rub jerked with a choice of sauces), hand-breaded fried shrimp, two mahi filets, crab clusters, and clams served as entrees with a wide choice of sides: coconut rice, black beans, and pineapple, hand-cut french fries, two sticks of veggies, or spring mix salad. The salads themselves (which come with either a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, creamy cucumber, or honey mustard dressing) are outstanding. The Goombay’s Big Mix (a Mini version is also available) is spring greens tossed with spiral pasta, mandarins, raisins, sunflower seeds, and fresh veggies and though the chicken salad (mixed with Granny Smith apples and walnuts) sounds appealing, my next choice will be their Seafood a la Goombay salad: a filet of Mahi served over greens and fresh veggies. Dessert lovers won’t be disappointed with daily specials like strawberry and coconut shortcakes, homemade orange ice cream, and root beer floats making appearances.

It’s amazing Goombay’s has only been open for 2 1/2 years. Each dish exudes the confidence of a long-established eatery won through years and years of painstaking trial and error. They’ve clearly put their time in over the grill and have achieved their original aim of serving up top quality basket food in a casual island setting.
You’ll have to pay a bit more than you would at your favorite corner fish-fry joint,but it’s well worth it.

Goombay’s (306 Hwy. A1A in
Satellite Beach, 1 mile south of Pineda
Causeway; (321) 779- 2495) is open
Sunday through Monday
11 a.m. to Midnight.