Fulton's on the River: expansive, expensive

I've briefly mentioned Fulton's on the River before, but it deserves more exploration. This report is a bit tardy, but no one else seems to have written up the place in the meanwhile.

Everything about Fulton's is vast: The space, the ownership, the bill of fare, the portions and, alas, the prices. The building, the 1913 Reid Murdoch Center (formerly Chinn's) on the north bank of the Chicago River, spans 35,000 square feet. The panoramic river views are stunning and the decor understatedly opulent. (The ladies' room held vases of fresh orchids.) I know some people have a rule about restaurants that have more attractions than their fare, but I enjoyed my food, as well.

The lengthy menu, focusing on seafood, features multiple sections, including a separate sushi and raw bar list with more than a dozen kinds of oysters on the half shell; a massive, $99.95 cold seafood combo called "The Big Chill" that serves 10; a selection of appetizers and salads; a daily changing list of fish choices; and a list of meaty options including 10 kinds of steak.

To start, we enjoyed pastrami-smoked salmon -- thinly sliced fish, rubbed edge-on with zesty spices, sprinkled with capers and accompanied by mounds of shaved red onion, minced egg, mustard sauce and sour cream. Deviled eggs were another fun starter, with yolks swirled into the whites end-on, each topped with a bit of osetra caviar and chopped green chive. The one flaw is that the white truffle oil was drizzled on the plate underneath -- you needed to drag your eggs through the puddle to get the flavor.

I'd skip the sushi. Ours were narrow strips of fish merely laid atop the balls of rice, rather than being melded into a unit. My $6 otoro nigiri was the only part of my meal that seemed small.

The white clam chowder was chockfull of fresh clams. I thought the khaki-colored split-pea soup, filled with bits of applewood-smoked bacon, tasted overly sweet from too many carrots.

My entree, piping hot shellfish pot pie, filled a substantial oval baking dish with small bay shrimp, strips of calamari, curled catfish tails, lobster claw meat, chunks of carrots and peas swimming in a rosy, bisque-like seafood sauce below a flaky crust (no bottom crust, but the top was baked on). I'd have preferred a thicker sauce, a little less strongly flavored.

Daily fish options seem a little on the fussy side, like coconut-macadamia crusted Costa Rican tilapia with vanilla rum butter or Wisconsin rainbow trout, which was a big thin fillet, cooked till it just flaked and topped with sauteed fresh corn kernels, morsels of tasso ham and crawfish tails, generously spiced with Cajun seasoning. Himself, who ordered the latter, enjoyed it, despite the busy-ness. The menu declares that you can order any of the seafood prepared simply, too.

All the beef at Fulton's is USDA prime, from the bacon-cheeseburger on up to the 48-ounce porterhouse steak for two. Steaks come high, though. If you were to pair the 16-ounce "bone-in filet mignon" with king crab, you'd have an $80 surf 'n' turf.

Serving sizes range from generous to are-you-kidding? Entrees fill the plate; sides come sized for four and desserts reach sharable proportions, too. Prices are premium, as well, with entrees served a la carte -- at higher cost than similar options elsewhere -- but the quality of the food in these surroundings probably justifies it.

Our waiter warned us about the size of the a la carte sides, so we stuck to potatoes -- the amusing "colossal tater tots," which are more like tater tubs, and come four to an order. Each was about the size of your fist, crispy outside, soft and potatoey inside, and the flavor's right in line with the product from Ore-Ida.

Fulton's offers a long and interesting all-American wine list, too.

Our service was exemplary, though since we were there on a slow night I can't really judge.

Along with this Fulton's, Levy Restaurants also owns Fulton's Crab House at Walt Disney World in Orlando, but size and an emphasis on seafood appear to be the main similarity of the namesakes. Beyond a whimsical mosaic-tile fish over the raw bar, Chicago's Fulton's exudes urban sophistication. In the summer, they'll have outdoor seating overlooking the river.

Fulton's on the River
315 N. LaSalle St., Chicago
(312) 822-0100,
www.fultonsontheriver.com