Finz Seafood & Grill

The Restaurant

Finz Seafood & Grill sits on the eastern edge of Pickering Wharf at 76 Wharf Street, a glass-walled pavilion that wraps three sides with Salem Harbor and faces the Friendship of Salem tall ship across the basin. The dining room runs to about 120 seats inside and another sixty on a covered outdoor deck (May through October), with a forty-seat horseshoe bar dedicated almost entirely to the raw and sushi programmes. The vibe is brighter and louder than Ledger or Settler — this is a restaurant designed to take advantage of a view rather than a granite vault — and the energy on a summer Saturday is the closest Salem comes to a Boston Seaport room.

The kitchen splits its attention deliberately between two cuisines. The cooked menu is contemporary New England seafood — pan-seared scallops with corn succotash, blackened mahi-mahi with mango salsa, lobster mac-and-cheese with house pancetta, a whole-belly fried clam plate that locals defend with vigor, and a hot lobster roll on a buttered brioche that is the lunch-service workhorse. The raw and sushi programme, however, is where Finz earns its real ranking: a six-oyster lineup that rotates daily and frequently runs to four East Coast varieties and two Pacific, hand-rolls and nigiri made by a small team of trained itamae, signature creations like the Finz Wasabi-Stoli oysters (wasabi caviar and Stoli Razberi vodka shot over a Wellfleet) and a tuna tartare on a crisp wonton that has been on the menu since 2008.

The bar programme runs to about ninety wines (with a sensible focus on Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño, Chablis, and Provençal rosé), a strong by-the-glass Champagne list, and a working sake programme tied to the sushi side. Cocktails skew classic with a small list of seasonal house drinks. Service is brisk and competent rather than formal, the room is loud enough to dance under but not enough to drown a four-top, and the harbor light at 7:30 in late June is the closing argument. Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice every year since 2017.