A rather spontaneous person, I’ve been known to close my eyes and point at a listing in the phone book to choose a spot for review. Last week, I decided to eat at the first restaurant I saw.

Businesses come and go in Cannon Beach, and frankly, I had no clue which would be the first to catch my eye after taking the first exit and heading downtown. With a less-than-obvious sign, dim lighting, and set up a bit from the street, it looked like it could be a restaurant; people were sitting at tables, after all. I decided to check it out, and in Castaways, may have found Cannon Beach’s best kept secret … until now, that is.

After a brief skim of the menu, I couldn’t help but notice the uncanny resemblance to the cuisine of the now-defunct Cannon Beach Cafe, which I reviewed just over a year ago. Promising a fusion free-for-all with aspects of Thai, Caribbean, Creole, French, Pan-Asian and Northwest cuisines combined at will, I had reasonable doubts going in. Perhaps Castaways would nobly succeed where Cannon Beach Cafe left mixed feelings about such mixed genres. I noted the menus’ similarities to the server and was immediately set straight.

Josh Tuckman, chef/owner of Castaways (no relation to the Long Beach, Wash., restaurant of the same name), had, in fact, designed the menu and opened Cannon Beach Cafe. With him left the recipes, and those who stayed behind struggled, unsuccessfully for the most part, to crack his cuisine while looking for a new chef.

With Tuckman at the helm, Castaways’ globetrotting hodgepodge of a menu feels more like a carefully chosen mix of old favorites and greatest hits. With each course set before me, I felt more and more confident in ordering the next, eagerly anticipating how the sometimes seemingly incompatible ingredients would play with and against each other to achieve satisfying results.

I ordered five of the eight appetizers and recommend them all. Excepting the blueberries found on almost every dish, the starters’ combinations of flavors are flawless and presentations beguilingly attractive. First came the Mediterranean Rolls ($7.50), almost resembling egg rolls, but baked rather than fried. The pastry shell was crisp but not oily, all the more fitting for the delicate filling of caramelized onions, roasted peppers, mushrooms, feta and goat cheese, a light lemon basil aioli the perfect complement.

Next were the Tiki Shells ($9), two large, breaded pasta shells filled with a prawn and Andouille sausage mixture and deep-fried. The shells ejected their fillings when the fork came down, as I figured they would, but the delicious lemon herb buerre blanc was there to coat, another fitting accompaniment. Were it not an uncouth practice for a man with manners, I’d have picked these up to dip and eat. The next, and my favorite, appetizer was the Caribbean Crab Fritters ($9). Not a true fritter in the “all-encompassing batter” sense of the word, these were more like spherical, deep-fried crabcakes. But different is good; great, in this case. The globes were perfectly cooked, crunchy, panko-coated without, sweet and tender within. The Bahamian stew sauce, a deep red, slightly spicy, just sweet-and-sour enough concoction, was another perfect pairing. An artistic drizzling of Creole aioli was pretty, and even managed to complement the more dominant stew sauce. After that came the Black & Blue Ahi Tuna ($10), seared Ahi, sliced into strips and arranged like wheel spokes in the middle of the plate. Small pools, drizzles and droppings of hibiscus wasabi glaze, pineapple ginger teriyaki sauce and wasabi flying fish roe appeared here and there around the tuna, with small mounds of wasabi paste around the plate’s rim, daring the creative diner to drag each slice of the rare tuna in different directions toward new and exciting flavor destinations. Finally came the East Meets West ($9.50), perfectly cooked chicken tenderloin skewers, two Thai, two jerked Jamaican-style, with four dipping sauces: an addictive spicy peanut sauce, a sweet plum sauce, a jerk sauce and fresh mango salsa.

I must mention that several of the dishes on Castaways’ menu have sweet elements that could easily overpower the more savory notes. I commend chef Tuckman on his subtlety and restraint.

The only menu item that didn’t impress me was the chowder ($4 and $6). Seafood (halibut, prawns and baby scallops) was not lacking, and flavors were solid enough, but the consistency was far too thin and milky for my taste.

Entrees lived up to the expectations created by the strong starters. Haystack Chicken ($18) is a rather complex way to serve a breast, but it’s pulled off quite nicely. Topped with mushrooms, goat cheese and caramelized onions, then wrapped in pastry dough and baked, this dish is finished with a white wine herb sauce, which is soaked up just enough in the bottom layer.

The Niman Ranch Jamaican Pork Chop ($16) was pan-seared to a perfect medium-rare, exactly as requested. A sauce of Blackstrap rum and apple butter sauce was just sweet enough to be traditional for pork.

The Filet-cut Sirloin ($18.50) was absolutely perfect. Cooked ultra-rare as I wanted, the generous marbling of Wagyu beef produced a cut every bit as tender as a true tenderloin. A topping of sautéed onions and quartered mushrooms worked well with the cream-embellished brandy demi-glace. Garlic and cream cheese mashed potatoes worked perfectly with this dish.

Castaways offers several variations of macaroni and cheese: a not-so-traditional three-cheese with feta, cheddar and jack ($10.50), a Cajun with andouille and caramelized onions ($13.50), and a nightly special. I had the Cajun, which was extra spicy as requested, and sporting tiny shell pasta, part of the tropical theme.

A recent special of panko-crusted pan-fried Pacific halibut with sautéed prawns and a roasted red bell pepper sauce ($20) proved to be a more localized dish, just what I was in the mood for after all the exotic excursions. The fish flawlessly prepared, the sauce rich and robust, it almost resembled a piscatorial chicken parmesan.

Able on my final visit to save room for dessert, I chose the Mango Flambe ($8.50), a dish not unlike Bananas Foster (also represented on the dessert menu). Chunks of mango and strawberry are sautéed with butter, brown sugar, rum and spices and served molten hot over coconut ice cream. Eat it fast before it becomes soup! I’d hoped for it to be prepared tableside and have been assured that it will be in the near future.

In the end, it seems the menu I first laid eyes upon so many months ago on the other side of town has at last lived up to its potential, properly executed by its rightful master. A bright future is in store for Castaways.