Certain restaurants, while making a killing selling great burgers, chowder, fish ‘n’ chips and prime rib, also aspire to be more, offering crab cakes, pastas, and steaks – all with higher-end prices – on the same menu.

Buoy 9, a busy, popular Hammond restaurant with a local following, has similar lofty aspirations.

I count myself as one of its fans, having dined there off and on since childhood. I don’t hesitate to recommend it to visitors I meet who may be camping or sightseeing in the Hammond area. Would I send a serious foodie there? It depends. I’d probably tell them it’s a great place for chowder and a burger after fishing or hiking in the area, but would I send anyone to the Buoy for a fine dining meal? I’d never tried any of their other fare, so I couldn’t say. Let’s find out.

As I mentioned, the chowder ($3.50 cup, $4.95 bowl) is wonderful. On the thicker side, but not overly so, with more roux than cream, but not lacking in richness, the Buoy’s chowder magically walks the tightrope.

Calamari strips ($6.95), the long, shoestring variety that is never quite as good as the tubes and tentacles of the more modestly sized squid, are merely satisfactory, with one bite tough, the next one tender. Served with tartar and cocktail sauces, the strips are nearly a dollar apiece, which I deem a bit much for their quality.

Conversely, Torpedo prawns ($6.95) are crumb breaded, perfectly fried tender and golden, and number a dozen for the same price. I would order them again.

Buoy 9 has always been home to great burgers and sandwiches. This has not changed. Their French dip sandwich ($8.95) is among the better ones our area has to offer. I like the Mate’s Favorite ($9.95), a variation in which sauteed onions and melted Swiss cheese top the well-seasoned and thinly sliced beef within a roll perfect for dipping. Such a roll must be crusty and chewy rather than soft, yet not too tough and dense should you choose to forgo the jus-style dipping sauce. I must take issue with my side of potato salad. It was “off.” The texture of the slightly undercooked potato cubes was dense and watery, as if previously frozen. The flavor was as ho-hum, as most potato salads are, but the texture kept me from having more than a couple of bites.

If you can handle it, the formidable Buoy Burger ($10.95) has everything but an egg on top. Advertised as “enough for two,” the burger contains two beef patties, ham, cheese, pickles and double lettuce and tomato. I was able to finish only half at the restaurant. It’s not a hand-formed, cooked-to-temperature burger on a homemade bun, and the cheese is American, but this style of burger can still be done right, and at the Buoy it always is.

The French fries are crispy and of medium thickness, but were not seasoned the two times I had them. Fries should be tossed with seasoned salt, salt and pepper, or some such blend immediately after they are shaken of excess oil so the seasoning adheres and is dispersed evenly. Once they reach your table, salt and pepper will not stick and you’re left as I was, with bland fries.

Dinners were more hit than miss, but the few problematic dishes really stuck out. Crab cakes ($10.95) were the only appetizer to really disappoint. The menu says they’re made from rock crab, which while no Dungeness, can still make a decent cake. The first red flag flew when I saw six of them on the plate. Rock crab is cheaper, but not that cheap. Second, each cake was topped with crab. Strange. Third, the purported hollandaise sauce was bright white. I’ve been making hollandaise for many years, and I’ve never had it turn out white. Egg yolks – golden yellow to orange. Clarified butter – yellow. There’s no way it can turn out white. But that’s just appearances. I never (fully) judge a book by its cover. After one bite, it was evident that these were light on the crab, heavy on the cake. There may well could have been more crab atop each cake than within. Bready, a bit mushy, but not unpleasant, they just didn’t have the proper texture or countenance. In addition to the “hollandaise” sauce criss-crossed along the plate from a squirt bottle, a ramekin of cocktail sauce also adorned the plate, next to the strangest garnish I’d ever seen with such a dish. Two sheets of green leaf lettuce, three tomato slices and five or six rings of sliced red onion accompanied the cakes as they would a hamburger (in the industry we call them LTOs). Such a waste of good produce, and a totally inappropriate garnish for crab cakes.

A 10 oz. New York steak ($16.95) was cooked as ordered, tender and juicy, but completely unseasoned. After table salt and pepper it proved to be quite good. The rice pilaf certainly didn’t exemplify the name – it was more of a steamed rice with chicken base, but it was OK. The salad that preceded it was of the Shari’s variety: iceberg, carrot, cabbage blend with crackers and dressing on the side.

Willapa Bay oysters ($15.95) are available deep-fried or cracker crumbed and griddled. I had them griddled. There were at least a dozen, and bigger than I prefer. Still, they were cooked right, and properly seasoned so there wasn’t anything to complain about. Factory tartar sauce accompanied, but a squeeze of lemon proved more than ample a palate diversion.

An entree I cannot recommend is the chicken fettucine ($14.95). All of Buoy 9’s pastas are variations of the commonplace fettucine alfredo, a dish I often joke is one for those who don’t know what they want to eat. Ordered plain, with chicken, with blackened “cajun” chicken, or with shrimp or several seafoods, it’s all prepared the same way, in a “creamy mushroom alfredo sauce.” I found the noodles to be overcooked and soft, the sauce to be gritty with cheese, bland, pallid and uninspired. The best part of the dish was the grilled garlic bread, which comes with most entrees. Toasted, chewy, buttery, it’s something you can always count on at Buoy 9.

– The Mouth

mouth@coastweekend.com