The Original Wright's Seafood Inn closed in 2004 after owners Dave and Jen Wright Davis decided that the cost of repairing flood damage inflicted by Hurricane Ivan was simply too high. They were the fourth generation of Wrights to own the restaurant, which opened in 1898.

Joe DeCarlo, the new owner, decided to keep the name, clearly happy to associate his new restaurant with the local landmark that was, by all accounts, beloved. DeCarlo has done an admirable job of maintaining the attractive, old-fashioned feel of the space, as well as adding a beautiful wooden deck.

Unfortunately, the new Wright's Seafood Inn suffers from a general identity crisis that is undercutting the many fine aspects of the restaurant that DeCarlo inherited and created. There may be restaurants in the world that can execute dozens of entrees at the drop of a hat, with influences ranging from down South to the Far East. There may even be restaurants that can do so despite a menu that changes daily. Wright's is not one of those restaurants.

The menu cries out for a careful edit to pare the unwieldy list that includes too many variations on the same types of seafood, and too many non-seafood options. Does a seafood inn really need four kinds of steak?

To top it off, along with its two different dining rooms, Wright's Seafood Inn maintains two different menus, though there is a lot of overlap. The Tap Room menu includes entree salads and sandwiches, while the White Room (the more "formal" dining room) has a few more substantial seafood main courses.

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Wright's Seafood Inn

1 star = Good
Ratings explained

1837 Washington St.
Heidelberg
412-279-7900
wrightsseafoodinn.com

• Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-1 a.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-1 a.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
• Basics: Strip away the unnecessary white tablecloths and sushi bar and you'll get to this restaurant's heart and soul -- simple, straightforward seafood preparations like a killer lobster bisque and the generously portioned seafood trio.
• Recommended dishes: Lobster Bisque, Calamari Fritti, Tap Room Salad, Seafood Trio, apple dumplings, tiramisu.
• Prices: Tap Room: Appetizers, $3-$11; salads and sandwiches, $9-$14; entrees, $14-34. White Room: From the sea, $17-$34; pastas, $18-$26; from the grill, $14-$32; desserts, $5-6; sushi: nigiri, $3.50-$5; rolls, $3.50-$12.50; platters, $16-19. wines by the glass start at $6, by the bottle, $24.
• Summary: Wheelchair-accessible; nonsmoking; parking lot; credit cards accepted; reservations encouraged on weekends for formal dining room; corkage, $10.
• Noise level: quiet

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In general, the seafood options were good. The Lobster Bisque (cup, $4; bowl, $5) was the finest I've tasted in Pittsburgh -- rich, perfectly seasoned and tasting overwhelmingly of lobster, as it should.

The Seafood Trio ($34) of lobster tail, crab cake and seared jumbo sea scallops was served with crisp yet moist potato pancakes and perfectly cooked asparagus. Though the sea scallops had a tiny bit of grit, in general the seafood was delicious and substantial. Ironically, the crab cake suffered a bit from having too little breading, leaving it a little too gummy rather than moist.

But the vast majority of the dishes revealed a fundamental weakness that left me with a negative impression overall.

Properly cooked and high quality seafood was consistently paired with underwhelming, even unappetizing, side dishes and accompaniments. Jumbo Shrimp and Scallops Risotto ($19) came covered in a thin layer of fat that had separated from overcooked rice -- properly cooked risotto has just a bit of resistance left in the rice, similar to al dente pasta. I resisted the urge to blot the large, sweet scallops and shrimp on a napkin before eating them.

A fantastic special of steamed live Maine lobster came with roasted redskin potatoes and corn on the cob ($30). Leaving aside the fact that it is simply too early in the summer to serve corn, both the corn and the potatoes tasted as if they had been sitting under a heat lamp for hours.

The kitchen also hadn't cut through the underbelly of the lobster, so it took a lot of effort to break into the body and got unnecessarily messy. Even after extracting every bit of meat out of the fairly small lobster (1¹/₂ pounds), the sides were so inedible that the $30 plate no longer seemed like a bargain.

"Forever Young" ($21.50), an angel hair pasta dish containing jumbo lump crab meat, Alaskan King Crab and julienned vegetables, was so dry that it was almost difficult to eat. Where was the purported garlic white wine sauce? As for the julienned vegetables, they must employ several people simply to cut the peppers, carrots and celery that appeared in one combination or another all over the menu, sometimes disguised by names like "Asian vegetables" or "Asian slaw."

Every so often, another simple, well-prepared dish would pop up, such as a goat cheese and beet salad ($5.50), though it would have benefited from a more generous serving of beets, and an excellent fried calamari. Though calamari seems like a throwaway dish, here it was fantastically crisp and not at all greasy. It was served with a wasabi-honey dipping sauce that suffered a bit from an unpleasantly thick texture, but was an interesting variant on traditional accompaniments.

Of course, in addition to the Tap Room menu and the White Room menu (more on these distinctions later), there is a sushi menu. First, it must be said, there is a lot more to preparing sushi and sashimi than simply having fresh fish and knowing the basics of making a sushi roll. In Japan, it is not uncommon for sushi apprentices to spend years learning nothing but how to make rice. Sushi rice (technically a redundant term, since sushi refers to rice) should have a distinctive sourness. In America, it is common for a sweet note to exert itself as well.

Here, the rice was bland and packed so tightly together that the starchy taste completely overwhelmed the flavor of the fish in nigiri and the contents of several specialty rolls, such as the Tap Room Cali ($8.50), which contained real blue crab instead of the typical imitation stuff, avocado, cucumber and masago (flying fish eggs).

The Lobster Roll ($12.50) was just as overwhelmed by the dreary rice, but when separated from its companions, the grilled Maine lobster it contained was sweet, firm and bursting with flavor. A real lobster roll, whether instead of or in addition to the Lobster Wrap ($12), would be a far better addition to the menu than the entire Sushi Bar.

The restaurant's lack of a clear identity extends to the decor. Though it has been trendy of late to have two dining rooms that offer diners different levels of formality along with different menus, the concept does not really function at the Wright Seafood Inn. There's little difference between the menus, and almost as little difference between the two dining rooms. The formal dining room may have had white tablecloths, but it also had containers of sweeteners on the tables (as did the tap room).

Overall, I preferred the appearance of the tap room, where large wooden tables and plain earth tones conveyed a pleasant rusticity that was relaxing without being dull.

Service here is "old-Pittsburgh style." Friendly, a little nosy, and open about everything, even things that you'd probably rather not know, such as the fact that desserts are heated in the microwave. Despite this unappetizing detail, the apple dumplings ($5) turned out to have a filling of tender, sweet baked apples suffused with the aroma of cinnamon, wrapped in a surprisingly crisp pastry shell.

Touches like the gorgeous wood bar with original paneling, the expansive rooms, and the friendly servers give Wright's Seafood Inn a wonderful, timeless ambience that is at odds with the discombobulated, "modernized" menu. Having adopted a historical name, let's hope that in time Wright's Seafood Inn adopts old-fashioned, straightforward dishes rather than trying to be all things to all people.