If you're in Dallas anyway, for some of the best oysters, shrimp, crabs and catfish anywhere, it's worth making the trek north to Addison and a visit to Little Dix Flying Fish. Although the decor may be as calculated as Olive Garden's (or as the "Mediterranean"-style Village on the Parkway mall where it's located), Flying Fish achieves a nice roadhouse feel, not the least because of the great country blues mix blaring from speakers indoors and out. The hot wings and burgers look great, but it's for fish and shellfish that this place deserves its rep. Get the fried oysters in a salad, in a basket with fries and hushpuppies, on a platter with shrimp and/or catfish, or in a poor boy. The shrimp are incredible: hot, spicy and so fresh you'd swear they're still wiggling. And the seafood gumbo makes you forget you're in the middle of suburbia, not on some back road near Bogalusa. Order plenty of beer or risk third degree burns.

Little Dix Flying Fish, 5100 Beltline Ave, Addison, Texas; 972-851-3474 (a small chain, Flying Fish is in a few other choice locales, such as Little Rock and Memphis).