Fresh Seafood Restaurant in Arlington, TX

Book a table · Private dining · See the menu

A chophouse where half the table can order fish

Arlington has plenty of places to eat fried shrimp near the stadiums. It has fewer places where a table of four can order sea bass, salmon, crab cakes and a ribeye and have all four plates come out of the same kitchen at the same standard. That is the seafood case for Mercury Chophouse – Arlington. It is a steakhouse by name and by reputation, and its seafood list is long enough to carry a guest who never orders beef.

The dinner menu runs three seafood entrées, six seafood or shellfish starters, and four shellfish additions for steaks. The weekday lunch menu adds a blackened fresh catch, a lunch salmon and a crab and shrimp salad. Owner Jim Ross also runs a seafood house less than a mile away, so seafood here is a family habit rather than an afterthought.

Seafood entrées at dinner

The salmon is glazed with teriyaki and grilled on cedar, which gives it smoke and sweetness, and it is the plate for guests who want something familiar. The sea bass is the richer, flakier dish and the one to order for an occasion. It is also the dish most guests searching for sea bass end up ordering; the menu calls it sea bass without naming the species, and the sea bass page goes into the plate. Each entrée is a composed plate, so the $25 split-plate fee applies if you ask the kitchen to divide one.

Chilled, seared and fried starters

Three of the six are served cold, which is worth knowing on an August evening when the west-facing windows have been in the sun all afternoon. Guests who want something warm and light before a steak often split the calamari; the Salmon Mousse is the quiet choice for a two-top. The crab cakes page covers the starter and entrée in detail.

Seafood on the lunch menu

Weekday lunch runs from 11:00 AM, Monday through Friday. The seafood choices are the Blackened Fresh Catch Tacos at $17, a lunch Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon at $24, the Crab & Shrimp Louie at $24, the ceviche at $23 and the shrimp cocktail at $17. Grilled shrimp or grilled salmon can be added to any lunch salad for $15. Lunch prices run lower across the board: the shrimp cocktail is $17 at midday against $19 at dinner, and the calamari is $15 against $17.

Lunch seafood is the practical choice for a business meal: the fresh catch tacos and the Louie are both out of the kitchen quickly, and the ninth-floor windows do the entertaining. Meeting groups often take The Boardroom, which seats 8 to 20 at one table with the same view and a fully integrated AV system; inquiries are answered within 48 hours.

Shellfish on top of a steak

Guests who want both can add seafood to any cut. Oscar Style Lobster is $20, Oscar Style Crab $16, Oscar Style Shrimp $14, a Jumbo Lump Crab Cake $12, and Grilled Gulf Shrimp $23. The Mac-n-Cheese side, $15, takes lobster for $20. Sauces are $4 each, and Béarnaise is the one to ask for beside crab or lobster; Chimichurri suits the shrimp. This is how surf and turf works here: there is no fixed plate, just a steak and the shellfish you choose.

Two seafood addresses, one owner

Jim Ross’s other restaurant is Hearsay – Arlington inside Choctaw Stadium, about 0.7 mile and 3 minutes from Mercury’s front door. Hearsay is the seafood specialist of the two, with a Prohibition-era room; Mercury is the chophouse with the view. Visitors in town for a Rangers series sometimes book one for Friday and the other for Saturday.

Mercury’s room is on the ninth floor of the Brookhollow Two tower, Suite 910, reached by elevator from the lobby. The curved window wall faces Six Flags, Globe Life Field and AT&T Stadium, parking at the tower is free, and the restaurant is closed on Sundays. Reservations are through OpenTable or by calling 817-381-1157. Parties of six or more carry a 20% gratuity, and the dress code is business casual, with collared shirts encouraged and athletic wear left at home.