If you are picky about the quality of your seafood and how it is prepared, The Whale Raw Bar and Fish House in Parkland is going to transport you to the ocean through your taste buds. The food is amazing.

Danielle and Scott Williams opened the restaurant as a husband-wife team in July. The sports bar atmosphere also welcomes families, and it is easily accessed, located just northwest of Hillsboro Boulevard at 7619 N. State Road 7 in Parkland. The place is open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. But get there early, as it has long lines of eager diners on Friday nights.

“We came on Friday and there was over an hour wait,” said Bonnie Goodman, 56, of Coral Springs via New York. Goodman sat with her daughter and a friend, enjoying a bucket of steamed clams ($14.95) on a Sunday in September, rolling her eyes and yum-yumming.

“We eat out every meal,” she said, adding that the aromas coming from the restaurant on Friday is what brought them back two days later. “This transports me; we are always looking for a good seafood restaurant and they are hard to find…and this is the only place down here I’ve found with this quality of food.”

There is no other way to describe the flavors and smells at The Whale unless you are familiar with good seafood. If you are from New England or know how seafood is prepared there, the Ipswich clams, steamed or fried (market price), will take you home.

Although the Williams will tell you their signature item is the Whale fries, served with “whale juice” honey mustard dipping sauce – which is good – I would argue their other dishes stand high and above any fried potato you can slice up.

I tried the lobster salad ($14.95) and was pleased to find nice chunks of Maine lobster and identifiable pieces of claw meat. The smoked fish dip appetizer served with pickled jalapenos ($8.95) can be a meal, and I had to fight my dining partner for a taste. I went back a second time and brought more people. I had the fried Ipswich clams and almost cried with delight; my friends had blackened dolphin ($17.95) and mussels linguini ($16.95) and both declared they would return.

Although the menu offers chicken dishes such as Hawaiian chicken sandwiches ($8.95) with ham, pineapple, Swiss cheese and “whale juice” and Cajun Prime Rib ($19.95), you would be crazy to go to this place and not order such fish dishes as baked stuffed grouper with a New England-style cracker and crab filling ($21.99), live Maine lobster ($25.95) or even the crab legs – King, Snow and Dungeness – all at market price.

Of course, there are fried oysters, raw mussels and oysters, chicken wings and a slew of side orders. Each day has its special, too, and desserts such as cheesecake, Key lime pie and something chocolate that looked threatening to any figure called Turtle Volcano Blast ($4.95). Portions are large here, so go with a healthy appetite.

Soon you will have your favorite dish at The Whale, just like the Goodmans do.  “I think the Ipswich clams are an out-of-body experience,” Goodman said. “This is the way you’re supposed to eat seafood.”

Lisa Bolivar