The Dish
DINING REVIEW
Ten Prime Seafood The second Ten Prime location from Chow Fun Food Group focuses on Rhode Island-sourced shellfish and seafood, plus Prime steaks.
CHOW FUN FOOD GROUP may have THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT: Local kept a low profile lately but that doesn’ t oysters with a pear martini; lobster mac and cheese. OPPOSITE PAGE, mean it’ s given up on its neon-hued,
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The high-drama approach to life. Ten Prime interior of Ten Prime Seafood; chicken
Seafood is the group’ s newest addition, nuggets and caviar; tuna tartare served setting up shop across from Trinity Rep on a coconut shell. in the building that housed Empire long ago, and, more recently, Bravo and Res.
It’ s a space that has challenged restaurateurs and, accordingly, this incarnation is largely focused on the ground level with the upstairs reserved for high-volume nights and private events( and maybe something new coming soon to capitalize on the illuminated views of the theater). That still leaves about sixty seats to fill downstairs with more than
a third of those at the bar and high-tops. Other seating is separated into vignettes around the L-shaped room.
The dining room is lighter and brighter than in previous restaurants, with accents of oceanic blue, local art on the walls and a mural of octopus tentacles climbing up the staircase. Chow Fun’ s native language is often tongue in cheek and, in this case, that manifests in a mermaid bust hovering overhead, jellyfish chandeliers facing Washington Street, and an“ Art Department” sign hanging over the kitchen doorway.
Ten Seafood may be a more restrained, slightly more mature version of Ten Prime Steak & Sushi— with Chow Fun’ s revered chef Jules Ramos back at the helm after twenty years away— but the link between all of the company’ s restaurants is that everyone likes a party.
Nowhere is the invite more overt than in the drinks. Several cocktails feature smoke and one delights with a bubble that bursts. Many are oversized and served in vessels that look like winking women or gilded owls with pineapple fronds.(“ Very Indiana Jones,” says the waiter as he places two down on a table.)
But while Ten Prime Steak & Sushi feels like a bar at every table, Ten Prime Seafood
114 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026