This is a Seafood Dinner Party Menu that you can use for a party with friends!
In my old neighborhood, we used to have a gourmet dinner group. One of the times I hosted, I used this seafood dinner party menu. The most important thing to begin with when you’re hosting a party where seafood is the star is to confirm that none of your guests have a seafood allergy. I’ll be sharing the entire menu with all recipes on this post- just click recipe titles below to reach actual, printable recipes.
Seafood Dinner Party Menu Details:
I hosted a dinner party for 18 with this menu, but you can certainly adjust the recipes to serve however many people you’d like. Since hosting a big party like this is a lot of work, I suggest you offer to “host” the party, plan the menu and then assign a dish for each couple to bring. That’s much more manageable.
Table Decor:
For my table decor, I went with some simple white tablecloths, blue dishes, sand-colored napkins, sea-inspired candles and a few shells and starfish. Oh, and the most important table decoration of all… fish swimming in vases! (Don’t worry- the fish were ALL taken home by my guests to add to the fish tanks in their homes!) They make for pretty cute centerpieces.
If you look closely, you’ll see some salt-water taffy scattered on the table too. My guests enjoyed nibbling on those after dinner, and they fit into the theme just right. Warning: black striped taffy usually means that it tastes like black licorice. Avoid those!
We set up a simple serve-yourself bar in our backyard. Something for everyone.
Featured beverage: the Sea Breeze Cocktail, of course!
First Appetizer: Bacon- Wrapped Scallops with Spicy Cilantro-Mayonnaise
Second Appetizer: Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs
Third Appetizer: Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip
Fourth Appetizer: Shrimp Ceviche
Side Dish: Summer Gratin
Main Dish #1: Baked Salmon with Creamy Coconut-Ginger Sauce over Coconut- Ginger Rice
Main Dish #2: Tequila-Lime Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Cream
Dessert: Key Lime Pie
This dinner party menu is a smashing success! Plates will be licked clean, and you’ll have happy people all-around.
Favorites of my guests were the scallops and the salmon. It’s a lot of food! A couple of appetizers would be plenty, and you can choose one of the two entrees, if you’d like. The key lime pie was much loved too. Enjoy!
Thank you! Used your receipes to serve my wife a tête á tête dinner and now she loves me even more! Jan
Hi Lori,
This is great! How did you serve everyone (plate everything)? WIth seafood, there is the time/freshness factor. Did your guests walk in at a specific time and you immediately started serving? Or were you cooking the main entrees (salmon) while guests gnoshed at the appetizers and fixed themselves drinks? Wondering how to keep all the seafood at a good temperature and servable…Thanks!
Since our dinner group works together in preparing the meal, it was a team effort!
Hey Lori, I just stumbled upon your blog and the menu looks yummy! Im planning a small seafood feast for Christmas & im going to try your creamy coconut salmon & rice. Happy holidays 🙂
Great- hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Awesome ideas!! We’re having a clam bake this summer and I love your app ideas!!! Some other theme ideas could be a Mad Men party (complete with coming in your favorite 60’s attire!) and research food from the 60’s. You could also do a “blast from the past” (where everyone wears normal clothes but adds one thing from their past, like a favorite t-shirt from high school or the veil from their wedding) and you serve foods that were popular when you were a child. Thanks so much for the ideas 🙂
I am throwing a seafood party for my boyfriend and our friends. I love your idea on here. When you said you had each couple bring a dish…did you assign one of the dishes you feature above or did they all bring something in addition to what you made?
I planned the entire menu and gave each of my friends a recipe to prepare and bring.
Lori always love your stuff! My fav dinner party ever I called “regional.”. Everyone had to bring a dish reflective of where they were from (or if couldn’t do that, then reflecting ethnic or aspect of identity). It was hilarious and delicious and made for amazing stories as we got to know new things about each other! I couldn’t decide whether to award first or booby prize to ny friends who brought Kentucky fried chicken (would some fab BBQ been too much to ask?) 🙂
How fun! Love that idea for a dinner party! Miss seeing you around these parts!
This is so cute. I want to join your dinner party group!!!!
Hi Lori,
I saw you in the UT food blogger article! We love culinary theme parties, and I’ve been trying to get our group to do the dinner party thing during the Coronado Concert in the Park off-season (during the summer, we do a different theme each Sunday and have done some pretty wild ones). My friend, Brad, would probably also be the one to stick his knife in the fish bowl 😉
This looks like it was loads of fun. Love how the sauce on the salmon was in the shape of a sea star 🙂 I would love to do a murder mystery dinner party sometime. Tho I have had many dinner parties, somehow it has never happened. So, why don’t you have one, report on it of course, and then I can have one vicariously through your blog 🙂
Oh my stars the food looks and sounds amazing. Love your table setting and how come you aren’t my neighbor?