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The spanking-bright Seaside Café is basically a fast-food restaurant connected to the New York Aquarium. As an air-conditioned space that’s closed off to the corn-dog-cramming crowd on the boardwalk, that’s good enough. The structure itself looks like an interstate rest stop, albeit one that’s decorated with blown-glass fish and red branch coral. The cafeteria-style service area is hygienic, and healthy menu options—wraps and salads—are balanced by familiar, greasy pleasures like Nathan’s hot dogs, chili-cheese fries, giant sirloin burgers, and personal-pan pizzas. Sustainable fish choices like salmon burgers and fish and chips allow you to partake of the ocean’s bounty (or the bounty of humane fisheries) without guilt. Chunk white tuna and chicken Caesar salads are fresh prepped, but pizzas tend to linger awhile in a warming oven, and hot dogs roll in a sheen of fat on the old-school rack under the heat lamp. Still, the Seaside trumps the fried junk you’ll find along the boardwalk, as well as the dolphin-shaped fries that once starred at the Aquarium’s snack bar. Orange-frosted, blue-eyed octopus cookies are on offer, too. — Helen Zelon