Calamari of only the highest caliber.

Byline: Best of. . . The Register-Guard

We often wonder if calamari would be such a popular staple of restaurant appetizer menus if it were listed by its scientific name.

We can hear it now: Waiter, fry me up a mess of marine cephalopods, please.

Even by their more common name - squid - they sound dubious as a foodstuff. But by employing the Latin-derived Italian word for one of the ocean's more voracious predators, we think we're dining on some sort of delicacy.

Calamari. Oooh, classy. Can't you just hear Harry Connick Jr. crooning in the background while a waiter snaps your linen napkin and places it smartly across your lap?

Some restaurants even refrain from serving squid tentacles, obscuring the critter's kinship with octopus and cuttlefish. For the record, Team Best of ... likes those tentacles fried up to a tasty crunch.

And we like calamari generally because it's one of the least fishy tasting things you can haul out of the sea. It does present a challenge to chefs, because the delicate flesh can be easily overcooked - and then you just have a chewy, rubbery mess on your hands.

Still, plenty of local res- taurants do calamari just fine, as we discovered on our hunt for the perfect serving.

Poppi's Anatolia lightly breads it with such a pleasing mix of flavors that you don't miss the dipping sauce that's standard seafood fare. A bit of lemon juice is all you need.

Unfortunately, Poppi's only serves calamari on Sunday.

Cafe Soriah adds capers and, like Poppi's, has a flavorful-enough concoction. It only requires a splash of lemon, though we did like the sprinkling of capers, too.

The team especially appreciated the fact that Soriah's chef indulged our calamari jones during lunch, even though it's not offered on the lunchtime menu.

But for sheer inventiveness, we must recommend the calamari at Cafe Lucky Noodle. Marinaded in sake and coated with panko - Japanese bread crumbs - the calamari are fried golden on the outside and tender on the inside.

The dish also includes garlic, shalots and jalapenos fried along with the calamari. It is served with a ponzu sauce: a Japanese concoction a bit on the sour side, but providing an intriguing finish once we adjusted to it.

Many restaurants pile up the calamari on a platter so large you need a gang of friends to do it justice. Lucky Noodle's serving is smaller, but it satisfied two Team Best of ... members who were full enough they decided to split a greek salad entree at a different restaurant later in the evening.

What's in a name? Team Best of ... will leave that for the literati to debate. Whatever the chefs want to call squid, we'll keep eating it.

Swim into the Best of ... archive and its ocean of choices at www.registerguard.com/bestof.

BEST CALAMARI Cafe Lucky Noodle Where: 207 E. Fifth Ave. Hours: 8 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday; 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday Price: $10.50