At the cheerfully raucous Randazzo’s, the crowds can look intimidating but move relatively fast, a process that you can help if you quickly decide what to get (hint – probably the chicken.)

Multiple visits provided a chance to dig through the menu. The combo seemed liked the Brooklyn thing to do – listed at the top of the menu, it features scungilli, mussels,

shrimp and calamari. There’s a choice of “Famous Hot or Medium Sauce.” You want hot. Actually, we haven’t tried the medium since the hot is spectacular.

Part by part, the mussels were o.k., the shrimp was first-rate and the scungilli and calamari were good, yet not game-changers on their own, since it’s the sauce that makes you remember this place. On that note, the giant appetizer of fried zucchini was shockingly good, in its role as a conduit for that sauce.

We won’t ask if the raw clams were harvested in the water across Emmons Avenue, but they were delightfully oceanic and fresh. And why not start with some soup? We ordered spicy crab corn chowder primary as a cure for a cold and wound up impressed by the creamy kick and respectable crab count. Therefore even those in perfect nasal health should check it out. The Manhattan clam chowder was another winner.