Saturday around 1 pm we had reservations for 4. We definitely did not need reservations for lunch time as there were only a few other tables full. The restaurant is mostly white - white walls, white table clothes, servers dressed in white and has an open feeling. But it's not fancy, it's a bit dated actually. Very simple and could probably use a bit of a modernization.
We were seating at a round table next to the window and given very long paper menus. There are tons of fish choices and you can have them prepared however you'd like - deep fried, grilled, or coated in matzo meal. We choice four different fish - Haddock, Halibut, Hake, and the Roasted Cod with Mediterranean vegetables. The Haddock and Roasted Cod were from their daily menu, but the Halibut and hake were specials. Most dishes from their every day menu are served without sides - you must order them in addition. The Roasted Cod came with vegetables and that was clearly stated on the menu. The specials sometimes include sides and sometimes don't. The Halibut was served as is, but the Hake included chips.
We ordered all four grilled and I love that they are prepared very simply. No seasonings or spices. Just fish. We also ordered the arugula, tomato, and parmeasan salad as well as the tomato and onion salad. One of the dishes came with chips and another dish came with veggies, so we had four sides in total.
The Haddock and the Hake were quite similar to one another. The Hake was a bit more flavorful in my opinion and also softer - almost mushy, but in a good way. It was my favourite. The Haddock was probably my second favorite - it's a very safe fish, not much flavor, so quite a good choice if anyone is skeptical of eating fish. The Halibut was a huge portion (and I say this as someone who thinks portions are always too small). One person would honestly have a difficult time finishing it, but then again it was a pricier dish. We had to fillet it ourselves, but it was really very easy to do. It came out in one piece and there were no strays little pieces. I wasn't crazy about the Halibut and I think that's largely because it was a bit overcooked, which is quite a big faux pas. This is a fish restaurant! You cannot mess up in the cooking of your fish. The texture was quite firm and chewy, but the person who ordered it said it was his favorite of the four, so it worked out well. The Roasted Cod was hard to judge because it was cooked with Mediterranean vegetables and heavily flavored. I didn't love the flavor of the spices, but others did. It actually turned out that The person who ordered the cod liked it the best, the person who ordered the Halibut liked that the best, and I happened to like the Hake more than the Haddock and the Hake recipient liked the Haddock more, so we switched. It was perfect and I would highly highly recommend ordering different fish if you're going with a group of people. One of the best parts is getting to try several different fish all at once so you can really taste the difference in flavor and texture with fish.
The sides were nothing to write home about. The tomato and onion salad was a large plate of just tomato and red onion. The arugula salad was just a pile of arugula with tomatoes and parmesan slices on top. The chips were mediocre. But I still love the concept of the restaurant, the variety in both fish choices and preparations, and I would definitely recommend it overall.
We were also given complimentary salmon cakes (no one could taste the salmon and we actually had to confirm that we heard correctly that it was a salmon cake). Good, though.
Service was very good - everyone was friendly, attentive, and answered questions patiently. read more