Little Fish

[cjsadler]

Having a hard time finding out much about this place. Anyone been lately? I'm especially curious about the $25 5-course prix fixe on Sundays (as that's when we'll be in town).

[Andrew Fenton]

I haven't been to Little Fish for a while, but walked by on Sunday and thought, y'know, I oughta head back there soon.

It's a cute little place; the menu is almost entirely fish-centered (piscocentric? No, that sounds like an insult, like college students mouthing off at Thanksgiving about their parents' piscocentrism.) It's very solid, and the Sunday prix fixe is a good deal.

[herbacidal]

I haven't been to Little Fish in years, but I've heard nothing but good things about it in the interim.

But I don't hear a lot about it, because it's been there for a while, and it's so small that only so many people can fit in there.

[Greg Ling]

I know they've been trying to hire a Chef for just $500 a week though.

[Capaneus]

It's been solid every time I've been there. Fish-centered, but most of the dishes tend to actually be both hearty and creative. Tiny space, and gets *really* crowded (though I suspect Sundays may be less so - hence the Prix Fixe deal). It used to be a father-and-son team in the kitchen, but the son has moved on to open Pumpkin, which is very good - surprisingly so, because I used to feel that on those nights when he cooked alone at Littlefish the place was less good.

[Alec Hart]

I went to Little Fish about 3-4 weeks ago and it was great. After Ian left to start Pumpkin, I pretty much stopped eating here (maybe tried it again twice), but now there is new ownership and, judging by my one visit, there is a vast improvement in quality and presentation.

I'll probably go back within the next week or two and I'll give a more full report.

-- Alec

[Andrew Fenton]

Seeing this thread last week reminded me, again, that it had been a long time since I'd eaten at Little Fish; so we headed over there last night, and had a very nice dinner. The Sunday night prix fixe menu (now $28) consisted of:

- a rich mussel chowder, with little flecks of red bell pepper that brought out the sweetness of the mussels.

- a crabcake with a mango/watercress salad and black bean puree. The weakest dish of the evening. The flavor was fine, but the texture was sort of tuna fish-y.

- a refreshing baby frisee and feta salad.

- a choice of four fishes for the main course. I had halibut, which was served with a really lovely green pea spaetzle and a scallop cream sauce. The missus had escolar, which came with orzo and a little asparagus salad. I thought the halibut was really outstanding, but they were both good.

- for dessert, bread pudding and peach crisp.

It's a lovely, casual place; the food was good, and $28 is quite a deal.

[mattohara]

Karen and I had a wonderful dinner here last night.

Negative first: Even if it's a BYOB and casual, and there's just one waitress and one busser, there are still only a small number of tables. Getting the wine open and water on the table should happen first. And between courses your dirty silver should be replaced and napkins folded.

But of course we don't really mind stuff like that since we both wait tables and we care more about the food, which was great.

Apps: Berbere-crusted Tuna, Calamari with Pastina

Of the four dishes we had the Tuna was my least favorite. It was perfectly seared, the berbere crust had a nice flavor, it came with spaghetti-shaved papaya and some avacado mousse and some morrocan nuts. Beautiful but I just didn't think the flavor combinations were as impressive as those in the other three dishes.

The calimari was almost a stew. Tender little rings with orzo and tomato and almond slivers in a tomato, caper, olive, currant broth. It was a bit salty but we both like that a lot. All of the flavors and the tender, tender (did I mention how tender it was?) calimari just made this a great starter.

2nd: Escolar with Asparagus and Orzo, Copper River Salmon with Bacon, Spinach and Chick Peas

This had to be the last of the Copper River so I went for it. The crispy skin goes so well with smoked bacon! The chick peas were underneath and propping the salmon off of the buttery sauce at the bottom of the plate. A quinelle of fig-mustard uh, jam? compote? gelee? sat on top and added to the complexity.

The Escolar absolutely killed it. Just perfect and crispy, the asparagus was perfectly cooked, the lemon vinaigrette gave it a nice tang. Orzo. There must be a couple of things here that I'm forgetting and I'll have to come back and edit this post when Karen helps me remember.

We drank a bottle of Keller Reisling. Nice and dry but with enough tartness and acidity to balance out the buttery flavor of the escolar.

DEFINITELY going back. A little annoyed that I didn't stop by earlier. Especially since it's only 5 blocks from my house. Fish on!

Edited August 16, 2007 by mattohara (log)

[Sony]

Just tried the 5-course menu tonight. Overall, in my humble opinion, good, almost great, but not quite there. My thoughts:

Bread service produced a small slice with a slightly sweet crust- very good, would have been improved if it was warm. Sauce came alongside that reminded me a lot of chimichurri. They did well by including a small spoon to re-emulsify the sauce and drizzle vs. dunk.

1st course: Crab sausage on beluga lentils with mustard sauce. Good, but a little salty. I think a squeeze of lemon or something acid would have pointed the flavor up.

2nd course: Marlin on braised chard (there was also a quail option.) The fish was nicely cooked, left rare in the middle, with a sauce that tasted like it was spiked with dark soy (richly sweet and salty). Definitely on the better side of average, but not mind-blowing.

Salad of frisee, roquefort, candied walnuts and dried cranberries. I think the nuts were a little sugar-heavy- would have preferred if they only had a slight glaze instead of the thick granular coating, especially since there was already sweetness from the dried cranberries. Well-balanced vinaigrette, but the greens seemed a little overdressed.

4th course: Swordfish on pea ragout with golden chantrelles. (other options: a red snapper with fingerlings and romanesco, and a mahi-mahi with marinated tomatoes.)

The swordfish...now THIS is what I'm talkin' about . One of the best pieces of swordfish I've ever had, maybe ever period. Perfectly cooked, slightly salty, but balanced by the sweetness of the peas and the slight smokiness of the sauteed mushrooms. Yum.

Dessert (this I took home and just finished)- chocolate truffle cake with caramel sauce. The cake itself was pretty standard- probably would have preferred it warm. It was sauced with one-dimensional caramel. If it had been a little darker to bring a bitter edge, or sprinkled with a little salt, or infused with citrus peel, I probably would have enjoyed it more. Instead, I ended up scraping most of the caramel aside.

For $30 after tax, not bad. In such a tiny space, I got to see a lot of the kitchen action, which was both positive and negative. On the plus side, the 2 chefs hardly spoke 2 words to each other but were totally in sync. It was cool to watch their non-verbal communication. On a less positive note, one of them continually used the same spoon to dip into several pots/pans for tasting. I know this may happen more often than we like to think, but I just don't like watching it happen. My brain couldn't help cringing with a silent, 'Ew'.

Service was very nice and accommodating (prompt call back for reservation, friendly but not overbearing during the meal.)

[angevin]

Little Fish is back in operation in their new digs at 6th and Fitzwater. Although ambiance is a little better than at the old place, it is still small, maybe 30 seats max. But the same opportunity to view the theater of the open kitchen from every table exists. I’ve been four times since their reopening and am in agreement with the assessment of others here, based on their former spot.- consistently good, occasionally great. This past Sunday was great. (It’s still relatively easy to get in on their Sunday 5-course tasting for a staggering $33; I called on Thursday and was able to secure a reservation for four, albeit for the later (8:00pm) of the two seatings.) Following are my humble impressions:

The first course was a salad of crisply fried mussels over wilted baby swiss chard in a delicate lemon sabayon. Nice contrast of textures.

Then came a hiramasa crudo with shiso, topped with a dollop of slightly sweet rhubarb sorbet and surrounded by a very light lime emulsion. Bracingly refreshing and delicious.

The third course, a seared scallop atop a medley of diced ramps, fingerling potatoes and shaved truffles, was bold and earthy, although the garlickiness of the ramps was a bit overpowering.

The execution of the fourth course more than salvaged the fact that mahi mahi fish isn’t among my favorites, the fish was served over English peas and shitakes, seasoned with small chunks of thick bacon.

Dessert was a warm, chewy black pepper biscuit, the pleasing burn from the pepper cooled by a small scoop of strawberry sorbet and a sauce of pureed fresh mint.

The entire meal evoked the freshness of the new spring season. And still BYO of course, which I like because there’s no problem sharing with my underage kids. We had two appropriately versatile wines: a muscadet and a dolcetto.

I like these fixed course tasting nights, especially at a small place; I find the unique dinner-party vibe, with everyone being served the same thing at the same time, so fun.

Edited April 15, 2011 by angevin (log)