#24: The Fish House in Stanley Park - January 18, 2014

When I posted my first Vancouver review on TripAdvisor (Café Medina), someone private messaged me to say that I should check out Dine Out Vancouver. I appreciate that they did because otherwise I likely would have missed the event all together. For 2 weeks, restaurants all over Vancouver are offering 3-course prix fixe menus at either $38, $28 or $18. There is a similar event in Montreal called "Montreal à la table". The problem with the Montreal version is that you end up in one or both of the following scenarios:

1. The restaurant is fully booked, and you get terrible service. It's beyond me how this happens. This event happens every year, and every year hot spots like Toqué get fully booked in a matter of hours. Yet, for some reason the service lags and dinner becomes so painful that you just want it to end. How do they so poorly plan their staffing for those nights?
2. The food is meh, and you know that it's not usually meh because you've been there before. Case and point, Europea. I had been there twice before and the food was amazing. However, during the event, even though they were cooking the same dish for every single guest, the food was hella boring.

For those reasons, I was a little hesitant to check out the listings for Dine Out Vancouver. I told my co-workers about my Dine Out Montreal experience, and they insisted that it definitely wasn't the case in Vancouver. I was glad to hear it because some of the restaurants on the Top 50 list were participating and between the 2 of us, we could try 6 different plates for less than $40/head.

There were probably 10 restaurants from the Top 50 list participating in Dine Out Vancouver, but there were a few that we didn't want to risk a repeat of the Montreal experience. There were others where the menu was crap (i.e. the appetizer was Caesar salad... some originality please...). We settled on two spots, starting with The Fish House in Stanley Park. 

When we walked in, it reminded me of of 21 Breakwater in PEI, which is a converted cottage. Don't let the 1960s-cabin-by-the-sea decor fool you into thinking that this place is intended for an older crowd. The menu is fresh and current, the wine list is trendy and local, and the staff is young and dynamic. I feel like a lot of late 20- to early 30-somethings would miss this little gem.

Let's talk about the lobster oil that they serve their bread with. Wow. I'm not usually crazy about dipping bread in balsamic vinegar and olive oil, because I just don't get the appeal of olive oil. I find the flavour so diluted that it's a huge waste of calories soaked up by a bread sponge. This lobster oil is in a league of it's own. It tasted like fresh lobster, and while it was obviously a liquid in the bowl the texture in your mouth was like soft butter. I almost got upset when the waiter took the last piece of bread and the oil away. 

I started with the Dungeness Crab Cake and Stephen got the Lobster Bisque. Best crab cake ever. The outside was perfectly crisp, and the texture inside was perfect. There are a lot of bad crab cakes out there; you know, the ones with un-uniform pieces of celery and onion, or a big chunk of red imitation crab stick, or soggy from the taste-less sauce. This was a real, simple crab cake made with fresh and well treated ingredients. You don't need that much more than that. It was served with a little bit of bisque, scallion oil, slaw and tempura cilatro all of which made for a great side-show that didn't steal the crab cake's thunder. Stephen's lobster bisque with tarragon crème fraiche was "adequate" (his words), but we both agree that we aren't fans of tarragon. There was something missing from the bowl. Something crunchy and salty.

Next I had the Acrtic Char, which was accompanied by a manchego and cumin potato croquette, chipotle hollandaise, asparagus and serano ham. The asparagus was perfectly tender-crisp and the croquette was fantastic. I'm not usually a fan of potato purées, but I probably would be if they all full of manchego and then deep fried. The rest of the dish lacked seasoning. The acrtic char and hollandaise were begging for a a pinch of salt each. I'm sure that was the purpose of the serano, but since it was crisp it was quite difficult to get the fish and ham in the same bite. It's worth mentioning though that the char's skin was crisp; an attribute that I have not yet perfected in my own cooking. What's the trick?!

Stephen ordered the Short Ribs, which were braised for 3 days. The side of shrimp and wild mushroom risotto was to die for. It was rich and creamy, and just the very centre of the rice grains were al dente. I like when it still has a tiny bite to it. The short ribs themselves were very tender, but lacked flavour. It didn't help that we couldn't taste the red wine jus against the rest of the flavours on the dish.

To wrap it up, we ordered the Vanilla Cheesecake and Fish House Smores. The cheese cake was topped the a caramel apple crumble, reminiscent of Rockaberry's Apple Crumble Cheesecake. It was delicious. I'm not a huge marshmallow fan, but the rest of the de-constructed Smore was about as original as the camp-fire classic can get. The house-made graham cracker was soft and spicy, you got a big hit of smokiness from the smoked ice cream, and everything chocolate on the plate was spot-on.

I put emphasis on solid and friendly service in my post about Mom's Grilled Cheese Truck. The wait staff at The Fish House get two big thumbs up. I believe our waiter's name was Emerson, and he was very attentive, charming, and warm. He made well placed and appropriate sarcastic comments and jokes, and had we been ordering à-la-carte he might have been able to talk me into buying 2 of each menu item because he was just so nice. I like when the staff treat us like normal people and not passive aggressively put customers on a pedestal. He also told Stephen that he should finally let me watch Downton Abbey. Win!

Best Crab Cake Ever!

Lobster Bisque with a Caesar

Arctic Char

Braised Short Ribs with Prawn and Mushroom Risotto

Vanilla Apple Cheesecake

Fish House Smores

THE STATS - Out of 10

Taste: 8 - It had it's strong points and a few faults...more salt!
Creativity: 6 - For the most part, the dishes were traditional, with the exception of the Smore
Service: 9 - Exceptional service
Bang for your buck: 8 - The portion sizes were perfect for a 3-course meal, but it is hard to judge this category because it was Dine Out Vancouver, and your dinner price was capped at $38. It's the equivalent of getting a free dessert had you paid the actual price for eat item.
Overall experience: 8 - It was a nice, quiet date night.

Would I go back? Probably not, but just because it's inherently not the type of place that you'd become a regular at.
Who would I recommend it to? Couples, small groups or big groups. There was a table behind us of about 12 people who looked very comfortably seated. The tables have enough space between them that the volume of a large crowd isn't a bother. You have to love seafood to take full advantage of the menu.
For what occasion? Date night, double date night, or a tame special occasion like you mom's birthday. It doesn't have a trendy vibe in terns of decor, so you won't stick around until 3am.
It was better than: Europea during Montreal à la table
It wasn't as good as: L'Abbatoir
Expect: To be seated right away, a decent 3-course meal, solid staff, great cocktails, and perfect local wine pairings.

Top 50 Worthy? I'm not sure. It was good, but I don't think it makes the cut as a Top 50 spot. I think the touristy nature of Stanley Park brings in a lot of traffic and appeal to visitors, and that is why there are so many reviews. It doesn't seem like a place that the locals frequent.