Fish: A New Year's Eve Celebration

Hi Patch readers,

We hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year! To ring in 2013, we met some friends over at Fish restaurant in downtown Chucktown. This was our first experience eating at Fish. Here's the rundown:

Appetizer:

Dim Sum- $10.00

We were new to Dim Sum, but it's simple really. It's a Chinese tradition in which food is served in small or bite-size portions. It gives you a chance to try a wider variety of foods versus ordering one large appetizer. Click on this link to learn more about what Dim Sum means! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum 

We chose the following small plates:

Lamb Spring Roll

Croque Madame

Egg A La Coque

Tempura Fried Escargot

Entrees:

Matt- Duck Croque Madame- $15.00

Leah- Lobster Tail- $28.00

Drinks:

Matt- Vodka Martini- $6.50

Leah- Vodka Tonic with Lime- $5.50

His Take:

When we first got to the restaurant after the fun experience of finding parking in downtown Charleston on New Year's Eve, I was ready for a drink already. As luck would have it, Fish has a bar right in the front. Despite the NYE crowd, the atmostphere of the place was relaxed and classy. We had just enough time to enjoy a cocktail before being seated for our reservation at 8:15 p.m.. One thing I noticed right off the bat when we sat down was the hefty menus. They were made of some kind of heavy metal, and weighed about 400 pounds. But they gave me a sense of quality that I immediately came to expect from the foods listed within.

We decided to get the Dim Sum, and decided to try the most unusual dishes available. When it came to the table, it was presented very well on a long, white rectangular plate. It smelled delicious, and by this point, we were very hungry. We tried each part together, and they each had a distinctly different taste. My personal favorite was the Egg A La Coque, which was served in its shell with caviar on top. Once it was all mixed together, it produced a mellow, salty, and savory flavor that was very good. Getting to share an appetizer made like this was a unique and fun thing to do together. Getting Dim Sum as a couple would make a fun date idea.

The entrees took a while to come to the table, but we did have 9 other people in our party, so I didn't really notice. My duck was, after trying bites of others' meals, the best entree on the table. It was essentially a fancy duck grilled cheese sandwich that you eat with a fork, but it was crispy, buttery, and very pleasant. Comfort food comes to mind here. I am a big fan of duck, and the taste was incorporated nicely. The bread and cheese were definitely there, but they did not overpower the taste of the duck. The "bacon fries" that were served with it were hash browns fried in bacon fat. They were served with housemade Sriracha ketchup. Yum.

Not only was that food comforting, but the martini I had (I had it made with their bottom-shelf vodka, Smirnoff) was very well made and served with three large olives. The vermouth to vodka ratio was spot on. Our server was also very professional.

The one con I noticed, however, was at the end of the meal, when we were ready to get into party mode. We all had to wait a very long time to get our checks, and when we did, there were several mistakes made, and we had to wait even longer.

His Verdict: Dine if you have the time. You can spend a lot here too if you aren't careful, but the food is delicous, so it's worth some cash if you've got it. 

Her Take: 

Like Matt said, the Dim Sum was very interesting and full of different kinds of flavors. My favorite small bite was also the Egg a la Coque. Serving this in the egg shell was great because we actually had to scrape the egg white from around the inside of the shell and mix it with the yolk and caviar. 

In my opinion, my dinner was by far the best on the table! I have never ordered lobster at a restaurant before, but I thought, what the heck- it's New Year's Eve! The lobster was served already out of the shell, over a butternut squash dumpling which looked like a ravioli. Creamed spinach was served on the side- inside the lobster tail shell with melted cheese over top. I thought that was a nice touch and I ate every bit if that tells you anything. 

The service was great up until the end of the meal when it took us a while to get our checks. However, the restaurant was full of NYE patrons and by this time it was almost 11 p.m. so everyone had the New Year on their minds. 

Once we finished our meal, we stayed in the bar area (which the dining room is converted into) until after we rang in the new year. Despite being VERY crowded the bar service was awesome! They had several bartenders and music playing. With that being said, we had a great NYE and hope you did too!

Her Verdict: I would like to go again and try a few of the smaller plates and appetizers. 

On another note, I keep seeing advertisements for Charleston Restaurant Week. We plan to take advantage of this and you should too! Let us know what restaurants you would like us to visit and even what dishes are your favorite.

Link to Charleston Restaurant Week:

http://www.charlestonrestaurantassociation.com/charleston-restaurant-week/